Building a Kingdom When the World is Falling Apart

Chaos. High emotions. Confusion. Deceit. Violence. Bad news around every corner.

I find myself more and more praying, "Come quickly, Lord Jesus" (Revelation 22:20).

For Christians, that's the easy way out of all of this, isn't it? Of course we want to be with Jesus, we want to finally experience the peace and rest He provides to those who turn from sin and look to Him for forgiveness and eternal life. We want to see His Kingdom finally come and for all to be made right. For the new heavens and the new earth in all of its sinless perfection. And we SHOULD long for this. In fact, He gives us His Holy Spirit to keep that sure hope and desire alive in our hearts until it's time.

But lately, I've also been reminded (convicted), that the heart of God is always about bringing as many people into that Kingdom as possible. We can look at all the violence and corruption and in our flesh desire for God's judgment to finally fall on the wicked. And it will. Justice will come. But in the meantime, it's important to remember that God never WANTS to condemn and punish. He finds no joy in it. He is patient. He is love. When He sent Jesus to the earth to be the way for our sinful flesh to be put to death, and for eternal life with Him to be possible, He concretely proved what His greatest desire was.

So when we see people on one "side" or the other, and we get angry or distressed, and we take our perceived moral high ground to condemn one another, I think there are a couple of things we can do:

1. Realize that in our human nature, our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). I don't care if you have never accepted Christ or have been walking with Him for 50 years - when we start judging things in our flesh, we fall into this trap of trusting something that can't be trusted. The Bible speaks often about the transformation that comes through the Holy Spirit through salvation and a constant working out of His sanctifying work in our lives as we submit to Him. It has to be a constant redirection of the heart.

2. Realize that our fight has never been with flesh and blood, but with principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness, spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). When we look at each other and seek our own "justice" or even violence upon one another, you know who's laughing? Those spiritual hosts whose job you just made a lot easier. Incidentally, this also goes for those within the church who fight with each other over stupid things like politics - Jesus never condemned anything more than infighting like this, because we are called to be the light that attracts others to what it means to belong to God (see John 13:34-35).

3. Nothing less than the FULL Gospel of Jesus Christ can change the heart, and as a result, change the world in which we live. We HAVE to stop accepting half-truths or half the Gospel. It's about so much more than "loving your neighbor". Without loving God first, you have no idea how to love your neighbor. We have no moral standing to speak or do anything "good" if we remain untethered to the WHOLE law of God that must be rooted in our love for Him that leads us to obey ALL that He has commanded. If we try to be our own gods, we've learned nothing from Adam and Eve in the Garden who started this whole mess of sin and evil in the first place!

That FULL Gospel is that we are all sinners, born with a sin nature, spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1). Dead people can't help themselves. So, while we were still sinners, God sent Jesus Christ to take our sin upon Himself and die in our place, and then rise again to overcome that death sentence (see 2 Cor. 5:21 and Romans 5:8). Now, by putting our faith and trust in Him, He fills us with His righteousness, His Holy Spirit, and transforms us into a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17). Through this transformation, He gives us the power to say "no" to sin and unrighteousness, and to live holy lives (Titus 2:11-12). And He makes us fit for eternal life in heaven with God when this life is over.

God wants to save. He wants to restore. And those who follow Him will desire the same thing. This truth is the light in the darkness that surrounds us. Turn to Him, and let His light shine through you. Even as you wait longingly for Christ to return and, once and for all, set all things right.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:16-17).