The Kingdom of God...an Illustration

Draw a tower of four blocks.  In the bottom box, write the word "children".  In the top box, write the word "God".  In the box under God, write the words "leaders, presidents, kings, pastors, elders...".  In the box above "children", draw a diagonal dotted line dividing the box into two triangles.  In the triangle on top, write the word "husbands"; in the other triangle write the word "wives".  Try to view the bottom two boxes of the tower (the "children" and "husbands and wives" boxes) as a family, having a higher dimension.  In a geometric plane that is a dimension higher -- above these two boxes, draw a small box and write the word "parents".  
We are deceived when we believe we live in a democracy, instead of understanding that we, in Truth - live in a Kingdom.  Yes, "all men are created equal" because we are all created in the image of God, with infinite potential.  But it is vital for us to recognize that  we do not operate in a one dimensional playing field.  There is a hierarchy to the Kingdom of God; this hierarchy is the highway of our protection, provision, and blessing.  This hierarchy can also be the highway of our vulnerability, famine, and destruction.
The economy of God's Kingdom is not capitalism - God's Kingdom does not acknowledge earning and deserving.  The economy of God's Kingdom is "grace" and "honor" - demonstrated and accessed by our posture, our position in the Kingdom, the direction we look, and who we listen to when we are confused, hungry, hurting, or otherwise in need.
The definition of "grace" is "someone in a superior position, establishing the well-being of someone in a inferior position, even at great personal cost". "Honor" means to "stand in the proper position, as determined by the hierarchy of the Kingdom, to receive grace - and then respond by exhaling obedience, thanksgiving, and praise - trusting the God who reigns over the Kingdom."
The economy of the Kingdom requires that in trust and obedience we always look up to establish our well-being when we are confused, hungry, hurting, or otherwise in need.  To look down is the direction of idolatry.  "Idolatry" is defined as "looking to someone in an inferior position to establish the well-being of someone in a superior position; looking to someone in an inferior position to offer us something to establish our well-being."  Looking down instead of looking up in the Kingdom means we are looking for a quick fix or a short cut; it means we are looking for a cheap imitation instead of Truth.  Looking down means we are not willing to trust and wait on God to establish our well-being.  Cheap imitations and quick fixes are the gateways to addictions and illness. "Abuse" and "trauma" are defined as "requiring someone or something in an inferior position to establish the well-being of someone in a superior position."
Anyone in a superior position in the Kingdom has the responsibility to only offer to anyone in an inferior position to them in the Kingdom wisdom, food, healing, comfort or delight from a superior position in the Kingdom; offering the knowledge of good and evil from an inferior source is not ours to receive or to give.  In the Garden, Adam and Eve demonstrated the sin of accepting from an inferior source what was only God's to give; we continue to reap and sow when we do the same.  In the desert, Jesus demonstrated refusing from an inferior source what was only God's to give; His blood will continue to reap what our sin has sown and His resurrected life is offered to us as our daily bread.  We must be in the habit of looking up and feasting daily on the generous provision God gives us as food for our bodies, our spirits, and our minds; we must teach those we are bringing up to "look up" too.

Life before I really ate manna...

I may need to ask you to "please forgive me"...

I may have come in the disguise of a fixer; I am really only a follower

I may have interrupted God by talking too much from my own initiative

I have lived on the wide road - following distractions, choosing pain killers, listening to little gods, rushing when I should have been waiting, decorating my kingdom instead of living as a lamp stand for His, choosing cheap fig leaves instead of trusting God and choosing naked

I may have tried to play God and establish your well-being

I may have asked you to establish my well-being

I may not have given you the honor and submission your position in God's Kingdom requires of me

I may have judged you; confused - and thinking you may be a step on the ladder of my invisible hierarchy

I may have let you think I was a step on the ladder of your invisible hierarchy; my sin may have tempted you to judge me

I may have reinforced the lie for you that "it is not O.K. that everything is not O.K"

I may not have asked you for strength or wisdom when I really needed it, or I may have asked you for comfort when I really needed strength

I am humbled that this offer comes to you from a place of strength instead of weakness.  This strength is because I have learned to go to God for healing instead of lesser sources for lesser things.  I only want to connect in relationship with you in places of strength- or in pursuit of strength; otherwise, one of us is acting as an enabler.  Jesus died to give us access to God's strength.   Thank you God for teaching me about relationship. The Truth is... it is not about me, it is not about here, it is not about now.  Thank you Father that the Truth really does set me free...free indeed.

