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“Not Sure How Things Are In Your Kingdom”

A Christian from 50 AD walks into a bar to meets a 2019 American Christian for coffee. This is how the conversation goes.

2019 Christian: “hello brother my name is Gunther, I understand you are a Christian from the first century, I am a Christian from 2019 please tell me how things are in your churches in 50 AD.”

50AD: “my brother!!, you are a Christian, you follow the Lord? Wonderful! Well this is how a few things are in the kingdom of Jesus in 50AD. We do many things together as a community, one of the most helpful things is we do in the kingdom of Jesus that unites us is our love for Jesus himself and we routinely confess our sins one to another. “

2019 AD: “oh Well we love Kesus by singing beautiful songs about him it’s beautiful and our pastor sings great as he leads us. Here we don’t confess sin out loud per say to one another that would be embarrassing, it’s done just between us and God. “

50AD: “I’m not sure how things are in your kingdom but in the kingdom of Jesus we all take turns exalting and honoring our king.”

2019 AD: “well we have one designated guy do all the speaking, we amplify his voice with electronics and elevate him above us all sitting as an audience, he is great you should meet him his name is Pastor Roger you’d like him, you really should meet him maybe I’ll call him!”

50 AD: “Not sure how things are under your king but in the kingdom of Jesus we are all equal. We share our money one with another, we all speak, we all bring something to share, men women, children, the eloquent, the dull, rich, poor, smart, dense, we all take turns hearing our king and sharing our king. And our rich don’t get special status and favor with out king or among us.”

2019AD: “That sounds great…we tithe and the leader uses it for beautiful buildings and salaries but we do have a fund for the poor.”

2019 AD: “Only our great one shares, pastor Roger, and the tithe monies all flow through him and our volunteer professional tax accountant.”

50AD: “Not sure how things are in your kingdom but in the kingdom of Jesus we don’t compete and gossip one against another like the pagan religions do. We all cooperate with each other out of a mutual love for our king. “

2019: …awkward silence … “well if I’m honest we compete and many Christians hop from church to church throughout our lives until they find a pastor they like or who runs things like we want, but …our Pastor Roger he’s the favorite in our area, he has the largest congregation and he preaches great his congregation is growing and it’s like a revival in his meetings.“

50AD: “…silence…By the way… please don’t be upset with me but are you sure that your king is not this Pastor Roger?, I’m not sure what happened to the church after our murder in 69 AD, but can I reintroduce you to my king?”

2019 AD “Uhhh sure, but wait …let me call my pastor”

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Equal In The Kingdom

Within the kingdom of Jesus Christ there is equality, the people are on equal footing from the greatest to the least of us.

There is not dependence of the least on the great in regards to knowing the Lord. All have equal access to the Lord Jesus in his kingdom. We may need just a little discipleship in regards to seeking and hearing and being led by him. But just a little is all that is required.

“FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF I SRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS, AND I WILL WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS. AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. AND THEY SHALL NOT TEACH EVERYONE HIS FELLOW CITIZEN, AND EVERYONE HIS BROTHER, SAYING, ‘KNOW THE LORD,’ FOR ALL WILL KNOW ME, FROM THE LEAST TO THE GREATEST OF THEM. FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE.”” – Hebrews‬ ‭8:10-12‬ ‭NASB‬‬

Hearing the Lord can come natural to a real Christian. Jesus said once “My sheep hear my voice”, he meant that.

So then it implies that wherever this is not the case where the least (not so great) must depend on the great people, the talented and gifted and wealthy, upper class people.

Wherever the people from a higher religious caste are needed to guide the lower caste. Saying this is the word and will of God for you today or for this week. The extent that this is the case is the same extent to which that group is not from, or not operating within, the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The rules and norms of some other kingdom with some other king are in effect (at least partially) among that group.

It’s a real tragedy that this still happens. It seems we took a massive step backwards after the first century within Jesus Christ. We built a very pagan and worldly religious system around Jesus Christ, then called it “church”. We still do this today.

But the fact that this post and many like it are being written by a nobody in the body of Christ. Someone squarely from the least wing of the church makes me feel optimistic that Jesus is still increasing and still being heard.

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Leading Us Around

The kingdom of Jesus is like:

A people who submit to God and are being led around by him directly… from within.

The kingdom of darkness is like:

A blind group of kids led around by other people’s pressure to fit in, to compete well, to keep up, to have fun and pleasure.

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