The Destination
“But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33
Until a man seeks the Kingdom of God above all else his successes are failures. Eternity with God is all that should concern humanity. The Kingdom is the epitome. The Kingdom of God is all that matters when a man dies. Yet even in death a man can miss it. Yes, there is Hell, separation from God, but the misery of Hell is nothing in comparison to the bliss of being in the presence of the Holy Lord. The Kingdom of Heaven is everything when measured beside the Kingdom of Hell. When a person finds something other than the Kingdom, he will find himself still seeking. This world will leave him confused and thirsty. But Christ does not simply say “Seek.” He says “Seek first.” Christ says this for a reason. When the Kingdom is sought first the Kingdom is found first. And when the Kingdom is found, all searching is over. The seeker is in need of nothing more. Finding the Kingdom causes everything else to appear insignificant, unnecessary, whimsical. When all is done for the sake and cause of Christ and His Kingdom there is no need to desire, value, or seek anything outside of that pursuit. If we are to seek anything before the Kingdom we are finding everything except that which we were made for.
“. . . and all of these things shall be added unto you.” When we find the Kingdom we find fulfillment and happiness. But Christ does not say “Seek first” so that we will find happiness or joy. He does not say “Seek first the Kingdom because . . .” He says “Seek first the Kingdom and . . .” This command is not a pragmatic one. It is inevitable to find happiness for it is the nature of the Kingdom to bring happiness. But the Kingdom alone is what we should seek, not the joy that comes with it. We should seek the Kingdom because it is the Kingdom. We do not worship God because He is good to us. We worship God because He is God. If this were not so we would be disappointed in Heaven, for in desiring and searching for God and Heaven a man will realize that Heaven does not exist for his own sake. The purpose of Heaven is not to escape bad things. The Kingdom is not an alternative. It is not one of the many destinations. Heaven exist as the Destination. Hell is the alternative, not Heaven.The Kingdom does not exist to bring us joy but to bring Christ glory. We are not asked to seek the Kingdom to feel better or find peace. We do not seek it for our pleasure but for God’s pleasure.
Every pursuit, action, thought, work, and effort should point to Christ and His Kingdom. We are to “Seek first” even if peace and joy were never involved. Christ says, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” To repent and turn is to leave ourselves behind. When a person sincerely understands that the Kingdom of Heaven is the greatest thing of all, he will have no trouble leaving himself behind and selling everything he owns to obtain that Kingdom. The Kingdom is all. If a man misses Heaven he has missed all. If a man has found the Kingdom he has found all. The joy, happiness, and fulfillment are the side effects of finding the Kingdom of God. But these gift sare not the reason we seek or believe. The reason is this: Christ and His Kingdom are all that is worth seeking.
The Trouble with Belief
Rarely is there an absence of noise—a time in which there are no vibrations to resonate which clear all paths to higher thinking, moving a mind toward a state of deeper reflection and rich contemplation. When there is no sound or projection to lessen the limits of the mind and measurement of thought, silence is extended to our human ears to enhance and increase the process levels of ideas and deeper intuition. Gentility and human strengths are no match for these momentary gifts, here and gone, given without command or prediction. They surface and vapor by the parts of seconds which come erupting at the mere inclination of an inhale and exhale. Atop a city building one finds this peace under the brilliant illumination of boundless neighboring stars. With the mind one can grasp so tightly the atmosphere, a mystery so heavenly strung and feathered throughout the miles, beaming darkness as powerful as the night amongst fields of lights down to the corner of our world, wrapped around by human hands and nature’s vines, and then back again to the expanse of the universe never seen or known but believed.
It is these moments, the absence of noise, that belief, true belief, a doubtless and confident knowledge of the truth is surfaced and the most tactful process of attaining and comprehending reality of where one is and what this great globe on which we walk is realized. This revelation, a spiritual epiphany, a divine realization, hardly compares to the furious swift minutes of a day in a city street. The rush of a machine, the clanking of engines, the release of steam, the throbbing pump of blood through a vein, all expose less concentration onto the elements of life that matter the most; the answers that demand questions rather than the questions that demand answers. The spiritual man will not last long in this kind of world. He is merely blinded from the supernatural world around him. Any amount of attention to a world of constant noise and movement will mute the whisper of God; His tone will distort and evaporate like the mist of morning dew against the blazing glow and heat of the sun. The calling of God will drift away and boil to another world as if it had never come to this corner of our universe. The stillness of space, the universe, the soil on which we carry ourselves is where such a faith can creep into a heart and the softest whisper of the Being, the Author of our life, can be heard and can assure the heart and stir the soul, presenting a solid form of evidence that the supernatural is at work.
When the eyes of a man’s heart stay gazed toward the soil, the material and the temporary, instead of the eternal and infinite, the supernatural naturally becomes nonexistent. A man’s days are then ruled by the everyday obstacles and insignificant troubles. The big picture is erased. A man must place his head in the clouds where he sees the landscape of life, not just the mountains but the absence of mountains; the valleys. His mind must be closer to Heaven, heavily drenched in the thinking patterns of eternity. Must earthly man stay earthly? Must his soul be buried and blind to all the miracles around him? Miracles are the moments woven between every inhale and exhale. Have we forgotten the magic found in a baby’scry? The beauty in the holding of hands? The fantasy of a family? The romance that sparks between the peanut butter and jelly on two slices of bread? The human mind has not reached the clouds, but has consequentially become too logical. Humanity has become too swift to stop and smell the roses. Stop. Be still. Know that He is God.
