Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Burning Bush

Burning Bush

Burning bush is a commitment to living and proclaiming the salvation made possible by Jesus Christ through the lens and environment of the wilderness.

The wilderness is where people go to experience God unfiltered by human rulers, societies or institutions. In the wilderness people seek to meet God as Moses meet God, without the protection and insulation of society. We go to the wilderness by following Jesus Christ’s first teaching: “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe in the good news.”

1.      Many people wait for death or a more spiritual time in their lives to embrace intimacy with God. Jesus says that this is the time for intimacy with God. We take our first step toward the wilderness by accepting Christ’s invitation this minute, the next minute, the minute after that until accepting God’s invitation to intimacy becomes habitual.

2.      Many people think of the kingdom of God as a post death heaven or an impossible utopia. As the Lord’s Prayer teaches us, the kingdom of God is that place/domain where God’s will is done. When we embrace God’s will, praying to God for his will to be done in our lives instead of our will, we enter the kingdom that has become so near. At first our entrances to the kingdom maybe flickers or episodes. As submission becomes more habitual the kingdom becomes more real to us than this thing we call reality.

3.      We are human. We act, think and perceive reality through a faulty paradigm: the human understanding of the knowledge of good and evil. We are like pilots using inaccurate radars to pilot their airplanes. If we are to survive we must turn from our disastrous course and accept the guidance of God.

4.   The point of going into the wilderness is not austerity or so called purity in its self. We leave the walls, rules, lights and so called safety of human beings God’s garden/kingdom cannot long grow inside those confines. In the wilderness we believe the good news that Jesus Christ opens windows and doors into the garden where humans once enjoyed perfect harmony with God and animals. By habitually believing in this restoration we move from being estranged children of God to content heirs to God’s legacy of love.

1 comment:

  1. Adam, you are a truly gifted writer and theology scholar. Keep up the posts, they are inspiring and truthful.

    ReplyDelete