Kingdom Thinking

I have been blessed this week to listen to and even get to talk one on one with some incredible Christian leaders. The unstated question that they all seem to be addressing is, "How do we form a kingdom mindset?" For most of us, we grew up equating the Kingdom of God with the Church. We have been brought up viewing time as clearly divided into 3 segments. There was the time before Christ (the Old Testament), there was the time of Christ (the gospels), and then there is the time of the church which began at the beginning of Acts and continues today. Since we find ourselves in the 3rd segment, we study the scriptures of that time period more than any others. On the whole, we can quote Paul much easier than we can quote Moses, David, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, or even, tragically, Jesus. There is so much to be learned from Paul, Peter, James, John, and other NT authors about how to follow Jesus. But if we want to be serious about following Jesus, we have to have as our first priority the life and teachings of Jesus Christ who is not only the head of the church, but the Lord of the Kingdom of God.

This is where I have to point out a difference between the church and the kingdom of God. Like I said earlier, most of us grew up viewing the two as synonymous. While the church is the primary instrument used by God to fulfill his purposes in the Kingdom, the Kingdom of God is much larger than the church. The Kingdom of God transcends the walls of our buildings, denominational lines, Political party lines, national boundaries, and even time. Jesus lived to proclaim the coming of the kingdom, he prayed "thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven." The words of this prayer are rarely prayed in our denomination (even though we were commanded to do so). Subsequently, the concept carried by this prayer has been largely forgotten. We wait for heaven, and we go to church in the meantime, but what are we doing to join in God's work of bringing about the Kingdom of God ON EARTH?

The kingdom mindset was not lost on the early Jews. It has been suggested by some scholars that the book of Psalms can best be summed up as a declaration that the Lord Reigns. The role of the king was best summed up as restoring "shalom" to the people. Shalom is most often translated, "Peace". A better translation would be "Completeness".

The king's job was to bring completeness or wholeness to the broken world.

If we are to be about the work of the Kingdom, if we are to fulfill Jesus' mission, then we must be about the work of bringing completeness or wholeness to the broken world around us. When Jesus was asked by John's messengers about whether or not he was the Christ or not, he replied, "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the good news is preached to the poor." In short, "I am restoring Shalom, I am bringing wholeness to the world, I am fulfilling the role of the anointed King."

Our mission is not to fill pews. Our mission is to see that the naked are clothed, the hungry are fed, the lonely are listened to, the sick are made well, and the estranged from God are reunited with their creator. As Christ has done, go and do likewise.

In a world screaming, "Where is God!" We must respond, "Here am I, send me!" This video will hopefully explain better what I am talking about.