In ancient mythology, Ulysses needed to navigate the passageway between Italy and Sicily, the strait guarded by two deadly, intimidating threats — Scylla and Charybdis. On the one side lay rocky shoals — certain to rip the hull out of one’s ship. These rocks were guarded by a terrible, six-headed dragon determined to eat anyone alive who wandered within its reach. On the other side lay a vicious whirlpool from which a ship would never escape. You can sense the immense risk of danger to the ship in this picture.
In the Kingdom of Heaven, we need to navigate between two similar dangers. One is presumptuous faith, which expects to bring nothing to the altar, simply waiting on the Lord to provide. Folks holding this belief need to consider James’ admonition: “Faith without works is dead.” (James 2:26)
The other dangerous belief is performance-orientation which relies on man’s productive capability to earn points on a heavenly scorecard. People in this group should consider Jesus’ reply to Phillip: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father…the Father who dwells in Me does the works.” (John 14:10) The Son of God is telling Phillip that He waits to hear from His Father before taking action. In fact, He despises anyone displaying iniquity – a self-willed approach to spiritual activity.
How does one navigate this narrow passageway of Kingdom life, avoiding presumption and willfulness? Preliminary answers are found in John 5:19 (the Son of Man does nothing of His own accord), Matthew 7:21 (many will come in that day…), Matthew 13:8 (30, 60, 100x return), the Feeding the 5,000 parable, Matthew 5:3 (blessed are the poor in spirit) and other great passages. Start your own research and document your insights, for God has said: “You will find Me if you search for Me with your whole heart.”
Share
Explore Other Topics
Mankind has an insatiable hunger for discovery. We delight in scientific and technological advances. The microchip has democratized access to information in the last few decades, ushering in a knowledge revolution unseen since Gutenberg’s printing press in the 1430s. Concepts may now be conceived, tested, revised, discarded and implemented in
Authentic believers in the Lord Jesus would never assume your morals are beneath theirs. Intolerant religious people certainly might, but they are more interested in you following their narrow-minded theological rulebook than in having you receive the unconditional love of God.
In this era man has rapidly transferred his allegiance and devotion away from God and toward himself. As in Babel, Sodom, ancient Israel, and ancient Greece, man has begun afresh to worship his own image. In a fit of narcissism, he has displaced the living God as the central focus
Friends of mine have proposed and defended the theory that capitalism is the economic system which best manifests God’s Kingdom on Earth. Although it’s certainly an excellent wealth-producing mechanism when the playing field remains level, I believe that capitalism is NOT the best we can do. It is certainly an
One of my Pastor buddies sang an acapella version of the hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness” at a luncheon we attended. It was a magnificent performance which stirred my soul. The Lord prompted me to concentrate on these lyrics: “All I have needed thy hand has provided.” Those words are
In our previous journal article {Ten Ways That God “Speaks,” Part 1} on this subject we learned four of the ten ways that the Lord speaks to His people. They included:
