Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Know Your King


For the past few weeks, we have been studying more about Jesus. From our weekly Bible study, Come Be My Follower, to several consecutive weeks of study articles in Watchtower, and we even had the special issue of Watchtower that focused on Jesus alone, I wonder and I thought, I think we were like being "getting prepared" to get to know the King of God's Kingdom. And that's just makes sense. Just like in human politics, voters need to know their candidates. But here, we don't need a candidate, because there's no other candidate than the ultimate ruler that God appointed, Jesus-Christ.
In our studies, it describes how Christ would be the greatest ruler of all. It just amazes me how his character is so humble and gentle and yet firm and strong. That he even stay away from fame and be glorified publicly by people despite his greatness, and yet he never claimed it. Instead, he gives all the glory to his father, Jehovah. And how it is sooooo opposite of human politicians. Our bible highlights this past weeks is the book of Samuel. And it tells about how the Israelites are wanting to have a human king, a king that can be seen, despite all the miracles that Jehovah showed them, they fall on the snare of "sight". And so God chose Saul, who started as a humble young man, but he was consumed and corrupted by power. Which most human rulers are today. Once they had the power in their hands, they can't control it. They want to control everything instead.
But I want to concentrate on Jesus's personality as a King. His humility, his kindness, his disposition, his wisdom, and his power. But in our studies, it always emphasizes the importance of humility. It's like there is a great need for us to work on. And I agree, I think this is one thing that most people should work on. The snare of pride, the temptation of arrogance of one's success, all came from....whoelse? Satan the Devil. It's all his machinations to put in our imperfect hearts to seek fame, glory, greed and all sorts of covetousness. It's amazing how Jesus choses the lowly-ones as his apostles. Fisherman, farmer, no one really out of highly educated circle so to speak. Not that he's got something against it, but God only wants to prove that the "meek ones" will possess the earth.(Psalms 37:10,11) And meekness means "teachable". But if you're too high-minded, however good you are, if you're not "meek", you're not "teachable"....you're OUT! And look at the world's rulers and their constituents. Most, if not all, are "high-minded", some even to the point of wanting to rule the world, and trying to erase a certain geneology in history (Hitler for example).
I can spend all day talking about Christ, but it all comes down to one thing....Men cannot direct his own steps(Jeremiah 10:23). It has been more than six thousand years when men tried to stand on his own, but to no avail. The issue that Satan raised right from the garden of Eden is now almost finished. His uncanny manuevering over the world has now come to a halt. The time for God's appointed King is fast-approaching. And we are being prepared to get to know our King. We have been praying the "Lord's Prayer" since we were kids, we say, "let your kingdom come, as it is in heaven, also upon the earth". It all makes sense at the end, why do we pray for God's Kingdom anyway?
It's funny when some would say "just accept Christ in your heart!" But the question is, will Christ accept us? It's not for us to invite Christ, it's him who's asking us to follow him. Follow his footsteps. He left a model for us. And it's a great privilege for us to be invited by the Greatest Man who ever lived on earth. So, it's up to us to accept the invitation and be his follower. Are we humble enough to be his follower? Are we humble enough to be meek and teachable so we'd be able to be a citizen on his Kingdom?

1 comment:

Peter said...

Gooooood note!

I liked how you began and made the comparison with the campaigns earthly leaders often have so that the voters can get to know them better and eventually choose their leadership and how the F&DS is now preparing us more and more to really get to know the leader we already voted for. Excellent.

You also had some good thoughts at the... See More end, something we can all seriously think about. Jesus will definitely be the best leader ever, but will he accept us as his subjects? A lot depends on humility indeed.

Yes, liked this a lot! :-)
- Peter