The Queen and the King
Last week, Mike and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary by spending a few days in London, England. We had a wonderful time visiting places we had only heard about and learning more about British history.
Seeing the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and hearing about British kings and queens and the history of their relationship with their British subjects made me think about our relationship as Christian believers with our King. After hundreds of years of monarchy in Britain, there was a civil war which resulted in the Parliament accusing King Charles I of treason and having him beheaded in 1649. His son was exiled and an independent government led by Oliver Cromwell was set up. After Cromwell's death, Parliament decided they wanted a monarchy again and invited Charles II to return as king. The newly crowned king, however, had his powers limited by Parliament. Originally, though, the king had absolute power over his subjects. He owned all the property in his kingdom and was entitled to do whatever he wished with what was his. The king's subjects, however, did not appreciate his absolute power over them and pushed for reform. The process of limiting the power of the monarch started in the 1300's with the signing of the Magna Carta and continued to the point where today the Queen has almost no political power. She gives advice to the Prime Minister and has ceremonial duties, but is mostly just a figurehead. The British citizens enjoy the pageantry associated with royal ceremonies and love their Queen, but she has no authority over their lives.
I am afraid many Christians think of our Lord and King the same way. God made us and redeemed us from sin and so has authority over our lives. Many times, though, we do not live submitted to His authority. We enjoy the pageantry of beautiful worship times, like to feel the blessing of His presence and we love him in an affectionate way. If we have problems or questions, we may ask for his advice, but we decide whether we will do what he says or not. We have made God into a figurehead, not our true King.
It is time to invite the King back to the throne of our lives. It is time to make our King truly King again, listening closely to what he says and obeying completely. Either He is Lord of every part of our lives or he is not Lord at all.
Seeing the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and hearing about British kings and queens and the history of their relationship with their British subjects made me think about our relationship as Christian believers with our King. After hundreds of years of monarchy in Britain, there was a civil war which resulted in the Parliament accusing King Charles I of treason and having him beheaded in 1649. His son was exiled and an independent government led by Oliver Cromwell was set up. After Cromwell's death, Parliament decided they wanted a monarchy again and invited Charles II to return as king. The newly crowned king, however, had his powers limited by Parliament. Originally, though, the king had absolute power over his subjects. He owned all the property in his kingdom and was entitled to do whatever he wished with what was his. The king's subjects, however, did not appreciate his absolute power over them and pushed for reform. The process of limiting the power of the monarch started in the 1300's with the signing of the Magna Carta and continued to the point where today the Queen has almost no political power. She gives advice to the Prime Minister and has ceremonial duties, but is mostly just a figurehead. The British citizens enjoy the pageantry associated with royal ceremonies and love their Queen, but she has no authority over their lives.
I am afraid many Christians think of our Lord and King the same way. God made us and redeemed us from sin and so has authority over our lives. Many times, though, we do not live submitted to His authority. We enjoy the pageantry of beautiful worship times, like to feel the blessing of His presence and we love him in an affectionate way. If we have problems or questions, we may ask for his advice, but we decide whether we will do what he says or not. We have made God into a figurehead, not our true King.
It is time to invite the King back to the throne of our lives. It is time to make our King truly King again, listening closely to what he says and obeying completely. Either He is Lord of every part of our lives or he is not Lord at all.
posted by Mike and Nancy Juntunen @ 10:35 AM
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