Your Definition of the Kingdom of God

I found this link about how you envision the kingdom of God on the Jesus Creed site. Below is my definition of the kingdom according to their questions, of course, but it was a interesting little experiment.

You scored as Kingdom as a Christianised Society.
Christians shouldn't withdraw from the world, but by being present in it they can transform it. The kingdom is not only spiritual, but social, political, and cultural.

Kingdom as a Christianised Society 75%
The Kingdom as Earthly Utopia 58%
The Kingdom as a political state 50%
The Kingdom is mystical communion 42%
Inner spiritual experience 33%
The Kingdom as a counter-system 33%
The Kingdom as Institutional Church 33%
The Kingdom is a Future Hope 25%

I think this definition agrees with my idea that God hasn't given up on our world and He is still offering hope and help to people and is involved in the lives of any one who might possibly listen (even that statement is probably too limiting to what God is doing). Disciples are to be different from the world, but in a way that draws people to God and not pushes them away.

I didn't know that was there!

I don't know how many times I have read about the birth of Jesus and have totally missed the faith shown by Joseph.
Matthew calls Joseph a righteous man, which meant he was a strict follower of the Torah. Think about this situation where he finds himself. The woman he is to marry is pregnant. If he wasn't responsible for the baby and he wasn't, then she had to have had a sexual relationship with some other man. He couldn't marry someone like that, even if it wasn't her fault according to the Torah and he followed the Torah. Yet the angel said God was responsible, and that is beyond belief. What a choice! Chose between following the Torah, the most important belief in his life, and what an angel said God wanted. How could he go against the very guide that had governed his entire life up to this point? In addition the rejection from his friends and family would be tremendous. Yet he chose to follow God and endure the persecution, what faith!

I pray as Paul did for the Ephesians, that God will open the eyes of my heart and let me continue to learn from God's word.

The Medium is The Message

In the book The Shaping of Things to Come the authors mention the idea " the medium is the message". This idea belongs to Marshall McCluhan. This idea has really intrigued me.

Essentially the idea behind this phrase is this: we shape our tools, and then they shape us. What McCluhan wanted us to look at was the reciporal effect that our tools and technologies have on us. They are not neutral things. They impact is deeply and we would do well to really think about what effects they have on us. These tools include the ones the church has traditionally used, such as sermons, buildings, preaching training. Now bring this idea to bear on personal spirituality and it means that our actions actually speak much louder than our words. There are clear nonverbal messages being emitted by our lives all the time. We are faced with the sobering fact that we actually are our message.

In simple terms do people see a clear picture of Jesus through my life. My study on how we are salt and light in Matt 5 led me to this connection. This doesn't mean I have to perfect, that is not going to happen, but am I showing them Jesus. Even the mistakes I make should show another charactertistic of God, his forgiveness. Showing Jesus is relational. There is that "R" word again.

Milestone 6-9-06

I passed a milestone this past week. June 9th was a year since I had my heart surgery, and everything is going well as far as I can tell. I want to thank all the people who have been involved in my recovery this past year. Many people have prayed for me, sent cards, visited, and given money to help pay the bills, thank you. I think God for encouraging me along the way. I cannot express in words how much the love of my wife, Carol, has meant to me. The support of my sons and their families has been great.

I have always thought 2 Cor 1:3-4 were special verses but now they have a personal meaning.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

What can I said but, God is good.

Finding Your True Identity

I am teaching a class that is studying the sermon on the mount and how Jesus then lived out the ideas he taught. I have never been in a class like this before so it is an adventure. We have just started so we will have to see how it goes. Last week we discussed Matt 5:13-16.

13"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

I was impressed with the statement that the disciples were salt and light and so are all disciples today, I believe. Its not that they were encouraged to be S&L but they were the S&L. The personal aspect of it, is what struck me. Another idea that impressed me is the ability of salt to bring out the real flavor of whatever it is on. It doesn't really change or add to the taste but brings out its true flavor. Light does the same. the true identity of an object isn't revealed until light shines on it. S&L brings out our true identity, which is, we are made in the image of God. Just as Jesus brings out our true identity, so we do the same for others we share the gospel with, by being salt and light in their lives. And this seems to be pointing to establishing a relationship.

The "R" word keeps coming up in my studies, and discussions. I am finding that it is a more important concept than I used to think, and that's good.