Well, hello. Maybe you didn’t know this. I’m currently writing a book. I’ve authored three books and have been published before. That was some 30 years ago though, and I’ve kind of forgot how much work it is. I’m Dave Scherrer. I’m the president of One Hundred-Fold Ministries, and in writing this book, I wanted to create something that helps believing Christians understand more deeply the wonder of the Gospel of the Kingdom. I think I’m about halfway done, I’m hoping to publish in 2025. I’ll get back to that in a moment, but right this minute, you’re listening to Kingdom Offerings.

That’s the podcast environment of One Hundred-Fold Ministries. And we love to bring up thoughts that bring curiosity in the believer regarding the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. My thinking is, is that we as Christians don’t think enough about this beautiful reality. But on that opinion, I don’t have to take my word for it. Smarter people than me have the same concern. The respected scholar, Dr. Gordon Fee, offered these sobering words.

He said, “You cannot know anything about Jesus, anything if you miss the Kingdom of God. You are zero on Jesus if you don’t understand this term.” He says, “I’m sorry to say it that strongly, but this is the great failure of evangelical Christianity. We have had Jesus without the Kingdom of God, and therefore, have virtually done Jesus in.” That’s Dr. Gordon Fee.

Jesus without the Kingdom. That’s not just vanilla ice cream without chocolate syrup. I mean, that’s a personal preference. It’s more like a car without an engine, or an electrical appliance with no place to plug it in. But there’s a difficulty. The difficulty is, is that the Kingdom of God is really a very big idea. I think you can call it the biggest idea in the universe, which is why when Jesus tried to talk about it, he told stories.

Seemingly, the very best that we can do as finite beings, when we are considering the infinite, is to tell a story. “The Kingdom of God is like,” you remember Jesus saying, “It’s like a treasure hidden in a field. It’s like a mustard seed. No, more like a pearl of great price.”

Jesus is trying to say to me, “You have no hope, Dave, of fully understanding the Kingdom of God just yet, but let me try and help you with this story.” So scholars and theologians have applied themselves to the task of explaining or applying the Kingdom of God, but frankly, most of us need a story.

So let me tell you a story. So I told you about the book. This is an original story from the first chapter of my book that I’m hoping will come out next year, and it’s called “A Parable on More”. A parable on more, because the Gospel of the Kingdom offers us so much more.

The teacher studied the student for a moment, and then asked him. “Once, God himself told a man he could have one wish. Do you remember that story?”

“Well,” said the student, “if I have the story that you’re referring to rightly in mind, and that isn’t exactly how I remember it, as though God were a genie in a bottle.” And the student sort of smiled smugly. He continued to answer the teacher. “King Solomon was once visited in a dream by the one true God at Gideon, and God said to the king, ‘Ask for anything that you want for me to give you.’ “

The teacher pushed back. “Does that not sound like a genie in a bottle to you?”

The student stopped smiling. “Well, it doesn’t seem right to think of God Almighty in such a manner.”

“Oh,” said the teacher, “How exactly are we to think of God except as He has revealed Himself in scriptures? Have you another way?”

“Teacher,” the student whined. “You know what I mean. It’s just that…”

The teacher smiled. He offered the youth an olive branch in his expression, “It’s all right, son. I’m just baiting you. Let’s circle back to where we started. Tell me, if God came to you in a dream and said to you, ‘Ask for whatever you want me to give to you’, what would you ask for?”

The teacher now continued, “I can see in your eyes that just now you are refreshing your memory of the story we were talking about. You remember that Solomon sought wisdom and was granted that. And you’re trying to remember what God would not have been as pleased with. Well, let me just tell you so that we don’t stall out here. God essentially said to the king in this dream, ‘Good choice, young king. In asking for wisdom, and not long life, or money, or death to your enemies, you asked well.’ Since he asked well, God granted Solomon three wishes: the one that Solomon asked for, wisdom, and then two things that he didn’t ask for: honor and wealth.”

“My son, think before you answer. God seems to offer more than what he is offering on the top of our minds, that’s right in front of us. Think well, as if God indeed is asking you, ‘What can I, God Almighty, offer you that cannot be taken away?’ “

The student was quiet for a long time, looking at his feet, as though his shoes might give him an answer. “Ummm, oh…” he hesitated, as he offered to start.

The teacher interrupted, “Don’t ‘ummm’, as if you’re getting ready to phrase a question. How did Jesus put it to the blind man – ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ Isn’t that what he said? Now that’s a very, very, very big, open-ended question. That sounds like a wish could be granted. I’m asking, ‘Did the blind man ask well?’ “

The student said, “Well it seems so – he got his sight.”

