Friday, July 16, 2010

Where is your focus?

I will say this with as much respect to Dr. Still my Greek teacher for what seemed like forever at DBU. I hope Im getting the Greek right cause it IS the crux of my entire argument. The Greek language has what is called the Future Passive Indicative tense, unlike English where we just use the Past tense of a verb. The Future Passive Infinitive of a word means that it is in the state of being. Now not to sound too much like an English teacher, I will begin.
We come across several times in Scripture this tense being used. Most notably is when John the Baptist and Jesus declare "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Now we in the western cultures view this phrase as a future tense. So we think okay we need to look forward to a grand day in the future when The Kingdom will appear. This I believe is how we get our many predictors who write such books as 88 reasons Jesus Christ is coming back in 1988. Now I am not necessarily proclaiming to know more than Hal Lindsey, the author of that book, but it is well past 1988. In fact if my calculations are right we should have those hoverboard's from Back to the Future 2 by now.
Okay so back to the phrase, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand." This is to be read in two ways in english it is what is called the "already and not yet principle." When Jesus proclaims his Kingdom he is telling us that it IS here on this earth and is not completed but it in the process of completion, much like our very salvation. Yes, we are saved but we have not been saved, so much as we are in process of being saved. Growing up in church it was always a simple God said it I believe it that settles it mentality. Until I was able to get my head around Greek phrases I did not have the full understanding of the Word as I do. This is not to say I am a scholar by any means but its amazing how understanding the Greek opens the Word up to you in marvelous ways.
When you think of salvation in these terms, you realize that we are a people in need of Savior every single day of our lives, and it brings taking up the cross daily into a whole new light. This to me helps me understand my own struggles with sin, you see I am dead to sin, or better am made dead to sin. However, I am also in the process of being saved as well as I am saved. The best way I can think to exemplify the two is that I am alive therefore I am also in the process of salvation while if I were not alive then I could say I was saved.
Now with all these major concepts somewhat put into place I go further. Heres the crux of what I am writing I think. I see us as Christians living in two manners. There are those that are looking forward to a great rapture, and then there are those regretting the past.
Essentially we are looking forward because Jesus may come anyday. In fact I believe the phrase is "Jesus, is coming soon, so look busy!!" Yes, Jesus will come back someday, but that does not absolve us from our resposibility as Christians to be living. We are to be living and working on this earth, because as it says in Revelation the entire earth is groaning for its redemption. We are to be apart of that transformation. We are to lead the lost to a Savior that will continue to love us daily, and start the process of salvation in our lives. Now, understand I am not saying that our salvation can be lost, just that it is a process and not a finished act.
The other major flaw in our Christianitan thinking is our focus on our past. I think of the scene in the Lion King when Rafiki whomps poor Simba on the head and he says "Hey!,What did you do that for?", to which Rafiki says "What?, it is in the past." Imagine if we lived in this manner too. Okay maybe not so ridiculous, but instead what we do is worry about or past sins and failures and feel this deems us unworthy to serve, unworthy to worship, unworthy to be loved by our Savior. We allow the past to interfere with our realationship with Jesus. We, become so focuse don our sins, and in turn ourselves that we miss a loving Savior that wants to use us in mighty ways.
Thus I say that when we focus on the future, or regret the past, we miss the most important part which is RIGHT NOW. I believe that the way these concepts are presented in Scripture are to point to the present. Jesus said He will come like thief in the night. The purpose of these analogies He used was not for prediction but for readiness. Jesus wants us to focus on RIGHT NOW because, RIGHT NOW someone is homeless and needs food, RIGHT NOW someone is abused and needs LOVE. RIGHT NOW someone is drowning in their own despair and needs to be LIFTED UP. RIGHT NOW there is a world that needs Jesus Christ and RIGHT NOW we can be the ones to introduce them to HIM, but not if we are too focused on the past or what may happen in the future, (besides we never got any of those cool future things promised to us anyway where are those flying cars and hoverboards? )