14 After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God: 15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mark 1:14 – 15 CSB
Kingdom
Recovery
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God’s story begins with a dream. God dreamed of a creation that would live under His benevolent rule, express His glory, and experience all the attending joys and security. Therefore, God created the heavens and the earth. He placed Man, His ultimate creation, in a beautiful garden to be His representative and cooperatively govern the rest of creation. God’s dream experienced a conflict, however, when man betrayed Him and sought to live independently of Him. This led to God having to judge His creation that had gone so terribly wrong.
God, however, is not One to be thwarted. After the initial conflict and resulting judgments, He began a plan to recover His dream. Although the road was long and somewhat uncertain, God began to move things in a direction resulting in the fulfillment of His divine intention. In this post we want to look at how the recovery began.
The Key to Being Relevant
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There is a lot of discussion today about being relevant. Everyone wants his or her life to count for something beyond the mundane and in the midst of the mundane. Is there a key to being relevant? An Elder Statesman in the Kingdom of God provides the answer.
Extending the Kingdom
Nowhere in Scripture are we ever told to “build the Kingdom of God” here on earth. There are preachers and teachers that will say that, but nowhere do we find this idea supported in the Word of God. God’s Kingdom is the exercise of God’s authority. It is God reigning. And because His reign is firmly established and will never come to an end, it cannot be contested or improved upon. It can, however, be extended. There are three primary ways we can work with the Lord to extend His reign. Can you guess what they are?
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With Just Two Words…
With just two simple words Jesus Christ opened the Kingdom of God to all who would respond. These two words continue to resound from His throne to us today, and we do well to pay attention.
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Kingdom Leadership
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In the Kingdom of God, a leader is simply one follower showing others how to follow.
It’s called being an example of living in the Reign.
M
The Joyful Discovery
The fact that God is beginning to reign in our present time and space is presented throughout the Gospels as good news. And it is indeed good news as God’s reign is the only thing that will truly put things right in our lives no matter how messed up they have been. This good news demands that we respond. In this post we will examine two of the King’s stories that illustrate the joyful response of those who make the joyful discovery of the Kingdom of God.
