One of the most life-changing books I have read in the last couple years. Ideas not so new, but so clear we cannot resist the invitation into a life meant for so much more....A few of my notes below on the chapters.
1. Transcendence: You were meant for so much more, what is the big vision, Glory to your purpose? “There is a compelling tendency to forget who you are and what you are made for.”
What is the big thing that you are living for right now?
2. Have you exchanged more for less? Jesus came to rescue us to God glory, community glory, stewardship glory, truth glory.
What is the “less” that tends to capture your attention?
3. The quest for autonomy will always crush transcendence.
4. Kingdom: Where do you pursue the interests of the big kingdom? In exactly the place where you are tempted to pursue the little kingdom. Right where you live and work each day. Ask yourself, what makes your good day good? If true humanity is bound up in community with God and godly community with others, I will never experience it when all my eyes ever see is my own need.
What earth-bound treasures and anxiety-bound needs tend to control you and your responses to life?
5. Civilization: Enculturation of self? The little kingdom does not encourage a humble and accurate view of self, being more dominated by internal conversation than by God’s revelation.
In what ways do you try to get the people around you to follow the rules of your kingdom of self?
6. Costume: Fruit of the costume kingdom: lack of excitement and enthusiasm in the gospel. Are you barely able to get up in time to have a brief personal time of worship before the day? You become like the treasure you seek (Psalm 115:8). Someone who gets his meaning and identity from relationships will become driven by what people think of him, living in unending fear of man.
In everyday life tight now, where are you telling yourself that you are living for God, when you are really living for yourself?
7. Shrink: Sin shrinks the size of your care and concern to the contours of your life.
Has the energy of your life been expended in the narrow world of personal wants, needs, and concerns?
8. Center: Big Kingdom Life means living with Christ at the center of everything I think, desire, say and do. Romans 11:36, for From Him, and through Him and to Him are all things. You cannot be Christ Centered without being cross centered.
What tends to compete with Christ for the center of your world? Responsibility, order, relationships?
9. Death: You must die (deny yourself). Achievement, acceptance, appearance, and possessions may give you identity for a while, they will enslave you and disappoint you in the end. OR you deny yourself, take your cross and follow the Lord and begin to experience the transcendent humanity for which you were created.
In everyday situations and relationships, where are you finding it hard to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ?
10. Focus: You and I are always living to avoid what we dread. If we dread displeasing God more than anything else, because our hears have been captured by a deep, worshipful and loving awe of him, we will live in new ways. (p127)
What is the focus of your life’s’ energies and intentions? Knowing Him, pleasing man, being “productive”, fellowship, serving others.
11. Groaning: There should be, this side of eternity, a dissatisfaction in all of us with the way things are. Ungodliness is about my life being so dominated by desire for present pleasures that my heart will never stay inside of God’s boundaries.
What are the tings that make you groan? My family, my job, lack of depth in relationships, lack of momentum in the big kingdom
12. Jazz: Harmonious: suitable and fitting; existing together in correspondence with others. What makes great jazz work is that it is gloriously unpredictable and creative, while at the same time submitting itself to a set of rules. He has ordained not to play His music alone. Great jazz musicians are not just great players, they are great listeners, playing is always an interaction with what is going on around them.
Where in your life are you tempted to write your won music rather than making harmonious music with the king? My sons.
13. Forgiveness: Every time you ask for forgiveness you recognize the biggest problems you face in life are inside of you, not outside of you. Every time you ask for forgiveness, you make the Kingdom of God visible to others.
Do you find joy in the liberating lifestyle of seeking forgiveness?
14. Loneliness: Big Kingdom living is supposed to look like waiting for the love of your life to return, deepening your love, and preparing yourself for the reunion. The health of this relationship depends not on three or four big moments but on 10,000 little moments.
What are the “other lovers” in your life that compete with your love for Christ?
15. Sacrifice: When you hold everything in your life with open hands for His taking, you expand everything you touch to the size of His Kingdom.
Whose kingdom are you making sacrifices for right now?
16. Anger: Because we are not motivated by what God is trying to accomplish, our anger, and God’s anger do not get along very well. The anger of restoration refuses to condemn, but believes lost rebels can be rebuilt into the likeness of Jesus. He died so you would be angry with sin and the way it has harmed you and everyone around you. Godly anger propels us forward to look for ways to do good (Ephesians 4:2)
17. Hope: If your hope disappoints you, it is the wrong kind of hope. You see, hope in God never disappoints, precisely because its hope IN GOD. Everything else will disappoint eventually.
Where do You look for Hope?
18. Zack believes in…
…the importance of place…sovereignly located
…ministry as a lifestyle
…the redemptive power of relationships
…importance of hospitality, opening up his private world
…living life with patience and perseverance
