Ruminant Covenant - The Sin and Son Kingdoms
Messianic Advent Messages - 1999

or

Slouching toward sheephood - Going the other direction!

22 December 1999

"Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after a;; these things the Gentiles seek. Fro your heavenly Father knows that your need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Depending when you get this message it will have been delivered on the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the shortest and the darkest day of the year. The day to the best of my knowledge the Council of Nicea made for the celebration of the birth of Christ or Christmas. In medieval times it was moved to December 25th. For those in the Southern Hemisphere, it is the longest day or the one with the most light. Either way it is a great day to celebrate the coming of the light of the world, the bright morning star. Jesus Christ. What an honor to have been chosen before the beginning of the world, to help proclaim that light in the darkest places. Let us remember afresh this season, the full responsibility that entails.

Last week I had the opportunity to serve on jury duty, I got the honor of serving on the fist case selected from the jury pool. We unanimously convicted the defendant for being a jerk, but for the crime of assault, the case was not proved. In fact, it has brought some doubts about our whole criminal justice system. Be that as it may, the rest of the time I got to sit in a big room with a lot of other people and try to occupy my time. On Wednesday I finished the "Biography of James Hudson Taylor" which I mentioned I was reading last week. A various parts of the book there was mention of him either going or not being able to go to the Keswick Convention. All I really knew about Keswick was what I had heard from others. "That's where that inner light stuff got started, you have to be real careful with the emotions of those people!" or "That's where that inner light got started, if you really love the Lord you will love those people!" Since I know very little about British Christianity, I though to myself perhaps I should check more into it, just to see if get a better reading on what actually took place.

Thursday was another day just like Wednesday, spent sitting in the jury room reading. But at about 4 PM , some were in the process of being told they could go home for the week because the court did not start any new cases on Friday. I was in the pool for a case that was supposed to start late in the afternoon but it was settled just as he was in the processes of calling out the names of a group that would have to stay behind, while he dismissed the others. Friday I would be free of the incredibly hard and exhausting work or doing nothing.

Friday moring I had the opportunity to do some of the errands I figured I wouldn't be able to get to that week at all. As I was on my way home, as we were waiting for a traffic light, I motioned for a woman to get in front of me as she was exiting from an Arby's. On her rear bumper was a bumper sticker with the word "Jesus" that was visible at a long distance. Below were some other words I couldn't make out until I got real close. Those words were, "protect me from your followers!" On the back window of the car was a sticker that said "PLU Alumni" As we went our separate ways, I was forced to admit to myself, that sometimes I feel the same way as this Pacific Lutheran University grad felt.

As a side-bar, as they say in court, we do have a National Championship Football team in the Pacific Northwest. On Saturday, the "PLU Lutes" won the NCAA Division III championship by trouncing someone severely back in Virginia. Contrary to most college athletics, the PLU football team is known year in and year out for there family like atmosphere. Could it be just like a Christian college should demonstrate. This year was even more family because the head coach's grandson was the quarterback.

On my way home I decided to stop by the Union Gospel Missions Thrift Store to see if they had any treasures I could use. As I looked through the books, as I always do, there was this title that caught my eye. "The Keswick Story, The Authorized History of the Keswick Convention" published in 1964. It seems that the Lord had provided an answer to my unspoken request or was it just a chance occurrence. I found it encouraging in the forward I found, "nor would the desire. . . to hide anything, believing that as the truth is proclaimed, it can only redound to the glory of God rather than that of man, who after all is at best only a sinful and humble instrument, owing his position to the mercy and the grace of God."

Yesterday (Sunday) as I read from my "Morning and Evening" Devotional by Charles Spurgeon, I found it another one of those occurrences, that his thought for December 19th referenced the same scripture, I was planning on using for this week's message.

When I introduced the Sin and Son Kingdoms back three weeks ago I mentioned that the Son Kingdom was composed of the Spiritual pole on one end and the natural pole on the other, and through our personal openness we are to be held in tension, like the strings on a musical instrument. We don't like the tension and left to our own devices, we are drawn to one pole or the other, like iron shavings drawn to the poles of a magnet. Such are the descriptions of what I have heard as reported earlier regarding Keswick. As yet I have not finished the book, so I will withhold any comments about its context, but so far it seems to be quite truthful just as the Forward proclaims and some of the occurrences are not reported in a favorable light.

The question I want to look at this week is just what kind of light to we reflect or project, which ever be your choice, to others within the Son Kingdom and more importantly to the members of the Sin Kingdom? Now be aware that the gospel light is self draws some and causes others to be repulsed. We would all be repulsed by its light, if it were not the working of the Holy Spirit. We, by nature,love the darkness of the Kingdom of Sin and we all would be quite happy to remain there if it were not God's mercy to redeem his elect.

