KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS (Rev.19:16)
So have you got me figured out yet ? : – )
On the last two blogs I posted more ‘links’ than usual.
I realize that because I have quite a diverse readership, these may create some different reactions. The fact that you are reading this means you haven’t ‘Unsubscribed’ (not yet anyway!) because you’ve taken exception to these ‘associations’ and concluded….. He must be a this or a that : – )
Our natural response to new information is to try and categorize it and it’s source. Labeling and pigeon holing others can help us feel ‘safe’ because then we know if they are in our ‘camp’ or not!
But when John the Baptist was asked,
“Are you Elijah? Are you the Prophet?”
He refused to give a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer. Instead he said,
“I am a voice….”
This begs the question,
“Whose voice?”
John knew he had been called by God ‘to prepare the way of the Lord’ and so he was God’s voice. In other words instead of focusing on a name or title, a role or position, he pointed to
….. a relationship.
Jesus too was repeatedly asked by the scribes and Pharasees,
“Are you the Christ?”
Like John he did not give them a direct answer. Instead he too focused on the relationship he had with his Father. Instead of claiming to be anything in and of himself he left it up to each person to decide if he were ‘the Christ.’
Can we be as secure in our identity as sons of God to defy categorization with any particular ‘tribe’ or ideology because we are aligning ourselves with only one thing – that is THE TRUTH?
Roy Millar in his commentary on John writes
“The Greek mindset that pervades western culture tends to emphasis truth as accurate information. John with his Hebrew worldview, would have embraced a wider range of meaning. Truth as we encounter it in the Hebrew scriptures also emphasizes faithfulness within a covenant relationship.” (Come and See. Page 45)
“What is truth?” Pilate asked Jesus.
“Who is truth?” would have been the more appropriate question.
Earlier we read,
‘”You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” (Jn. 18:27)
Here Jesus seems to divide humanity not on the basis of which ‘camp’ they belong to or label they carry but into those who like himself are, “on the side of truth” and those who for whatever reason, “refuse to love the truth’ (2 These 2:10)
When Jesus said to Herod, “You say that I am a king. In fact the reason I came into the world was to testify to the truth.” He connects the two because the primary ‘truth’ we need to awaken to is what I wrote about last week, that not only is Jesus ‘a king’
……he is “KING OF KINGS.”
God’s Sovereignty is where “A Greater Awakening” begins.
Yesterday at our fellowship I spoke about physically “awaking” from sleep the previous night to hear God’s voice. Jokingly someone cracked, “And what time was it?’ They know for me the clock has moved beyond being just a ‘time piece’ to being a ‘talk piece’ : – )
I continued to tell how I went to our Upper Room and was inspired to ponder and pray in front of a “tree of life” banner made by our friend Carolyn depicting the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, righteousness, temperance, faith, truth and holiness that are “the leaves of the tree for the healing of THE NATIONS” as recorded in Revelation 22:2
Thirty minutes or so later as I climbed back into bed I noticed….. it was 2.22.
I thought about how for me, Father speaking through the time on the clock is now more the rule than the exception. He then reminded me of the ‘truth’ from Psalm 139. “I know the time….. when you rise up, and the time…… when you lie down.”
He told me that his possessing such knowledge was not an end in itself but was for the purpose of intimate communication in our covenant relationship.
………as we are childlike enough to simply accept and believe
…….Jesus is King and…… Our Father is Sovereign
…….over EVERYTHING.
……from the grandest design of HEALING FOR THE NATIONS
……to the tiniest detail of OUR PERSONAL LIVES.
P.S. Next Week: Part 4. “Robin’s Story.”