THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM

 "This, then, is how you should pray: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." - Matthew 6:9-10

Imagine that you have never driven a car. You are not aware of all the features of a car. Up to this point, you have had to walk everywhere you go. All you are told is that you are about to receive something that will get you anywhere you need to go. The day arrives, and you are given a brand new car. You get in and drive the car. However, the emergency brake is on, preventing you from going faster than 20 miles per hour. No one tells you that you should unlock the brake.
  
Regardless, you are excited because you no longer have to walk to your destination. You are not told that the car has lights, which would allow you to drive at night. Neither are you told about the many other wonderful features of the car. You just know you have a new car that will get you anywhere you want to go at 20 miles per hour. For the rest of your life, you drive this incredible car during the daytime only at 20 miles per hour.

Why would Jesus pray that things on earth would be like they are in Heaven if it were not possible? When Jesus came to earth, He came in order to penetrate the very kingdom of darkness with light. He came to bring healing to sickness, replace sadness with joy, and fill meaninglessness with purpose. He came to change things for the better for a world that had no hope outside of God.

Using the illustration above, Jesus did not come to merely give us a ticket to Heaven (a car that you drive only in the daytime at 20 miles per hour). He came to bring us much more-the Kingdom of God on earth. Nowhere in the Bible will you find the term, gospel of salvation. The Church does not exist for Heaven, but for earth. If it existed only for Heaven, then each of us would immediately be taken to Heaven. There would be no reason for us to remain on earth. So why has God allowed us to receive this new birth and remain on earth? It is so that we might bring the Kingdom of God into our world-our families, our workplace, and our communities.

God wants you to bring the Kingdom of God into the territory He has given you so that His will can be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Your domain is your workplace, family, and community. Ask God to show you how He wants to penetrate the darkness of your domain with His light. Then you will see and experience all the features of this gift that has been given to you.

THE POOR AND THE MARKETPLACE

 

"When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God"(Lev 19:9-10). God has a special place in his heart for the poor. In the book of Isaiah we read these words: "Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh? -Isa 58:6-7 So how does God want us to care for the poor? Is it through government welfare programs, food stamps, or soup kitchens? God gives us his answer in the Old Testament story of Boaz, Ruth, and Naomi. It was customary for farmers to not glean their entire fields in order to leave some of the crop for the poor to glean. This allowed the poor to come at the end of the day and work to receive their provision. This is how the widow Naomi was able to care for herself. Boaz allowed the poor in his community to come to his field at the end of the day to get the leftovers of the harvest. Notice that God created a partnership between the marketplace and the poor. I believe it is the marketplace that has a responsibility to the poor. By providing an opportunity to glean something from our businesses through an opportunity to work, we provide provision and dignity to the poor. What are the gleanings in your business? Consider how you might serve the poor.

THE COST OF MIRACLES

 “Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit'” (Matt 1:19-21).

There is often a cost associated with a miracle. Mary carried a miracle in her belly. No other woman in history had the distinction of birthing the Son of God. It was a one-time event in history. However, for 30 years, she was viewed as a woman who was often judged, shamed by public opinion, rejected by her own, and thought to be an adulteress by her townspeople.

I can only imagine her cries at night, “You are God, you can help them understand I am not an immoral person. I am doing the will of God! Why must I be shamed and judged the same as a prostitute!?” God’s silence must have been difficult. She would not be accurately viewed for years to come. In many ways, she was called to the same path as Jesus was. He was rejected by His own people, too.

Her fiancé, Joseph, was going to break off the engagement when he discovered she was pregnant. Had he not had a visitation from an angel, he too would have rejected her. However, he married her and also carried the stigma associated with a pregnancy that most assumed was immoral.

Sometimes we are called to experience rejection for the Son of God living in us. When we carry the cross of Christ, the world and even our families sometimes look at us as though we have a few marbles out of place. Jesus said that He did not come to bring peace. Even our families would judge us and think wrongly of us.

Yes, a miracle often has a cost. But that miracle is the seed for something imperishable. It is the seed of eternity in our hearts.

THE WAY OF THE CROSS

 ” … come down from the cross and save yourself!” (Mark 15:30).

God calls each of us to the cross in order for all the things that are alive in our flesh to die. Daily, we are invited by the enemy of our souls to love ourselves and come away from the cross.

What are the signs that you have come off the cross? When you are overly concerned with appearance, you have come off the cross. When the words of others cause you to react and defend, you have come off the cross. When you strive to have your world in perfect order, you have come off the cross. When you complain about circumstances, you have come off the cross.

The way of the cross means letting go and letting God have His way in every matter, every relationship, every outcome.

“When God starts to deal with the old nature, He heads straight for the center of all that you hold most dear. Allow Him to bring you to the cross in the very center of who you are. Don’t grumble and become agitated when the process starts. Silence and peace will help you much more than being upset. To bear the cross simply, without letting your self-love add all sorts of dilemmas to it, will make your life easier. When you accept the cross, simply allow it to do the work God intended, you will be happy because you will see what good fruit is produced in you.”*

Those were the words of Francois de Fenelon, a man who lived in the 1600s and was considered one of the most godly men of his time.

The apostle Paul sums up the way of the cross: “For, as I have often told you before and now say again, even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Phil 3:18-21).

Let the cross have its way in you.

