Chapter 43. Are you ready for the kingdom life? The hour will come when you shall desire one day, yes, one hour, for the amendments of your life, and I know not whether you will obtain it. Thomas à Kempis. His children are not his real, true sons and daughters until they think like him, feel with him, judge as he judges, are at home with him, and without fear before him because he and they mean the same thing, love the same things, seek the same ends. George MacDonald.
In 281 BC, the Greek king Pyrrhus decided to invade Italy, put down the upstart Roman power, and carve out an empire for himself. His chief advisor, a man named Cineas, asked him what he intended to do once all of that was done. "Why, we will then live the rest of our lives in ease," Pyrrhus replied.
"We will enjoy ourselves and have good times with our friends." Cineas then astutely asked, "Why then, Your Majesty, don't we simply do that now, live in ease and enjoy ourselves?" We should all ask ourselves a similar question: What do we look forward to doing in eternity? I can't answer for you, but I'm looking forward to being in the presence of God, worshiping him, praising him, obeying him, and doing whatever heavenly work Christ has in mind for me. Perhaps you would answer similarly.
Why then don't we simply do that now? Ready, aim, surrender. You and I have traveled quite a ways together since the account of the missionary traveling in Tibet. He unwittingly saved his life by putting love above his own interests. As Jesus says, "Whoever desires to save his life will lose it; whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Matthew 16:25. Do we have the faith to completely lose ourselves in Christ Jesus? We're not talking about artificial surrender, but the real thing.
We're talking about living the kingdom life that thousands of Christian pilgrims have lived before us. As missionary E. Stanley Jones puts it, "The moment of the great choice has come, a decision that will decide all other decisions down the line." A master decision. Our one solemn commitment to live the kingdom life will determine what choices we make for the rest of our lives. A.W.
Tozer expressed it this way, "I would emphasize this one committal, this one great volitional act which establishes the heart's intention to gaze forever upon Jesus." John Wesley made such a commitment as a young man. He wrote in his journal, "Instantly, I resolved to dedicate all my life to God, all my thoughts, words, and actions, so that every part of my life, not some only, would be a sacrifice to God." The rest is history. We've discussed the secrets of the kingdom life. So what's the next step?
If you're willing, the next step is to make a formal commitment to God to live such a life. Obviously, just making a commitment to God isn't in itself going to radically change any of us, but it's important to communicate to God our intentions. Surely none of us will live the kingdom life unless we deliberately commit to do so and unless we receive God's blessings and power. The joyous commitment. Exactly what kind of commitment should we make?
Various spiritual writers through the centuries have described the needed commitment in different ways. William Law describes it in this manner, "Let it now be a rule of your life to look up to God in all your actions, to do everything in his fear, and to abstain from everything that is not according to his will.
It must be the settled purpose and intention of your heart to will nothing, design nothing, do nothing, except so far as you have reason to believe that it is the will of God that you should so desire, design, and do. You are therefore to consider yourself as a person who has no other business in the world but to be that which God requires you to be." Samuel Logan Brengle describes it as making a commitment to live each day as though you were going to die that evening.
If you knew you had to die at sunset tonight, what would you do? You would give yourself to God. If you had any grudges against any of your neighbors, you would give them up, and if you had the opportunity, you would ask them to forgive you for hating them, even though they had wronged you or some of your friends. You would not stop to think how they would treat you. You would not care. You would feel it your business to get right, and you would leave them with God.
If you had robbed any man, you would try to restore to him what was his. If you had any selfish plans or ambitions, they would sink into molehills before the mighty mountains of eternity, and you would give them up quickly. Francis of Sales describes the commitment in these words, "From here on, God will be the sole object of your thoughts. No more will you give your mind to ideas that are displeasing to God.
All the days of your life you will dwell upon the greatness of his goodness so lovingly poured out upon you. You have forsaken, rejected, detested, and renounced all willful sin forever. You have dedicated and consecrated your heart, body, and soul with everything pertaining to them, to the service and love of God. You should often repeat to yourself with heart and voice these words, 'I am not my own. Whether I live or whether I die, I am the Lord's. There is no longer any me or mine. Rather, my me is Jesus.
My mine is his.'" Don't make the commitment lightly. Those are lofty goals indeed. And since this is such a major commitment, it is not something to make rashly. Too many Christians have fallen into the habits of hastily making promises and commitments to God, perhaps while under the conviction of fiery preaching, that they soon forget. No commitment to God should ever be made lightly or in a momentary emotional rush.
However, if God has brought you to the point where you're ready to embrace the kingdom life, I encourage you to make the commitment. You might want to use the language of the spiritual writers I quoted above, or you might want to compose your own, or you can use the suggested one below. Father, from hereafter, I want to love you with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength. I want to love my neighbor as myself. I want my life to be fully hidden in that of your Son.
It is the intention of my heart to will nothing and to do nothing unless it is in accordance with your will. I know that without Christ I can do nothing, but that with him I can do all things. Father, I want to live the kingdom life, a life where I seek first your kingdom in all I do. I want to love each and every commandment you've given. Please give me the power to live this life. I commit to you that, with your help, I will deny myself daily and give my life wholly to you.
Yet, Father, I know that as a descendant of Adam, I will stumble many times in this endeavor. When that happens, with your help, I will pick myself up, repent, and continue on living a life surrendered to you. In Jesus' name, Amen. The Potion in the Bottle. Leonard Schiemer, 1527. The ungodly are saying that we drink something out of a bottle, and the devil himself has no idea what is in that bottle. They say whoever drinks from the bottle isn't happy with ordinary life anymore.
He acts differently and has no concern for money or life. Well, you people without God, I want to explain it to you. I will let you call it a bottle, and it is true the devil doesn't know what is in that bottle. And it is true that whoever drinks from that bottle becomes a different person. The drink in this bottle is simply the smashed, beaten, ground-up, and troubled heart, crushed by the mortar called the cross.
Yes, it is such a powerful bottle to drink from that whenever someone drinks of it, he becomes another person, and his neighbors take notice. Leonard Schiemer was an early Anabaptist leader who died for his faith a few months after writing the passage above.