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Dear
Friends,
Today, I want to share with you on the theme of
the kingdom of God. I do this in one sense as
a follow-up to our recent Renovaré Perspective,
but even more importantly as a way of preparing
for our Houston Conference where we will deal
substantively with the theme of the kingdom of
God. (I do hope you are coming to Houston June
30-July 3. If you cannot be there, we will miss
you, but, of course, God will be with you right
where you are and will guide you into increasing
life and joy in the kingdom of God.) In this pastoral
letter let me be a bit autobiographical, tracing
my early journey in trying to understand the kingdom
of God.
Hungry For God. As a teenager I was hungry
for God. More than any other thing I wanted God
and I began seeking after the kingdom of God.
In my seeking I would come upon passages like
Matthew 11:2, "The kingdom of God is coming violently
and the violent take it by force." Now, I did
not fully understand that passage, but, even so,
I became a "violent person," violent in the sense
that I would not let anything stop me from seeking
after the kingdom of God. Like Jesus taught I
was prepared to sell everything I had to get the
kingdom of God. So I would ask everyone I knew:
-
What is the kingdom of God?
- Where
is the kingdom of God?
- How
do I enter the kingdom of God?
I
kept looking for someone, anyone to teach me about
the kingdom of God, but I could find no one .
. . no one. In those years I couldn't even find
any books that would teach me about the kingdom
of God. . . . Well, I did find one book—Bonhoeffer's
Cost of Discipleship—and as a teenager
I clung to it like a drowning person clings to
a life preserver. I read that book ragged, for
it spoke to me about life in the kingdom of God.
Beyond that single book, however, I found little
to help me. But I kept on seeking, seeking, seeking,
and in time I learned some things about the kingdom
of God. Let me share with you some of those early
"openings onto truth."
Salvation As Life In the Kingdom Of God.
The first insight I received was that Jesus and
his first apostles were preaching a salvation
that is different from the kind of salvation that
is preached today. They were talking about life
in the kingdom of God, and they were speaking
of it as a present reality. For them the "age
to come" had been catapulted back into human history,
and they lived in the life and power of the kingdom
of God, and, indeed, as we are to live now. Now,
I know that there is a future dimension to the
kingdom of God in its final consummation when
Christ returns, but the stress of the apostolic
message is always upon the kingdom as a present
reality manifest in our midst.
Now,
once this idea was opened to me, I saw the whole
of Scripture saturated with it. "The kingdom of
God is at hand." "The kingdom of God is in your
midst." "The kingdom of God has come nigh unto
you." "The kingdom of God is within you." And
on and on.
This became a precious reality to me as a young
teenager, and it contrasted dramatically with
the kind of salvation I heard preached all around
me. That salvation spoke only of mental assent
to certain beliefs, perhaps reciting an enclosed
prayer—all of which somehow tripped the celestial
lever and I would be guaranteed heaven when I
died. I saw that such teaching offered me little
more than a "fire insurance policy," an easy ticket
to heaven, but it said nothing about my living
here and now.
To
be sure, heaven is an important matter. And Jesus'
teaching on the kingdom of God most certainly
includes heaven. But the stress of Jesus is always
upon the kingdom as a present reality, so that
death simply becomes a transition from the life
that we are experiencing now to the greater LIFE
that we shall experience.
In
this sense faith in Christ and life in his way
is almost entirely this worldly. You see, heaven
is not a goal; heaven is a destination. The goal
for the Christian is life in the kingdom of God.
It means being taken over by a new life and power
outside ourselves. It is the transformation of
the inward personality and life under God.
Obedience
In the Kingdom. A second opening that came
to me during those early days was that this is
not some warm, cozy club, but life in a "kingdom"
(or "queendom" if you prefer). In the kingdom
of God there is a sovereign ruler and he is obeyed.
Indeed, the kingdom of God means simply the reign
or government of God; it is the place where what
God says is done. This is no smorgasbord spirituality,
no pick and choose faith. It is not even a participatory
democracy in which I cast my vote on how I should
live. For example, God's description of the best
possible way to live—we call it the Ten Commandments—is
not something I can take or leave if I want. Nor
can I opt for only Commandments Six and Nine and
leave the rest. It is to be obeyed—all of it.
God is in charge and what he says goes.
Some
today like to refer to the kingdom of God as a
"kin-dom," emphasizing Jesus as our friend. True,
Jesus is our Friend—the very best—but he is only
our Friend if he is first and foremost our Lord.
Jesus himself makes this unmistakably clear when
he says, "You are my friends if you do what I
command you" (John 15:14). We know Jesus as Lord
in order to be in a position to experience him
as Friend.
This point is powerfully illustrated by an experience
in the life of Dr. Graham Scroggie, one of the
great orators of a past generation. Dr. Scroggie
was speaking at one of the great Keswick Conventions
in London on the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And
he spoke as only the great orators of another
generation could speak: his logic compelling,
his rhetoric magnetic, his dramatic appeal masterful.
He finished that marvelous address on "Christ,
the Lord," and, after the throngs had left, he
noticed a young college student in the center
of the vast auditorium all alone. He went to her
and asked if he could help.
"Oh,
Dr. Scroggie," she blurted out, "your message
was so compelling. But I'm afraid . . . I'm afraid
that if I see Christ as Lord that it will mean
changes in me that I don't want. He may ask me
to do things that I'm afraid to do."
Wisely
Graham Scroggie turned in his Bible to the tenth
chapter of the book of Acts, to the story of Peter
in the upper room of Simon, a tanner, in the city
of Joppa. There God gave Peter a tri-fold vision
of a great sheet coming down from heaven filled
with animals unclean to Jewish religious tradition.
