Advent Series #12. What Kingdom do You Live in?

 

What Kingdom do You Live in?

In the incarnation, God came incognito into a world of power, politics, and racial and gender inequality, with slaves and free, tremendous poverty and suffering, and the powerful Roman government that imposed its will with a ruthless iron hand. Religiously there was tremendous poverty of spirit as people who lacked meaning in their lives looked for paradigms and religious systems to give their lives coherence and hope. Life was cheap and those without power were at the mercy of those who had it. 

And then, Jesus, as He started His public ministry started talking about a strange new place that no one had heard of. He called it the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. You could not see it although you could see its results. You could not travel to it but could enter into it through Him. It had no armies but it had power that no one else had. Money didn't matter in this Kingdom. Power didn't matter. Social position didn't matter. In fact, those without any of these qualifiers were the first and most likely to enter. 

What it did require was repentance of one's sins and faith in God mediated by a carpenter's son with a band of twelve guys who no one would have hired to change the world. And it was an all-in proposition. No holding back. No reserves. As Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field" (Matthew 13:44). Once you found a treasure like this, nothing else took a higher priority.

In this kingdom, the powerless had the power of God, the marginalized were lifted up by God, social divides were bridged by the cross, the currency was faith, humility trumped pride and ego, God intervened in the lives of mere humans, there were physical and emotional healings, and kingdom people knew that a day would come when all evil would be eradicated and His will would prevail everywhere. In the meantime, we were to pray that His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven and bring pieces of God's will to the places where we had influence and inhabit.

Oh, in this kingdom the first would be last and the last would be first, those who were humble would be lifted up, those who mourned for their sin would be comforted and those who were persecuted would see God. In a massive re-arrangement of the "rules" of our world, the real power and influence were no longer with those who thought they had it but with those whose faith was in Jesus. This is why twelve guys would change the world after the ascension of Christ. It is why the world is still being upended by people of faith who belong to an unseen kingdom inaugurated in the advent and which will culminate in His second coming.

If you know Jesus, this is the kingdom you are in. And it is the most powerful force on this planet. Nothing can prevail against it. No evil can destroy it. No one can erase it. Its currency is faith. Its secret weapon is prayer. Its vision is hope because God will prevail and evil will be defeated and the wrongs of this world will be made right. That day is coming. In the meantime, this invisible kingdom brings the power of God to everyday situations as the Holy Spirit empowers us to live and move and act in the ways of Jesus. In this way, Advent is at work in you bringing light and life to those around you. 

Father, help me appreciate the Kingdom that I belong to. Help me live increasingly in its orbit and bring Your light and life to a needy world. Amen.

Advent Series #11. Generosity and the Incarnation

 

Generosity and the Incarnation

This is the time of the year when my wife Cleo makes a list of people back home in the Philippines who she can bless with a financial gift or a gift of rice. Many of these are friends from the past who took her in when she traveled, went to college, or was involved in ministry communities. 

Most on her list are poor and live job to job on meager pesos. But what Cleo always remembers is how they opened their humble home and always shared the little they had with her. It might have been a bowl of rice, a dried fish, and a vegetable but she was always welcome at the table and could sleep on their floor for the night. They shared their lives, their table, and their home. 

When Cleo talks about these women, she is profoundly moved by their generosity to her and tells me how little they had. How poor they were. And usually, how involved in ministry they were. All these years later, the love they demonstrated to her is just as vivid and hence she wants to bless them in return.

Where does this kind of generosity come from? It comes from hearts that have been changed by God's love toward them. In the incarnation, God gave the very best that He had - His Son. The King became a human, the creator, a creature, the Sovereign of the Universe, welcomed by cows in a manger unknowingly looking into the eyes of the one who created them. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). And He fills our lives with His grace and invites us to be generous in every way with others as he has been with us. 

In his encouragement to the Corinthians to be generous, Paul writes this. "Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but it is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:10).

Our generosity to others reflects God's amazing generosity to us. And our generosity on behalf of Him brings praise back to God as we bless those who need it. It is a virtuous cycle and is rooted in the incarnation. 

And here is the thing. We don't need to be wealthy to be generous. Cleo's friends were not. They were poor and gave out of their poverty and it left a lasting impression on her. Here is my challenge today. Who can you be generous with this Christmas season? Who can you bless as you have been richly blessed? Today we received a video of one of her friends receiving two 25-pound bags of rice. The joy on their faces and memories of Cleo was priceless. 

Father, give me your heart of generosity. Give to me an incarnational heart that wants to bless others as You have blessed me. Amen