Remember the Kingdom of God

 

Dear Church

Many have been praying often for the global church. For us to be reminded of God and his kingdom and that the Kingdom of God is not of this world. We are in this world, but not of this world. Our earthly world is really struggling right now. There is so much pain and injustice. It’s heartbreaking. People have let go of things they used to hold dear and value. Our light as the church has dimmed in leading the way. The path ahead seems dark and obscured. Where have we wandered off the path of life? Jesus said very clearly that he came to bring life and life in abundance. That abundant living seems to have been swallowed up with fear and lies.

There is a desperate need for the veil to lift and for us to see clearly ahead. The current moment is calling for deep repentance from us and lament for what has been let go of, thrown away and lost. We need to let the tears flow while down on our knees with our heads bowed before God. Destruction has been the result of sinful actions, of letting go of God and his ways. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. But at the same time, we have the mind of Christ, and the Spirit of God dwells in us. The Holy Spirit is calling us, drawing us back to those ancient paths, the ones we used to walk on and to a simple way of living. The path that requires sacrifice, humility and obedience. With the focus of loving God and loving others. With treating others as better than ourselves. A time to sit and reflect and unpack what that means. How do we show that we love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind? What does it even look like in practice? What does the word ‘all’ mean to us? How do we then love others on the back of loving God so completely?

There is an urgency for us to remember this path of love and to open our eyes to the incredible pain all around us. For us to find ways to ease that pain and bind up the broken hearted. To look around and allow the Holy Spirit to direct us to pick up the building blocks that we have dropped. Those blocks that we were building our lives with. Gold, silver and precious stones to lay down upon the foundation of Christ alone, our cornerstone. Compassion, empathy, care, love and a godly justice that seeks to right the wrongs in our world. To seek after the Shalom of God which looks towards restoration, renewal, redemption and mutual flourishing on earth as it is in heaven.

God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit co created each and every living soul and put their joint image into us. They then called for that image, that imago dei, to be seen, to be heard, to be loved and to be cared for as if it was God himself in front of us. This calls us to honour our fellow people. To raise the standard of loving, where everyone is included and no-one is left out. Where a person feels wanted in our presence and never cast aside. Where they feel valued and spoken well of. Remember we are bringing heaven to earth. Our goal is ‘on earth as in heaven.’ To see everything through kingdom lenses. The colour and brightness is intense. It is so brilliant as it shines from God’s throne of grace and righteousness.

Imagine heaven for a moment. Let’s close our eyes, relax and breathe in the moment. What can you hear? What can you feel? What can you smell and taste? What can you sense? Open your eyes ‘in heaven’ and what do you see? Are you seeing and hearing the same here on earth? What can we do to change this? The Bible describes heaven as a wonderful and beautiful place. A place where God dwells, where his robe, his presence, fills the temple. The goal is not to dream of it for one day in the distant future, the goal is to live it right now, here on earth. The kingdom now and the kingdom not yet.

Remember the words of Jesus, remember his actions and his great love he displayed. He came and changed everything with a new covenant and a new command. He is the only way, the truth and the life. He spoke of things like calling us to watch our anger levels and to love our enemies. Radical choices for us to make. Daily choices for us to make.

Let Jesus be the air we breathe, let him be our daily bread, let him infuse us from top to toe with his power, let him be everything to us because there is no-one like him. We are complete in him. Then let him lead us to those who need us most, the poor and vulnerable, the excluded, the sick, the marginalized, to people who might have dirt on them and smell, to the people that society casts aside as ‘less than’, to those in prison, to the children and to the elderly. He came for these people. For the lost, the lonely and the sick. He mentions these people. He wants us to care for these people in particular. To stand with them in solidarity. To stand up for them. To advocate for them. To fight for them. To wash their feet and to love them. To stand against any injustice against them.

If there is ever a doubt in our minds when we are trying to discern between wrong and right, we can know the truth. We can know the right choice to make. Keep going back to Jesus, keep going back to what the Kingdom of God stands for. Look for the greatest commandments, look for the Beatitudes, look for the fruit of the Spirit. Look for what Jesus tells us to be clothed in, as God’s chosen and dearly loved people, saved through Jesus’s death and resurrection, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Be willing to be persecuted for his sake and to have endurance to run the race of faith. To put our trust and our hope in God.

The more we look into the face of Jesus, the more we look into the mirror of his love, the more we see the reflection of his love in and through us. If we do this each and every day and throughout the day, we will find ourselves melting in his presence and becoming more like him. With his love flowing through us, we will remember the old paths. Fear will leave us. We can refute the lies and allow truth to fill us. We can be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Love will tumble out of us. God’s shalom, his peace, his justice and his love will be on display. The world around us will look different and it will be different. Relationships will be restored, wars will come to an end, hungry tummies will be filled, there will be sharing so that everyone will have enough of everything they need. Pain, loneliness and exclusion will be replaced with comfort, care and belonging. We will be witness to heaven being pulled down onto earth.

Oh Church, with everything in us, let’s urge each other towards this new picture, this new world with the kingdom of God on full display in and through us. Let’s run towards it. Let’s drop everything that has hindered us and kept us from it. Let’s run and run quickly. There is great urgency for transformation. May we let the Spirit of God flow through us with rushing and gushing wide rivers of love, mercy and joy. There is no time to waste. Let’s run!