Probably what the World needs is another blog site, right? It seems like wherever you turn someone has a blog or post about what they think and what they believe. Inherently there is probably nothing wrong with them. It is good for us as communities to share our thoughts and ideas with one another. Certainly sharing is something that we as a World can get better at doing. Many times we want everyone to hear us and in the market place of ideas we not only want them to hear, we want them to agree. When they do not agree we simply yell louder. My hope for this blog is not to get louder. What I envision is a journey. Everyone is on a journey. Some have an idea of where they are headed, others have an idea but are not sure how to get there, and than there are those who do not realize they have a journey and so they wander aimlessly. Some days I feel like I am in all three categories. Where I see my journey heading may be like the journey Bilbo described to Frodo in the Lord of the Rings when he said, “It is a dangerous business Frodo, going out of your door. You step into the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.” This type of journey does not sounds very safe. Truthfully it is not. But this is the journey I have chosen.
I like to call this the journey that I am on a journey into “Another Kingdom.” The phrase Another Kingdom is one in which I came across from a book I read last year with a similar tittle called, An Other Kingdom by John McNight, Walter Brueggermann and Peter Block. As I read their book I could not get this phrase out of my mind because it depicted how I was shaping my life or maybe better yet how God was shaping my life. For years I lived out my Christian practice very much in the spiritual realm but not always in the physical realm. When Jesus spoke of the Kingdom I immediately thought he meant the kingdom to come in heaven. So my “Jesus life” was wired to get myself to heaven and to get as many people as I could there as well. Now heaven is important and has it’s place but the more I read through the gospel accounts I realized that Jesus rarely talked about heaven. Most of his conversation was about a kingdom. Not a kingdom which would come hundreds of years later or even a kingdom which was up there in heaven. Jesus spoke about a very real and physical kingdom which was meant to be lived in the now. The fruits of this kingdom, its blessing and its rewards were mostly focussed in the now and not the later although some great blessing were yet to come. When I saw the kingdom as a “now” reality it occurred to me that Jesus kingdom was not the only kingdom. There are other kingdoms which exist. Jesus came into a World filled with kingdoms. Yet his kingdom was different. It was “Another Kingdom.” It was a kingdom which he said would continue to be more powerful while other kingdoms would fade. It’s power did not come through tanks and armies, but through the Holy Spirit and love. This kingdom was not simply meant to make other kingdoms nicer places to live but it was meant to be an alternative kingdom to all kingdoms which would eventually make this World a better place to live.
Another Kingdom is what I have put my hope in. It consumes much of my time and in some way it is what I want to write about as I go on this journey. I am blessed and fortunate to be able to share this journey not only with close friends and family but also with my local kingdom family Agape Christian Church. Let me simply close with this quote from John Nugent in his book Endangered Gospel. I hope you will be encouraged by it and reflect upon it as you seek to live for Another Kingdom.
“What then is the Kingdom? It is the fulfillment of Israels hopes. It is the reign of God over his people on behalf of all creation. It is the new world order that the prophets foretold. It is everything God’s people longed for, and more. It is Israels God intervening in World history to make a better place in this World”