by Karen Mains
It occurs to me that church is a kind of Space Camp, an Advanced Space Academy that should be readying us for our universal habitation, heaven. Spiritual conversion and the resultant discipleship in following Christ are a kind of introduction to learning to live the heavenly way on earth. (Jesus described this as the Kingdom-of-Heaven-way.)
Church should model to us how to pass through this earthly sojourn with a kind of weightlessness, knowing we will arrive at our eventual destination unencumbered by the burdens of materiality. Kingdom living now should prepare us to walk as those in heaven are walking, should train us how to endure the worst of life’s tumbles and spins and how to emerge as victorious survivors. Kingdom living should inculcate in us the dream of what will be, give us a hunger to dig into the mysteries of deeper realities, and fill us with a lasting yearning that allows us to interrupt the most mundane of activities (bagging groceries at the check-out counter) with the question, “Did you ever want to go to Space Camp when you were a kid?”
Do you ever have moments listening to the news when this overwhelming longing for heaven, for the ideal world without pain, sorrow, affliction, or evil suddenly floods your heart?
Do you ever wonder what it must be like to live in a place solely dedicated to walking the King’s way and obeying and benefiting from the King’s rule?
Are you excited about gathering with God’s people on the weekend because your presence together exponentially increases the spiritual viewing capabilities of the whole? (Yes, there is another world; there is a better way.)
Sadly, David and I are aware (partly because of our own unfulfilled “space” explorations) that many Christians can’t find an earthly “camp” that really prepares them for heavenly living. Our churches, our lives as Christians together, seem to be so bogged down in the mundane, the unexciting, the meaningless, the world- infused, the human-preoccupied, the politically-motivated that we can’t seem to evoke longing any more in the hearts of the Kingdom campers. For too many, nothing “magical” happens any more on Sunday mornings. There is no Spirit present convicting us that we are not really walking the moon walk, nor are we any longer grieved that we have forgotten to turn our face to the stars.
For too many, church Space Camp is not what it is cracked up to be. It is not even a pale imitation, no longer even a creaky simulation, of living in Kingdom time, modeling for all those who care to see what Kingdom living is like, now, in the eternities. Read full content at Hungry Souls
It occurs to me that church is a kind of Space Camp, an Advanced Space Academy that should be readying us for our universal habitation, heaven. Spiritual conversion and the resultant discipleship in following Christ are a kind of introduction to learning to live the heavenly way on earth. (Jesus described this as the Kingdom-of-Heaven-way.)
Church should model to us how to pass through this earthly sojourn with a kind of weightlessness, knowing we will arrive at our eventual destination unencumbered by the burdens of materiality. Kingdom living now should prepare us to walk as those in heaven are walking, should train us how to endure the worst of life’s tumbles and spins and how to emerge as victorious survivors. Kingdom living should inculcate in us the dream of what will be, give us a hunger to dig into the mysteries of deeper realities, and fill us with a lasting yearning that allows us to interrupt the most mundane of activities (bagging groceries at the check-out counter) with the question, “Did you ever want to go to Space Camp when you were a kid?”
Do you ever have moments listening to the news when this overwhelming longing for heaven, for the ideal world without pain, sorrow, affliction, or evil suddenly floods your heart?
Do you ever wonder what it must be like to live in a place solely dedicated to walking the King’s way and obeying and benefiting from the King’s rule?
Are you excited about gathering with God’s people on the weekend because your presence together exponentially increases the spiritual viewing capabilities of the whole? (Yes, there is another world; there is a better way.)
Sadly, David and I are aware (partly because of our own unfulfilled “space” explorations) that many Christians can’t find an earthly “camp” that really prepares them for heavenly living. Our churches, our lives as Christians together, seem to be so bogged down in the mundane, the unexciting, the meaningless, the world- infused, the human-preoccupied, the politically-motivated that we can’t seem to evoke longing any more in the hearts of the Kingdom campers. For too many, nothing “magical” happens any more on Sunday mornings. There is no Spirit present convicting us that we are not really walking the moon walk, nor are we any longer grieved that we have forgotten to turn our face to the stars.
For too many, church Space Camp is not what it is cracked up to be. It is not even a pale imitation, no longer even a creaky simulation, of living in Kingdom time, modeling for all those who care to see what Kingdom living is like, now, in the eternities. Read full content at Hungry Souls
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