Luke 9:61, 62 - Still another said, “I will follow you Lord; but first let me go back and say good-bye to my family.” Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God’.
Jesus spoke words of stark
contrast with the culture of the day.
The Jewish culture was heavily oriented toward ‘family first’. The
culture expected and even demanded certain behaviors reflecting their
understanding of traditions and of the Law. But Jesus spoke of a new culture
that would part the waters of cultural paradigms and shake the foundations of
family first. He introduced an extreme
kingdom led by an extreme king, Jesus Christ.
In the world you and I occupy, we live among many cultural
and family expectations. Some of those expectations are benign and some are
bondage. But because we live among them, we often become like them, subtly
complying and giving way when we should be following The Way. The extreme words
of Jesus are like a sharp sword dividing the soul realm of our mind and
emotions from the spirit realm of God’s kingdom. To say we are not ‘fit for service in the Kingdom of God’ if
we look back (place family and culture above the Kingdom) is extreme. To imply that
if we take our eyes off the road of ministry ahead of us we are not ‘fit’ is an
extreme word.
We live in a season that is calling upon the people of God
to be ‘extreme’. The Holy Spirit is wooing us, drawing us, pulling us deeper
and higher to live in His Kingdom irrespective of the cultural currents. With this post I beginning a series to bring
forth and challenge each of you to the extreme…..a
word maligned in political and cultural circles where the ‘normal’ of vanilla
is the valued flavor, especially as it applies to Christianity………the culture
screams out “look and act and sound like
you are vanilla…like you are part of the crowd…..like you are the majority”. I have a strong word for you. We are not part of the majority, whether in
America, Africa or Asia……we are a remnant chosen by grace to advance
the Kingdom of God in these last days.
Today we embrace extreme living in an extreme Kingdom. We follow an
extreme king to fulfill our extreme purpose, and gain our extremely good and
righteous reward! I speak great grace to
you as you embrace this season.
