Tag Archives: kingdom of God

Wide Angle: Turning over a New Leaf or Turning into a New Person?

Posted on January 6, 2022 by salooper57

ied on a cross, was raised on the third day, ascended into heaven, and will return one day. Those are facts, and without them faith in Jesus is illusory. They form the foundation of the faith. But—and this is crucial—they are not the entire building. Continue reading →

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Wide Angle: The Kingdom Comes

Posted on January 4, 2022 by salooper57

When we read the Gospels, it is helpful to remember that Israel was an occupied country. Its terror alert was always at red, and that the occupation forces and their collaborators in the government were constantly on the lookout for … Continue reading →

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Up, Up, but Not Away: The Ascension of Jesus

Posted on September 30, 2021 by salooper57

When the first Ford rolled off an assembly line in 1913, some people thought it ingenious, some thought it a novelty, but only a few recognized it as an era-changing event. The same could be said of the first mobile phone call made in 1973 by a Motorola engineer as he walked down the streets of New York City. Or one might mention the Internet Protocol Suite that was introduced in 1982.  It transformed the computer networks of a few eggheads into the world wide web. These were transforming events, but at the time most people missed their significance. Continue reading →

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God The Builder (2 Samuel 7)

Posted on September 6, 2021 by salooper57

2 Samuel 7 has been called “one of the most important chapters in the Bible.” Here we explore its importance to the biblical story of Jesus and to our lives.

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Asking Questions of John 3: Why Did Jesus Interrupt?

Posted on August 26, 2021 by salooper57

We are asking questions of John 3. Here is one: Why does Jesus abruptly change the subject and talk to Nicodemus about the necessity of being born again and about the kingdom of God? So here’s the picture: Nicodemus is … Continue reading →

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How to Seek the Kingdom

Posted on August 22, 2021 by salooper57

…if we don’t give priority to seeking his kingdom, we’ll never find it. “Seek second the kingdom and his righteousness” and you’ll be wasting your time. But that’s the way God intended it. The half-hearted, the religious dabbler, the spiritual dilettante never see the kingdom. “The kingdom of heaven,” Jesus once said, “is like a treasure hidden in a field.” Any number of people can pass right by it and never know it’s there. It is the one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness that is filled, not the one who nibbles at it. It is “he who seeks [who] finds,” not he who daydreams. Continue reading →

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You Can’t Measure Success While the Game Is Still Being Played

Posted on August 17, 2021 by salooper57

We play a game at our house called Ticket To Ride. The game is played on a board where railroad routes are outlined to cities all over the country. Each player draws three route cards worth varying numbers of points, … Continue reading →

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The Kingdom Commission

Posted on August 15, 2021 by salooper57

Earth is in a civil war – a spiritual war, really, though we must understand that spiritual means more than religious, or mystical or emotional. Spirit is un-bodied personal power, and earth is caught in a cosmic struggle between opposing … Continue reading →

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How to Set Your Heart on Things Above

Posted on July 28, 2021 by salooper57

Craig Larson tells about driving to work in a suburb of Chicago and seeing an SUV with the words Texas Longhorns prominently displayed on the spare tire case. The trailer hitch was adorned with a steer-head. The license plate frame … Continue reading →

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The Role of Witnesses: Revolutionary or Religionist?

Posted on December 31, 2020 by salooper57

Once the disciples had grasped the big picture – that the kingdom of God had broken into our world with Jesus’s resurrection – they began telling others. They started functioning, just as Jesus said they would, as witnesses to him and the resurrection.

We will go wrong if we think those early followers of Jesus thought they were spreading a new religion. Nothing could have been further from their minds or more repugnant to their hearts. They were Jewish people who worshiped the God of Abraham, who had acted through Jesus to bring the world under his rule and would take further action still.

The apostles didn’t think of themselves as starting a religion but as carrying on a revolution. They announced that Jesus, not Caesar nor anyone else, was the rightful ruler of the world. Continue reading →

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