Monday Musings - King

I apologize for being a rather spastic blogger this past week.  Between traveling from Colorado, spending time with Ashley and James and then traveling to see Heather and Cooper - it has been a little hectic!  Spending time with my girls and their guys is my favorite thing!  I have loved it.  Even during these hectic times - God gives me messages that cause me to pause and to think.  This Sunday was one of those times.  I went to Ashley and James' church and heard a speaker that I really enjoyed and learned from.  His thoughts sparked my thoughts as I continued to ponder what I had heard.  Here is some of those thoughts that the Lord impressed upon me.

Vision is always impacted by two fundamental desires:  our desire to be significant and our desire to be comfortable.  I squirmed a bit when he said this - but I know that it is often true.  We talk a lot about getting out of our comfort zone - but I believe we spend very little time doing it!  We all like to think that we make a difference - that our life is significant.  And -- it is.  Our significance comes from our identity in Christ and yet we are often searching for ways to make ourselves seem more significant and that gets expressed in what we do.  We have a vision for our life - for our work - for our family and for ourselves.

Here is a huge difference -- God has one vision.  It is to redeem and restore all of Creation through His Kingdom.  To transform reality until it is exactly how He intended it to be.

I guess the real question is - 

are we going to pursue our vision or His vision?

Every kingdom has a King - the Kingdom of God is no exception.  We Americans do not like Kings - we fought for our independence from a King.  We don't like to be told what to do and we do not like to owe our all to a King - to be under his Lordship.

This makes it very hard to be a part of God's vision.  He is KING - we are not.  We must grasp that before we can even take baby steps in the right direction.

When you look at scripture, Jesus was really a very likeable guy.  People enjoyed hanging out with him.  He was the life of the party a time or two.  He walked on water.  He healed the sick.  He was a friend to sinners.  He was a great teacher.  Everyone (well, almost everyone) enjoyed His teaching.

It was the KING JESUS that caused such problems.

Even today, we hear very popular and influential people talk about Jesus being a good man, our friend, a prophet or a great example to follow.  Those sound like nice words - but they completely miss the point.

We didn't need a kind, good, well spoken, good buddy Jesus.  We needed a Savior.  For Jesus to be Savior - He had to also be KING.  Teacher Jesus was not the one that everyone wanted to crucify - it was Jesus -- King of the Jews.

*It made me pause and think - am I representing all of Jesus when I share Him with others? 
*When I lead Bible studies - do I gloss over hard passages that make people feel uncomfortable? 
*Is it about my comfort or is it about Jesus? 
*Have I allowed the Bible to become about principles to live by and promises that I can claim - or do I recognize it as the story of my KING?

God does not need us to join Him in this vision that He has.  He is perfectly capable of accomplishing it without us.  But . . . He invites us to join in and have the experience of a lifetime being a part of the greatest story ever told.

How is your vision these days?  Is it about you - or is it about Him?  How does this look in your own life?  Are you searching for significance and comfort - or are you up for the greatest adventure that you can imagine?

In the words of one of my favorite Young Life songs - I'll close with this:

King Jesus is All
My All in All
And I know that He'll answer
Me when I call
Walkin' by my side
I'm satisfied
King Jesus is all
My all and all