WARNING PREACHY…
Matthew 6:10
“…your kingdom
come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
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“Is
grandpa going to be in heaven someday?” a child asked his mother.
“Certainly,”
the child’s mother replied, “why do you ask?”
“No reason,
I was just thinking that I hoped he wouldn’t be.”
Shocked,
the mother asked her son why he didn’t want his grandpa in heaven.
The boy
replied, “If
he sees us there, I am sure he will say, as he does now,—'What are these boys
doing here? Let them get out of the way.' He doesn’t like to see us on earth,
and I suppose he would not like to see us in heaven."[1]
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This story
got me to thinking about who do I know that acts like they would be
inconvenienced if I were to be in their heaven when I get there. I admit that I cannot think of any who would
be inconvenienced because those people don’t really expect that I will be there
to begin with. Why? I don’t know, I guess I don’t think like they
think or act like they act. Maybe I’m
not using the correct version of the Bible or don’t consider sacred what they
consider sacred. No, I really can’t
think of anyone who will be inconvenienced by my entrance into their heaven
because their heaven is not what I’m shooting for anyway; rather I’m shooting
for God’s heaven through Jesus Christ.
On the
flip side, when I read this story it also gets me to thinking about whom I don’t want to see in my heaven. As I consider this thought I realize there
aren’t many people that I don’t want to see in heaven but I admit that there
are plenty of people that I don’t really care if I see in heaven or not.
As a minister I’m afraid that I have become a little calloused through the years, I’ve gotten tired of people arguing against faith in Jesus so I simply have stopped trying to convince them, in many ways I’ve plain stopped caring. I suspect my ability to stop caring is a protection-mechanism which I developed in my youth in order to cope with things that cause me angst. I have the ability to stop caring for situations and people which/who matter and I recognize that this ability has negatively impacted many of my key relationships in life as well as having stunted my effectiveness as a minister of the Gospel.
As a minister I’m afraid that I have become a little calloused through the years, I’ve gotten tired of people arguing against faith in Jesus so I simply have stopped trying to convince them, in many ways I’ve plain stopped caring. I suspect my ability to stop caring is a protection-mechanism which I developed in my youth in order to cope with things that cause me angst. I have the ability to stop caring for situations and people which/who matter and I recognize that this ability has negatively impacted many of my key relationships in life as well as having stunted my effectiveness as a minister of the Gospel.
Because of
this I’m convicted to ask God to change my attitude to one that honors Him in
this.
As it is
now my actions seem to demonstrate that I do not love the people whom Jesus broke
His body and shed His blood for on the Cross.
His “on earth as it is in heaven” was to demonstrate self-denial in
order that mankind would have a restored relationship with the Father. He wasn’t concerned with their eternal
destiny (though it was certainly part of it) as much as He was concerned with
their everyday faith and relationship with the Father which art in Heaven right
now.
I’ve been
doing a lot of studying about the Holiness of God as of late and one thing I
have determined as absolutely true is that because God is Holy and my not
caring about what He cares for is to dishonor His Holy Name. If I am really going to honor God and bring
Glory to Him I need to become zealous for what He is zealous for; and that’s
the people who Jesus sweated bullets for.
As a Christian,
I need my “on earth as it is in heaven” to become the reality for my Christian
life now so that I can pray as just Jesus taught me to pray.
[1] Adapted
from J.C. Ryle’s Practical Religion, Chapter 7 – Charity, page 180. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38162/38162-h/38162-h.htm#VII
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