 *Francois de Fenelon 100 Days in the Secret Place, Destiny Image Publishers, Shippensburg, PA, p. 24, 2001

DECEMBER 25

 “ And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that evil-Merodach king of Babylon in the first year of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison, And spake kindly unto him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon, And changed his prison garments: and he did continually eat bread before him all the days of his life. And for his diet, there was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life”. - Jeremiah 52:31-34.

To all readers, I want to share with you the significance of Christmas Day. It is a special day, Jesus Christ was born into this world to deliver mankind from its sinful ways. I have studied the weather pattern over the years of this particular day; the firmaments bear witness to this unique day across all countries and tribes. There is a glory over the surface of the earth, while some have snow, others fog, or harmattan haze.
In the text above, King Jehoiachin of Judah was delivered on a Christmas day (in the twelfth month on the five and twentieth day of the month) hundreds of years before Jesus was born. Seven significant events will happen in your life on this particular glorious day.
1. Your head will be lifted. You may have been experiencing a downward trend in your life, marriage, business, and workplace; you will no longer be the tail but the head. God is about changing your situation for the better because Jesus came into the world on the same day to deliver you. Everyone who sees you as nobody will begin to see you as somebody very special, and your head will no longer be bowed but lifted high.
2. You will be brought out of prison. Some people have been bound without freedom under the bondage of their task masters for quite some time. You will be set free now, just like those who set Daniel up in the lion’s pit. Your prisoners will replace you in the prison, while you will be set free. Jesus will liberate you and grant you permanent freedom.
3. You will be spoken kindly of. People have used their tongues to describe you negatively. God will change their tongue, and they will begin to speak well of you. They have said you are useless, good for nothing, cannot make it, never do well, under underachiever, all these negative qualities they describe you with, they will no longer see you that way anymore. A change for the better in you, they will begin to see and speak of.
4. Your throne above the throne of the kings. You are meant to be a king because the son of a king is also a king, but you reign like a slave. God will dethrone everyone sitting on your throne and enthrone where you belong, to rule and reign in Christ Jesus.
5. Your garment will be changed. The garment you put on, which has become a filthy rag, casts aspersions on you. The way you dress is the way you will be addressed; you were addressed badly everywhere you turn. Today, your garment or robe will change, and as a king, a sign of royalty is the king's garment. God is removing your present garment and replacing it with a new one.
6. You will continually eat bread. You may be lacking a daily bread, but the great provider is already here to provide the bread you will eat all the days of your life. Every lack will be turned to abundance in your life because Jesus was born on this day like no other day.
7. You will be given a continual diet on all the days until death. A diet is a food with all the essential ingredients needed for growth and development. You might be lacking the essential nutrients needed for you to succeed and become great. God is going to provide to you this day those nourishments needed by you for life.

UNLOCKING THE POWER

 “I in them and You in Me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.” – John 17:23

There have been certain breakthroughs in the world that have changed the course of history: electricity, the automobile, the atom, and the telephone, to name just a few. If we never recognized the applications of these inventions, we would still be sitting around in the dark, riding horses, and communicating by pony express. However, we have seen the opportunities and the applications, so the world is a different place now.

Jesus made a profound statement that has the potential to change the world if we simply apply the truth. What if I told you that this one truth would allow people to see Jesus and respond to the gospel like nothing we have ever experienced? It is the key to unlocking the door of salvation to so many that remain lost. Yet it is the one thing we, as His children, fail at the most.

What is this one thing? It is unity. Lack of unity among His Body of believers prevents Christ from being revealed to so many. Efforts have been made, but our Body remains fragmented and weak. Consider that there are more than 24,000 Christian denominations in the world today and five new ones beginning each week, according to the 1999 September issue of Moody Magazine. Does this sound like unity?

God has called each of us individually and corporately to represent Christ to the world, but our independence, pride, and ego prevent us from becoming unified in the purposes of Christ.

Are you a catalyst for unity in His Body, or an instrument of division? Are people seeing Jesus because of the unity they see in your family, your church, and among your workers? The old adage, “United we stand, divided we fall,” is not just a good battle cry; it is a spiritual truth that will determine the fate of many souls. Pray that God will allow you to be an instrument to unify His Body.

ONE FLOCK, ONE SHEPHARD

 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. – John 10:16

A friend of mine told me a story about an experience he had in Israel. They were in the country visiting some of the famous biblical sites when they saw a group of sheepherders. A shepherd brought his flock of sheep into a round pen for the night. Then, a few minutes later, another shepherd brought his flock into the pen. Then, a few minutes later, yet another shepherd brought his sheep into the pen. There were three groups of sheep in the pen with no identifying marks among any of them. My friend wondered how in the world they would separate their sheep the next day.

The next morning, a shepherd came over to the pen and made a comment to his sheep. One by one, the sheep filed out to follow him. Only his sheep followed his voice. My friend said it was an amazing scene to see only that shepherd’s sheep follow him, and the others remain in the pen. What a picture of Jesus’ words spoken centuries earlier.

Hearing and responding to Jesus’ voice is the key to having a two-way relationship with God. It is the difference between having religion and a relationship. Can you recognize God’s voice in your life? Are you listening to the Shepherd’s voice? Do you respond when He calls? Ask Jesus to help you increase your ability to hear. Give more time to spending quiet moments in His presence to hear His voice. He wants to be your Good Shepherd.