Whose kingdom are you building?

Everyday we labor. Our labor is building a kingdom. Everyday we journey. Our journey takes us toward a destination. Even in our idleness we are laboring and journeying. Even our lack of activity be it positive or negative is the act of laying one stone on another, or putting one foot in front of the other. In the heart of man, our feet are always moving and our hands are always busy. So, the question begs to be answered. Whose kingdom are you building?

In the bible (Gen 11:4) the people decided to build a city with a tower to make a name for themselves. There are two kingdoms; the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man. Each of us everyday is laboring to build one or the other. Everyday we journey toward one or the other. One leads to separation from God for all eternity. One leads to life with God for all eternity. The difference between the two is the orientation of your heart. Your heart will determine which kingdom you are building and journeying toward.

In the bible (John 5) Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath. In one respect, you could see that this is a good thing. A man, who was unable to walk, can now do so. But the religious leaders of that day railed against Jesus because he healed the man on the Sabbath. They believed that God expected them to do nothing on the Sabbath and that in doing nothing they were holding true to His commands. One event, two perspectives. One perspective is kingdom of God, the other is the kingdom of man. Can you guess which is which? The only thing that differs is the attitude of the heart of each party. The heart of Jesus was to restore someone to physical wholeness. The religious leaders were only seeing their narrow understanding of one of God’s commandments while turning a deaf ear to the full council of God and the needs of others. I dare say that we cannot totally sum up God even with the words we have in the Holy Bible and this is especially true of only one of His commandments. Jesus came to open our eyes and broaden our perspectives. To get us to see the whole message of God and know and understand to the best of our ability who God is and what He wants from each of us.

The message is simple. God wants you to step out of yourselves and see what the kingdom of man has to offer. Then, look at what the kingdom of God has to offer and make your choice. Joshua in the bible (Joshua 24) called his people to choose this day whom they would serve. He stepped up and announced that he and his house would serve the Lord. Examine your heart. Examine your labor. Examine your journey. The bible says (Matt 7:13-14) that narrow is the gate that leads to the kingdom of God and few are those who find it. To “find” something is an act of deliberate effort. You will not find the gate by accident. If you are not going through the narrow gate, by default, you are going through the wide gate that leads to eternal separation from God.

Everyday we labor. Everyday we journey. Every act of kindness or selfishness puts another stone on top of the stone before. Every act of courage for the oppressed, hungry, naked and sick puts one foot in front of the other. Every act of dishonesty, callousness, hate and selfishness puts us closer to our destination. We have a choice. We choose which kingdom we are building every day, every hour, every moment. Whose kingdom are you building?

The heart of the matter

Deuteronomy 8
Do Not Forget the LORD
1 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers. 2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.
6 Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and revering him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; 8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; 9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.
19 If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. 20 Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.

What is Deuteronomy 8 about? If you read it carefully you will understand that God’s purpose for us, in this life, is to determine if you will recognize God as the one true God and place yourself in His service at His beck and call or if you will recognize yourself as God and only pay lip service to the one true God, or even ignore Him altogether.

Why? God only wants those who have truly submitted to Him to rule and reign at His side. He only wants those with an unshakable will to follow Him to stand with Him forever.

How? God looks on the heart to measure a person. Maybe He finds out what is on the inside by squeezing you to see what comes out. He leads you into circumstances that will reveal where your heart is truly. How you react will determine if you are with God in your heart or serving your own self interests.

Doesn’t God already know? Yes. But he knows because you were tested and He knows the results of the test before it even happened. God is not limited by the constraints of time that we are. He knew everyday of your life before you were born because He was there. God is not limited by time and can see the end of your days before the first day of your life. He has led you through life’s troubled waters. He has sifted you such that you would reveal to Him the true measure of your heart. He knows this all before you are born because He has played your life like one who plays a video. He has fast forwarded, rewound and even made changes to the setting or the circumstances and played the scenario again to see how you react each time. Some of this sounds a bit Gene Roddenberry, but if you think about it, it makes some sense. If you were God and not limited by the laws of physics or the constraints of time, what kinds of miraculous things could you accomplish. Then, think about how God might use such things. Then, read Deuteronomy 8 again and see if you see another message.

