Showing posts with label ambassadors of Christ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ambassadors of Christ. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
WATCH: CHASE ANDRE AT PACIFIST FIGHT CLUB
Chase Andre teaches at Pacifist Fight Club on Saturday, May 5, 2012 on "The Dangers of Christian Nationalism".
Monday, April 04, 2011
FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT?
"When troops move to take a beachhead, they do so with the conscious plan that they will sacrifice thousands of men. What if the Christian church moved into the world with the same convictions? What if we had a conscious plan to follow (Jesus) even though it might cost many lives? ...It would appear that before the Christian church justifies giving the lives of so many of its people in military involvement it should look at the greater sin of being unwilling to sacrifice lives of affluent ease for the cause of building the Kingdom of Christ." - Myron S. Augsburger; War:Four Christian Views, page 93.
Counting the cost is difficult. It forces us to look at ourselves with unflinching honesty. It means looking into the mirror to see who we really are without our masks on. It means not turning away from that painful reflection, no matter what we see staring back at us.
Where does the loyalty of the Church truly lie? Are we more passionate for our flag or our nation than we are for our Savior and our God? Perhaps the answer is more obvious than we care to admit.
An idol, by definition, is anything you will sacrifice your children to in order to maintain your own comfort and protect your way of life. What, then, do we in America sacrifice our children to? What is the name of the god we appease when we send our sons and daughters off to a foreign land in order to protect the American way of life?
"And I heard another voice from heaven saying, 'Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities'" (Revelation 18:4,5)
What does it mean to be in the world but not of the world? Are we primarily citizens of the Kingdom of God? Or are we first and foremost the patriotic sons and daughters of the United States of America?
The Church is part of a global nation whose citizens are found all around the world. Most of our brothers and sisters were not born under the banner of the red, white and blue. They do not call themselves Capitalists, or Socialists. They are simply followers of Jesus who hold their greatest allegiance to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
To this day the worldwide Body of Christ is made up of former communists, capitalists, socialists, and zionists. We are now members of One Body. We are not properly identified to our Lord as Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Charismatics, Pentecostals, or Anglicans. We are simply His children. We are His Body. We are ambassadors of His Kingdom, and His Kingdom alone.
The question before us now is, are we willing to lay down our lives for the Kingdom of God? Are we willing to die for the Gospel of Jesus? Do we honestly place Jesus on the actual throne of our lives?
There is a profound difference, I am learning, between "being willing" to lay down your life for Christ and actually laying down your real life for Him.
And now, sitting here at the keyboard typing out these words, here in my 3 bedroom house in one of the richest counties in our nation, I am reminded of the words of Jackie Pullinger who said, "The Gospel is always life for the one who receives it, and death for the one who brings it."
Where is my death? Where is my dying? Where, even more, is the life of Christ in the one who has received the Gospel I have championed?
What has it cost me to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom? What is the fruit of the Gospel of Jesus in my actual life? Am I being transformed daily into His image? Am I capable of letting go of my life in order to receive the rivers of living water that Jesus offers me now?
"Are you able to drink from the cup of suffering that I am about to drink?" - Jesus (Mark 10:38)
Would I sacrifice my bank account to advance the Kingdom of God? Would I surrender my career for the Gospel of Christ? Would I risk everything - or anything - for Jesus?
Would I?
-kg
Counting the cost is difficult. It forces us to look at ourselves with unflinching honesty. It means looking into the mirror to see who we really are without our masks on. It means not turning away from that painful reflection, no matter what we see staring back at us.
Where does the loyalty of the Church truly lie? Are we more passionate for our flag or our nation than we are for our Savior and our God? Perhaps the answer is more obvious than we care to admit.
An idol, by definition, is anything you will sacrifice your children to in order to maintain your own comfort and protect your way of life. What, then, do we in America sacrifice our children to? What is the name of the god we appease when we send our sons and daughters off to a foreign land in order to protect the American way of life?
"And I heard another voice from heaven saying, 'Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities'" (Revelation 18:4,5)
What does it mean to be in the world but not of the world? Are we primarily citizens of the Kingdom of God? Or are we first and foremost the patriotic sons and daughters of the United States of America?
The Church is part of a global nation whose citizens are found all around the world. Most of our brothers and sisters were not born under the banner of the red, white and blue. They do not call themselves Capitalists, or Socialists. They are simply followers of Jesus who hold their greatest allegiance to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
To this day the worldwide Body of Christ is made up of former communists, capitalists, socialists, and zionists. We are now members of One Body. We are not properly identified to our Lord as Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Charismatics, Pentecostals, or Anglicans. We are simply His children. We are His Body. We are ambassadors of His Kingdom, and His Kingdom alone.
