Monday, September 13, 2004

a less "safe" world but a more trustworthy God

i have a growing sense of how much this world does not yet belong to God. This has created in me an increasing distance from the “victory” expectations this side of the end. George Eldon Ladd said it well in his "the gospel of the kingdom" – the kingdom of God has mysteriously and unexpectedly invaded the kingdom of satan before the order of things were altered. So we get a present kingdom but an unaltered order – an order ordained by the enemy & by our rebellion. this makes us "guerillas," not conquering heroes. conquest is ours on "that day," as Scripture calls it, not until then. real impact but not victory. My expectations have changed. My posture has changed. Firstfruits. Down payments. Experiences. Tastes. Whispers. These are available to me. But not satisfaction.

Also, my life is focused around and shaped by..."battle." sorry about the Warfare metaphors but nothing else captures the intent of the Truth here. opposition is unavoidable for those who want to live lives of meaning and purpose. There is no "safety" to be found yet in His "sovereignty" because this world is not fully within His rule & reign. Why do you think Jesus taught us to pray "your Kingdom come, your will be done?"

So, therefore, what are my expectations? What do I wake up to everyday? Am I aware of what i am living in the middle of? Am I prepared? Trained? Equipped? That is a huge question. Often I think that even if we are aware, we are so unprepared that we resemble soldiers going to the front lines with water pistols. Resistance fighters have to know the terrain incredibly well in order to be effective in a guerilla war. it is their advantage. naive, sluggish and ill-trained guerillas are sitting ducks. i'm not saying that our pain is purely because of our lack of preparation - this world is filled with pain and the most prepared cannot escape it - but i AM saying that there are some instances when we are victimised needlessly. i do not say that flippantly. but i am more and more persuaded that it is sometimes true.

i think a lot of the discouragement and disappointment people feel with God could be addressed by this lifeview. In the television series "The West Wing" there is an episode where the President (Martin Sheen) has an argument with God in Washington D.C.'s National cathedral. He hammers God for sending a tropical storm that knocked out a navy vessel and for arranging for his friend and secretary to be killed in a traffic accident. At the end, after yelling at him in latin, he walks away with disgust at a God who would do something like that. Powerful stuff. It brings up questions we all have asked. Yet i think it flows from the wrong understanding of how God operates. Be angry. Yet be angry at the right person. God is.

And wake up.

1 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Hey Jim,

I'm moving to Canterbury from the US in a couple days and heard from a friend of a friend that you're getting ready to plant a church. I'd love to get together with you and hear a bit more about what that might look like.

Drop me an e-mail at scott [at] paradoxica.net if you don't mind. Hope to hear from you soon!

Cheers,

Scott

September 11, 2007 at 10:42 PM  

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