over a period of forty days and
spoke about the kingdom of God.
Acts 1:4
If I asked you, "What did Jesus teach about?" what would you say?
Most of us would site passages like the Sermon on the Mount or the Parables. We might say he taught on marriage and family, ethics and values, richness and poverty, forgiveness and sin. We might say he repeatedly clarified the Old Testament. We might say that he spent a lot of time teaching about love!
Did you say, however, that Jesus taught about the kingdom?
After the resurrection -- when Jesus had the disciples' jaw-dropping and completely undivided attention for forty last days -- the Book of Acts tells us that the kingdom is ALL Jesus taught about about!!!
What is the Kingdom of God? Allow me to over-simplify it: It's wherever God is reigning!
Does God reign in heaven. Absolutely!
Does he reign on earth? Uhhhh ... yes ... and no. Yes, because he is always and invinceable, the absolute king of creation. But also no. No, because he gave us dominion over this world ... and we humans were dumb enough to transfer that authority to Satan. It's not that God isn't more powerful. It's that for now he chooses to rule through us and by our permission.
When will the Kingdom come? It will come in the fullness of time when Christ comes again. BUT if we want to see it now -- and we can -- we must wrest back control from Satan, refuse the sway of sin, and take back g0round for God and his kingdom. The kingdom comes whenever and wherever we give God reign over our lives.
Now, these are momentary victories. But that's why we are called to pray continuously. We can take back the Kingdom moment by moment by moment. We can continually claim corners of our days and corners of our world for God.
In Christ's Love,
a guy who knows that kingdom teaching
also and always includes things like
marriage and family, ethics and values,
richness and poverty, forgiveness and sin
How we live our lives
is how we take back
the kingdom!
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