After church last Sunday, Marilyn and I hit the road for Chicago to visit the home of our life-long friends. They actually live in Dyer, Indiana, a community that has been enfolded into the rambling metropolitan sprawl that leads to the Windy Cit
Their home sits on an interesting piece of property. You see, their back yard is the state line between Indiana and Illinois. While I’m there, I can’t resist stepping from one side to the other: “I’m in Indiana, I’m in Illinois! I’m in Indiana, I’m in Illinois!” Yeah, sure… it gets old after a while, but it is kinda’ fun (I’ve always been easily entertained). Several of the surrounding streets straddle the state line. You might cross the state line numbers of times walking to the local store for a loaf of bread. Remarkably, it doesn’t seem to cause any confusion for the natives. It just is what it
It reminds me that as Christians, we live in two worlds at once. We live in our everyday world of walking around, going to work, being a friend, a civilian. Yet we’re citizens of the Kingdom of Christ, supernaturally filled by His Spirit, ministered to by His angels, forgiven and fully adopted as His brothers and sisters. We are aligned with one Kingdom while living in another. It’s incredible when you stop and think about it! We don’t look different than our neighbors, yet we live in another state altogether. Our priorities and allegiances are different than our unbelieving friends and neighbors. Our hearts are stamped with a different address.
In his pastoral letter to the Romans, Paul offers some great advice as we balance this dynamic two-world tension:
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life–your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life–and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” Romans 12:1-2 The Message
It is so vital that we are relational to others who are not yet a part of God’s invisible Kingdom. It is so important that we consistently invite our “neighbors” to come across into our world. This is why relationships are everything. Pray with me that together we might be the kind of believers that reflect the heart of Christ for the “not-yet-believers” who live all around us.
Read Romans 12:1-2
- Is your “walking-around life” an acceptable offering to God?
- How can you improve your walking-around life?
- Consider how confusing it is for our unbelieving friends when we don’t live as believers.
- Consider (and write down) ways that you become too well-adjusted to the world’s culture.
Read Ephesians 1:11-14
- Have you considered that you have been specifically chosen by God?
- According to this passage who is in charge of working out God’s will?
- Notice in verse 13 that you were not only chosen but you were also marked!
- Verse 14 speaks of the “two world” concept. Notice that God has deposited the Holy Spirit in you in this world until God redeems us to the next. Worship Him for His promises!
Read 1 Timothy 6:17-19
- Consider (and write down) some ways that we place our hope in this world.
- Consider (and write down) some ways that we can “lay up treasures” in the coming world.
- Notice in verse 19 that by laying up treasures in the next world, it equips us to take hold of the life here that is “truly life.”
This week in our relationship series we discuss the importance of forgiveness. Forgiveness requires “another world” experience and understanding. This world doesn’t offer much toward forgiveness but the Kingdom of Christ is all about forgiveness.
Remember: The only passage into the next world is through the forgiveness offered by the sacrifice of Christ. Relationship with God the Father comes to us through His forgiveness based on Christ’s obedience. Pray with me that we might be forgiving neighbors who draw others into our world.
Lord Jesus, I am so grateful that you offer me forgiveness and entrance into your Kingdom. May I be a person of forgiveness as well and may my life be an invitation to others, inviting them into your Kingdom. Thank you that you didn’t build a fence around your property, but that you opened every boundary through your forgiveness. I am so excited to be a part of your world. Amen.