Category: kingdom of God

Come, Follow Me

“He said to another person, “Come, follow me.”

   The man agreed, but he said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”

 But Jesus told him, “Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead! Your duty is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God.”

Luke 9:59-60

 

Considering this whole passage must bring us to the place of seeing God’s Will as supreme.  He asks for a complete and comprehensive obedience.  We can never entertain a lesser commitment.  Following Jesus, as His disciple will radically alter our priorities and change our relationships.  Irrevocably.

There was a negotiation of sorts taking place.  This would-be disciple was trying to be reasonable.  His heart appears to be already in harness.  Being Jesus’ disciple was what he really wanted.  But, there was this slight problem, it really seemed logical and definitely prudent and sensible.

Yet Jesus doesn’t negotiate with him.  He does not accept the argument of reasonability and propriety.  The call to walk out discipleship requires a whole-hearted, full-bore dedication to Jesus Christ as Lord.  Everything must be adjusted.  And nothing is ever the same.

Have you dictated to Jesus what is reasonable?  Are you adjusting discipleship to your own terms of what is appropriate?  This particular passage in Luke 9 has implications to us today.  A rock was thrown into the pond, and the ripple is still being seen and felt.  Simply put, we are being called to authenticity.  We cannot reduce discipleship to fit our personal desires.

Will we adjust?  Will we sell out to the Kingdom’s supremacy?  To be a concert violinist requires intense effort and commitment.  A professional athlete takes his training to a level that is unbelievable to the average person.  Both have a dedication to their calling.  Can we just assume that something less is considered to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Please re-examine your thinking.  I certainly do not want to condemn or judge.  But I am afraid that we are using discipleship without considering what that really means, and we entertain a definition that somehow defaults to an acceptable level.  Are we really that willing to undergo an adjustment that is nothing less than radical transformation of our faith?

Thy Kingdom Come

“Come and set up your kingdom, so that everyone on earth will obey you, as you are obeyed in heaven.” Matthew 6:10, CEV

 

The Lord’s Prayer is like a skyscraper that has an inner skeleton of steel, very solid and very strong.  Jesus wants to teach His disciples to pray–to pray intelligently.  He is eager for them to learn what He knows.  This prayer cuts through the grime of religious gobble-de-gook, and is intended to make disciples out of believers with its assertions of what is real.

There is a need for people to pray–really pray.  Jesus shares what is of ultimate importance; the need of people to bring down heaven to earth.  Heaven on earth!  Think of it.  The spiritual climate of heaven, brought to earth for men to enjoy.  It’s like when it’s 100 F. and you come into an air-conditioned building.  What a relief! This phrase of the Lord’s Prayer indicates our license to pray for outrageous things to happen in the culture we are steeped in.

So far, we have seen little that would lead us to believe that praying like this would affect our world.  But that would diminish and even trivialize Jesus and His teaching.  The problem must lie with us then, and we are the reason that it hasn’t happened.

Praying for obedience, praying for the will of God to come and take over.  Our Churches are not merely a spot for A.A. to have their meetings, or the Food Pantry on Mondays, or a Men’s Breakfast on Saturdays.  We are the place of God’s presence, the territory and throne of the omniscient and omnipotent One. 

So let us pray this prayer.  Let us invite heaven to earth.  Let us look for the obedience that is being perfectly done in heaven, to come to this planet as well.  It says in Isaiah– “Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.”  Its an astonishing concept of an ever-expanding kingdom, always pushing its boundaries, never defeated.  Can we keep up?