Three times God said to Peter, "Rise, Peter, kill
and eat." And three times Peter responded, "No,
Lord!"
Looking
directly into her eyes, Dr. Scroggie said calmly,
"You know, it is possible to say ‘no' and it is
possible to say ‘Lord' but it is not really possible
to say ‘no, Lord'." He added, "Here is my Bible
and a pen. I'm going into another room and pray
for you, and I want you to take this pen and strike
out either the word ‘no' or the word ‘Lord'."
He did this, and when he sensed that the matter
had been settled, he reentered the auditorium
and slipped up behind her. She did not know he
was there. She was weeping quietly and tears were
falling on his Bible. Leaning over her shoulder
he saw the word ‘no' crossed out and she was whispering
over and over, "He's Lord, He's Lord, He's Lord."
The
Kingdom In Mystery Form. My new understanding
of the importance of obedience to God dovetailed
perfectly into a third insight that came to me
in those early days so long ago now. That insight
was the fact that the kingdom comes to us in mystery
form—not mystery in the sense of "strange," but
mystery in the sense of hidden. God just took
the kingdom and tucked it away.
Now,
I have often wondered why God did this. Why did
God hide the kingdom from people? Why, for example,
did Jesus expressly say that he spoke in parables
for the purpose of hiding the truth from people;
"The reason I speak to them in parables is that
‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they
do not listen, nor do they understand.' . . .
‘For this people's heart has grown dull . . .
so that they might not look with their eyes, and
listen with their ears, and understand with their
heart and turn'" (Matt. 13:13).
God, you see, hid the kingdom because he wants
us to seek it—"Seek first the kingdom of God .
. . ." God desires that we desire him. He wants
within us an inward disposition of heart to turn
toward him. When Jesus said that "hearing people
will not hear and seeing they will not see," he
was underscoring the fact that often people simply
do not hear or see to the point that they will
turn, that they will change their behavior. Their
hearts are not prepared to turn.
What
would you do if I told you that the sheet of paper
you are now reading will explode with a blinding
flash in five seconds? . . . Didn't you hear me?!
Oh, you heard me all right, but you didn't hear
me to the point that it changed your behavior.
You knew, of course, that I was not serious about
the paper exploding, but I am deadly serious when
I say to you that change is the key. We are to
hear Christ to the point that it will change our
behavior. This is why God wants us to seek him.
Then I understood: The kingdom of God is veiled
to us because God does not want us to see or understand
until we have an inward heart disposition toward
God. Without this inward heart disposition
the knowledge and power of the kingdom will hurt
us rather than help us. It is only when we desire
God with all our heart that we can be trusted
with the life of the kingdom of God.
The moment I grasped this idea I cried out, "Oh
God, give me an inward heart disposition toward
you; search my heart, change my heart, win my
heart, rule my heart, so that I may ever desire
you."
Power
In the Kingdom. Then, as I studied and prayed
and sought after God, I received a fourth insight
that became very important to me, though also
very troublesome. I came across passages of Scripture
like 1 Corinthians 4:19, "For the kingdom of God
does not consist in talk but power." Slowly I
began to see that life in the kingdom of God is
somehow intricately connected with this thing
called power. I would read, for example, that
Jesus "went throughout Galilee, teaching in their
synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the
kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness
among the people" (Matt. 4:23).
What
I began to see—slowly, very slowly for I actually
did not welcome this reality—was a pattern of
proclamation and demonstration, proclamation and
demonstration. Jesus proclaimed the presence of
the kingdom and then demonstrated the reality
of its presence by healings and other works of
power and love. I noticed that Jesus delegated
this same authority to the first Apostles; "Then
Jesus called the twelve together and gave them
power and authority over all demons and to cure
diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the
kingdom of God and to heal" (Luke 9:1). He even
commissioned the Seventy— ordinary disciples like
you and me—in much the same way: "After this the
Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on
ahead of him . . . [saying] cure the sick who
are there, and say to them ‘The kingdom of God
has come near to you'" (Luke 10:1, 9). Then I
came across that absolutely shocking word of Jesus,
"the one who believes in me will also do the works
that I do and, in fact, will do greater works
than these, because I am going to the Father"
(John 14:12).
I
could not get around it: this business of the
kingdom of God is connected with power. But as
I told you, this teaching was troubling to me,
and it was troubling because, as the old adage
puts it, "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts
absolutely." Power is a dangerous thing and I
had seen it destroy people or at the very least
cause them to do very unkind and unloving things
to others.
So, all this troubled me . . . until I understood
that God was intent on making us into the kind
of people who could receive his power in such
a way that it would be used only to bless and
never to curse. Once again, you see, I was struck
by the importance of the formation and reformation
and conformation and transformation of the human
personality into the likeness of Christ. I saw
that in the kingdom of God I must be prepared
to go through the character changes necessary
to handle power for the good of all. You too.
Well,
these small insights into life in the kingdom
of God. May God meet you and refresh you as you
constantly seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.
Peace and joy,
Richard J. Foster
P.S.
While we do not go in for expensive appeal letters,
we have promised to let you, our friends and supporters,
know our financial needs. This we do by means
of this brief (and hopefully unobtrusive) postscript.
We do need you to stand with us financially as
never before. The Houston Conference is upon us
and will demand financial resources far beyond
anything we normally handle. Also, the lean summer
months are upon us. So please, give as God enables
you. Thank you. Remember to register for the International
Conference scheduled for June 30-July 3, 1999,
in Houston, Texas. If you don't have a brochure
or can't find your copy, call 303-792-0152 or
e-mail 103165.327@compuserve.com. I urge you to
take advantage of this rare opportunity to explore
more deeply our life in the kingdom of God. —
RJF
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