“Stand up and be counted.”
These words have been echoing in my mind for several weeks now. I know there is an obvious application that we’d read into that, something along the lines of “Let everyone know that you are a Christian”, “Be unashamed of your faith”, etc. The problem is, none of the those stock phrases seemed to be enough of an answer to the directive to stand up and be counted.
Nope, those things might in included in the proper response, but they’re not the main thing, not even close. This is not simply “evangelistic”. This is far deeper.
Here are some questions that have come from these ponderings: Who do I belong to? Where do I belong? Where is my allegiance? What do I do with what I have been given? What do I do with what I can do?
Do you see how these questions are so much deeper than “What do I believe?” Standing up for what you believe isn’t the same thing as what I think we’re talking about here. No, the only way for us to truly stand up and be counted is to affiliate with, to live in, to fully be possessed by (owned by), the Kingdom of Heaven.
A census is basically a documentation of who lives where. It tells the powers that be who is a citizen of what nation, or kingdom. It tells them where you live. For some, that’s a scarry idea. Mark my words, we are called not simply to believe in the Kingdom of God, but to live in it. To be of it. To be marked by it.
I believe we’ve been issued a call to stand up and be counted, not mearly as believers, but as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. We’re going to be talking about what this means for some time to come. IF we get this, not just with our understanding but with our hearts and our lives, EVERYTHING WILL BE DIFFERENT.
Stay tuned.
Good post Kris. As I was reading, the word that kept coming to mind was ‘imbued’. In other words…we bleed the kingdom – that’s what followers of Christ do when they’re cut. And for sure…it has way more to do then simply making a ‘statement’ or ‘declaration’ of belief.