Imagine.
I hope you’re having a day filled with praise!
I’m trying to.
But it feels different today and these days as we can’t help…and can’t stop…thinking about so many suffering so much around the world and in the Middle East today.
For the sake of the babies, all the children, the helpless innocents, the old ones who have known so much grief, the poor caught in conflicts they never wanted nor would have chosen…
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
I know it will take His power to end endless cycles of hate and violence.
Because it all seems propelled by another power no one has the power to stop.
I was reading about this power before the sun rose today in Romans 3.
Earlier at the beginning of the letter it says that God had made us to find our deepest needs in Him.
Made to find our need for love and value in Him Who loves and values us beyond our capacity to understand, we all said, “No, thanks. I’ve got this.”
Having exiled from our hearts Him Who loves and values us beyond measure, we chose to seek love and value outside of His Kingdom.
When the Bible talks about “sin”, it is only and always this.
Meeting God-given needs for love and value in a time, a way, or a place that He didn’t want.
St Paul tells us that this mode of living…this “sin”…
is a “power” (Romans 3:9)
It is a great power in the world.
This is why…
now as always…
words are so often poisonous (Romans 3:13)…
blood is swiftly shed (3:15)…
the way of peace is unknown (3:17)…
and it is all a cycle no one seems to be able to stop.
But Jesus DID die and rise for the love He feels for us and the value He sees in us…a love and value that “out there” on our own, we never feel or find!
I know it seems simple but if EVERYONE turned to Him for these, wouldn’t this be the power to end endless cycles of violence and hate?
I know it sounds simple, but isn’t Jesus simply the answer??
John Lennon wrote a song where he told us to “imagine”.
To “imagine all the people living for today”…
to imagine “all the people livin’ life in peace”…
“sharing all the world”…
“where the world will live as one.”
But he began by telling us to “imagine there’s no Heaven”.
Imagine there’s no Kingdom of Heaven all around us, where our deepest needs for love and value would be satisfied to over-flowing, so that we would have enough love to give to all the world and so that we would see ourselves as so precious to Him that we would value everyone and see everyone as He sees us!
He asks us to imagine a world of love without the Kingdom of Love and without the God of Love Who is waiting to meet every need of our hearts for love.
I actually can’t imagine that!
Instead…… imagine this:
Imagine if a day would come where EVERYONE in the world realized that the love and value they long for would be found only in the Kingdom of the Coming King of Love! (Mark 1:15)
Imagine someone telling everyone that they need to “let every mountain and hill be made low” and raise the valleys and prepare the way, and get ready! For the King of Love is coming! (Luke 3:4)
Imagine everyone wanting to be allowed into the Kingdom when it opens the doors! (Matthew 3:5)
And so all people everywhere over the whole world…old and young…rich or poor…women, men, boys, girls…”repent”, and want to totally change the direction of their life’s trajectory.
They don’t want to be selfish any more! Or hateful any more! Or racist any more! Or angry any more! Or gossips any more! Or mean or unkind any more! (Luke 3:3)
And they all flood to the Jordan River from EVERYWHERE and BEG to be baptized, confessing ALL their unkindness, and hatefulness, and selfishness and all the other “-ness-es”. (Matthew 3:6)
And then they turn with all their heart to the King of that Kingdom of Love Who died and rose to make this day possible so that by trusting in Him they would know for good and forever that they are loved and valued and never have to seek these again but could live every day giving these to others! (Romans 3:24-25; 5:1)
And then imagine that they fall in love with the King Who loves and values them…
such that they determine to follow Him and follow His ways and learn His Words and teachings for the sole purpose of doing them, all day every day, to please Him Who did so much for them!! And this is happening to every heart all over the world!! For as long as they live!!! (John 14:21,23)
I know it sounds simple but isn’t turning to Jesus the answer?
Isn’t turning to Him the only power that can end that other power of violence and hate?
Will it ever happen?
“On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against Jerusalem…
I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on Me, the One they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son…
“On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity…
On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives…and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west…
The Lord will be King over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and His Name the only name…
(Zechariah 12:3,13; 14:4,9)
His Name is Love.
One day, when He reigns, and when His Name…when “Love”…is the only name, the world will be a global Kingdom of Love!
Imagine that!