You Are God's Righteousness!

There was a television mini-series in the 1980's that was called Shogun. It depicted the story of an English ship's navigator captured by the war lords of feudal Japan in the16th century. The Shogun, as their king was called, literally dealt life and death to those he ruled. No one was able to do or even say anything that would go against what the Shogun had ordered. What he said was 'law'.

photo courtesy of mindspring.com

Towards the end of the series, the hero gains such knowledge of the language and culture that he too becomes a Shogun. One day he hangs a dead chicken on a tree to let it "tenderize", a procedure unknown to that culture. He tells them that anyone who takes it down before he says will die. But he is suddenly called away to defend one of his villages and it is many days before he returns. Meanwhile the chicken is smelling very badly and gets worse each day, until no one can stand it any longer. Finally, one old man volunteers to take it down. It is the man who has been a good friend to the hero and taught him the language.

When the Shogun returns and sees the chicken cut down, he asks who did it. When told, he goes through the house looking for the old man, laughingly saying 'I'm glad you had the courage to take it down; I forgot to do so before I left. It must have been terrible for you." But he cannot find him. His wife, seeing the Shogun looking for the old man in apparent good humor, realizes that he had not meant what he said. Carrying his sword, she kneels before him and tells him that his word was carried out - the old man was killed for touching the chicken.

All a king has to do is 'speak' and people are at his beck and call. He rules his domain. If he doesn't like the way something is being run, all he has to do is say the word and it will change. You are a king's kid, a daughter of the King of kings! You are joint-heir with Jesus to everything that belongs to God. Galations 4:1-2 states that even though the heir is a baby and has to be taught and taken care of for a time, he is still a king's kid and everything belongs to him.

Romans 5:17
"for if by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One man, Jesus Christ."

Chicken Feed

While walking through the forest one day, a man found a young eagle who had fallen out of his nest. He took it home and put it in his barnyard where it soon learned to eat and behave like the chickens. One day a naturalist passed by the farm and asked why it was that the king of all birds should be confined to live in the barnyard with the chickens. The farmer replied that since he had given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken, it had never learned to fly. Since it now behaved as the chickens, it was no longer an eagle.

"Still, it has the heart of an eagle," replied the naturalist, "and can surely be taught to fly." He lifted the eagle toward the sky and said, "You belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly."

The eagle, however, was confused. He did not know who he was, and seeing the chickens eating their food, he jumped down to be with them again.

The naturalist took the bird to the roof of the house and urged him again, saying, "You are an eagle. Stretch forth your wings and fly."

But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and the world, and jumped down once more for the chicken food. Finally the naturalist took the eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain. There he held the king of the birds high above him and encouraged him again, saying, "You are an eagle. You belong to the sky. Stretch forth your wings and fly."

The eagle looked around, back towards the barnyard and up to the sky. Then the naturalist lifted him straight towards the sun and it happened that the eagle began to tremble. Slowly he stretched his wings, and with a triumphant cry, soared away into the heavens.

It may be that the eagle still remembers the chickens with nostalgia. It may even be that he occasionally revisits the barnyard. But as far as anyone knows, he has never returned to lead the life of a chicken. 

Reprinted from hopehawthorne.org/Theology News and Notes ,
October, 1976, quoted in Multnomah Message, Spring, 1993, p. 1

What have you been eating lately - steak or chicken feed? Where have you been spending your time - in the big blue sky or in the dirt of a confined chicken pen? God has created you to be just like Him. He has ordained you to produce and create with the words that you speak. Death and life are in the power of the tongue (Prov 18:21) and your life is affected by every word you speak, good and bad.

Hebrews 5:13-14
"Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."

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