Kingdom Come

Kingdom, Kingdom, Kingdom! That very word seems to carry with it some weird connotations and potential baggage. I know that some of you may not really understand this. I barely do either. But, here's the deal. There is no better synonym to describe what Jesus was intending to set up here among us. So, Kingdom it is.

We are confronted with two kingdoms every single minute of our lives. In every choice we make, whether we know it or not, we consider these two kingdoms.

1. The kingdom of this world.
2. The kingdom of God.

It is all over the Bible. It IS the Bible! It's all around us, but we hardly notice it. Recognizing the difference seems to be most important to God and barely important to us. Look, I don't know how to even begin to share what the Lord is showing me right now about this....but suffice it to say that something clicked for me. Kingdom thinking clicked for me in a way it never had before.

• It is everywhere! Signs of the two kingdoms are everywhere.
• Jesus wants "His Kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven." It's precisely how he taught he disciples to pray and live...in a way that accomplishes this.
• The beatitudes in Matthew 5 are whack! A new way of thinking. Jesus blesses the things that the world could care less about.
• Then, the sermon on the mount proceeds to lay out a totally opposite way of seeing everything....from money to law to anger to adultery to divorce to vows to revenge to love to......you get the point. The way we live, act and react should be totally opposite of what we see around us. Is it? The answer for me: NO!
• The kingdom of God looks like Jesus. Jesus is the living, breathing, earthly example of the kingdom of God.
• The kingdom of God is opposite most of what we see. Kingdom thinking and living is counter cultural, against the grain, radical, and revolutionary!

Let me close with this for now....

It will take me the rest of my life to try to grasp this...and I will still only get a taste.

I think that the more we understand God's desire for his Kingdom, the more it will change the way that we live. It will impact every decision we make. It will change the way we view government and the way we spend money. It often will look foolish (like Jesus did), sound crazy (like Jesus did) and be the opposite of almost everything we see (remind you of Jesus?). But, when we decide to live with the Kingdom of God as our focus, all bets are off and everything changes. Including the church. Or at least it should. And that is our problem. It isn't!

I plan to gradually reveal some of what the Lord is showing me in the days to come...