Like it, or not, we're participants. There's no choice. The revolution under way around us isn't something we can choose to be part of, or not. It is largely unavoidable. God's Kingdom is coming.
We must not assume we can wake up in the morning and decide, "I think today I'm going to modify my world and conform my life to God's Kingdom." Your life is already being changed - your world is being modified for you - maybe in spite of you. God's Kingdom is coming.
You are not passive, weak and helpless, so don't fear, but recognize this. Accepting God's radical reconfiguration of power and priorities will demand an intentional grasp on a whole new way of thinking and acting. It'll seem radical. It may feel different and uncomfortable, so abandon your poetic notion that life is simple - and getting simpler. Complexity is always expanding and the transformation of this world won't be established with easy-to-map interactions.
Complex global problems are roaring - like a prowling lion seeking someone to devour.
Make no mistake. The systems of this world are very resilient. So are we. We understand. We know the Truth. This is not a simple linear system with which you can map out the consequences of people's actions as if you're plotting the itinerary of falling dominoes. God's Kingdom is coming but the easy prediction of near-term change is fantasy. How we will get from here to there is uncertain. That we will get from here to there is indubitable. God's Kingdom is coming.
His Kingdom will come with speed and disruptive violence - with a love so severe old systems will break. Nothing will snap back to old-fashioned stability. Everything will change. Look with fresh eyes and see. Open your ears and hear. Radical newness is contagious. Spreading Christ's Kingdom, rather than hoarding it, produces beneficial change you can't imagine in advance, and you can't control in the time of its appearing.
God's Kingdom is coming and the dynamics of the world-system will shift forever. Misallocated resources, underutilized talents, untapped potentials and ignored opportunities will succumb to the love of God. Unused capacity - lingering in so many of us - will spark and catch fire. Hope once unbearable will swell and grow. Love once unspeakable will pour from our lips and lives.
The whole creation now groans and suffers the pains of childbirth, but one day creation itself will be set free from its slavery to corruption, entropy and decay. Not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit of God, even we ourselves groan, waiting eagerly for our adoption as God's children, and the redemption of our lives. When Christ's Kingdom comes, and God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven, we will be transformed.
With God's Kingdom will come "shalom" - not just the absence of conflict, but the interjection of peace and joy. Aspiring to a new order of peace in our lives, or peace on earth, while ignoring the Prince of Peace is useless. Christ is God - unfathomable complexity - not simply reduced to unknowable chaos, but incarnate as God's Son, knowable and touchable. He is hope for a new beginning. He is your beginning.
The Lord is God, the Supreme Judge; follow Him.
Hebrews 12:23b-29 - You have come to God himself, the supreme Judge, and to the spirits of the upright who have been made perfect; and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to purifying blood which pleads more insistently than Abel's. Make sure that you never refuse to listen when he speaks. If the people who on earth refused to listen to a warning could not escape their punishment, how shall we possibly escape if we turn away from a voice that warns us from heaven? That time his voice made the earth shake, but now he has given us this promise: I am going to shake the earth once more and not only the earth but heaven as well. The words once moreindicate the removal of what is shaken, since these are created things, so that what is not shaken remains. We have been given possession of an unshakeable kingdom. Let us therefore be grateful and use our gratitude to worship God in the way that pleases him, in reverence and fear. For our God is a consuming fire.
Mark,
Both of my kids went to camp this year, Taylor and Austin Ryder. They both got to Grandma's after camp and were horse... they were so on fire though...thank you!!! We drove them up from Alabama where we have been living for the last year (and we REALLY miss GCC... Church of the Highlands & pastor Chris Hodges is wonderful though). I was wondering how I could get pictures from camp. Taylor took her camera, but the battery died. Thanks!
Have a wonderful week and your new granddaughter is just PRECIOUS!!!!
Stacey Ryder
staceyryder@aol.com
Posted by: Stacey Ryder | June 23, 2009 at 09:02 PM
Amen:
The kingdom will come! I plan to be a part in that. And I am happy to reiterate....My God is the one and only "SUPREME JUDGE" The real (SUPREME LEADER) of this world.
Thanks again Mark for the scriptures and insights you give.
Posted by: Ron W. | June 24, 2009 at 08:50 AM
Amen!
Posted by: DC Curry | June 25, 2009 at 02:29 AM