A couple of weeks ago I spoke at a luncheon meeting. My theme was ‘Citizenship in the Kingdom of God’. When I immigrated to Canada, I was aware of some cultural change, and that I now had to obey different laws – especially on the road. When I left the Kingdom of darkness to enter the Kingdom of light, there were also cultural changes involved and new laws (written upon my heart).

 

In the Kingdom of darkness, man sits on the throne and the goal of all things is ‘the happiness of man’. This belief system is known as secular humanism. If it feels right, do it! I declared that in the Kingdom of Light, the goal must be the glory of God, not the blessing of man. God does not exist to bless us; we exist to bless Him.

 

Apparently, some of my listeners were quite offended by this, declaring that the church is a “hospital for sick souls”. For me to suggest that God might even allow young men to die on the mission field (e.g; the five martyrs who died on the banks of the Curaray River in Ecuador in 1956) in order to bring thousands of Auca Indians into the Kingdom, was outrageous. Nevertheless, that is what I believe!

 

We have swallowed the lie that God’s will for us is health, wealth and prosperity, or at worst, allowing for small negativities in His will, He wants us to be happy and blessed. In other words, man’s happiness is still at the centre of God’s plan. That is nothing more than Christian humanism. The only man at the centre of God’s will is His Son! The Christian message is that we exist for the praise of His glory – and our whole lives - and deaths - should be to that one end!

 

May I suggest that my readers should listen to ‘the greatest sermon of the C20th’ by Paris Reidhead – “Ten Shekels and a Shirt” found on my ‘favourite links’ page.