Kingdom Living

Over the past few weeks during my time out in different villages, my teaching has been focusing on the idea of Kingdom living. I have been recently working through a wonderful book by Dallas Willard entitled “The Divine Conspiracy” and it has turned me inside out with every turn of the page. In this book, Willard focuses primarily on the idea of living in the presence of God. This presence of God is found within his Kingdom and that Kingdom envelopes everything we see and experience. In his book, Willard spends a great deal of time sharing some new ways of looking at the Sermon on the Mount that have really challenged my walk with God. He states that the purpose of this sermon is to give us everything we need to exist rightly in the Kingdom of God. The sermon is not a list of rules, as Jesus makes painfully clear, but it is a holistic, heart-changing dialogue offered by Christ the master to each of us. Even in the Beatitudes, we do not find a how to list so that we can qualify ourselves for the Kingdom. They are Christ’s way of saying to His audience that everyone is welcome to partake of his Kingdom. Looking at the sermon in this light should change our perspective of our relationship with God. He is not far off watching from above waiting to see if we get it all right and then perhaps he will let us into the club. If we have placed our belief and faith in Him alone and have died spiritually in the grave of baptism then we are living in his Kingdom right now! He is striving with us to make the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount a reality in our lives. Through his power we become blessed Kingdom people. I have begun delivering this message in the Kabiye churches and it has been received with such eagerness because it is so different from what they have often heard. So many of the messages they hear preach the idea that perhaps one day we will be able to be in God’s Kingdom (i.e. heaven) but first we must prove ourselves and live by these rules and regulations. Rules and regulations breed hypocrisy. Living in the presence of God and unfolding our lives before him opens us up to his power and plants his laws and desires deep in our hearts. Lives are truly changed and the Kingdom of God is seen for what it truly is. Not a religious organization but God himself living and moving among us. Oh what joy to be in such proximity with our Lord and friend! Please write me your comments and let me hear you thoughts.

Choking on Your Teeth?

I simply wanted to offer anyone help in retrieving their teeth from the back of their throat because of the overwhelming suprise that might have hit them because of my blog post. Surprise!!! I have received too many emails compelling me to write so I am going to respond to the nudging and do a little better. LOL. Keep watching and you never know...

Hands and Feet

I have never had much trouble speaking. Probably my favorite classes in school were my 7th, 8th and 9th grade speech and drama classes. Maybe part of the reason was that my father was the teacher, but more than that I simply enjoyed public speaking. I enjoyed preparing for it and I enjoyed the delivery. To hold the attention of an audience and know that they were listening to what you had to say was very fascinating to me. Now that my subject matter is primarily about God and his love for us, my motivations have changed as well as my reason for speaking. When I spoke in speech class, it was often for a grade or a competition for which I could really get fired up about. Now, I feel a different kind of burning. This is a burning from deep within to share the truth about God and who we are in relation to Him. However, as great as it is to speak truth and to share the Good News with others, it is probably more important to live that message in the presence of those who also need to hear it. I can never stop speaking. But maybe I need to do a little more serving as well. Perhaps I need to learn to speak with my hands and feet. Over these past six year in Togo, I have had many opportunities to speak. I have also had many opportunities to serve. I am ashamed to say that my learning curve has been considerably bent. Not until recently have I begun to understand and reach out to those in need here in Kabiye land. I have given out a lot of spare change during these past six years, but I cannot count many times that I have poured Jesus into them. He lives in me and I am filled daily to overflowing with his presence and power. So why have I waited so long? What has held me back? The answer is fear and pride. I have really struggled with these two monsters over the past few years but have finally begun to break free from them and the other side is much more free and fresh. I have intended for some time now to teach a lesson on servant hood and use John 13 where Jesus washes his disciple’s feet. As a part of the lesson I wanted to wash the feet of my listeners as an illustration of exactly what Jesus did. Have you seen Kabiye feet? Pedicure shops are few and far between! Sandals, dust and the dry season make for some dirty, stinky, dry and cracked feet. Quite frankly, I avoided this lesson because I did not want to touch their feet! Recently, however, something inside me changed (miracles still exist) and I felt compelled to illustrate Christ’s example of servant hood and kingdom living. One particular afternoon in the village of Ajadaa, I was washing the feet of one of the Christian young women and came across a large abscess on the back of her heal. Before I could react and pull my hand away, the abscess burst and I won’t go into the rest. I am not easily disgusted by things like this, but at that moment my gag reflex went into overdrive and I just knew that I was going to vomit right there on the spot. I believe it was by God’s grace that I did not but instead held on to her foot and continued to clean. She winced and I apologized and I cleaned out the wound explaining that she needed to keep it clean and bandaged and then moved on to the next pair of feet. That moment and that image have remained burned onto the back of my skull and through it, and many other pairs of feet, God has taught me a great deal about what it means to have hands and feet for God. I thought immediately of Jesus touching the leper and of how many countless poor, dirty, sick and lonely people he touched in a meaningful way. He took time and expended energy not just throwing them some chump change, but he really reached into their lives and gave them a piece of himself. That is what we are called to do. Regardless of our station in life we are called to touch and love people. Instead of just tossing some change to the beggar, I need touch his or her hand, look into their eyes and ask them how they are doing. Take the time and expend the spiritual energy necessary to touch and maybe even change a life. That has been a big challenge for me. However, God’s grace and power is helping me be more like the Christ who washed his disciple’s feet, cleansed the lepers and healed and loved countless others. What an impact we could all have in this world if we didn’t try to make our Christianity antiseptic. Jesus never said anything about being squeaky clean followers of him. We need to be the hands and feet of Christ that are willing do anything to give someone a glimpse of who Jesus really is and what it means to be his children.