So, when it comes to dining at the great banquet of life, will we be found seated to the left or to the right of love? How will we be defined?

“So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” 
- REVELATIONS 3:16 - 

     Everything that makes up this world, as we know it, as we see it, even to the very remote planets in the great and wonderful universe that surround us, are all called to their place. The mountains and the lakes, the trees and the rivers, the sun and the moon, the air and the earth, are all in their designated place. All that is and lives as all that which abounds about us, by being so found in their own place, demonstrate the principles of predictability and consistency, being that which establishes certainty, and upon which is ultimately assembled the foundation of trust. There is no doubt that when we wake upon the morning, that we know that the sun is in its place, whether we have drawn the curtains or not. This we trust. Can the same trust be placed in the hearts of man? 

     In terms of all mankind, too, by the operations of allegiance, affinity, support, citizenship and ideology, there is that which calls unto us from the right, and also that which beckons unto us from the left, that we, too, in the citizenry of the heart, and the nationality of beliefs, may be found in our own place. We are all, at some point, ushered towards the moment of choosing the place we are to call our own, that place where we may be found. As with the practice of government and rule in the physical land that we occupy as its denizens, here too, we have the choice of "left" and "right". On the right, we have the rightwing; on the left, the leftwing. Leftwing, by definition, refers to a group or person that is not closely bound to traditional ways, whilst in contrast, rightwing describes a group or person that supports the existing social and political order or longs for a return to an earlier time, being in distinction to the left, orthodox, reactionary, conservative. The same is true for the ideological and diplomatic war that wages between the leftwing and the rightwing in the politics of the heart. Do we go left in the direction of rebellion? Or do we go right to what is orthodox? 

     Upon this great divide rests the individual fate and destiny of the hearts and souls of man. On one side, all that which is the world beckons the affections of the heart of man to trust in its immediate reward system, and by doing so, in daily increments, become an increasingly qualified ambassador of its ideology and culture of the now. Through the groundswell of public affinity, and what is fashionable, the world lures the appetites and persuasions of heart towards the embassy of what is popular. In contrast, on the other hand, all of humanity is called to the citizenship of the eternal kingdom of God. We are called to be ambassadors of the land of the King. And serving as the curtain that divides all this is the Word. The Word is the border that separates these two lands. Many people today opt for dual citizenship. The advocates of dual-citizenship would propose that a little compromise is that which is most expedient, and peaceable, and also more fashionable, being the best of both worlds. But on this point, God says He prefers us to be either hot, or cold, rather than lukewarm. And similarly, whilst the same would be principally true for the world system, the reality is that lukewarm achieves the ultimate ends purposed, but disguised, by the world system. It ensures the end result of being that which is so unpalatable to the Father above, that His appetite has need to vomit them out. 

     For those who are not lukewarm, but choose to make their place sure, for those who choose the world are probably those who, at some defining moment, decide that satisfying the rightwing membership requirements for belonging to the kingdom constituency as being, simply, too austere. But God Himself announces the minimum entrance requirements, and they are, in fact, easy. It is simply to believe upon the Sonship, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. The lifelong passport for domicile and citizenship in the kingdom is the seal of the reborn spirit. The living Word is that which is the constitution of the land. The legal tender and currency is love. The community is brotherhood. And culture is the love for the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and for one another. In opposition, the entrance requirements for citizenship of the world system is to live for the sovereignty of self. The constitution is all that would promote one ahead of one’s brother, forfeiting the needs of others. The legal tender and currency is mammon. The community is to exploit the liberties of everyone else. The culture is to pursue the gratifications of the now and the immediate, and to live for one’s own glory. 

     Kingdom citizenship is easy. However, living in the fullness of our kingdom inheritance is both the opportunity and the calling. The manifesto of RIGHT LIVING, as embodied within the guidelines, and also in the spirit and heart of "the living and breathing Word", is the very minimum God expects of us. People say that living according to its charter is simply too much to ask! But, in truth, it is only the beginning, the very minimum of what God expects for us as sons and daughters. The term "going the extra mile" is what God delights in. And who He delights in are those who put in more than what is the bare minimum to simply get by. They not only accept the free gift of salvation, being the bare minimum, but they live the grand relationship that it thereafter permits. The options and opportunities for being found not only in our place (salvation), but in the fullness of His will for that place are limitless (relationship). We can find delight in lending from the French revolutionary era practice of seating representatives of the aristocracy to the right of the presiding officer and the commoners to the left in the assembly hall. Being common sinners, we are called to the right, to royalty in Jesus. The tragedy of life is that it is commonplace for the hearts of man to choose the left. 

     The extra mile that God takes His great pleasure in is when the dividing line that separates the left from right moves ever further to the left, being edged increasingly more in that direction through the demonstration of His love unto the liberty of the captives, and to the multiplication and extension of the kingdom, and to the subtraction of the world. So, when it comes to dining at the great banquet of life, will we be found seated to the left or to the right of love? How will we be defined? 

"As a bird that wanders from her nest, so is a man that wanders from his place." 

- Proverbs 27:8 -

- To God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be all the glory. Forever and ever. Amen and amen.

- Blessings, Wayne Biehn