What If We Really Expected the Kingdom to Come?

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one for Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.

If you grew up in church, you probably skipped over that. (Caught you!) It's ok. I would have too. Maybe try reading it nice and slow.

There is so much crazy stuff packed into this, but I've been focused so heavily on one phrase recently.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 

The Message (which is translated phrase by phrase to communicate the tone of the text as it was intended) says this:

Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what’s best— as above, so below.

Jesus told us to pray and ask God to reveal Himself to us. He told us to ask God to make the world the same here as it is "above" in heaven.

Do we even know what we're saying when we pray that? We are asking that the Kingdom of God (real live Heaven) would come down and be as real here as it is in heaven. What would that look like?

I think it would look incredibly different from what we're seeing in churches right now. There would be so much more love. So much more joy. We would not look down on people because we would see that we are just as filthy as they are. We would know each other completely, and share every part of our lives with each other instead of putting on a show.

We would worship in truth by being honest in worship instead of following the crowd or the screen. We would worship in spirit by allowing the Holy Spirit to move our hearts and even move our bodies and hands and voices to sing and speak praises and prayers and to go to people to love them. We would be filled with love for the poor and needy. We would believe in real healing in impossible circumstances, and we would see it happen. We would believe in the absolute providence of God.

We would not worry. We would not gossip. We would not slander. We would love intensely. We would not stop church (which is so sorely mistaken for a building) just because the pastor dismissed us. We would want more and more of the Holy Spirit in every moment.

We would want our work lives to be filled with praises and joy and love and Jesus no differently than we want church to be filled with that. We would be bold about speaking the name of Jesus to people who don't necessarily know him because we care what Jesus thinks, not ANYONE else. We would pray for people boldly and we would pray alone boldly. We would long with an insatiable thirst for more glory to belong to our King.

I'm no theologian, and there is so much more to this. Heaven is more than we could ever think of or imagine. It's more than we can comprehend. It's not something our brains can contain. I want as much of it as I can get!

I challenge you and I'm challenging myself to start bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to earth everyday. Let's start by simply praying that it would come and we would have eyes to see it and a heart to welcome it especially when it's not what we expect it to be.

Cecil the Lion

Each second you read this a baby is aborted somewhere in the world. A human life is destroyed. Almost 650,000 children in the United States have been killed this year at the hands of these "doctors." Some of these "doctors" have recently been revealed to be participating in the marketing of the aborted fetus because the human body parts can be sold and used for research. Human. They are human. How can you kill something that you say is not a human and then market it as a human? A fetus is a human because without your weapons it is headed toward a full life where it has all the potential to change the world.

All that aside.

People are very angry this week because a beautiful lion has been killed. I agree that this lion is beautiful and I wish that it had not been killed. However, HOW CAN YOU THROW MONEY AT CHARITIES TO SUPPORT A LION AND COMPLETELY IGNORE THE CHILDREN BEING SLAUGHTERED IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD? Are they not just as innocent and is a human life not so much more precious? Wake up!! Lions are great, but I will always skip over saving a lion's life to save a baby's. 

Dogs and cats and dolphins and whales are beautiful creatures that should not be abused, but are they really as precious as the people you and I love? Look at your siblings, your parents, your friends, your spouse... It is hard to lose a pet, but would you not choose those people over a dog? Before you allow the media to tell you what to think, look around and decide what is true. 

The truth is that God has a distinct purpose for my life. 

The truth is that He has a purpose for yours.

The truth is that He knits us together in the womb. 

The truth is that His purpose begins in the womb. 

The truth is that evil will never win.

I Want to Be Creative

I am so obsessed with being grown-up.  I dislike being grown-up.  Being grown-up not only makes me boring, but it makes me rude.  I get frustrated with people for not being as grown-up and boring as me.  It keeps me from doing what I really love.  I am too afraid to chase my dreams because "it's not what a grown-up would do."  That's stupid.  I want to stay in my 20-year-old self's mind forever.  Anything was possible.  Nothing was out of reach.

I want to have a job that allows me to be creative.  I want to be an artist of some kind, spending my time being creative.  Making things with my hands that are beautiful.  Learning new things.  Taking on new crafts.  I don't want to be stuck in a stuffy office or any other stuffy place.  I don't want to stay inside all day.  I want to enjoy life in a way that allows me to flourish in the gifts I have been given.