“That’s very true. And the people did marvel, and this miracle served the plans of the Messiah. But let me ask again, ‘Did he ask well?’ Is it possible that that very afternoon, after receiving his sight, that he might be struck in the eyes accidentally with a flaming torch and that he could lose his sight again?”

“Teacher, that’s pretty far-fetched, isn’t it? I mean…”

“Is it? Doesn’t something similar not happen all the time, just as you think something just went right, everything goes wrong? Son, stop before you make a fool of yourself. Will he not eventually lose his sight in five years, in 20 years, maybe when he is 80 if he lives that long? Will not his eyesight grow worse? Why would someone use their one wish for something that will most assuredly be eventually taken away with the relentlessness of life? Son, think!”

The teacher whispered to the student as if his life depended upon it, “What can only God offer to you that cannot be taken away?”

That question triggered a memory from inside the student. Looking up from his feet, he answered confidently. “Forgiveness.”

“Good! Good,” said the teacher, while smiling a little bit. “That was one wish. What else do you want God to offer you?”

“What do you mean ‘What else’? I just answered your question. Are you saying that was wrong?” The student was easily tempted to anger. As for many, pride was still an issue for this student.

“Did we not just see the God of all things has more to offer?”

The student drilled the teacher with his eyes looking to see if there was a hidden trick question or a missing answer that the teacher wanted him to parrot back. Teacher’s face was open and honest.

Teacher tried again. “Son, look at me. Does the God of all things have more for you that only He can offer?”

“I don’t know, eternal life?”

“Don’t ask me. Tell me what you want.”

“Eternal life. I want eternal life.”

“ All right? What kind of eternal life?”

The student again looked at the teacher’s face. He was still open and honest.

“No, really, I want to know,” the teacher probed. “What kind of eternal life do you want?”

The student started off slowly, kind of setting his mind to the task. “I guess a meaningful, eternal life, one that honors God and glorifies Him, brings Him joy, maybe a productive eternal life that’s not a wasted life, I guess.”

The teacher quipped back in, “You guess? Okay, as guesses go, I guess that’s a good guess. What else?”

Well, the students started to gather some steam right here. “An eternal life of joy, I think, a special kind of divine joy that’s not dependent on my circumstances, on whether I was blind or not.” The sentence caused a student to look at the teacher for approval, and the teacher’s face did not change.

But he said, “Good. What else?”

“I want shalom. I want that perfect peace that Christ promised. I don’t actually know what that peace is. I wake up every night worrying about everything, and now that I think about it, I don’t really want mere life. I want an abundant, eternal life. I want streams of living water to flow from me.” The student’s voice was rising. “I want to seek first his Kingdom. I want to seek first his righteousness. And I want to lay aside treasures in heaven. I want to do more than what Jesus even did, just as He promised that we would. I want my faith to offer the healing to deep wounds of the lost and lonely. I want to have the confidence that I am advancing the Gospel of the Kingdom in ways that I cannot see just yet. I want to pursue His priorities on earth. I want to live life without regret, without shame, guilt, and fear. I want the full list of the fruit of the Spirit.”

The student looked at the teacher. The student straightened himself up. He stood toe to toe, chin to chin, and eye-to-eye with his mentor. “Teacher, I want it all. I want more. I want everything that God has set aside for me in His Kingdom. Teacher, what do I have to do to have it all? Not just 30-fold, not just 60-fold, not even 100-fold, if there’s more than that, teacher. I want it all. I want more. Look at me, teacher, what must I do to have it all?”

The teacher was pleased, but his face showed some sadness. “Have you asked?” The student was silent.

“Do you want these more than anything here on Earth? Are you willing to give up everything to renounce the world?” Teacher continued, “Will you pursue these things with all your heart and soul and mind and strength? Are you abiding well in Christ? Are you disciplined and is your jaw set like a flint toward what you want? Son, do you believe that God wants you to have these things?”

While looking down, the student nodded slightly.

“Son, you say you want more. But I wonder, are you settling for less?”

The student began to weep. He put his hands to his head in anguish. He covered his eyes. “Teacher..” His volume was just a whisper, it was all he had. “Teacher, can you help me? I’m so lost right now.”

“Peace, Son. I can help you. God is for you. Be quiet now. Listen. What is God saying to you?”

After a moment, with his eyes glistening with tears, the student looked into the quiet eyes of his teacher and he said with some confidence. “He is saying, ‘Come into my presence.

Let’s rest for a bit.’ “

“And?”

“Now He is saying, ‘And when we are done resting, my young Elijah, follow me.’ “

That was A Parable on More. Thanks for listening in. This is Kingdom Offerings, and let me know what you thought of the story, A Parable on More. And I’m wondering whether you want more.

You can reach me at dave@100foldministries.org .

Peace.