Tuesday, April 17, 2007

what if

I don't remember where I got this. If you wrote it, good job.
What if Jesus didn’t come to start a new religion but a spiritual revolution?

What if the revolution is now, and we understood the kingdom is at hand?

What if the manifesto of that kingdom were the Beatitudes?

What if when Jesus said blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, and the peacemakers ...he really meant that?

What if we took literally His kingdom is not of this world or it's system?

What if every one of our political views were challenged by this carpenter?

What if the real enemy isn’t Rome, the Democrats, or Iran but evil?

What if instead of focusing on political parties we prayed "thy Kingdom come"?

What if we refrained from political rhetoric long enough to pray "deliver us from evil"?

What if the mission of the Church was primarily to declare "Jesus is Lord"?

What if then we weren’t focused on evacuating the world but inundating the world with the Gospel?

What if we understood the Gospel means the Kingdom of God is available to all? ...Beginning with the least?

What if the Gospel meant more than staying out of hell?

What if the Gospel means we are to love our enemies, deny ourselves, and give to the poor?

What if our mission is to be the friend of sinners even while walking in holiness?

What if there was less focus on converting and more on conversing?

What if we opened up the borders of the Kingdom by doing this?

What if Jesus’ parables, which always includes hiddenness and surprises, were told to make a specific point?

And what if that point was if you thought you had it all figured out... think again?

What if parable of the prodigal was to tell us "there is a party going on with all the wrong people attending it, and this is what you look like if your refusing to join in. God’s kingdom is happening right under your noses and you can’t see it. What’s more, if you don’t watch out you will find yourself outside the that door, missing the party"

What if too many of today’s religious leaders are among the last to get the message of Jesus and the first to reduce, distort, and oppress it as they did in Jesus' day?

What if Jesus' message was just as much part of His mission as death, burial, and resurrection?

What if His message had practical implications for such issues as how you live your daily life, how you earn and spend money, how you treat people?

What if Jesus' miracles weren't in themselves the point but signs that this was an invasion of a different kind of kingdom?

What if the invasion is one of kindness and compassion rather then force and aggression?

What if the outcasts, the sick, and those that can't see clearly are the point of the Kingdom?

What if the message of Jesus was good news, not just for Christians but also for Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, New Agers, agnostics, and atheists?

What if the message of Jesus also contained warnings, for Jews Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, agnostics, atheists, and Christians too?

What if the Bible is not a book that is primarily how to get to the right destination after this life?

What if the purpose of the Bible is to equip God's people to work in God's world?

What if the primary evidence of God's Spirit in our lives was love?

What if we really believed that law if fulfilled in love, love is the greatest?


update... thanks Mike Macon for pointing out where I got this. HT: Peter-John Courson

2 comments:

mike macon said...

It was Peter-John Courson in his (now apparently defunct) IntoTruth blog.

Bryonm said...

ah, yes.