H,
Of course it is a lie that
fallen nature tells us. It says that the outcome is sure so nothing else
matters. It is as bad as saying that the outcome is not sure and so everything
we do is vital to God and without us He can truly do nothing. In both
instances, we have it backwards. The outcome is sure but not our place in it. Not
what it will make us into yet. Not quite yet.
This is the imperative of
the gospel. It tells us of the Kingdom because these things are not automatic. We
cannot make the Kingdom of God and we cannot run the Kingdom of God but we can
respond to it.
It is a Kingdom unlike any
other. There is none of this braggadocio we see up and down pulpits nowadays. It
should not give you a superiority complex because you “get it” and others do
not. It simply does not work that way. Nothing we know of it, nothing that can
be gleaned from the bible tells us it is here to make us look good or to answer
our enemies or to make the earth the place where we lay our foot. Leave that
language for King David’s fallen heart. It is was all he could know then. We have
a stronger witness to who God really is. We saw in three decades the standard
bearer for the human heart should be. There were no castles or flourishes of
wealth or powerful handshakes and brokered deals in important hallways. He was
open, vulnerable, immensely responsive to suffering, all giving, all knowing,
all seeking and eventually broken by the world in ways the world breaks all who
stand up to it. He was then put back together in three days and can never be
broken again. He calls us to the same life.
Now we have the witness of
the Holy Spirit. This is not some fable or esoteric gob smoke. It is the
presence you feel on the path. The being inside you only get to meet after you
have decided on the narrow road. The person who is the eternal gift of those
who have responded to the Kingdom. Those who will never be alone again.