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.”
Explore Other Topics
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.
Remember — Lucifer’s goal is to interfere with our Kingdom influence because it will accelerate his ultimate condemnation. Believe it or not, every Christian has a vital purpose in the Lord’s strategic plans. He is eager to see His kingdom grow and His influence reach into new territories. Lucifer is
About 60 times, the Bible uses the term “inherit” and about 190 times it mentions “inheritance”. That’s pretty significant. The topic immediately reminds us of what an older, loving family member leaves to the children in a will. When God uses those words, He wants us to take them seriously.
In Part 2 of this Kingdom Economics series, I dug a theoretical foundation but didn’t supply the blueprint. I hope to clarify any remaining uncertainty with this piece.
1. NO OVERLAY — First, I am not suggesting or asserting that our earthly economic systems should be converted to a Christian
Judicial standing is the legal right of one party to accuse another of potential (or actual) harm. To have “standing” in a court of law, one party must demonstrate a personal stake in the issue at hand. Before Jesus’ death, Satan had legal access to stand before the Lord in
Some people come to believe in God because they acknowledge their capacity and desire for worship. They realize that mankind is ‘overengineered’ for this world, capable of vision-casting, innovation and harnessing natural resources for the greater good. They sense a presence of love, from others and toward others, that cannot
