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God's Timing
Joe Killian • Feb 15, 2018
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DISCLAIMER: I want to be completely transparent here. This is not just "a crummy commercial!" In fact, I had to have my editor approve this particular message before, during and after writing it. Timing is everything right? For the last four years I have been writing a book entitled, Our Journey With God. No, I am not announcing its completion but I do want to share with you what is about to happen. The time has arrived for me to take the Our Journey With God message public. Read through this week's Gospel and you'll catch the drift of what I'm saying.
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.
After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel." Mark 1:12-15
These few short verses mark a pivotal point in Jesus' life as well as John the Baptist's. St. Mark treats Jesus' time in the desert rather briefly. This is especially interesting compared to the story of Jesus' three temptations by Satan in Luke and Matthew. The point is that after His baptism by John the Baptist, Jesus is immediately led into the desert by the Spirit for a time of preparation before beginning His public ministry. After that comes Jesus' proclamation: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel."
For me, Our Journey With God is kind of like my proclamation of the Gospel. It has been an amazing journey up to this point but when I was asked to lead a Lenten parish mission it felt like God was saying to me "It is time, Joe." For four consecutive evenings, I will share the Our Journey With God message as Maria leads worship with songs we've chosen to enhance the message. The message, in a nutshell, is that "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel."
This message is as true today as it was 2000 years ago. And if people think it's a crummy commercial, so be it. I'm delivering the Gospel message He has given to me! Will you?!?
The story continues...I'm still working on the pondless waterfall in our front yard. I shared this project with you two weeks ago in Playin' In the Dirt. Since then I've had to rework sections of the stream three different times because we were losing too much water. I am now an expert on evaporation rates and excessive splash, two causes of water loss. This morning I tore the whole thing apart and I'm starting over.
Have you ever watched DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda? I stumbled across it recently and thoroughly enjoyed Jack Black's performance as a bumbling, noodle selling, kung fu enthusiast, giant panda named P o. Set in ancient China, it is more than a humorous slapstick comedy. The core message of the story jumped out at me as I have been focusing recently on the concept of being. Po is shockingly identified as the Dragon Warrior and he reluctantly enters training. The goal of the training is to receive the Dragon Scroll, which is believed to hold the secret to limitless power. Now I don't want to spoil the big reveal but I will say that what Po realizes is the same as what I speak to in the concept of being and authentic identity. So, where do we find the secret to our "power?" I praise You, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works! My very self You know. Psalm 139:14 God knows it; and we must seek Him with all of our hearts in order to find it. As it was in the movie, the answer is stunningly simple. Our authentic identity is already within us. The challenge for Po in the movie was in seeing himself accurately and not the way others saw him. Even his teacher scoffed at the idea that Po was anything more than an underachieving dreamer who overate when he was anxious. Po's problems are rooted in the fact that he believes the lie of his false identity much more than he does his authentic one. Is it possible that you do the same? Who could have imagined that beneath all of Po's girth lived the Dragon Warrior? What's hidden from view in you? Seek God for understanding as to who He created you to be. Spoiler Alert: the secret of your limitless power is already in you. God placed it there and He wants you to be who He authentically created you to be.
Maria and I have been playing in the dirt a lot recently. First we replaced our French drain and then we embarked on a creative project intended to change the entire look of our front yard. My brother Jeffrey and I installed a new front step.
