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Friday, March 24, 2006
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God is the Only True Gospel: Part 4 End Times Preachers, Predestination, and Living in the Moment It does seem like there has been an abundance of end times "prophets" lately... and being wrong over and over again doesn't seem to discourage them. Scripture, also, doesn't seem to discourage them. Acts 1:6-8 6So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" 7He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." Yet we still seem fixated on fortune telling. We want to know the future. And futuristic "prophets" aren't the only ones guilty of this. Everyone, including myself, who harbors what Bonhoeffer, in his book Life Together, refers to as "wish dreams", or those idealistic notions of the way the church, community, or the Kingdom should be, is living in and looking for significance in the future. Others want to live life in the past. They try to recapture past great experiences (be they "spiritual" or "worldly") or are bound to the past through guilt or regret. In both situations, we are led astray. Ecclesiates 3 1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: 2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, 6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. 9 What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. TIME - Everything has its proper time. How is the Christian to know when it is the proper time? The only way to know the time for any activity is to live with God in the NOW. If we live in the past, we miss it. If we live in the future, we miss it. For example: You can only love those who you are with now in a real way. That doesn't mean that you don't "love" other people when you are not with them, but when you are not with someone, your love for them is abstract. It's an idea. It only is fulfilled in reality when you are present with them and acting on the idea. Christ speaks over and over again about the importance of learning to live in the immediate: Matthew 6 25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. I know I especially like to dream big dreams. I like to think about what my destiny is... the great things that God has in store. I like to think about the way the Church OUGHT to be. I like to dream about what community SHOULD be. I am coming to learn that I will never know these things until I learn to walk in the moment. If I aim at dreams, I will miss them. If I aim at destiny, I will miss it. If I aim to walk with God, submitting to his rule and reign now, in this life, I cannot miss it. Eph. 1 3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. The word "predestined," which has caused so much strife in the church, means "To mark out before-hand." One gets the image of a pioneer, creating a trail that others will follow, digging a well, making preliminary shelter, so that when he returns with settlers, the way will be made easy for them. God has already laid out work for us to do, but we must hear from him... we must live with him in the moment if we are to not miss this work. Ephesians 2 10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. This is where we fail. A while back ago, in a similar post with a similar title, I wrote about Nehushtan, the bronze serpent that had been used to heal people in the desert under Moses, but was later smashed by King Hezekiah since the Israelites started worshipping it. We take the gifts of God and make them rules for others to follow, lifting them and obedience to those rules up above God, who gave us the gifts. This is where we fall short. For example, we see that Jon is doing "X" activity, and that God has blessed it. We get the misguided notion that, if WE do "X", that God will bless it as well. Then we wonder why we fail. The minute we get into judgment and comparison, we fail. The rule of God is NOT living by rules, but living by HIS RULE, and there is a world of difference. So all of our expectations, all our "wish dreams," for what the church should be, for what community should be, for what ministry should be, for what the Kingdom should be must be nailed to the cross of Christ. We must learn to live in the immediate, continually asking God how He would use us, then being receptive to His guidance. After all, the only ones we can love in reality are those we are with now.
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Jimmy Doyle is a dad, husband,
teacher, friend, and other things. Currently he's just trying to figure out what it means to follow Christ and be in community with others. He enjoys having conversations with fellow pilgrims on the journey.
Stephen Zedler has a wife and three kids who he loves very much. He has been called by God to study and teach history, particularly U.S.
history. He also believes that God has called him to reform the way children are educated in America.