Friends,
This is what you need to ponder today: the kingdom of heaven is a kingdom of reversals. It's values would offend the Republican political platform as well as that of the Democrats.
In the kingdom of the world, the rich, successful, educated, intelligent, happy, and bellicose are blessed.
In Jesus' kingdom, it's just the opposite. (Luke 6:20-26)
In the kingdom of the world, king's and politicians are anything but servants.
In Jesus' kingdom, the first come last, and the last are first. (Mark 9:33-37)
In the kingdom of the world, a little of anything is never alot.
In Jesus' kingdom, abject lack is the stuff of abundance. (Mark 8)
In the kingdom of the world, the wealthy are blessed and the poor suffer.
In Jesus' kingdom, you need the endorsement of the poor to get in. (Luke 1:46-56)
In the kingdom of the world, children don't have full stature in the life of civil discourse and do not have the same stature that adults do.
In Jesus' kingdom, the children have full stature, and don't have to pass the grown up test to participate in the life of the kingdom. No, the adults have to pass the kid test to enter it (and usually fail!). (Mark 10:13-16)
In the kingdom of the world, you are expected to hate your enemies.
In Jesus' kingdom, you are expected to love your enemies. (Luke 6:27-31)
In the kingdom of the world, s/he with the most post possessions wins.
In Jesus' kingdom, you can't become a follower of Jesus unless you give all of your possessions up. (Luke 14:25-33)
In the kingdom of the world, the kingdom of heaven is someplace "out there," but certainly no where near hear.
In Jesus' kingdom, the kingdom of heaven isn't far away or a place that can only be accessed through death. In Jesus' kingdom, Jesus says "it's among y'all!" (Luke 17:20-21)
In the kingdom of the world what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours, and what belongs to the government belongs to the government.
In Jesus' kingdom, it ALL belongs to God. (Luke 20:20-26)
Most importantly, in the kingdom of the world, death has the last word.
But in Jesus' kingdom, Jesus gets the last word. And it's a word of LIFE! (Luke 24:1-53)
Today, may you discover the Risen Lord in the unexpected places, blessing, healing, and transforming the world around you. Amen
Pastor Nathan
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2 comments:
I like the way you worded this. It's kind of one of those "duh's" you talk about. I think this is one of those things we all know and most of us believe but making the choice to live our life here and now in the kingdom of God is hard. (Money in this world seems to be a big factor influencing both how we live and how we act. When we are in situations where we do not feel finacially safe we tend to be more agitated and not so loving.)I think now more then ever in our economic situation it's scary, though I know it shouldn't be. In fact now is honestly probibly the safest time to give it all up to God(not just money but the way we live), becuase for some they have nothing left to lose. For those of us with families that have but basicly live from check to check you can feel your heart just start pounding at even the thought of letting go. It feels like you are holding on for dear life thinking you are fighting to keep your family safe and somewhere in the back of your head you know that if you would just give it up to him he would always keep your family safe but still the human in you holds on.
Thank you for all your work
Katie
I think you've nailed this Katie. Trusting God isn't easy...especially where our sense of security is located, e.g. money, and yet even when times are hard and we've had a meal or a roof provided or somehow the Spirit has provided for our daily needs, we know that even when times were immeasurably hard, God was still there in the midst of it.
God has our backs. God always does.
PN
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