“Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
In the previous post I stressed the importance of thinking
about the serious questions of life and in this post I want to address why.
Jesus answers that question with the words, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand”
or in other words, life under God’s authority is now available to all, it’s
here. Why now? Because who God is and what he wants has now been revealed to us
in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus tell us to think again about life because
he is introducing a whole new way TO think about life, even a whole new way to
live. A life that he declares is a better life, even the best possible life - a
life that corresponds to the reality of our universe. And what exactly is the
reality of our universe?
I will submit that we can see and feel indications of this reality
in life. There are certain things that we hold in the highest regard, things
that we think are the very best. Among these things is a person who is willing
to give everything up for others. Story after story creates “heroes” who deny
themselves on behalf of others and we applaud these stories again and again. Take
for example the character from the movie, Seven
Pounds. The story follows a man who gives up everything, even his own heart
and eyes to seven different people. Watching these events unfold brings most
people to tears. We call it beautiful, heart wrenching, maybe even
life-changing. We want that character to be real, we want him to be our dad,
our brother, and maybe even hope to become like him ourselves. We have
something in us telling us that that is how life ought to be lived, that is how
people ought to behave, that must be the truest way TO live, that should be the
reality of our world…. why? I will submit to you that we feel and think this
way because that IS the reality of our universe. We live in a universe created
and maintained by an all-powerful, omnipresent God who is exactly that kind of
person, who dies as much as a God can die to bring life to the creatures that
he has made. We see it as is the true life because it is the real life.
Either life is a terrible cruel joke, a meaningless
existence which only dreams of something higher, a container of the worst kind
of empty promises OR it is a gift from our Creator, the perfect Father, in whom
we truly “live, and move, and have our being.”
Jesus believed this, Jesus lived this, and he calls us to to
join him in this invisible reality that pervades us. He calls us to put our
trust in Him and he promises to be with us, to transform us, and to continue
working in us until we are one with him. It is not a call to better yourself or
to fix yourself - it’s a call to entrust your life to the only One who can.
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