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"Christianity is not a doctrine, but an existence communication. (This is the source of all the nuisances of orthodoxy, its quarrels about one thing and another, while existence remains totally unchanged.) Christianity is an existence communication and can only be presented – by existing..." Søren Kierkegaard, from his journals * * * "We are writing to you about something which has always existed yet which we ourselves actually saw and heard: something which we had an opportunity to observe closely and even to hold in our hands, and yet, as we know now, was something of the very Word of life himself! For it was life which appeared before us: we saw it, we are eye-witnesses of it, and are now writing to you about it. It was the very life of all ages, the life that has always existed with the Father, which actually became visible in person to us mortal men. We repeat, we really saw and heard what we are now writing to you about. We want you to be with us in this—in this fellowship with the Father, and Jesus Christ his Son." 1 John 1:1-3, Phillips * * * Thought for this week: Our "witness" for Jesus is exactly equivalent to our experience of His existence. Nothing else - no "doctrine," no "orthodoxy," no "quarrel" - can stand against our first-hand, practical testimony to His living life. We must prove Him by our personal experience of His present existence.
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"...live lives worthy of the God who has called you to share the splendour of his own kingdom." 1 Thessalonians 2:12  The Coronation of Alexander III and Maria Fedorovna, Georges Becker (1888) If the painting above was only an infinitesimal sliver of the "splendour" of the Kingdom of Heaven, a Kingdom you are promised one day to "share" with your Savior, your Brother, the Lord Jesus...
if "in all which will one day belong to him we have been promised a share (since we were long ago destined for this by the one who achieves his purposes by his sovereign will)" (Eph. 1:11)... if you really "are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession" (1 Pet. 2:9)... if all that He "claims as his will belong to all of us as well..." (Rom. 8:17)... ...then a question is immediately begged: Today - and this week - and for the remainder of this month - and this year - and for remainder of the life allotted to you - as a true son or daughter of God, a splendid prince or princess of this Kingdom, an inheritor of His glory, a sharer in His purposes, a chosen one, a royal envoy, a person made holy by His very blood: His own special personal possession... ...what sort of life will you live? If you listen to the Unionists podcast, then you've already heard this particular thought. But, recently, in my reading, I was reminded of the life and death of the Edwardian poet, Rupert Brooke, and of his haunting WWI poem that seemed to foreshadow his approaching death: The Soldier If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam; A body of England’s, breathing English air, Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. And think, this heart, all evil shed away, A pulse in the eternal mind, no less Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. Rereading those words, I was struck by multiple parallels between Brooke's imagery and our Kingdom of Heaven-reality; how the spirit of Jesus lingers on in this world through us. So, imagining Jesus, the ultimate selfless Soldier, writing similar lines to us, I took a stab at an echoing sonnet: When I ascend, remember only this of Me:
That there's a Spirit whispering in your soul That is for ever Mine. There shall be In that reborn life a richer life entirely whole: A life which is My own, true, perfect in My Way, Given, once, and always again, to point out Heaven; The Spirit of My Body, breathing Heaven's ways, Washed by My blood, enlivened with a higher leaven. And know, My heart, all evil scorned fore'er, My life, eternal, lessened not a mite Will give you, everywhere, My mind and thoughts: My wisdom, words; dreams joyous as the wind-fresh air; And laughter, from My heart; and gentle might Within peaceful hearts, whom Heaven hath bought. |
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