I know that there are things that I dream of doing that seem so far off.  They aren't.  I can do them.  I am determined to take some chances.  I would rather take a risk and fail, than fail to take a risk.

Envy

Envy is an ugly thing, but it can come off in such a tame manner that we don't even notice it.  Envy is when we want what someone else has.  The perfect relationship, the beautiful hair, the nice clothes, the big house, the nice car, the great family, the perfect job.  There is always something that we see in someone else, and suddenly what we have is not good enough.  The underlying problem is not that we need to stop wanting their stuff, but that we need to be aware of the magnitude of the gifts we ourselves have been given.  We have been given the gift of life, breath, a beating heart, and a thriving soul.  Souls do not come cheap these days.  The only reason we can have a beautiful, vibrant, thriving soul is because Jesus already paid for it.  That could be the end of that, right?  He doesn't owe us anything!  He just gave it to us.  But that is not the end of it!  He gives us more all the time.  He gives us so much more.

Imagine, for a moment, that it is Christmas day.  The two people that you know best in the world are by your side. You know them and they know you better than anyone, so you knew exactly what to get them as a gift. You have planned out these gifts so carefully.  They fit the personalities and lives and preferences of your friends as well as you could ever imagine.  The first, let's call her Cindy, opens her gift.  She loves it.  She smiles and hugs you.  The second, let's call him Andy, opens his gift.  He loves it as well.  Cindy looks over at Andy's gift, and says, "I wish I had that.  If you had given me that as a gift, it would have been much better." You glance down at the gift you gave her.  It is lying on the floor behind her as she egregiously obsesses over the gift you gave to Andy.  She doesn't seem to care one bit that you thought so long and hard about this gift for her.

Don't you think that's how God might feel sometimes when we want other people's things?  He gave us what He knew we would need and not only that, but what we would love. But we are too focused on what we don't have that other people do have to realize how special these things are that He's given us.

Essentially, Jesus is our ultimate treasure, and if we live that way and ingrain that into our minds, we will live in thanksgiving always. Not envy.

Quality, Not Quantity

I tend to hide behind things.  I will hide behind my friends or behind my grades or my family.  This summer I was hiding behind good-looking worship.  I really did worship.  I really love my God, and I really want to jump and dance for Him.  My worship wasn't fake, but my relationship with God did not run deep.  I wasn't investing time into getting to know Him.  I wasn't spending quality time with him everyday. I was spending a few minutes reading over my little devotion and then running off to go to work without even stopping to pray.  I was fine with my lack of relationship because my worship during services looked good.   Now I'm in a new place, and I'm much more vulnerable here and I can see my heart more clearly.  I have no longing.  I have no deep desire for my Lord.  I want one.  I desire to be filled with great longing, but I don't have it.  I want a good conversation during my quiet time, not a study time on the bible.  Knowledge is great, and it is very important, but knowledge of the word of God without a relationship with the Author is futile.

I need You, Father!  I need to know my dependency, and I want to be filled with desire for You.  Give me a new heart.  Mine is old and hard.  I need a new one.  I need Yours.  Give me Your heart, Father.  Give me the heart of Jesus.

Making Footsteps

Don't get me wrong, this summer was absolutely wonderful, but there was some uneasiness in my heart.  I felt restless or anxious.  Last night, I was lying in bed trying to get to sleep and I realized that all of those feelings are gone now.  I feel at perfect peace where I am.  God has shown me perfect clarity in my calling to be where I am, and He's shown me immense encouragement through the people to whom He's introduced me.  I heard a woman say one time that she could feel herself at the center of God's will, and that is exactly how I feel.  I am so sure of this place.  I am so comforted by his sweet, gentle presence every morning.  He is such a good God, and the whole time I thought He was sending me off to be alone without anyone, He was preparing a new spot for me.  I've already seen is some crazy ways how He's been getting everything ready for me, and making footsteps for me to step into as I go.  Thank you, Jesus.

I'm here. Talk to me.

I don't have to go looking for Jesus. He isn't somewhere above the roof of my house, and he isn't in some big chair in the sky.  He is beside me.  He is beside me just like my best friend, or my parents, or my sisters, or my brothers are beside me.  When I am upset, he says, "I'm here.  Talk to me."  He came to rescue me.  He came looking for me.  I don't have to go find him.  He's here.