24 January 2002 Editorial:
Who's Kingdom?

Larry Kirkpatrick

As Christian people, we are to pursue the interests of our Father's kingdom -- not the development of our own kingdom. Heaven's agenda is to prepare a people -- for heaven. The agendas that we ourselves might develop or adhere to inevitably have in them that which our Father cannot endorse. They are human agendas, demonic agendas. Seeking their own kingdom first, they cannot in sincerity advance God's kingdom. They are kingdoms of delay and compromise.

The heart is desperately wicked -- who can know it? It is a fallen heart, full of deceit and deception. Self-deception is no stranger to it. Apart from divine intervention, none of us could or would desire even to put God's kingdom first. But so often we would rather go half-way with God. We'll willingly claim acceptance of at least part of His vision, while stubbornly, perhaps not even so aware of it ourselves, we fasten to it the anchor-weight of our own soiled motivations.

The 144,000 standing on Mt. Zion with Jesus at the end (Revelation 14:1-5), have forsaken their own agendas and their psychological poisons and rationalizations. Still unique, still bearing their own distinct individuality and personality, their own Holy Spirit-developed character, they go through that period following the Lamb "whithersoever" He goes. They close-out with an experience unique, unlike that of any other group.

In their Father's house are many places; in His family remains room for many children. You and I can have our place in the Creator's household. But it will mean His kingdom rather than our own; His goals and agendas rather than our own; His righteousness rather than our own.

Somehow, when we really get down to that, some of us are going to lean over to the thinking that that price is too high. But it's not. Heaven is cheap enough.

What we are used too are our own things that come in at lower personal cost. But then the duration of our interest in those things will never be to eternity. God wants us to have something better. We'll have that when we turn and follow our Jesus wherever He goes.

Our own kingdoms will never measure with God's. They are like little Dixie-cups, easily crumpled, flimsy in their composition. They hold one swift gulp and after that they are used up. Heaven would have us to drink forever of the riches of God's goodness. The deep drafts await us on high. We can set our sights higher than we have. We can let God lift our thoughts even to heaven. But first we must answer that question: Who's kingdom do we seek? And that answer will come, not only in a yes or no utterance even in this moment, but today and tomorrow and the next day and the next week and farther. For the answer is given in the sum of our choices and not the rare, off-choice when we might hope to join in with God. We need renewal every day to make that choice every day. Following the Lamb wherever He goes means also wherever He's yet to go.

Let's all make that journey in His company together.

Pastor Larry Kirkpatrick is an ordained minister of the gospel. Since 1994 he has served in the American Southwest as pastor to several churches. He received his BA in Religion from Southern Adventist University in 1994 and a Master of Divinity from Andrews University in 1999 with a specialization in Adventist Studies. While in Michigan he was employed by the General Conference at the White Estate Berrien Springs branch office. More important than his scholastic preparation has been his immersion in the biblical and Spirit of Prophecy materials. He is author of the 2003 book Real Grace for Real People. Presently he serves as Pastor of the Mentone Church of Seventh-day Adventists, located near Loma Linda, California. Larry is married to Pamela. The couple presently live in Highland, California along with their two children, Etienne and Melinda.