KINGDOM TALK

I skipped writing last night because I wanted to get to bed "early" - 10:15 pm. 

In general, I am starting to recall that I would feel a lot better if I had a more regular bedtime routine at an earlier hour.

Unfortunately, I woke up at 2:45 am, so it didn't necessarily help. I will try again tonight!

Anyway - Now it is 5 am and I am still ruminating on Dallas Willard's words in The Divine Conspiracy. I am resonating with his observations about the lack of a proper preaching focus in the American church. 

What important topic is lacking, according to Willard?

The very thing that Jesus Himself focused on: the Kingdom of God.

Speaking of the sort of vibrant life which disciples of Christ ought to be living, Willard writes:

"This cannot come about unless what Jesus himself believed practiced, and taught makes sense to us." (Emphasis in original, p. 59)

(THERE is the need for proper teaching. The gospel has to be explained in a way as to make sense to believers. You can't "live out" something which is muddled in your own head.)

"And [Jesus'] message must come to us free of the deadening legalisms, political sloganeering, and dogmatic traditionalisms long proven by history to be soul-crushing dead ends."

(Amen! All three of these continue to be issues within the church today.)

"Obviously it does not so come to us now, and this is a fact widely recognized." 

"At the 1974 Lausanne Conference on World Evangelization, Michael Green asked rhetorically, 'How much have you heard here about the Kingdom of God?' His answer was, 'Not much. It is not our language. But it was Jesus' prime concern.'"

(Yes! Why have we latched on to a phrase used once in one gospel (John) - "born again" - and completely skimmed over "Kingdom of God" and "Kingdom of Heaven", which are used repeatedly throughout the gospels?)

"Dr. I. Howard Marshall of the University of Aberdeen has commented, 'During the past sixteen years I can recollect only two occasions on which I have heard sermons specifically devoted to the theme of the Kingdom of God. ... I find this silence rather surprising because it is universally agreed by New Testament scholars that the central theme of the teaching of Jesus was the Kingdom of God.'" (p.59)

How has this happened? 

How does it get reversed?