Now but not yet (3)

Having watched some of the Murdoch's grilling at the House of Commons Committee, it got me reflecting on the Kingdom of God once again. One of the things that stuck me as I listened was the sense of judgement (on all sides) that had already preceded and that is surely still to come. The question for News International is: Has there past caught up with them?

The question for me: Is it the same for me when I meet my maker in Heaven? Is it a case of my past being trawled over by God and his courts of Angel's. Will my past catch up with me, how will his judgement work out? Will I be questioned as to what I knew and didn't know? Or will God have already "wiped the slate clean" and embrace me despite my considerable failings. Maybe these are the wrong questions to be asking about heaven and our potential admittance. I wonder if by starting with the ending in sight we find ourselves in a blind alley. Surely the kingdom that is yet to come is not about what we have or haven't done?

I am in agreement with Rob Bell (in Love Wins) when he highlights that those who are more concerned with who will get into heaven are less concerned with helping people discover that heaven is here on earth, right now. And so we come back to considering a kingdom that is "now" and "already here." It can not simply be used as promise for a future time. Why can't the riches and beauty of heaven become a daily reality in our lives and in the lives we interact with?

In the promise of the kingdom to come we must reveal a kingdom that is already clearly in view.

Matt

Now but not yet (1)

I am currently reading Rob Bells book “Love Wins”. It is a typically questing and searching book that helps Christians we think faith on a number of different levels. One thing that stuck out in chapter 3 was this quote by Bell when talking about we can see heaven on earth; “This is what happens when the future is dragged into the present.” I was struck by the hope in this complex idea and the need for our lives to be ones prepared to drag that future into our present. Lives lived in such hope that people cannot mistake the touch of heaven, a expression of true love and a act of humility by Gods people. This is the kind of world I believe in but sadly rarely see.

This concept brings great challenge for us that confess to be followers of Jesus. If we are serious about changing our world then we have to be seen as someone that a future with Jesus has changed. We cannot rest at trying to resolve cleaver or contentious arguments about the reality and existence of God but we need to live our lives that reflect our beliefs and leave people in no doubt of where are hope lay. This is not simply about our future but the future of others. Our Family, Friends, Work colleagues, Class mates and House mates. These and many others have no idea what a future with God looks like because we have not shown them.

So how do we show them this future? What does it mean practically? Where do I start? Here are a few ideas to try? The secret is to persist and remember whose future we are dealing with.

1. Pray for someone you know who is unaware of the amazing future we have with God. Choose a work colleague, close friend and pray consistently and persistently.
2. Hang out with people that don’t know God? Maybe you need to be released from things you do in/at church to do this?
3. Join a club. You are allowed to do something you enjoy!
4. Get training on how to share your experience and faith in God. This could be in the form of a book or formal course.

Whatever you do, do something! God doesn’t want anyone to miss out on a future with him.

Matt

In it all....

This weekend I am going to see my beloved football team....Southampton. They are playing Leicester City at Leicester. I have been invited by the Chaplin of the Club to go with him in the main Leicester stand. The question is "do I wear my saints shirt or not????" Is is right to do so? Is it appropriate? Will i offend someone? Will I get beaten up?(Probably not as Leicester folk are a bit soft!!!) What do i do?

The church struggles with this diliama! How can we be in this mad place we call earth yet still hold firm to our beliefs and values as Christians? Do we just give in and accept that the world is the way it is and we need to "move with the times? Or do we hold firm regardless and just keeping doing what we have always done.

My gut feeling is neither! We need to realise that God is in the world, he craeted it after all! Why worry about where He is not(even though He is everywhere) and start to worry about where He wants us to be! Rob Bell "knocked me for six" this moring as i read these words; "I don't follow Jesus because I think Christianity is the best religion. I follw Jesus because he leads me into ultimate reality." Life is reality, infact "ultimate reality." This is it, no more no less, why get hung up on what we think it should be but what it actullay is at this very point in time. Being in the world does not mean that we confirm to it but converse with it.

But,what does it look like???? What ever it needs to, so that the Gospel is expounded to people who have yet to hear it. Once you have found your context, breathe it for a while then start to allow God to shape you in it so that it makes sense to you and you make sense to it!

Matt