Kingdom come, will be done

I have recently come to the exhilarating and terrifying conclusion that God does indeed intend to bring his Kingdom on earth through me (and other followers of Him).

Maybe this is too simple of a statement.

It would seem somewhat obvious; afterall, Jesus explicitly asks us to pray for God's Kingdom to come when his disciples ask him how to pray.  Yet again, in Matthew 28:18-20 there is the famous commission:

And Jesus came and said to them,  "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Of course, this is to his disciples directly, but it was meant to replicate itself and it in fact, did.

Everything I do should be centered around the Spirit's desire to work through me to draw all people to Himself.  I fail at this often, and yet, I am comforted that God has used me and is refining me and even making me desire more and more to be his child, his reflection.  One of my favorite verses proclaims,


"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, no counting men's sins against them.  And he has committed us to this ministry of reconciliation.
We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.  We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."  -2 Corinthians 5:18-21

It is easy to become numb to the Spirit.  We can be distracted by so much.  We can live our lives self-righteously or self-importantly.  We can even do good things.  Yet, as one of my friend's showed me the other week, when we stop just trying to be "good Christians" and open ourselves up to the Spirit we end up doing things like hanging out with our Somali friends and making acquaintance with one of their Somali friends who has need of all kinds of basic things like a winter coat and cookware and no way to get it.  Then, we tell him that our church will be able to provide these things because that's what we do.  Later, we actually do it.  We sacrifice some time and money and energy and learn about another culture and feel a bit foolish perhaps, but it's so worthy.  Actually listening to the Spirit and being willing to be used has repercussions beyond anything we can do with our own power.


I could go on and on.  I know what I've written isn't very coherent.  However, I feel it is vital to say either way.  I am very amazed that Jesus wants to use us.  In some ways it is logical because he did give us the Holy Spirit to help us when he left.  In some ways, it seems ridiculous, being that humans are so fickle.  Yet, God is changing the world through us.  That is his plan.  Let's be his ambassadors.

 

God made man

As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” – Hosea 6:3, prophecy about Jesus


I am reading "Life of Pi" by Yann Patel right now.  It is my housemate's book.  I am very much enjoying community living by the by.  We had our house-warming open house party and it was fantastic! 


Mmmm...as I said before I'm reading "Life of Pi" and the story is mostly about an East Indian teenager, Pi,  who grows up as the son of a zookeeper and is fascinated by both animals and religion.  In one part of the story he explains how he came to meet Jesus Christ.  He read through the gospels with a priest on a vacation after venturing into his parish.  It struck me because Pi was so captured by how Jesus was a limited deity (or rather, he chose to limit himself); as it describes in Phillipians 2:6-8, Jesus Christ:


"Who, though he in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross."

Pi contrasts Jesus, a simple man plagued by thirst, tiredness, sadness and other woes of being human, with the Hindu gods who have "shine and power and might" and chose to take on their full cosmic size to impress and intimidate others.  The God-man Jesus Christ, rather, lives out his days with followers who misunderstand him often and dies a horrific death enduring pain and mockery.


I have often had a difficult time truly viewing Jesus Christ as I think he ought to be -- in awe -- in deep admiration.  Interestingly, Patel's writing of Pi's thoughts on the sheer ludicrosity of Jesus's humanity (even with his miracles) pulled my heart towards Jesus in a new way.  I mostly don't even think of the humiliation he faced.  So God was just a man, it's taken for granted.  That he was God, well, yes, but he was a man too, so that's not so bad for him to limit himself, is it?  Yet, of course, it must have been unbearable at times!  Why did I forget that God being a man does not make him any less God and any less difficult to restrain himself?  How often do I think the world should revolve around me?  Yet Jesus Christ, with every right to authority, lets it go.  More confounding still, as it says in "Life of Pi", why did he take on our days and "wish death upon himself" -- as the priest answers Pi again and again with one word, "Love."

Love.

Truly, Jesus Christ is not man-made God like the Hindu gods who playfully show off.  He is a God made man.  Beautiful beyond words with truth and love joined together to destroy the power of death.  As such, it is only fitting then:

Philippians 2:9-11 continues,
"Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."