What I am referring to is the light really from God and His gospel, not just a common light of all sinful and fallen creation. Can anyone tell or will anyone really care? The above referenced scripture sheds some light. We are to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. In context, when we seek the "What shall we's", we are just like all the other gentiles, living in the Sin Kingdom. But unlike the Gnostic gospel, the Son Kingdom is comprised out of created stuff too, just like the Sin Kingdom. But we have the promise that as we seek the Kingdom and His righteousness, we get the stuff we need. Doesn't make a whole lot of natural sense does it. Maybe we need some inner light, or to know if God is really there. We need to know if God is real or is it just foolishness. Well if the simple little testimony above makes me one of "those" I stand guilty. But I also know there will come times, when "This little light of mine, doesn't shine? Oh, God how dark it can be sometimes. Now I will have to say at those times I have to agree with the bumper sticker. Jesus, protect me from Job's friends. Because they are so self-righteous, they are really not covered under God's righteousness and neither are their works. They have imputed to themselves there own righteousness and God is not in it.

Now we all do that to the some extent, the problem is in many cases when the self light goes out many disappear from the religious scene never to be heard again. That is truly sad, because if they had been given a little natural doctrine they would know that this part of God's refining process, they are being judged by their self righteous nature which must be purged out, but no one has ever told them, that it is Christ's righteousness that makes us clean, before God the Father, again it is Christ's sanctification that makes our works again Holy.

On the other side it is just as true that natural doctrine can be dark and without gospel light, emotion, or love on its own even though it truly states the gospel facts. Presented without the love of God that sent His only Son into this world, this again is a light of self. That is why the tension is so important between "our know it all" and "feel it all" natures. Asking God through prayer and through His Word on an individual basis to create that tension in each of us is the first important step in seeking the Son Kingdom.

Self righteousness, or corporately legalism, natural or spiritual, is just a form of sin. It truly comes from those who's vision of God has been hampered by the exaltation of self. They truly believe they can be like God and the serpent, knowing right from wrong. They interpret light either by only what they feel or what they see and in doing so loose one of the gifts of God's Spirit, which is discernment. This through individual and corporate bodies leads to the throne of Ichabod, for God is no longer there. They then try to maintain the sham by other works and bureaucracy. But God will not be mocked and over time the true light of this Christmas season again will be seen in this world and His light will attract His adopted children.

Every human being is a unique creation by God, genetically or naturally and spiritually. To seek the kingdom God the next is to be who we really are. To use our gifts and talents to bring Glory to God. This can be done in virtually any legal walk of life, as long as our focus is upon God's kingdom and not our own. When we worry about the stuff, the stuff and ourselves mount the throne of our lives and we again are asking for a fall. But over time we find that while our faith exposure increase, our knowledge of God and his ability to make all things work for good, allows us to trust more and thereby further God's kingdom or the Son Kingdom to God's Glory and not our own. We are no longer sloughing toward sheephood but are going in the other direction.

PRAYER PLANTS

Well the where with all I emailed concerning the property near Pullman, last week ended with air with all. If I had the means to bring it about in my own strength I surly would. But that is part of my makeup, perhaps it has come as trying to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, He won't let me do it my way. So there are some things I have need of, which I think are my part of the Kingdom of God, so I must wait for them to come, which to me is so very, very difficult. It was like that time of waiting in the jury room last week was so incredibly tiring to me. Please pray for grace to be able to show the Lord's Glory and not any I seek for my self.

For some reason this year, looking specifically at this Advent series on sin and the son. As morbid as it has seemed at times, it has very much encouraged me by the grace of God I have been shown and also that when I seem to have lost the light either internally or as to a natural path, I do know at this time that Eternal Light that has shown to God's covenant people throughout time. In that light we are never alone, in this time and space or throughout the whole continuum of past to future. What an incredible free Gift we have received and what a reason to celebrate this season.

Hark the glad sound! the Savior comes, The Savior promised long:
Let every hear prepare a throne, And every voice a song.

He comes, the prisoner to release, In Satan's bondage held;
The gates of brass before him burst, The iron fetters yield.

He come, the broken hear to bind, The bleeding soul to cure,
And with the treasures of His grace To bless the humble poor.

Our glad Hosanna, Prince of Peace, Thy welcome shall proclaim,
And heavens's eternal arches ring With Thy beloved name.

P Doddridge, 1735