A Slow Journey to God's Kingdom Purposes

Each time I read the story of David it sinks in just a bit more how David was able to exercise Godly patience when it comes to his role as king, and the Kingdom that God would establish. David, it seems, was able to leave the eventual security of the Kingdom of God in God's hands, rather than forcing it through himself.

David is anointed back in 1 Samuel 16 while Saul is still king. David serves Saul but it becomes increasingly obvious that David will succeed him. David never rushes this, and allows Saul to continue on two occasions rather than seizing power through opportunity.

Eventually Saul is killed in a battle, but even then David proceeds cautiously. In 2 Samuel 2 he enquires of God for directions, which leads to his initial crowning. There is a rival camp loyal to Saul's descendants though, and while they scrap it seems that David is pretty much able to leave them be. Surely he could have just pressed ahead and squashed this opposition? Yet he bides his time, over 6 years in fact.

Finally he becomes king over all the tribes, and presses on to establish Jerusalem as the worship centre for the new Kingdom. Yet even after all that, when Absalom rebels in chapter 15 David vacates his seat of power surprisingly quickly, leaving the city for Absalom to simply march in. It seems that not only was David no stranger to opposition, but he could allow it to run its course. He knew the Kingdom was not something to be grasped, not something to be rushed or pressed, but to trust in the bigger picture of God's purposes.

Even in David's desire to build a temple as a permanent centre of worship this same principle is played out. God tells David that this task is not for him, but along with it God gives an amazing promise of 'the throne of his kingdom for ever'. Clearly such a promise cannot be forcibly fulfilled by any action of man - David was able to embrace that principle above all.

It makes me think of all the plans in my mind that I believe will contribute to the Kingdom of God. Am I able to exercise the same patience, to bide my time, to allow opposition to run its course ... and trust that along the journey, no matter how slowly it seems to progress, God will indeed work His purposes out?

Restless

As Christians we are to look to Christ and to His Kingdom. That will mean looking to His fully established Kingdom, which means looking beyond this world as we know it today.

That means being constantly restless - looking for more Kingdom-likeness, anticipating what to many will seem to be an 'other-world' or 'out of this world' viewpoint. Not so that we are of no practical use in the today, but precisely because we have this other-world view we are down to earth and head-strong in the belief that things today can be changed.

Nouwen puts it well in his book Open Hands:
You are Christian only so long as ...

• you look forward to a new world
• you pose critical questions to society of today
• you emphasize the need for conversion
• you do not let yourself become established in seeming calm
• you stay unsatisfied with the status quo
• you keep saying that a new world is yet to come
• you believe you have a role to play in realising this new kingdom
• you urge everyone with a holy unrest to make haste

He concludes by asserting that a Christian must keep looking for a new order, a new structure, a new life. Strong, uncompromising, radical words ... with no room for half-measures!

So if you follow Christ, then be Christian ... be restless.

Stay Out of Control?

Movements that really move have one extraordinary feature in common - they feel like they are out of our control!

But do we have the guts to let them continue in this out of control way, or would we rather ... well, err ... control them?

Our tendency is to organise, to regiment, to ensure quality (or adherence to doctrine etc. etc.) ... but all these might actually stifle the movement rather than continue to fan the flames. Worse still, that might mean stifling a mission move of God.

I was reading recently about the Spirit moving in a muslim-majority context, bringing people to faith as only the Spirit can. It added up to a movement that felt like it was out of control. Some responded by forming churches, procuring buildings, holding services. That introduced control, regularity, ensured things were 'right'.

The churches even acted as beacons, shining lights in an otherwise spiritually impoverished land. Thats good you might think, but with the hindsight of a few years it was clearly less effective, less dynamic, 'less God' than the original movement.

Remember going viral is the opposite of containment. Gathering as church is for sure Biblical, but buildings with fixed patterns of services ... hmmm! Maybe the latter inadvertently becomes containment, though of course no participant would have ever wanted that!

Incarnational Mission to Hyenas?

A middle-aged African Muslim woman speaks up: "Jesus came as a human to save humans, even though he is God. If God had wanted to save hyenas, he would have become like a hyena. We want to save Muslims and so this compels us to go into the mosque ...". [1]

This middle-aged woman understands incarnational mission perfectly, and has expressed it far better than I ever could. The Word became flesh (Jn 1:14), and 'I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some' (1 Cor 9:22) put into practical action.

God becomes fully human to reach humans. Human ... yet also somehow different, standing out, but not apart.

Today Muslim background believers in Christ are instinctively doing incarnational mission - sharing Jesus in their local context, without going to theological college or picking up a single textbook.

We are called to do the same - to enter in a local culture, right where they are ... yet also somehow different, standing out, but not apart.


[1] Quote from 'A Wind in the House of Islam' by Garrison - an excellent book.