Thank you John Eldredge

"No one stops to think.  No one wants to take a good, hard look at what they are really doing, for then we might see the lie.  We would see the water hole for the muddy puddle it is.  Our idols become the means by which we forget who we truly are and where we truly come from.  They numb us."

"Nature is not primarily functional.  It is primarily beautiful.  Stop for a moment and let that sink in.  We're so used to evaluating everything (and everyone) by their usefulness that this thought will take a minute or two to begin to dawn on us.  Nature is not primarily functional.  It is primarily beautiful.  Which is to say, beauty is in and of itself a great and glorious good, something we need in large and daily doses (for our God has seen fit to arrange for this).  Nature at the height of its glory shouts, 'Beauty is Essential!' revealing that Beauty is the essence of God.  The whole world is full of his glory."

"Beauty is transcendent.  It is our most immediate experience of the eternal.  Think of what it is like to behold a gorgeous sunset or the ocean at dawn.  Remembering the ending of a great story.  We yearn to linger, to experience it all our days.  Sometimes the beauty is so deep it pierces us with longing. For what?  For life as it was meant to be.  Beauty reminds us of an Eden we have never know, but somehow our hearts were created for.  Beauty speaks of heaven to come, when all shall be beautiful.  It haunts us with eternity.  Beauty says, 'There is a glory calling to you.' And if there is a glory, there is a source of glory.  What great goodness could have possibly created this?  What generosity gave us this to behold?  Beauty draws us to God."

gifts from Captivating

Listening to good friends

"No one warns young people to follow Adam's example. He waited till God saw his need.  Then God made Adam sleep, prepared for his mate, and brought her to him.  We need more of the 'being asleep' in the will of God.  Then we can receive what He brings us in His own time, if at all."  (p. 50)

"He is no fool who gives that which he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose."

"I leave the past behind and with hands outstretched to whatever lies ahead I go straight for the goal, my reward the honor of being called by God in Christ."
"beyond 'believing' and 'behaving' in the Christian life, there is also 'being'..." (p. 47)
"He believed Christ to be utterly sufficient for the entire fulfillment of the personality, and was ready to trust Him literally for this.  To that soul which tasted of Christ, the jaunty laugh, the tempting music of mingled voices, the haunting appeal of smiling eyes - all these lack flavor.  And I would drink deeply of Him.  Fill me, O Spirit of Christ, with all the fullness of God."  (pp. 48-49)

gifts received from Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty .

Wash Your Eyes

God knows The Fall perverted our survival instincts.  Instead of running to each other for help with our struggles, we run away.  Instead of fighting the cancer of blame, we feed on it.  We give our struggles names of people instead of names of principalities and we tear down the people closest to us - the people God gave us to make us strong.  We live in confused chaos and filth but long for order and beauty.  We build our own kingdoms that are cheap imitations of the Garden. And our gardens grow; what we sow, we will reap.

God made us for relationship.  We learn relationship from our mother and father.  We watch how they handle their own pain and fear.  Forgiveness is the visual aspirator for the eyes of our heart.  Getting the debris out of our eyes refocuses our trust.  We listen as our elders identify struggles the way God does.  God calls our struggles "sin" and "principalities" - not people.  We learn the language of Truth.  We witness others struggling against ignorance by seeking wisdom; we witness the strong helping the weak. We watch how our mothers and fathers take care of their eyes because we see how they love and honor each other- or not.

