Kingdom's Keys Fellowship
Where God's Kingdom Meets Man's Heart.
Pentecost 52 Identity and Destiny
Pentecost 52 Identity and Destiny
If you don’t know where you came from you can’t know where you are going.
Every year on Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina the Highland Games celebrate the Scottish heritage. Those who have Scot names identify themselves by wearing their clan tartans. There are traditional athletic events, food and the sounds of pipers accompanying old dances. My own heritage has taken me back to Norway to study, to find family and to get a feel for my origins. A friend I met here in Banner Elk traces his Norwegian ancestry to a grave marker etched in the year 1102 AD. Heritage is a big thing for many people because it gives them a sense of who they are because of where they came from. Many people live by their earthly heritage and form clubs to sustain the sense of origin. There are German-American, Italian-American clubs and the Sons of Norway to name a few. Besides these you have a proliferation of all kinds of clubs that give people a sense of identity, belonging and even purpose.
Shift for a moment to science. There is a never-ending search for the origin of the universe. Then you have the pondering possibility of finding extra-terrestrial life along with the realization of the vastness of space and speculation as to what is out there. But there is also absorption with determining how small the interior substances of the universe are. At the heart of it all is the search for origins as though if we found them we could then control who and what we are.
In these two searches, identity and origin, five things are revealed. First, there is this enormous gap between the visible and the invisible in all of existence. Secondly, humanity is limited to speculation having no idea of who, what and why it is here. Third, individual self-conscious aloneness is where everything takes place, where search begins, where satisfaction takes precedence in mind and emotion and where all is questions seeking answers. Fourth, there is a tremendous sense of conflict in the individual and between individuals, a grinding uneasiness in just existing. Every human endeavor is an agonizing search within trying to understand what is without. Wars and rumors of wars, economic crises, social political unrest, crime, addictions, climatic changes, all point to a lost mankind looking desperately for its origin. Fifth, the search for identity and origin have given no final answers, no final peace, no sense of belonging that lives beyond its meetings, no life beyond its identity, nor any final secure relational identity. Something has to come from outside the self, outside of man’s speculation, outside of what is.
Charles Colson has written in his latest book Faith, a chapter called Invasion. The world needed an invasion from outside. It came in the person of Jesus Christ. This led me to see just what that implied. It meant He invaded our lost world. He invaded it with a perfect body, mind and heart. He invaded our intellect. He invaded our emotions. He invaded our hearts. He broke down the Jericho walls of our fear and independence from God. He invaded the strongholds that hold us captive and keep us from faith and love. He invaded the collective resistance of the devil’s rule. He invaded our consciences, our immorality and our attempts to take God’s place in human interaction. He invaded our pride, our arrogance, our self-indulgence and our social classes. He invaded our religions and our heartless institutions. He invaded all the walls the devil had erected to keep God out of man’s mind. Those wall have gates and they will not prevail against the invasion of Jesus Christ who brings them down.
What Jesus brought with Him were His Word, His Spirit and His life. He brought with Him the knowledge of where we came from, who we are and why we are here. The one event in all of history that rearranges the whole issue of identity and destiny is the Cross of Christ. By submitting His identity, His life, His destiny to death on a Cross, by letting the world’s power throw its entire arsenal against Him, He demonstrated the essence of who God is and how man finds his identity and destiny all wrapped in the invasion of Jesus. He finds it in a personal relationship with Jesus that opens the door to the Kingdom of God for himself and others revealing where he came from and where He is going. He sees not only who he is but who others are. He discovers His purpose is to present Jesus to everyone so that they who are still drifting can find their identity and destiny as well.
Psalm 16
5-6 My choice is you, GOD, first and only.
And now I find I'm your choice!
You set me up with a house and yard.
And then you made me your heir!
7-8 The wise counsel GOD gives when I'm awake
is confirmed by my sleeping heart.
Day and night I'll stick with GOD;
I've got a good thing going and I'm not letting go.
More to come, stay tuned…….
If you don’t know where you came from you can’t know where you are going.
Every year on Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina the Highland Games celebrate the Scottish heritage. Those who have Scot names identify themselves by wearing their clan tartans. There are traditional athletic events, food and the sounds of pipers accompanying old dances. My own heritage has taken me back to Norway to study, to find family and to get a feel for my origins. A friend I met here in Banner Elk traces his Norwegian ancestry to a grave marker etched in the year 1102 AD. Heritage is a big thing for many people because it gives them a sense of who they are because of where they came from. Many people live by their earthly heritage and form clubs to sustain the sense of origin. There are German-American, Italian-American clubs and the Sons of Norway to name a few. Besides these you have a proliferation of all kinds of clubs that give people a sense of identity, belonging and even purpose.
Shift for a moment to science. There is a never-ending search for the origin of the universe. Then you have the pondering possibility of finding extra-terrestrial life along with the realization of the vastness of space and speculation as to what is out there. But there is also absorption with determining how small the interior substances of the universe are. At the heart of it all is the search for origins as though if we found them we could then control who and what we are.
In these two searches, identity and origin, five things are revealed. First, there is this enormous gap between the visible and the invisible in all of existence. Secondly, humanity is limited to speculation having no idea of who, what and why it is here. Third, individual self-conscious aloneness is where everything takes place, where search begins, where satisfaction takes precedence in mind and emotion and where all is questions seeking answers. Fourth, there is a tremendous sense of conflict in the individual and between individuals, a grinding uneasiness in just existing. Every human endeavor is an agonizing search within trying to understand what is without. Wars and rumors of wars, economic crises, social political unrest, crime, addictions, climatic changes, all point to a lost mankind looking desperately for its origin. Fifth, the search for identity and origin have given no final answers, no final peace, no sense of belonging that lives beyond its meetings, no life beyond its identity, nor any final secure relational identity. Something has to come from outside the self, outside of man’s speculation, outside of what is.
Charles Colson has written in his latest book Faith, a chapter called Invasion. The world needed an invasion from outside. It came in the person of Jesus Christ. This led me to see just what that implied. It meant He invaded our lost world. He invaded it with a perfect body, mind and heart. He invaded our intellect. He invaded our emotions. He invaded our hearts. He broke down the Jericho walls of our fear and independence from God. He invaded the strongholds that hold us captive and keep us from faith and love. He invaded the collective resistance of the devil’s rule. He invaded our consciences, our immorality and our attempts to take God’s place in human interaction. He invaded our pride, our arrogance, our self-indulgence and our social classes. He invaded our religions and our heartless institutions. He invaded all the walls the devil had erected to keep God out of man’s mind. Those wall have gates and they will not prevail against the invasion of Jesus Christ who brings them down.
What Jesus brought with Him were His Word, His Spirit and His life. He brought with Him the knowledge of where we came from, who we are and why we are here. The one event in all of history that rearranges the whole issue of identity and destiny is the Cross of Christ. By submitting His identity, His life, His destiny to death on a Cross, by letting the world’s power throw its entire arsenal against Him, He demonstrated the essence of who God is and how man finds his identity and destiny all wrapped in the invasion of Jesus. He finds it in a personal relationship with Jesus that opens the door to the Kingdom of God for himself and others revealing where he came from and where He is going. He sees not only who he is but who others are. He discovers His purpose is to present Jesus to everyone so that they who are still drifting can find their identity and destiny as well.
Psalm 16
5-6 My choice is you, GOD, first and only.
And now I find I'm your choice!
You set me up with a house and yard.
And then you made me your heir!
7-8 The wise counsel GOD gives when I'm awake
is confirmed by my sleeping heart.
Day and night I'll stick with GOD;
I've got a good thing going and I'm not letting go.
More to come, stay tuned…….
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