Oliver Twist and the Kingdom of God

Fishing Report: Good for the boys, bad for dad.

Man is it hot 93 and humidity that is like a thick wet towel. Man I love summer wouldn't have it any other way. I am so thankful for the air conditioning at night it really makes the heat that much more enjoyable because you know that you have a cool place to sleep.

I don't know where we are going this weekend it is supposed to be hot and humid and some storms. But I know where God is leading us. We are traveling down a road to a understanding of redemption of sorts. I am redeem but I am only beginning to learn what it truly means. The parables from Matthew 13 come to mind. It says the Kingdom of God is a great treasure and a man was willing to sell everything to gain this treasure. I realize that Jesus is making the point that the Kingdom is the greatest treasure you could receive and is worth everything. But, I wonder if we are willing to give everything up to experience the Kingdom in its fullness. When we take our kids somewhere and if we go the budget route the kids don’t get to see what all the bells and whistles are like, are we like that with our commitment to Christ and His Kingdom. Are we doing the budget plan with our Christian walk and only experiencing the base model of the Kingdom.

Then again, I think there is another way to look at this parable and I may be a bit off in my theology but it seems to me that God the Father was willing to give everything up to purchase us for the Kingdom. What a redemption, we were bought with a price so high and ransomed to experience the greatness of God. I often have wondered what it must be like to go from leading our life one day and wake up the next day to find we have been rescued from our humble existence and place into a world of wealth and privileged. I hope someday to know what that is like or maybe I can experience that through someone else.

We know someone that is adopting a little girl from the Horn of Africa. That little girl will go to bed one night alone in this world, alone in the worst part of this world and the next day will be whisked away, ransomed, bought with a price, a price that she may never understand the full gravity of, but then she will know a life that she could not even dreamed of, the very next day. The Bible is clear that we are joint heirs with Christ within the kingdom of God. Much like the little girl that is coming home to the states will be an heir to that family’s inheritance. Romans 8:17 says “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ…” If we have that kind of identity than we should act like we belong to the family of God, the little girl coming to the States will make the transition to being part of a family and being an American, she will no longer be a citizen of her home country nor will she be an orphan any longer.

We need to get over the excuses of I act this way because my dad… or my family used to…. It is time that we made a change and acted like we belong to the King and that we have our identity at our heavenly home. Not some identification with a brand name or a sport’s franchise but with Christ our co-heir. Wow, what a difference that would make if we would be able to show grace to those around us, like has been shown by the Father. We are Oliver Twist in many ways and we need to stand up and act like who we are. Because one day it will be revealed who we are, just like Oliver Twist we are heirs to great riches but we live like poor thieves.