The Giver of Light
“. . . the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. . . For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” II Corinthians 4:4, 6
The Gospel of Jesus Christ does not need the fancy talk of mortals in order to pierce the hearts of sinners. In fact, it is the mindless chatter of humans that distorts, complicates, and hinders the way in which the light reaches the dark. The Good News of Christ is not dependant on Christians for it to find the lost or free the captive. This does not pardon believers to share with the world the Truth and the faith in the Truth, but simply emphasizes the reality that Christ will do His work despite our work and in spite of our foolishness. The Master will speak His words without the help of His servant. Our preaching does not save, only the mighty work of God. This does not excuse the Christian from proclaiming the Gospel, but makes him the second man of whom truly does the work.
The message of Redemption cannot be understood solely through earthly, human wisdom. God and His words are far bigger and far elevated over our heads to be grasped with our mere human minds. Our job is to preach the Gospel. It is Christ and His Gospel’s work to change lives. It is God who comes to us and makes Himself known. Until He shines His light on us, we are in darkness. He may use humans and human words to reveal himself, but it is He that does the work.
Our Heavenly Father transforms the sinner’s mind and makes it like the mind of His son. The sinner can then listen and understand the language of the Holy Spirit who sends the Gospel straight to the heart. The Holy Spirit is the interpreter of the Gospel to the deaf soul, and the Holy Spirit cannot be contained. No man can stand in the way of the work of the Holy Spirit. But the message of the cross is foolishness in the eyes of the world until the Holy Spirit intercedes.
The long-winded Christ-follower is regularly tempted to see the Gospel as something to be made intricate and complex, altering its content into something only the spiritually intellect, who are often pompous and bloated by their manufactured religion, can fully comprehend. But the Gospel must not be sized up nor watered down; it is not to be categorized or limited to a particular audience.The Gospel is to be left alone as it is. It is far too powerful to be limited in such ways.
While man cannot limit the work of the Father or Holy Spirit, he can limit the clarity of the Gospel when earthly wisdom clouds the message. Paul did not preach with a persuasive tone to manipulate or make Christ attractive. He did not use lofty speech when presenting the Gospel. He let the message, the content, the story, the Truth, speak for itself. Conversion is not the work of a teacher when he teaches the Scriptures. God breathes into the natural man and he becomes a spiritual man. It is only then that the man can comprehend the Gospel.
Until the Father opens a man’s eyes, Christ, the Cross, and the Grave will be foolish. All will be folly. Christ wants us to listen and trust His voice, not the voice of men. We trust ourselves and one another far too often. It is not in our hands whether the person believes or not. We are not held accountable for the sinner’s decision. We are not here to persuade them to believe the Truth by using fancy talk and attractive visuals. We are commanded to simply present theTruth. Christ is the light that shines to show the Truth.
If the ear has heard and the Spirit has moved, the blind man’s eyes will open. It is that simple. But simplicity is not the method. There is no method. The power of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit are enough. Scripture can speak for itself. The redeeming, saving, wonderful story of the suffering, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is the only road that leads the Holy Spirit to the human’s soul.
The Color of the Gospel
“Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.’ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.” Isaiah 35:4-5
“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” II Corinthians 4:3-5
Trying to explain the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the skeptic is like trying to describe a rainbow to a blind man—“an arch or mist, laden with stripes of color.” Color and light have no meaning to the man who sees darkness. To him light is an ambiguous idea in some ambiguous dimension. To see light and color is not in his nature, his genetic makeup. He cannot touch or imagine light unless it supernaturally finds its way into his sight.
The skeptic has already made the decision in his heart to reject the Truth. The Gospel is like a poison that his body cannot handle. His heart is not yet conditioned for it. The evil one, the fallen angel himself, has blinded man's eyes with the cares of this world. The fearful and anxious heart is a stone wall that separates the Savior Jesus Christ; the very image of God.
According to the unbeliever, the concept of Salvation, the depravity of man, the deity of Christ, and the atonement of the blood are muddled tales of superstition. But the reality of the Gospel, the work Christ did through the Cross and resurrection, is not only so deep in power and majesty that it cannot be understood by human wisdom, but is also skewed from the doubter’s eyes because of the obstacle made by the de-transcendent, the natural rather the supernatural. The lost soul is too busy fearing the things of this world rather than fearing God.
The spiritually blinded man cannot see Christ because he relentlessly views all things but Christ. Vanity, the obsessive pursuit of money, power, and pleasure, do not distort the face of Christ, but completely block Him from sight. The anxious soul is drawn to these temporary idols because of a desire to escape the uncertainty and unknown. People are blind to the eternal things because they are forever looking at the temporary. The eternal transcendent things are not invisible in theory. They pass us by everyday. But they are not seen because they are not searched for or looked upon. They are not looked upon because eyes are consumed by the ways of the world.
The new life of a changed soul, the new creation, is the essential evidence of Christ’s power and the reality of His work. God the Father violently consumes the sinner, “leaves the ninety-nine” and aggressively seeks and saves the one lost sheep. The bystander, the propitious soul who witnesses the transformation, is enlightened to the work of Christ. When God saves, “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped” (Isaiah 35.8). Christ’s work voids the work of Satan.
The doubting soul comes to the realization of sin and the salvation of Christ when the soul gets a glimpse of God’s wrath. The wrath strikes fear and conviction deep in the tissues of the heart and the veil is lifted from the Gospel. Christ does not hide himself from our eyes. We do not see Him because we pay too much attention to the world. The fearful and anxious heart is drained of any passion to pursue Christ.
The glorious appearance of the Gospel, the majesty of its Word, its hope and peace, shone brilliantly upon the eyes of the lost, opens the battered eyes of the dark and calloused heart, a luminous glow that cannot be ignored or unnoticed. A revelation, an epiphany of the reality in which this life and universe hold together.