Something Really Cool

So I learned something really cool today.  Call it an epiphany or a revelation or what I call a "Moabite Moment" (long story for a later time).  K.  So, I had to write an UBER LONG PAPER (or maybe not so long, but very time consuming) paper for my New Testament class at school.  I decided to study the topic of the Kingdom of Heaven and what it originally meant.  To sum it up real quick, I learned that the Jews and the disciples knew what Jesus meant when he said "Repent, the Kingdom of Heaven/God is here!" He was saying that God, King of all creation, has finally come to live among men and rule and reign and take back the deed to the earth the Devil had stolen from humanity.  He was also saying that the Hope of Israel was fulfilled, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one!" (Deuteronomy 6:4).  I learned that the Kingdom of Heaven was not a place that you go to, but instead is a reference to the reign of God among men and a "renewed" earth for all of eternity.  That's right, a "renewed" earth.  The Bible doesn't really say anything about angels carrying us up to heaven to sit on clouds with Him all day to get harp lessons, wear white dresses, and wear shiny metal frisbees on our heads (or maybe my childhood perception of heaven was all wrong). No, the disciples saw eternity as something way different and way more exciting.  Eternity with God in this "Kingdom" where the Messiah and God are one and his people will reign along with Him as kings and priests of the Most High God (Yup!  We'll be little Melchizedeks!).  Jesus, the Jews (or Pharisees really), and the disciples talked of a place where we no longer have to be victims of our world, but instead we will be victors over our world.  Peter in 2 Peter 3:3-14 talks of the world having been destroyed by fire.  But, when a person digs deep and reads the original Greek, he'll find that the world isn't really destroyed. It's just purified.  Like it was refined.

So the Kingdom of Heaven is a place that's here, now, in the present and very real.  I really wanted to get deep on my paper and say that to the early Christians, making the Kingdom of Heaven possible meant war with the devil.  Ironically, to the true believers, comfort with the world systems and all was not satisfying to them.  To the contrary, the pain and suffering they endured filled them with joy, because they fully believed that God would "renew" (ie:resurrect) their sinful bodies into really awesome non-breakable/indestructible bodies that would kick the devils butt in the very near future.  After they kick the devil's butt off the face of this earth, they fully believed that they would be the ones to advance the Kingdom full force and finish the work that was begun 2,000 years ago in a small area of the world called Judea.

This sudden bravery and courage was obviously something that the Christians couldn't have come up with on their own.  If they did, the effect would only last for a hot second and then (since we're all human) it would have died out.  The difference is that the early Christians had something no other person in the history of mankind had before.  That is: the Holy Spirit.  Remember the very message of the Kingdom of Heaven?  God's spirit dwelling among men!   The Everlasting Spirit filled up the souls of a small body of believers and spread through the entire world like wildfire!  This same Spirit which filled up these people can never die.  The early Christians knew that their own spirits were dead.  They were dead ever since they've been born (born into slavery to sin and the devil).  So to be filled with a Spirit that is alive and can never be killed for all eternity is REALLY AWESOME!!! Knowing that they were filled with something immortal and knowing that they would one day rise to be immortal with the Lord meant some really awesome stuff to the Christians.  Stuff that they would be willing to die for.  That's why history talks of early Christians who whistled a happy tune as they marched to their martyrdom.  They had somehow found a point where they had aligned their spirit, mind, and bodies up with God's Spirit, and then completely allowed Him to work radical things in them so that they could fulfill God's ultimate goal: make the world at one with Him again.

K.  So I said all that to say this:  WHEN YOU HAVE THIS UNDERSTANDING, THE LORD'S PRAYER TAKES ON A WHOLE DIFFERENT MEANING.  You know the Lord's prayer:

Our Father,

Which art in heaven,

Hallowed be Thy Name.

Thy Kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation

And deliver us from the evil one

For thine is the Kingdom 

And the Power,

And the glory,

Forever. 

Amen.

K. So read that once.  Read it twice.  Read it three times over.  See anything cryptic going on?  Or at least some type of pattern here?  Jesus' mission was what?  To preach the Kingdom of Heaven to all the world (Luke 4:43), right?  Ok.  So if Jesus was thinking really only about his mission here on the earth, for like, Lord knows, maybe all day long, don't you think he'd pray about it?  Read the first half of the prayer up to "heaven".  Isn't this Jesus' mission on the earth?  "Bring what we've got in heaven here on this earth/make us one with You".  (Same centuries old prayer of the Jews, here!) Second part! (And most exciting part!) Instructions for...God?  "Give us food everyday (ie: provide for all our needs). Help me get my vertical relationships right (ie: God and Jesus), so I can get my horizontal relationships (ie: all the people in my life) right.  And lastly, give us discernment and set us free from the devil. When all that's in order," Jesus seems to say, "then Your Kingdom, O Lord, has taken over my life.  And now I am a full citizen of Your Kingdom...completely submitted to Your power and glory. And we'll be one.  Forever. Amen."

Doesn't that add, like, a completely new twist to things??? Like seriously!  Prayer is no longer about my selfish desires any more!  Yes, God will provide everything, but can't you see that once we take on a mentality that God's got it all under control and that He's willing to get everything in order for us, we really don't have to pray long and hard about it?  We can see that in the second half, Jesus highlights every important aspect of our lives: our personal life, our social, and our spiritual life.  God's the Boss.  We just gotta let Him be Boss. By sharing this master prayer, we can see that it's totally about redeeming the world on which my two feet stand upon for God so we can all be bffls (best friends for life, for those who didn't know what that meant) again with Him!  That's all God's wanted from the beginning of time, and now He's showed me that He's here on earth, walking and living among thousands upon thousands of people, and HE'S REVERSING THE CURSE! Like really reversing the curse!  His question to all humanity is, "Do you wanna join me?  Do you wanna kick some Devil-butt? Do you wanna become bffls and know that though your body may take a bullet, Ezekiel 37 (the dry-bones prophesy) applies to ALL THOSE WHO BELIEVE??? If you do, then believe the prayer and submit (fancy word for shut up, listen, learn and apply it to your life) to my master plan.  When you do, the Kingdom of Heaven will spread even further around the earth, and we'll all be one step closer to being together forever here on earth."

So that was my cool "Moabite Moment" of the day.  DO YOU SEE HOW WONDERFULLY AWESOME THIS REVELATION IS???  I hope you do. This stuff that God's sharing with me is like, I don't know, atomic stuff.  You know? If you get too close, you might catch God-radiation, which'll stay with you for the rest of your life.  Just sayin'.