About the Kingdom...
The kingdom of God has been the most fascinating concept to me as of late. Almost everything I think about the "kingdom" I have truly never thought of much before. My thinking has changed so much when I hear those words "the kingdom of God" that I'm not really sure what it was I thought the kingdom was before. I think sometimes I thought Jesus was referring to simply heaven....but clearly sometimes in scripture this is just not the case. So then I thought maybe Jesus was simply referring to his millenial reign on earth...But that doesn't really click either with me. Thats when I sort of got to the point of thinking...well its just a mystery...and I'll leave it at that.
I have been reading the Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard as of late. Professor Willard (who teaches philosophy at USC) has helped me to see the kingdom rightly I believe. More importantly he has given language and logic behind seeing the "kingdom of God" as Jesus saw it and talked about it.
sidenote: Did you know its practically universally agreed that the central theme of the teachings of Jesus was the Kingdom of God...And yet I can never remember really hearing about this kingdom in my 22 years. Not in church. Not in my home. Not even as a bible major.
The book covers a variety of topics, but most interesting to me was the chapters on "the gospel of sin management" that is so often preached today. A "gospel" that is not just cheap, but leaves people the same.....(based on the fact that divorces, adultery, crime, depression,etc...are justas prevalent in christian homes as non-christian) must be lacking something! I believe it might be the case we live in a time where there is an unhealthy emphasis on forgiveness and heaven. So we've sacrificed regeneration, the new and abundant life right now in Christ at its expense.
I"ll be very honest and say that I thought the full gospel was this arrangement Christ made for meand that all. I was taught that was what the gospel was. I thought to preach the "kingdom" was to inform people of Jesus' conquering death...I had never thought really to help people see what Jesus taught about....He told his disciples to go and to ...you guessed it....preach the "kingdom of God is at hand". So did Jesus model something different than I preach? I think he did.
I believe by overemphasizing heaven and such, I missed out all this time in the eternal life in the kingdom of God.....right now! I'm the culprit. I have preached the inadequate gospel.
I thought eternal life was something that happens once I die. Never have I thought that this life has started already truly. Since the day I first recognized this truth...I can honestly say I feel like my joy has doubled.
The reality of the kingdom of God available NOW is crucial to understand. The presence of and availability to it is what me must be preaching.
Jesus said " Blessed are the poor in spirit....for theirs is the kingdom of God....
In this statement Jesus opened the door to EVERYONE. This rocked the socks off of everyone listening that day by the way. Dallas wrote that, "there is no gospel for human life and Christian discipleship today...there is one for death (you know it...its the lets get people "saved" gospel) and one for social action (standing up for social justice and against societal evils etc.)."
There is so much more to say....how do we live in this kingdom? How do we repent from separating our spiritual lives from everything else? How do we preach the kingdom? What do we talk about?
I have been reading the Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard as of late. Professor Willard (who teaches philosophy at USC) has helped me to see the kingdom rightly I believe. More importantly he has given language and logic behind seeing the "kingdom of God" as Jesus saw it and talked about it.
sidenote: Did you know its practically universally agreed that the central theme of the teachings of Jesus was the Kingdom of God...And yet I can never remember really hearing about this kingdom in my 22 years. Not in church. Not in my home. Not even as a bible major.
The book covers a variety of topics, but most interesting to me was the chapters on "the gospel of sin management" that is so often preached today. A "gospel" that is not just cheap, but leaves people the same.....(based on the fact that divorces, adultery, crime, depression,etc...are justas prevalent in christian homes as non-christian) must be lacking something! I believe it might be the case we live in a time where there is an unhealthy emphasis on forgiveness and heaven. So we've sacrificed regeneration, the new and abundant life right now in Christ at its expense.
I"ll be very honest and say that I thought the full gospel was this arrangement Christ made for meand that all. I was taught that was what the gospel was. I thought to preach the "kingdom" was to inform people of Jesus' conquering death...I had never thought really to help people see what Jesus taught about....He told his disciples to go and to ...you guessed it....preach the "kingdom of God is at hand". So did Jesus model something different than I preach? I think he did.
I believe by overemphasizing heaven and such, I missed out all this time in the eternal life in the kingdom of God.....right now! I'm the culprit. I have preached the inadequate gospel.
I thought eternal life was something that happens once I die. Never have I thought that this life has started already truly. Since the day I first recognized this truth...I can honestly say I feel like my joy has doubled.
The reality of the kingdom of God available NOW is crucial to understand. The presence of and availability to it is what me must be preaching.
Jesus said " Blessed are the poor in spirit....for theirs is the kingdom of God....
In this statement Jesus opened the door to EVERYONE. This rocked the socks off of everyone listening that day by the way. Dallas wrote that, "there is no gospel for human life and Christian discipleship today...there is one for death (you know it...its the lets get people "saved" gospel) and one for social action (standing up for social justice and against societal evils etc.)."
There is so much more to say....how do we live in this kingdom? How do we repent from separating our spiritual lives from everything else? How do we preach the kingdom? What do we talk about?
posted by K at 8:20 PM
2 Comments:
I really liked that book. I should reread it sometime. I often think about the kingdom of God too ...
I think the reason that we dont' hear much teaching on it, is because it's very easy to teach about. Even Jesus didn't teach about it. He mostly just told stories about it and lived it. Perhaps we need to get out of 'sermons' and starting living the kingdom and living our own stories. you know?
No doubt a great book!! One of my favorites. The perspective just shakes you up and gets you thinking. I think it was hard in context for his audience to understand his words and it is even moreso the same for us. I enjoyed your thoughts.
Scottie
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