The Tradition Series: Identity According To Political Boundaries
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| Like an angel peering behind the veil of the material is this mural. |
Learned a stark lesson in a most unusual way.
Yet the unusual part of it should have been familiar to me.
I had not been desiring to pay attention.
My pride.
My disobedience.
My rebellious heart still undermining things eternal.
This article may seem exaggerated, but realize how the smallest spark can start a major fire.
Supposedly from the flapping of a butterfly's wing can a tropical storm be stimulated (according to the butterfly effect).
This article may be dismissed by a critical mind (more critical than mine) as one man's attempt (myself) to interpret any small thing or seemingly unrelated detail of life into a grand scheme predetermined in the heavenly realms.
This I firmly believe.
I believe this not out of choice, but from experience and realities established before my eyes.
This reality has been affirmed, reaffirmed, and is beyond my desire to 'see' it (or refusal to).
It isn't so much me reaching for lofty understandings.
Rather, it is now part of my work.
My work in being allowed to recognize how His hand is in all things.
Even in things I and others may consider repugnant and off-limits.
Things forbidden exist to reflect how dark, desperate, and dismal evil is.
We ultimately harm ourselves (and others) by our rebellious choices.
We hurt ourselves because we repeatedly ignore what God is always making clear for us.
Recently a subtle notion reminded me of my current bounds.
Spiritual boundaries exist when it comes to our decision-making.
Spiritual boundaries in no way depict a limitation on God.
Rather, these boundaries show places exist we are not to traverse.
Like getting into a heated argument with someone when, prior to the argument getting out of hand, you sensed you should cease talking and peacefully exit the conversation.
The human experience teaches all who reach maturity.
We learn great lessons when looking back on our lives, whether over the years or the past few minutes.
We are then allowed to understand how and when a notion arose in our hearts... yet we ignored it.
God often times speaks very subtly and humbly to our hearts.
It may be a reminder of a particular Scripture.
Other times it is a few words that should be said at that moment.
Or a notion that should be kept to one's self (and a decision to be made).
When love is the aim, peace the resolve, and humility the manner these are done... it is God speaking to your heart.
Some times physical boundaries mirror our spiritual boundaries, but not always.
It is my current work description to reside and patronize locales within a certain geographic boundary.
In my arrogance, I believed I could repeatedly travel and 'work' beyond this physical territory.
But I was, in fact, breaching my work description.
I justified such a breach because I recently moved to a part of the city that is very near to another city.
Although God does not recognize the political borders of men, God has determined that men are to be subject to both Him and the manners of men... even man's concept of borders.
This is affirmed when Christ submitted to the paying of taxes to king-pretenders.
Pretenders who at the time were the anthesis to Christ's kingdom, yet allowed by God to exist for God's set purpose.
Although there is allowance for special circumstances to traversing borders, or even 'laws' of men, a circumstance doesn't mean a pattern is to emerge.
When it was perceived Christ was violating the law by picking food on the Sabbath, a lesson was clarified that seemingly taught that the law serves man.
When man submits to the spirit of the law, not its spiritless enforcement, the law is fulfilled and man is set free.
Not free to 'sin' (and become again a lawbreaker), but free to live in Christ and serve his fellowman.
When I think about the political turmoil regarding national borders and why they exist, the lessons can be profound.
Sadly, the greater lessons are not being clarified or even highlighted in news media or from people who should be teaching such clarity.
Instead, noise abounds and facts are obscured.
Or the facts are simply unknown, and thus ignorance reigns... and people with many things in common are divided and instigated to hate one another.
God's kingdom exists beyond the natural borders of the earth (rivers, oceans, mountains).
His kingdom exists beyond the political borders men have drawn for themselves.
A political border exists for a reason and good purpose.
A jurisdiction, in human terms, is limited.
God's jurisdiction, however, is not limited.
When God prevented Paul from traveling into a certain region of Asia, one should not assume that God had not been working in that area, or had previously rejected that area.
God is Sovereign over all the earth.
Always has been.
It is a matter of man's understanding as to 'how' God has always been Sovereign.
This is why the notion of 'Christendom' interpreted through man's political boundaries is erroneous.
Christendom, when properly defined according to the Spirit, is the kingdom of God established on earth by Christ.
Its 'geography' was not restricted to Judea when Christ walked the earth.
Instead, it exploded onto and over the earth in ways only a view into the spiritual realm can show us.
This is why Today, when looking at countries that resemble little to no cultural or lawful influence of the law of Christ, one should not assume that God is absent in such places.
Or that somehow, the kingdom of God has not yet come near those places.
Such a view is typically human, but carnal at best... religiously blind at worst.
Notice how God has brought about His glory in ways beyond any man's understanding.
Behind so-called 'enemy lines' has God not only revealed Himself, but has also created men in His image and His likeness.
This is why it is repugnant for religious people to instigate hate while at the same time thinking themselves as 'Christians' (acting and speaking as Christ would).
Blind hypocrites.
A border is to be acknowledged and recognized, but a human being is not to be maligned or dehumanized.
Laws are to be upheld and enforced, but not to the point that the law of Christ is trespassed and evil is argued as good.
There was a time a U.S. president demanded a certain wall be demolished, but in a politically foreign land.
Yet in and among that 'foreign' audience God's kingdom had already triumphed so many centuries before.
There were Christians present during that speech, yet likely unrecognizable by other Christians due to nationality and other myopic ideas of men.
Ideas that, when not filtered through Christ, cause division in our hearts and minds.
It is less an issue of an American dream, or safeguarding American ideals or an American identity, but rather the dissemination of a spiritual teaching that is found in and beyond American borders.
As God allowed what is termed 'America' to rise and conquer the world temporal, so God can also bring about a great crash to such an entity.
Let us begin to correcting identities which, when explored, promote more strife than bring unity.
To forward ideals of men that are void of Christ's spiritual teaching is to teach things dead and deadly.
The spiritual teaching is eternal, and obviously existed before anything political was understood by man's mind.
This is why an 'American Christian' shouldn't be considered different from a 'Mexican Christian', or 'Russian Christian', or 'Chinese Christian', or an 'Arab Christian'... or day I say a 'Muslim Christian', or 'Hindu Christian', or 'Jewish Christian', etc..
If we focus more on the latter identifier (the Christ identifier) rather than the one defined by man (political identities of nationalism or religions of men), we may notice the eternal kingdom of God behind, before, and beyond the temporary kingdoms of men.
While we are all called to enter this eternal kingdom, not all of us are called to journey beyond political borders.
Although some laws of men may be erroneous, steeped in prejudice and fear, or simply 'bad'... they are to be respected and obeyed regardless of how frustrating they are to the human spirit.
In such frustration did Christ prevail and triumph.
Read Part One: Identity According To Clothing.
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