God's Mad Mad World ~ Kingdom Come â Our Response

Our God will build His kingdom, He chooses us to be His agents for change but we
are merely catalysts. It is He who is present when a person comes to faith and
it is He who receives that person in that moment. They may be talking to us ab
out things but it is the testimony of Holy Spirit who confirms the truth to that
person.
So what does this mean to us in our lives following Jesus? The fact that God is
the kingdom builder does not mean that we are redundant. In fact nothing can b
e further than the truth. An architect may be the designer of a building but he
has no involvement in the construction, he has labourers for that.
As followers of Christ we have the privilege to live according to the teachings
of Jesus, to function in a God honouring way. We reach out to people not by spe
ech or through programs but by the way we live and love them right where they ar
e. Father enables us to show Jesus by the way that we relate to others, or that
is His plan. We take up that enabling when we take radically the life and comm
ission that Jesus placed before us.
The radical life that I am talking about includes
To love the people we encounter positively
To hold all in high regard with no reference to their social position
To speak up for and support the powerless
To serve all regardless of their desire to be served, and
Make disciples to teach them the way of Jesus and to integrate them into
the Community of Faith by way of baptism
There is, of course, the option that we may take that positions us at a lesser c
ommitment than what I outlined above. In many of Jesus teachings He seems to co
untenance the possibility that there may be more than one level. The story abou
t the returning Bridegroom in Lukeâ s Gospel speaks of servants who were rewarded for
being vigilant by the groom, but the implication is there that suggests that ot
hers were not as vigilant and were not vilified.
Paul however does spend a lot of time trying to encourage church members back to
the true path of faith. He is standing up for more than a limited commitment;
he is dealing with issues of entrapment where the Church members were being side
tracked by things that should have been left behind, things that compromised the
ir new faith with wrong beliefs.
There are, of course, consequences if we decide not to be fully committed. Firs
t and most significant I think is that we fail Father, He is love but He hurts w
hen we refuse to take seriously His call on our life. Of equal importance is th
at people yet to believe see us as being what we are uncommitted and as a result
see the Church as less than relevant in their lives, or worse they see â Christiansâ as
hypocrites
In our society it is not easy to reach out to others. They often see this from
under an umbrella of suspicion, or defensively. Often too we are our own worst
agent because when we get a rebuff we make it personal and see it as a failure.
I often feel that we can become embarrassed by the way that we live as followers
of Jesus. Especially so, when we become aware of the deeper believer making pr
ovisions that can be found in the New Testament. There is another way to live.
Let us step, up take seriously Jesus call on our lives and honour the things he
teaches in the Bible and enjoy the fullness of life He promises