The Kingdom as the Basis for Death to Self

I have the privilege of bringing my natural life into His life by giving up my right to run my natural life on its own, without God. You were made to fit into, submit and live in this vast Kingdom of God and operate under the Divine Power of the Trinity. You can’t do that as long as you are holding onto your life. You just can’t do it.

Why from the human point of view we are guilty of such hubris.

We have a readiness to run the whole universe and we would if we could get away with it. Just show me the control panel?

Yet, we cannot even run our own lives.

We think we can but human history stands as undeniable proof that we can’t.

The human being was designed to fit into His kingdom.

That is the basis for death to self. That is the basis for finding our life.

It means that this is a good place to be. It means I never have to do anything wrong because I am not trying to protect my life,

I don’t have to manage my life, and I don’t even have to be happy.

What a load off. I found it to such a great relief to people to discover they don’t have to be happy.

My goal in life is not to be happy in this visible world.

Why would I put my energies into that? Why would I?

Even the best moralists in our world tell us not to strive to be happy but rather to be worthy of happiness.

Try to find something to do in life bigger then being happy.

Leave it to God to arrange for whatever happiness is to come your way. Wouldn’t that be refreshing? Just to leave your happiness up to God-and what He’ll give you in return is joyfulness. A settled sense of wellbeing.

The only way this can be done is to learn to live in His presence right now through confidence in Jesus and in the grace abundantly available to us.

One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism...

Of all the phone calls, conversations and visits I had this week, the one that caused profound sadness was one from a church in our area. They have decided to not partner with the rest of the churches in our annual breakfast for High School seniors because of our ‘differences’.

The churches in our Valley have been hosting a breakfast for graduating seniors for 30 years. We all join together and share the responsibilities each June, taking turns providing music, prayer and a short presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I acknowledge that we approach Christ from different directions but we all hold Him up and exalt Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the answer to the human problem that has no human solution. We are light and salt to a community who desperately needs the healing touch of the Gentle Carpenter from Nazareth. The One who came, lived a real life, died a horrible death and rose again to provide life eternal to those who would but place their confidence in Jesus and make following Him into life the most important thing for them. Learning from Him how to live this new life from above that will never end.

But, one church in our valley is right and the rest are wrong. Rather than present our unity in Christ they prefer to magnify the differences.

You don’t find that exclusionary approach in the scriptures.

Galatians 3:26-29 and Ephesians 4:5 is instructive.

Thank God, we are not saved by being right. If anything we are right because we are saved. Perhaps we should focus on being Christlike and whatever we need to be right about we should trust Him for that as well.

I so desperately long and fervently pray for each of the churches in our little valley to thrive because each will reach people the other churches are not positioned to reach. I desire the dissenting church to thrive and I pray for her pastor that he would become the kind of person who can show his community how Jesus Christ would live his live. But the church must not draw its boundaries smaller than God draws the boundaries. This is a sad day for the entire Community of the Redeemed in Long Valley.

WHAT TO REMEMBER WHEN YOU CAN’T FORGET

It is important for us to learn to trust Him but we are also learning that He can be trusted. You aren’t going to trust Him if you doubt He can be trusted.

What do I remember when I can’t forget…He can be trusted,

And I am cared for in this loving community of Divine persons, the Trinity.

Of course, I come to a different conclusion if I think I am running the world.

From that perspective I must evaluate everything on the basis of how it affects me.

Whether I am getting my way or not. Whether I am right.

We should realize there is really no good reason in the universe why we should get our way and as for being right…being right isn’t everything.

When I take my life into His life I learn to trust Him fully because He is fully trustworthy. He is looking out for me. Do you believe that?

Do you believe out of His abundant mercy and love, He is looking out for you?

The basis of our lack of trust in large part is the way we have viewed the essence (the indispensable quality) of Christianity. A God who is pretty angry we screwed up His plan, a fairly mean and angry person who is going to let you off the hook because somebody took your beating. Namely Jesus.

And we miss that it was the heart of love that sent Jesus.

The death of Jesus on the cross does not make God happy when He was unhappy. The death of Jesus is God’s effort to reach human beings with His love. And because of what one member of that Divine Community did He is able to say to the human being, the war is over, you don’t need to carry on the battle any longer, you don’t need to keep fighting because peace comes by accepting the God of Jesus Christ as real, you can go home now.

You can go home.

God is good and it is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance, NOT His meanness. Romans 2:4