For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. – Romans 14:17  ESV

I have to admit, I like rules. So when it comes to the kingdom of God it seems that there is a temptation inside me to distort it and legalize it. What happens sickens me – His kingdom becomes exhausting and undesirable. I am thrilled that the kingdom of God is not about rules. I think it might have been seen that way in the Old Testament, but it was never about that. It has always been about righteousness, peace and joy and I know that today because today we have the Holy Spirit working in us to bring this all about.

This is why some of the followers of Jesus, known maybe by many of us as monks, would find a why of seclusion so as not to violate any of the rules, thus guaranteeing themselves a spot in heaven. This is where the Holy Spirit comes in, and He seemed to be missing from the lives of our monks. If I am unable to display the temper of a follower of Christ, why would anyone want to be part of the kingdom of God? So my light needs to shine before people. It is my kingdom works that will glorify my Father.

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.  For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. – Romans 14:7-9, 12  ESV

Romans chapter 14 has given me some great truths about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, maybe difficult truths that I do not ever hear preached, but read in many different places. Using the word ‘slavery’ to describe my relationship to the kingdom of God sounds wrong in so many ways. It is a word that defies the intimacy in relationship I have with God yet at the same time it describes what that intimacy looks like. The verse above does describe me as being owned and it describes that one day I have to give an account. That is why I like rules – they say I am right or wrong. But that is not what is happening here. The kingdom of God awakens a vision, a tremendous desire in me – it awakens me to the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is stronger than any other desire I have for anything else because I know that to have it would be better than to have anything else. This is what the Lord’s Prayer was trying to say – Your kingdom come. Jesus’ plan all along was to bring what was up there down here.