Courage

I am today challenged with the courage that God calls me to. Courage. What does it mean? I think that, today, courage means standing strong on the principles set forth from the beginning of time. These are the principles that are merged into the fabric of creation. These are the principals that are laid into the foundation of the world. Why? God wants to know who or what we will choose.

Who will choose God’s way and who will choose the ways of man? God’s way flows like a river. Man’s way flows opposite of God’s river. Which way will you travel? The current of man is strong and it’s under currents are even stronger. Before you know it, you are cast into the flow of man and soon you are a part of it. God’s flow is steady, slow and powerful. God’s flow has cut a deep path for us to follow that dates back to the time of Adam. Man’s path also dates back to the time of Adam. Both were one and the same, they shared their head waters, but split once sin entered the picture. Now both run deep, but they run in opposite directions. God’s flow runs to eternity. Man’s flow runs to destruction. God’s flow is forever, without end. Man’s flow is for today, and will ultimately come to an end.

Courage. It is courage that determines what flow we inhabit. Our courage is evidenced by the choices we make everyday. Courage calls us to go against the flow of man and stand strong and tall. Courage causes man to go against the flow and do things that are unheard of and unspoken of. Courage causes a man to stand when the trumpet blows and all are instructed to fall and worship an idol… even if it means certain death. Courage causes a man to enter a temple and drive out those who would turn their father’s house into a den of thieves. Courage causes a man to open his windows, bow and pray to God when such would render a death sentence. Courage causes a man, in the midst of his greatest agony, to declare that all his appointed time he will wait for his change to come. Courage causes a man with His last breath to utter “it is finished”. Courage causes a man to have a dream. Courage causes a man to say we have nothing to fear when we cannot find food to eat. Courage causes a man to lay his life down to demonstrate Christ’s love in a way that only tribal indians in Ecuador can understand. Courage causes a man to stand before a giant with stones. Courage causes a man to stand before 300 prophets of Baal and call down fire from heaven. Courage.

Where is your courage today? Having trouble finding it? That is because you are in the wrong flow. A man who has courage, does not have to look hard to find it or feel it. He feels it everyday. Courage is painful, inconvenient, does not happen on a time table and does not have design (at least not one we are conscious of). Courage goes against the flow. Which flow are you in? The question is answered in a heart beat. Don’t deny the truth, do something about it. Change direction.

Control Freak (Part 3) – You Are a Fraud!

Many people, men particularly, have at their core a profound sense that they will someday be “found out” to be a fraud. Why does this insecurity dwell in many people? Could it be that for so long we have taken credit for God’s blessing that, somewhere deep in our soul, we know that it was not us. Go with the feeling. A fraud has been committed indeed. You have forgotten the God who has delivered you out of Egypt into a land flowing with milk and honey. You have signed your own name to His work and you feel a little uneasy about it. As you should. In that respect… you are a fraud!

The good news is that God knows this about you and all people. He warned the children of Israel and they did not listen. He warned the disciples and they did not listen. He warns us and we do not listen. We are all in the same boat. We all struggle with this same weakness. But, God believes that we can, and need, to overcome it.

God said “be careful that you do not forget the LORD”. This is a continuous activity to “remember”. We have a natural tendency to “forget”. We must always be on guard to “remember”. Remembering is something we must purpose in our hearts to do every day, every hour, every minute and every second we are alive. In doing this we are released from the stronghold on controlling and being focused on the wrong outcomes. We are released from the burden of being “found out”. What we are, where we are and what we have is all due to God’s good favor. If His mercies are new every morning and we seek to please Him every day and we remember… then we have nothing to fret about.

You are not in control. God is. You did not deliver yourself… God did. You did not accomplish all that brought you this far… God did. You did not earn all that stuff… God gave it to you. You do not control the outcomes of things… God does. Work hard, do the right thing not because it nets a direct benefit, but because it pleases God. God will bless you if it fits His plan for you. You can be assured on one thing, God has a plan for you and it WILL glorify Him. Your choice is to go along with the flow and prosper, or work against Him and be destroyed. Either way God's end will be served. The question is: Do you want to fall on the rock, or do you want the rock to fall on you? The choice is yours and God will not be effected either way. What is at stake is your peace and joy. Submit to God. Render control to Him. He has it anyway. Let go.