Kingdom thoughts…

This is a premature post – it doesn't have 1 to 1 ratio of questions and answers. I have had three or four ideas bouncing around in my head, and those seems to be growing instead of breaking up into tiny shards and falling to the floor of my brain to be swept up into rascally little dust balls. In fact, the one-word summary might go like, "Hmmmm," or "What?!!?" So, don't go theological on this before investigating, OK?

1. Matthew 11: 12, 13 (NAS) From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force. For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John.
   
   Luke 16: 16 (NAS) The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.
   
   I have been wrestling with this, which might just mean that I have been making it harder than it really is to understand. My study notes (by MacArthur) indicate that this is probably indicative of the magnitude by which people were motivated to repent and turn to God. I don't really know why it bothers me so, maybe I just hadn't noticed it before, and now it is hard to explain so I am sort of stuck?
   
   
2. Jesus never healed one person that didn't desire His healing, never forgave anyone who did not see the need to be forgiven and rebuked everyone who saw the miracles occur, yet did not seek repentance. (Matthew 7: 611; 11: 2024)
   
   This is an older "Aha!" now. I had this a few weeks ago, and I have been really blessed with the amount of application it has in my life. The idea is widespread, so I picked out one or two places to concentrate with my singularfocusing brain. (My wife can do more than one thing at a time, which is one reason that I have such a dependence on her, because I CAN'T!) You can do the math on this one, Jesus could have done a "blanket" miracle in the geographical area or even the entire world if He so wished to do so, healing every sick person, raising every dead person, etc. But He was selective instead, healing those who had the belief and the desire (apparently they had great desire – see #1).
   
   I think the idea plays into ministry, family and many other areas too, although the primary focus is Christ and the Gospel. The other areas by principle follow the idea, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." With regard to the Gospel and Christ, this is a grave issue – whether you will stay in the grave or choose to enter the Kingdom on God's terms.
   
   I take it primarily as an admonishment to myself to first recognize my need for God because of my sin and inability to escape it and its judgment, then to recognize what He has done for me and to credit Him for that. He speaks in another passage in a prayer to the Father, "…You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants." Yes there is the obvious barb at the Pharisees and scribes of the day, but it is not limited to them.
   
   It is important to remember what some before us have already considered. You simply cannot arrive at the proper conclusion of this on reason (thinking) alone. Instead you need a dose of faith in the Word of God to understand it. The rich trust in riches most easily, and faith is placed in their ability to produce their own wealth and comfort and security. The intellectual trusts in his education to explain the world around him. The proud trusts in himself to make his way in the world. Yet, Christ points out that the "infants" the less educated, the poor, the humble, accept the will of God by faith because they know their own need.
   

   
   Most of us fit the description of the Pharisees in Luke 11: 3944 to one extent or another. We have a certain level of cleanliness, but we only know how to appear clean outwardly, and we often confuse that with inward cleanliness. It is this confusion that causes some not to choose the gospel, instead they try their best to be good people or "follow the Golden Rule." I think highly of such people, they are good citizens, they are often generous and helpful and neighborly. But often, they do not see their own need for God to forgive them, and so have brought on themselves eventual judgment from God.
   
   When we do finally realize that need then it is natural to have a humble heart, which is that of a servant, which is like Christ.
   
   The intellectuals, the rich, the proud will all have their day in court, bowing before Christ and answering to the sign that they were given: The sign of Christ's resurrection. Some will see miraculous healings, wondrous achievements, and in the end will see God's Wrath coming upon them; but will not turn even then, preferring to cry to the rocks to fall upon them instead of repenting. There are many things will be enough to condemn us, (the Creation itself, the Bible) but in the end the judgment is centered on the sign of Jonah – the Resurrection of Christ from the dead.
   
   There are two things that I take out of this: One, that I have to recognize my own need; Two, that there will be many who even in the presence of great miracles will not recognize their need and seek the will of God.
   
   The one keeps me properly aligned to seek God's will and the other to seek those who are also seeking. I see that the more time and effort Christ spent in a town, the more that they were accountable for in judgment.