El Reino de Amor

So which Kingdom do you want? Have you ever thought about that really hard--- or analyzed your motives? A couple of weeks ago one of our interns had a great word about our motives. The word, not verbatim here, was "Do I want to go on a treasure hunt (see my last post) because I just want to see something cool happen like a miracle, or do I want to go because I have the Father's love for that person?" I think this is a great point, what do we really want? What are we really after? Do I really want to say "Thy Kingdom come..."? Or do I want to push my own agenda and manipulate the situation as I think it should be? These are hard questions, but I think we need to ask them. I think the intern's word raises a couple of points the first being these questions, the second being the real core of the issue: Kingdom Work.

Have you ever heard the phrase "Kingdom Work"? It like just by reading the phrase we hear some type of heavenly bell sound out and have thoughts of angelic praise. Or maybe you have to read the phrase in some type of deep, stern, and authoritative voice to make it seem important and worthy of a life-calling. Or maybe neither of the two happen and I am just crazy--- probably this one. Often we equate "Kingdom Work" as us doing something, i.e. discipleship, helping the poor, evangelism, etc... but seldom do we equate "Kingdom Work" with love. The great loss is here as "Kingdom Work" is not rooted in all these things the Father calls us to do, it is rooted in a love relationship with Him. There is another word/phrase for "Kingdom Work" that isn't rooted in this love relationship---- Religion. Religion is the end result of uprooted "Kingdom Work".

In the book of Ezekiel chapter 16 (something we studied for a few weeks with the interns) you find a very interesting allegory the Lord gives to the nation of Israel. There is the picture of a newborn baby left for dead, a young woman who is at an age for love and who is taken into intimate relationship with her lover, a queen who rose with the adornment of the finest of things so that her beauty would be her king's fame among the nations, and a whore. You might be thinking, that is the most random or oddly combined group of people to be in one chapter. But if you read chapter 16 you will learn that it isn't several different people but the same person, it is the story of what the Lord has done for His people (in context: Israel). He drew her out of death, established her so that she would flourish and be formed into a great beauty, took her as his intimate lover, and made her the beauty of the nations. We can understand this as what He has done for us as well. The point being He has drawn us into this very real and very intimate relationship with him that the beauty He has placed on us may be known throughout the nations, "And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD." This is His Kingdom Work not rooted in the things that bring beauty (revelation) to the nations, but deeply rooted in love relationship.

So back to the intern's question/word. What do we really want? Are we rooted in the "beauty" or in "love"? In John chapter 15 Christ says, "Just as the Father has loved me, so I have love you. Abide in my love." This is where He desires us, deeply rooted (or abiding in, remaining) in love with Him---- His lover, His bride, His church belonging to no other. Israel didn't do this in chapter 16 of Ezekiel, for this reason the Lord gave the allegory of the whore as she chased after all the other lovers of her heart. I don't want to become the whore, I want to be His lover who has no eye for anyone else. I want to be about His Kingdom Work, a Kingdom of Love. What do you want?