Your Lordship, Ladyship, Your Kingdom is no More
Kingdoms come and kingdoms go. A heralded and vaunted king’s power grows but yet eventually dies out and the kingdom if still intact, is left to others more than willing to take a hold of the reins of power. Even today, the rich and powerful will all eventually relinquish their wealth and power to a even more superior and powerful potentate… death.
I watched a Netflix documentary about when a religious commune in Wasco County, Oregon known as , Rajneeshpuram, took over the tiny town of Antelope, OR. In addition to the guru, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the administrator and the Bhagwan’s personal assistant was a woman, Ma Anand Sheela. At the end of the documentary, Ma Anand Sheela, which was currently residing in Switzerland after spending 39 months in a U.S. prison for multiple crimes said: “When I die, I don’t know if I’ll go to heaven or hell. But it doesn’t matter wherever I go, I will create my own paradise.” I couldn’t help thinking just how totally presumptuous it was for Ma Anand Sheela to fantasize and actually believe that her power, influence and opinions would somehow transcend death.
Dear reader, did you know that you have a kingdom? Yes, you are the King, Queen or Lord of your life, the shot-caller, the numero uno, a sovereign.
At least for now.
Riding a roller-coaster is a good example of where we are totally helpless because once the ride commences, we are helpless to change the fact that we are along for the ride no matter what. Life is a lot like a roller-coaster ride, we are all riding whether or not we approve. Surely, the day will come when all of our knowledge, opinion and influence will vanish because a few seconds after we die, we will be in a different existence where our ideas, desires and power will be meaningless. Just as we all had no say in the circumstances of our births, the same will be upon our deaths unless… we do something now. Unlike the roller-coaster ride, there is something we can do to amend how the ride ends. It involves changing our will regarding God’s offer of salvation.
There is only One person I know of that defeated death. The Bible said hundreds of years before He arrived that He was coming and what signs He would do. He healed the sick and raised the dead and resurrected Himself just as the scriptures had foretold. He said that He came to give life, specifically eternal life, for only the cost of giving up your own personnel kingdom and trusting and following Him. The purpose of life in the simplest terms is that this is our time of choice. The choice is basically your kingdom or His? As long as you have breath, you can choose either way. After your last breath, your sovereign choice is eternally sealed. Jesus’ Kingdom is an eternal Kingdom, is yours?
Today is the day of Salvation – who knows what a day will bring? One thing for sure, we don’t know only God knows.