See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.”
Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. (Hebrews 12:25-28)
There is never a week that goes by in a large congregation but that an upheaval in someone’s circumstances takes place that is shaking—if not shattering—to them, to their family, or even to that congregation’s life. Still, after having pastored a very large congregation for many years, I have never become numb or desensitized to the shake-ups that happen in people’s lives.
Yet I have become accustomed (though never unfeeling) to their occurrence, because I know that we live in a highly breakable, highly shakeable world. It’s not a matter of people whining about their circumstances; it’s just a true fact that surprising and shocking things happen. While their impact may differ upon each of us, we all experience these kinds of things. None of us, no matter how much we may have seen or been through, is shock-proof.
When we look in God’s Word about how we can become ambassadors of an unshakeable Kingdom while yet living in a shakeable world, there is a great truth that is important for us to capture and embrace—not just as a hope, but also as a practical reality that can happen in and through our lives.
By hearing and responding to Jesus’ call, it is possible for His unshakeable Kingdom to so penetrate the fabric of our lives that even though we may be shocked by circumstances, we will not become shaken by them. Even though things rattle and rupture around us, there comes stability—not because of anything in our own being, but because of something steadfast that is flowed into our lives by the promise and power of God.
The devastating upheavals taking place in our world today underscore how critical it is for each of us to receive and experience that unshakeable Kingdom for ourselves. It begins with new life in Christ, without which, Jesus says, we cannot enter the Kingdom of God (John 3). New birth in Christ brings us into a new dimension of life where the Lord can begin to work that stability into us.
And then, the unshakeable nature of His Kingdom in our lives equips us to become a resource to others—to overflow His constancy, goodness and strength to them. There’s a desperate need for anchor people in our changing world—people who can be depended upon because they are open to being an expression of the solidity of the living God.
