Response to Ryan re: the Kingdom of God

Ryan-
Yes, in my opinion all these are true regarding the Kingdom. Yes, we are in a spiritual war. However, try to understand the bigger picture of the Kingdom of God by first attempting to take off your neo-pentacostal glasses that see only the polarities of spiritual warfare- light and dark, good and bad, life and death. These are neat categories of Baconian thinking that help us process with our 60-120 IQ the creation as we perceive it and the Kingdom as we can understand it- both created and managed by a King with a 1,000,000 ++ IQ.
In my opinion the closest we can come to understanding the Kingdom is to look at the teachings and actions of Jesus in his ministry. The Kingdom flies in the face of more than what we perceive as "darkness", it contradicts most of the ideals and ideology that I call "conventional wisdom". Much of creation is not dark in itself- its the way we use it, treat it, distort it for our personal, or communal, or national pride, power, prestige. Furthermore, much of what we perceive as the work of Satan is also the upside down way God has of drawing us to Him- our failures, pain, sorrow, suffering- as CS Lewis said: "God's megaphone". Even the personal characteristics- physical, emotional, and intellectual we perceive as defective or insufficient in ourselves were given to us as blessing that make us wonderfully unique. Thus our categories of light and dark that are so easy to systematically separate turn to shades of gray when outside of the Temple.

Second, take off your Reformation glasses that see mankind as totally depraved, wracked and driven by our "flesh" that manages every thought, emotion, and action of our lives. There is also good in man. Every man was born with a longing- a holy longing, a longing for something only God can satisfy. The Fathers write of this longing, the men and women of the Scriptures were driven by this longing, Buddhists, Hindus, New Agers, JW's, and atheists, (unless they are psychopaths), have the same longing. This longing is for the relationship of a perfect lover, one who is perfect love. We seek it from our parents , from our families, from our spouses, from Alah, the eight fold path, mother earth, from our boss, from our customer, from our pastor, our therapist. We attempt to find it in personal acclaim, accolades for success, and in recognition for performance. We strive for it, scratch for it, drive ourselves to anxiety, depression, addiction because of our longing for it- even to suicide when the search seems futile to find it.

What did Jesus command his followers to do? The only commands he gave were the commands of a King- the commands of one with a 1,000,000++ IQ. These commands are the core, the heart and soul of the Kingdom, the already but not yet of the Kingdom. Those commands were to Love God, and love all the people around us- with their warts, egos, miserable dispositions, and weird ideologies. The disciples were commanded to love and serve others as they were first loved by the Father and modeled by the human- yes totally human- Jesus of Nazareth who touched, and laughed, and cried, and hurt more emotionally and physically in his short life here on earth than you or I will probably ever experience. No,mankind is not totally depraved- men and women are capable of loving and being loved. All men as busted up and broken as they are, physically, emotionally, and spiritually long for love and are capable of doing love. We also have a Helper - one to help us know the truth of the Kingdom- to help us know the truth of the Father's love and change our hearts to become lovers. The good news is about the Kingdom. The Kingdom is about the heart. The Kingdom is about the power, the rule and reign of a King who loves perfectly, and his men and women who are becoming servants and will some day be perfect lovers. How this works out is totally "unconventional"- often messy, untidy, to our minds disorderly, and often paradoxically joyful and gut wrenching at the same time. This is earthy spirituality- this is the "gospel of the gut".

This is the best I can do with my 65+ IQ to communicate what I today understand to be the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven. Check in tomorrow for updates...............
Blessings
Gary P