GOD INCARNATED IN YOU
BRIGHT

CHRIST YOUR LIFE

A LAUGHING GOD

22/10/22 14:45
laugh44

The Reader’s Digest used to have a section called ‘Laughter the Best Medicine.’
Laughter always goes with freedom from fear, innocence, friendship and being ourselves. Some people are supremely funny in a good way. I have listened to Godly people of great wit and humour who have you in stitches and tears rolling down your face.
 
I believe Jesus would have been witty and funny. Anyone who is really alive is. But the Son is far more than a projection of our best selves and Father certainly more than a jolly Father Christmas of the Sky. Laughter is a symptom of joy. Recently I shared a story of an encounter with an angel in heaven. The angel was most matter of fact, entirely himself and somewhat witty. But a friend did not think the angel dignified enough. Personally, I suspect that in her eyes the angel was not religious enough. But God is not religious or inhibited and neither is heaven. This is a place where the inhabitants are supremely themselves.
 
But there is nothing selfish about the life of heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven on earth cannot be defined in terms of license and revolution. Neither is it defined as a better version of the present or a geriatric return to the past. The Kingdom of Heaven begins with Christ in you and reveals itself as Christ being all and in all.
 
‘For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him’ Col 1.16 NIV.
 
The Kingdom of God began with the appearance of Jesus. It germinated when the holy seed was cast into the ground at the cross. It began its expansion at Jesus’ resurrection and received its divine power at Pentecost. Transformation of ourselves as individuals and of the creation at large begins when we agree with Father than Christ Himself is our life. The spread of the Kingdom is so simple – it’s Christ in us.
 
In The Age recently there was an article based on some research into the things that produce happiness.
 
‘Be a good neighbour, a non-smoker, a hard worker and a regular exerciser. Perhaps someone like Ned Flanders, from the famous cartoon series The Simpsons. Only with a glass of wine in his hand, and not necessarily Christian.’
 
The curious words are ‘n0t necessarily Christian.’ I wonder why. I have some suggestions. Christianity as a religion may not change your life. Jesus Christ will. He will make a difference to our quality of life if we are filled with His person and not just attached to a construct. The Kingdom of Heaven manifest is not a religion. It is the person of Jesus alive in Believers by the Spirit of Sonship – which means Jesus’ disciples alive in society as sons of God. Life flows from Jesus. Not from condemning Muslims or rants against immorality. Jesus is not in favour of dehumanising religions or the persecution and degradation of people. He is against death and for life. He comes to love people, to reveal Father as the Father He is and to multiply life.
 
‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full’ John 10.10 NIV.
 
‘Not necessarily a Christian.’ But maybe a Christian nevertheless. Are we living from a religion or a person? Increasingly Believers are embracing the latter. They are living in Jesus and knowing their Father. They are living from where He placed them. In Father’s presence and more. In His heart. Here one may not always ‘be happy’ but one will have peace and joy. Cultural Christians can resent those whose life is Christ. Jealousy can arise because they live in the favour of God and they are more free – free because they are less religious and actually ‘sons.’ But not of the slave woman.
 
‘But what does Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son’ Gal 4.30 NIV.
 
The key feature of the New Testament age is Christ in you. This is not the church as an institution. It is the church that is Christ come in you, Christ come in the flesh, Christ expressing Himself as His people in the church. This is the church Jesus builds. This is the manifestation of Himself as His people. Christ in you cannot help but produce transformation – of ourselves personally, the people we touch and the society in which we live. We are ‘Kingdom’ when we are the expression of the King who is our life.
 
‘To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory’ Col 1.27 NIV.
 
As sons/daughters we will be visionaries. We will think out of the box because we have the mind of Christ and the spirit of the new creation. We will not be bound by useless ideas, fear or greed. Don’t imagine that the Kingdom of God is some expression of the right or the left. Don’t think for a moment that you can have the present social system with Jesus added as a footnote. Don’t fall into the conceit of entitlement. Don’t be so naïve to think that God is on the side of any of the nations, including your nation. There is nothing of greed, coercion and force in the Kingdom of Heaven. His Kingdom was not of this world. But it will take root in the world and displace all that does not grow out of His person.
 
It’s possible to be a Christian, yet not be saved. Possible to be a Christian and unhappy because we are not whole, not in Him and He in us. Possible to be a Christian and know nothing of His life and light. Possible to be a Christian and be devoid of His Spirit. There’s a kind of Christianity that teaches in vain the commandments of men. Then there is the real kind in which Jesus is our life.
 
‘And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory’ Col 3.4 NLT.
 
The Kingdom of Heaven is the expression of the risen Jesus, the overflowing of Christ in you and the manifestation of Jesus’ fullness and diversity as the church. It is because Christ really is in you manifesting Himself as His people that heaven comes to earth.

TRINITY IN YOU