Mark
Today I begin the Gospel of Mark, looking to answer the question, "What is the Gospel, and what is the Kingdom of Heaven." And just to learn Jesus . . .
Jesus first words in this gospel . . . "Repent and believe the good news!" "The time has come, the kingdom of God is near."
This is the message they have been waiting for "The kingdom of God is near." But why would they have to repent?
Maybe for the same reason we might need to repent. In waiting for Jesus we settle for life as we know it. We forget the heart of God and live for ourselves. We grow our churches, but how well do we live out the kingdom of God.
I think it is timely for me to repent, turn to God, and follow Him (as he gets to in the next verses).
May we not settle for life as we know it, the kingdom of God is upon us.
Jesus first words in this gospel . . . "Repent and believe the good news!" "The time has come, the kingdom of God is near."
This is the message they have been waiting for "The kingdom of God is near." But why would they have to repent?
Maybe for the same reason we might need to repent. In waiting for Jesus we settle for life as we know it. We forget the heart of God and live for ourselves. We grow our churches, but how well do we live out the kingdom of God.
I think it is timely for me to repent, turn to God, and follow Him (as he gets to in the next verses).
May we not settle for life as we know it, the kingdom of God is upon us.
posted by Jon Knapp at
8:04 AM
1 Comments:
I love this question becuase it is so much a part of my past learning. My goal in this post is to butcher proper grammer and spelling - so I hope that you dont mind as I just speak my mind.
I have always been taught that the gospel was the plan of salvation you know the whole - 4 spiritual laws the Romans road and all of that stuff. I used it to my great success in "winning" many to the Lord. I used it all worked it all. Did all the bait and switch things that I could to get people into the door so that I could "preach the good news" ie - steps to peace with God and all of that jazz. I was so clueless.
If I remember right Dallas Willard calls it the Kingdom of the heavens. In his book called The Divine Conspiracy. He talks about the Kingdom as God rule - his place of ruling His influence. And that the heaven part is what we do when we let it work through us and bring that kingdom out when we live it in the world that we live in today. So to me the Gospel is just that - Hey man there is a better way to live and it is an eternal way that is wonderful and you start it right now by confessing (repentance) "Hey that is a good way to live." of course you are not capable of doing this without the prompting of the Holy Spirit - so the Gospel is not just a "good idea" although it is. But you agree with God that it is a good idea and then you begin the journey of eternal life or kingdom living.
It is so unfourtunate to use fear tactics to get people to "repent" and scream out their need for God. Not to say that some of us do not get there. WHat I want to see is like in Brian McClaren's bood - the second one I think - where the young lady that he likes has cancer and she ends up dying - well if you remember when she crosses over and confesses her need for baptism - to me that was the way that it should be - that was beautiful and it made my cry - I wrote a prayer after that portion of the book to not live it any other way. I want to live my life in such a way that makes others want what I have. That it makes them "glorfiy my father in heaven."
We can live heaven on earth right now - we can live it now and begin living the kingdom now - it is important that we know that it will not be completly perfect because of our "seeing in part thing" in Corinthians but, when we are raptured, translated, or whatever it is (who cares) we will know all of it and that is great to me. I am looking forward to those great theological questions like: "If a tree fell in the woods and no one was there to watch it fall - would it make a noise?" Now to me those are the real questions that should be asked!!! LOL - Nice meeting with you today.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home