There is no true Beauty if their is no real holiness. "Order" is not an option. There is no real Love if there is a record of wrongs.  Judging is the opposite of honor.  Idolatry is the opposite of grace.  If our language is not learned from God's naming of "Good" and "Evil", we will blame.  Blame is a lie and we will teach our children to speak the language of this world.  Dishonor is our fallen dialect.  We either teach our children to harshly wield a judge's gavel or to gently wash the dirt and thorns out of their eyes.  We can help them learn how to enforce punishment orders and build prisons, or we can help them learn how to wash with Precious Blood to heal wounds. Deliver us from Evil, Father.

God designed our homes to be wound hospitals. God knew innocence would not last in the Garden; He created families so we could care for each other in a fallen world.  At first we need help keeping our eyes clean; we have to learn to see.  We are confused and call the log in our own eye a speck in our brother's.  God knows that everything looks bigger close up.
 
"Taste and see that the Lord is good."  "Look to Me and be saved."  Good wine.  Real bread. Family meals. Wash your eyes.  Speak Truth. Living water abounds.  Thy Kingdom come, Father.

Becoming

I am redeemed...and so are you!  I want to learn to walk by faith and not by sight in relationships, too.  Let others be "new" today...give them an opportunity to demonstrate growth and be different because of their redemption, too!  Don't limit and defile others by judgements based on who they were yesterday; I am not who I used to be either.  It is difficult for me to be the new me Christ has created me to be when others limit me by expecting me to be the same weak and ignorant me that I used to be.  It is difficult for others to be the new creation Christ has  created them to be when I limit them by expecting them to be the same weak and ignorant person they used to be.  God's mercy is new every morning; God's grace makes all things new.  Equip me Father God to lend strength and offer wisdom instead of judge and criticize.  Let living water flow from me because I am following You instead of diagnosing and fixing.

Listening

We believe there is not a need we will have today - or tomorrow - that God cannot and will not satisfy.  We believe this life is not about making sure we do not need; this life is about celebrating our need and pursuing God.

The darkest nights can be the most holy of nights...if we follow God out of the tomb.  

The most deadly of perfect storms can break all the ties that keep us in the harbor and set  us free to explore the depths of God.

His provision is only His provision in His timing.  

Love and Forgiveness

The impact of the Gospel in our lives is not a ticket to heaven to keep in our back pocket.  The Gospel is not just our comfort about dying and eternal life with the Father.  The evidence of the Gospel is love and forgiveness that cannot help but flow out of us - even to our enemies.  This is not something we learn to give; we cannot muster up enough strength to love our own families much less our enemies.  We cannot believe we are to unconditionally forgive our own spouses a few times, much less all the time.  The evidence of the Gospel in our own lives is not about deciding to give  love and forgiveness; the evidence of the Gospel is by faith receiving God's love and forgiveness.  

When we receive love from God, His love flows freely from us.  When we receive forgiveness from God, His forgiveness flows freely from us.  Our own human love and forgiveness is often very hard to give away, but God's love - by its very nature - cannot be stored and saved for use at our discretion.   Living water always flows; it is never stored or stagnant.  The life of a child in the Kingdom of God is poured out wine.  

When we have trouble giving love and forgiveness, it is not because others must earn or deserve our love and forgiveness.  We have trouble giving love and forgiveness because we have not received the love and forgiveness of God.  We do not have to earn these gifts; we will never deserve them.  That is why this gift from God is called "grace".  When we have received the real thing - real love and forgiveness will pour out of us.  It poured out of Jesus.

The tragedy of the crucifixion of Christ is not that His body was broken and His blood was shed; the tragedy is when we don't drink and when we don't eat.  If we are not hungry, we are either very sick or dead.  A lack of thirst is the first sign of dehydration.  Be excited about being hungry; you are not sick and you are not dead!  If you are not thirsty (proud/self-sustaining), drink quickly and enough before you die of dehydration.

Eat His body; drink His blood.  Do this often, in remembrance of Him.  Love and forgiveness will pour from your life.