The Kingdom -Vol. 2 -Another Excerpt

My friend Steve Brown and I are excited to see our second volume on the Kingdom of God now available. To give you just a taste of  what this book that is all about -- Jesus’ great sermon on the Kingdom life -- we will share this week another excerpt from the Introduction.

Realize there is no way to live this life on our own power. The more we read these teachings of Jesus, the more we may find ourselves saying, “God have mercy on us.” The Sermon starts with a beatitude (“blessed are the poor in spirit”) that is a confession that we are spiritual beggars…that we cannot do this without help. But each of the Beatitudes is a reminder of the grace that God intervenes to give his people. Of the “poor in spirit” Jesus says, “theirs is the Kingdom”! They taste the powers of the coming age (Hebrews 6:5). They receive strength to turn and live a new way.

The Kingdom, Volume Two

My friend Steve Brown and I are excited to see our second volume on the Kingdom of God now available. To give you just a taste of this book that is all about Jesus’ great sermon on the Kingdom life, we will share a few excerpts from the Introduction this week and next.

Can the most challenging words we have ever read also be the most encouraging? Can a serious call to live an impossible dream not depress us but transform us? The answer to both questions is “yes” if those words are the message of Jesus that we usually call tthe Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5–7.

In our first volume on the Kingdom of God we pointed out that the Kingdom of God was Jesus’ primary message. We described how Jesus announced the in-breaking of God’s future into our present age. We saw it was his plan for the people of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to start living “on earth as it is in heaven.” But what does this type of living look like?

Showing Kindness to God

One of the most frequent prayers found in the book of Psalms is some form of “Lord, have mercy on me.” The Hebrew word used here carries the idea of “Lord, show me your loving kindness and devotion.”

But in Jeremiah 2:2 we find the word used in a very different way. Through Jeremiah God says to the people, “I remember the kindness [devotion] of your youth, your love as a bride” (KJV).  By the time of this writing Israel was showing God little of this, but God could remember when Israel showed kindness to him and was devoted to him with the loving kindness of a bride.

We Need Other People!

Some years ago, as I struggled with my illness and battled with a tenacious depression, I had some very mature and wise people in my life who could not figure me out. They wanted to have the answers. They wanted to find out how to fix me, but they will tell you today that they were perplexed. But in spite of their frustration and limitations, they did the right thing: They kept loving me. And, fortunately, I did the right thing: I let them.

See God in Circumstances

See God in Circumstances

I don’t always like my circumstances. But I am learning that God would not allow them if they were not opportunities for me to do something more important than I would have been doing without them.

What looks to me like something that is hindering the work of God (like Paul’s thorn in the flesh) is often a vehicle God plans to use for one of his patented surprise attacks. Change your mind about circumstances.

Simply Listen

I remember a man who stopped me once after a church service to tell me some of his troubles. He was not happy with some of the developments in his life and seemed to believe that telling at least one person how he felt would give him some satisfaction. I listened for some time as he described some decisions he had made that resulted in much difficulty.

Your Trump Card

According to The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, here is the definition of a trump card: “the suit designated as having precedence over the others. In general, it is something capable of making a decisive difference when used at the right moment as in ‘The prosecutor played her trump card by calling a surprise witness.’”

There have been more than a few times in my life when I did not like the hand I was dealt. It looked like there were too many things against me, and I found my unreliable emotions taking a dip. But in those times, I have learned something. I have learned that God has given us the ultimate trump card.