From: corwithani
Date: Sun May 28 21:39:50 MST 2006
Subject: the kingdom...

hey ryan, I really liked your post. especially after reading the sentence on how little we really know about the Kingdom of God (cause I completely agree), I thought to a Nav conference I attended back in February. the conference was entitled "the Kingdom of God", and the talks were all given by a man named KyoHo who is on staff at UC Irvine. he spent (I believe) 3 years studying the Kingdom and really, really loves Jesus. so the only way I can think of to share his talks with you are by giving the website of my friend Sam's blog, who just finished his internship with Navs here at U of A (he was one of Hannah's teammates). sounds a bit stalker-ish, but if you're interested in hearing them (I especially recommend the third one entitled "ways of the kingdom" where he speaks from the perspective of Zaccheus) then just go to his blog at: http://edgecorpssam.livejournal.com/ and scroll down to the title "New Links to the Kingdom Conference" where you can download them. if you or others download them, I'd love to hear what you think. it really gave me a new perspective on His kingdom that we are already a part of that Satan tries to tell us otherwise so we will live more complacent. enjoy! :)

Edit this response
Write a response

From: ryan
Date: Thu Jun  1 17:22:37 MST 2006
Subject: what is a king anyway?

I think part of the challenge we have as proclaimers of the kingdom of God is articulating what a kingdom is. I studied classics for years and I still have only a vague notion of what living in a kingdom would actually be like. I think of middle-school lessons with pyramid charts illustrating royalty at the top, nobility below, the landed class below that, and a huge block of peasantry below that... peasants living in general poverty and working themselves sick trying to support everyone above them. I image that most people (myself anyway) feel kinda like that guy in the Holy Grail, arguing with King Arthur that there is no king, that he and his fellows live in an autonomous commune and find that ‘strange women lying in ponds, distributing swords, is no basis for a system of government!’ I have to admit, King Jesus and his lordship does have a certain mythic quality a hardened skeptic such as myself has a hard time swallowing. Just how do you tell a skeptic that there is a king, that he's a good king, and that somehow submitting to his lordship is not only a good or right thing to do, but the equivalent of passing from death to life. Skepticism aside, how do you tell someone who has found life in something that they aren't actually alive after all, because apart from Jesus there is no life... that the life they have found is actually more like chocolate-covered Purina Dog Chow than a real banquet. I can hear the voices in protest now: ‘How do you know what life is to say that mine isn’t life?’ So yeah, Ryan... I for one need the reminders that King Jesus is real and involved and deserving of glory and honor and our obedience. And even if God had chosen to make him King by means of a woman lobbing a scimitar at him (not so, but for some a virgin birth and resurrection and all that are just as absurd), it doesn't make him any less King.

Edit this response
Write a response Email the author

From: Karen
Date: Thu Jun  1 19:10:09 MST 2006
Subject: Slippery reality

The Kingdom, especially in this bent world, sure is hard to get a handle on. It's real, but not in the way we're used to perceiving real things. Like a rainbow in a spray of water on a bright day; you can only see it from a certain angle, and it's certainly real, but it's far from solid. Well, not solid in our way of thinking of solids... And like white light, the Kingdom is in fact not even what it appears to be, and even what it appears to be often goes unnoticed. Only the things in the light itself are recognized. Even Jesus--who was, I assume, well acquainted with his Kingdom--had to speak of it indirectly through metaphors. Speaking of metaphors--I went back to the Easter stuff a few blogs back and looked again. Having some non-linear thoughts... Ryan Mc did a good job with the linear ones, though. OK--one linear thought. A thought of me, weeping on the couch at Seneca House earlier today. Susan Cepin with her arm around me, saying nothing. Then saying she didn't know what was going to happen, but either way, it would be okay. Kingdom of God, like Lewis' picture of Narnia: Aslan is on the move. The false ruler's victims, all the witch's statues are to be restored to life again. The snow is already melting. The supernatural ice is cracking. The river is going to flow wild again. If it isn't flowing already. And NewRyan, where was that cool photo taken??

Edit this response
Write a response Email the author

From: Patricia
Date: Fri Jun  2 09:53:07 MST 2006
Subject: answers or questions