The question before us now is, are we willing to lay down our lives for the Kingdom of God? Are we willing to die for the Gospel of Jesus? Do we honestly place Jesus on the actual throne of our lives?
There is a profound difference, I am learning, between "being willing" to lay down your life for Christ and actually laying down your real life for Him.
And now, sitting here at the keyboard typing out these words, here in my 3 bedroom house in one of the richest counties in our nation, I am reminded of the words of Jackie Pullinger who said, "The Gospel is always life for the one who receives it, and death for the one who brings it."
Where is my death? Where is my dying? Where, even more, is the life of Christ in the one who has received the Gospel I have championed?
What has it cost me to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom? What is the fruit of the Gospel of Jesus in my actual life? Am I being transformed daily into His image? Am I capable of letting go of my life in order to receive the rivers of living water that Jesus offers me now?
"Are you able to drink from the cup of suffering that I am about to drink?" - Jesus (Mark 10:38)
Would I sacrifice my bank account to advance the Kingdom of God? Would I surrender my career for the Gospel of Christ? Would I risk everything - or anything - for Jesus?
Would I?
-kg
Monday, June 01, 2009
What God Allows
The other day as I was talking with a friend the question came up, "Why does God allow these things to happen?"
It doesn't really matter what the specific context of our conversation was. You and I can fill in the blanks here and ask why God allows suffering, why God allows children to be abused, why God allows spiritual leaders to twist the Gospel, why God allows Christians to shoot abortion doctors on Sunday morning in Church?
It seems to me that if you made a list of the top 10 things God does not allow you'd have a hard time coming up with even one thing.
"How can God allow...?"
When we ask this question are we yearning for God to take more control over our reality? Are we hoping for the day when the Kingdom fully breaks into this world and His perfect will is always, fully accomplished?
Surely it's not that we expect God to prevent car crashes or divert bullets or ensure that no one anywhere is ever harmed or killed or endures suffering? Seriously? Is this the world we live in? Is this our expectation?
But, maybe the answer is "Yes." Maybe we do, in our heart of hearts, long for God to reach down and protect every life and heal every hurt and prevent every tragedy. And if so, then what we're really desperate for is the breaking in of the Kingdom of God into this world we live in now. This is exactly what Jesus wanted to see when he came and announced "the Kingdom of God is at hand."
The truth is that our world is full of suffering and pain. This is our reality. However, there is still hope for us to experience a reality where God's rule and reign is tangible. "The Kingdom of God," Jesus said, "is within you". It begins with our individual hearts and our actual lives. We must invite Jesus to be the King of our life first. We must surrender our rule and reign for His rule and reign. We must humble ourselves and trust Him with all that we have.
Now and again we do experience the breaking in of the Kingdom of God. Sometimes God does intervene and He miraculously heals someone. Sometimes God brings us through the car crash unscathed. Sometimes God reaches into this reality and corrects what is wrong and makes it right. I'm very thankful that in my life God has intervened on several occasions. I have personally seen and experienced His healing. I have experienced His Grace and His Mercy.
But sometimes, God does not intervene. In fact, God's intervention is the exception, not the rule. God often allows anything, and everything, to happen. He works through the pain, the tragedy, the disappointment, the tears and the wreckage to bring redemption, salvation, clarity, peace and reconciliation.
We recently said goodbye to a dear sister in Christ who struggled and suffered with brain cancer. God did not heal her of this, but He did work through her suffering to bring reconciliation to her son and daugther and brother and sister. Healing did take place, but not in the way we expected.
For now we live in a fallen world. God is still in control, but more often than not God allows things to happen and He works through the wreckage.
We are co-workers with God in this effort. He allows us the honor of extending grace to the sinner, comfort to the afflicted, and hope to the hopeless.
In fact, Jesus so identifies with the poor, the broken, the imprisoned, and the outcast that he says "whatever you have done to one of the least of these you have done it to me."
So, the next time we are tempted to ask, "How can God allow...?" we have to realize that God is permissive, but He is not passive. He takes what is intended for evil and turns it to good. He is in the business of turning darkness into light, and He calls us to the same ministry of reconciliation.
Maybe, when it comes to suffering and injustice we should ask ourselves, "How can we allow..?"
"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." - Jesus, (Matthew 16:19)
"We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you." - 2 Cor 4:10-12
"Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us." - 2 Cor 5:20
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