Kingdomology » Kingdom http://kingdomology.org expanding the love of Christ & Kingdom of God the world over Thu, 09 Sep 2010 22:26:52 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Oh for a Kingdom! http://kingdomology.org/just-life/oh-for-a-kingdom/ http://kingdomology.org/just-life/oh-for-a-kingdom/#comments Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:29:21 +0000 steve http://kingdomology.org/?p=211 SCAZWB7X3CAS1RJBFCAMTTYZSCAXNDVR0CAXUCXEPCA8SMUEKCADDHY3OCADXIMQWCALJ7RHSCAO3NXCLCA1HC8LRCAETH093CAODYATACACHGJCJCA3YE66BCAS18QI6CASRRZ4ICAGDNWXOCAXXGHOHI recently watched the second half of Return of the King with my kids and enjoyed every minute of it.  I love that movie and really anything from Tolkien and CS Lewis.  I’ll be honest; I can even be somewhat of a cry baby at times when it comes to this kind of genre.  Once I even held back the tears when I saw The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe in the theater back in Nor. Cal.  The whole imagery of Aslan representing Jesus and going to the Stone Table for Edmond just floored me because I knew the deeper meaning of what was going on.  So it is with the rest of Lewis’ writing and that of the Lord of the Rings.  Yes, it’s all fiction, but it conveys something deep, something that each of us secretly cries out for way down in the catacombs of our inmost being.  They’re the kind of stories that, as Rich Mullins used to sing, “make a man walk straight.”  Tolkien was neither the first nor the last to employ this kind of imagery.  The greatest user of the Kingdom metaphor was Jesus himself.  But Jesus was not writing for money or even to tell a great story, but to convey a very deep reality.  The thing about authentic Christian Spirituality is that it is so much more than escaping the penalty of our sin through the redeeming mission of Christ, but to enter into a newer and bigger reality.  Naysayers would say to guys like me, “come on Steve, and get your feet in the real world.”  But I would contend that if indeed the message of Christ is real, then we can’t get our feet into the Real World.  Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven as something that existed then and now and for all eternity.  He described something that’s greater than America, the UN, and the lines we draw on maps.  He described something that’s active in the hearts of all who would follow him and thrive throughout all eternity.  I think deep down all mankind is yearning for something like that.  Why else is NASA spending gazillions in trying to find life in outer space?  Why that kind of searching of the cosmos, and the soul?  I believe it’s because we long for something bigger than us.  So Jesus spoke about the Kingdom.  He spoke about the reality of “ragamuffin” women and men of faith following hard after him with his rule in their hearts.  That’s the Kingdom!  That’s what real Christianity is all about.  It’s not a bunch of proper rules to be kept, but a life of adventure to be lived.

]]> http://kingdomology.org/just-life/oh-for-a-kingdom/feed/ 0 Here we go . . . Part II. http://kingdomology.org/new-stuff/here-we-go-part-ii/ http://kingdomology.org/new-stuff/here-we-go-part-ii/#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2009 02:13:43 +0000 steve http://kingdomology.org/?p=59 I’ve been rocked over how much Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven in the scriptures. We also see that type of thinking from the apostles as they shared the message of Christ around the Roman world. Paul likewise continued that theme throughout the New Testament. One of my favorite texts that illustrate this is in 2 Timothy 4:1 where Paul encourages the young preacher Timothy. Paul states. “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word . . .”

The kingdom reality is just all over the place when you think about it. So what we find is that Christ came for more than just offering fire insurance, but something totally and completely “new and from above”. (Note John 3:3) A common misunderstanding about the Kingdom is that it is something that will be established when Jesus comes back. But it’s much more than that. I cut my teeth on this truth while taking a preaching class from Mark Scott way back in 91 or 92. The main text that I was looking at was Mark 1:15 where Jesus opened up his ministry with the radical words of,”The time has come . . . The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” The old King James Version of the text sheds a bit more light in its translating the verse, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.”

The real shot came when I dived into the original language of the verse, (don’t worry, we won’t get too heady here and I’m really not that smart) and noticed that the phrases, “time is fulfilled” and “is at hand” are both in the perfect tense. The point being that Jesus was saying that the long awaited coming of the Kingdom of God was an “event that happened and is continuing to happen.” In other words, the Kingdom of God was inaugurated with Jesus Christ. We can live in it now as kingdom citizens. Yes the final reward will be when we move on from this side of eternity into its fulfillment. But the Kingdom is also a present reality. This is seen by Christ the King ruling in the lives of His citizens today. This is also seen in His providential sovereignty around the world today. So in the pages and blog of Kingdomolgy, we’ll be exploring and discussing what it means to really live as Kingdom Citizens now. What about you? How are you living out the Kingdom in your world today? Are there areas where you struggle in this area?

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