GET CONNECTED

This last week was Thanksgiving and for all my family, its not just a time to eat but a time to laugh. My sisters and brother sat at the table and played a game called Left-Center-Right with all of the in laws. It’s a dice game where literally anybody can end up with the prize at the end. As we laughed and made outrageous noises at each roll of the dice, I caught a glimpse of my mother and grandmother. They were sitting there quietly smiling and watching those of us at the table enjoy each other like only we can.

My mom is in her sixties, my grandmother in her eighties and all of us kids are in our forties now. I’m not sure how Mom and Nana thought our family would turn out but I think that one scene in mama’s house on Thanksgiving day was as much of a success story as any mama or grand mama can ever hope for. -They have kids that love each other.

This, in fact, is actually a picture of heaven. Everything in the Kingdom of Heaven is first about family and everything is relational. I think a lot of us bible thumpers have caused a lot of good people to miss the point of how it all works. Everything in the Kingdom is in relationship with the King or else it aint in the kingdom at all.
God is absolutely over the top about being a Father first and restoring his family so we can all sit at the same table.

I am not saying there will be a dice game, but the picture of success that He has as a Father is that same picture of success I described of my Mother and Grand mother.

When you really believe that everything in the Kingdom is first relational, you begin to come to some off the wall conclusions about how things work. Things like: God Values restoration over punishment. ( Turns out, he’s not Zeus, He’s Jesus. Who knew?)

God would rather call you family than call you a servant. ( yeah, it turns out he made angels to be servants and you and I to be Kings and priests and live in His house as family. Help me get the word out about that.)

God doesn’t move through a good church service He moves through good relationships in a church service. ( Believe it or not He wasn't faking when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane that we would become one even as the father and Him are one. That’s a big shocker since most of us in the body of Christ think we are supposed to be the bloods and the crips. )


The great commandment is not the great commission which is to reach the world, the great commandment is found in Matthew 22:37 which says, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

All of this kind of stuff gets you into big trouble because it means we actually have to love each other. I think most of us would rather have our knees drained than actually be held responsible for loving the people around us. We love John 3:16 which is all about how God loves us but very few of us want to quote 1st John 3:16.

By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
1st John 3:16

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