Matt 6:31 “Therefore
do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or
‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek.
For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But
seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these
things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the
day is its own trouble.
The Kingdom of God
is not the kingdoms on earth, the garden of Eden of old when God said
all He created was good. When we view the sunset, and the beautiful
scenery, we see a glimpse of the original creation, but a stark reminder
of the decay and corruption that came through the fall with its many
diseases, and death.
In the Garden of
Eden there was no death, no sweat but because of the fall, there is
decay, death, and we toil for our food. God did not call us to
participate in the first creation, but to usher in a new Kingdom on
earth to replace what was fallen and broken from Genesis. When Jesus
said that the world seeks after what to eat, to drink, and after
tommorow, because all these things are a struggle in a fallen world,
post creation in the Garden of Eden.
There are many
Christians who want to create their new kindom on earth, to make the
road by walking. It would be very tiring for Christians are called to be
salt and light to Jesus Christ, in a decaying world under the kingdom of
the devil. Their new kindom is futile because this is a fallen world
under the devil. They can't overthrow the devil because the first Adam
has given authority to Satan.
What is the Kingdom
of God then? It was no commonwealth on earth. In Jesus time, He lived
under the earthly kingdom of Judea under Herod. In the cities, we have
also the presence of the Roman Empire and their gods. Truly, the kingdom
of God was not on earth, for He would have called the legions of angels
to release Him from the Cross of Calvary.
The Kingdom of God
is where we have citizenship as children of God. We are a child of God
and made righteous because of Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God is in
your heart, when Jesus is King, Lord and Saviour. It is where Jesus
reigns in contrast to the various spiritual entities such as the goddess
Cybele. We are not called to be spiritual per say, but called to the
sons and daughters of God and not of Satan.
Despite
the denial of some Christians, this world is in the Kingdom of darkness
under Satan's reign. When we pray, thy Kingdom come, we are bringing
God's grace, love, and mercy to a particular circumstances because of
Jesus Christ. When we pray, it gives the legal right for God to come
into the situation because of Christ' redeeming grace.
Liberal Christians
tried to create their own kindom on earth in universalism and social
justice totally discarding the miraculous, evangelism and the saving
Gospel, but Europe fell from their Protestant heights to widespread
abandoment of mainline churches in Europe and the US.
The conservatives
tried to create their own kingdom on earth, but they ended up corrupted
by its power and prosperity. When Europe was ruled by the church
hierachal we have the dark ages, repeated crusades and widespread
torture and death for dissenters.
When Jesus asked the
disciples to seek first the Kingdom of God, it was before the Cross of
Calvary. After the Cross, when they believed and exalted God, and in the
upper room received the Kingdom of God through the baptism of the Holy
Spirit, they changed the world. They received resurrection power, and
the reality of heaven in their hearts.
When Jesus said seek
yea first the Kingdom of God, it is to understand that our first
priority in life is to have the right standing before God, being
considered righteous and our sins forgiven. This is the solid Rock of
Christianity in the person of Jesus Christ because we come into the
right standing to enter spiritually into the new Eden, the kingdom of
God to come when Jesus comes back. Jesus is the second Adam, for the
first Adam was inherently sinful, but the second Adam wiped out our sins
totally clean.
We can't really seek
the Kingdom of God or God's righteousness by our own humanistic
theology, because it is all of Christ, all of His Grace. What we can do
is to lift up our hands on high, to welcome the Holy Spirit into our
lives and to be refreshed daily by the living waters.
Therefore, when we
see the great scenery on earth, or the sunset, great and wonderful as
God's creation is, know that the world is falling and groaning waiting
for the coming of Jesus Christ, where the new heaven on earth will be
restored. What we see is only a picture to come, for wonderful power and
glory of the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God
is in our hearts if we are indeed of Christ. When we have the baptism of
the Holy Spirit, out of our belly, out of our spirit, this world will be
touched with God's power, love, mercy and grace like streams of living
water. This stream is a rainbow of God grace, a rainbow harvest.
We can't reach out
and build growing churches to the GLBT without the power of the Holy
Spirit, without the fullness of the Kingdom of God residing in our
hearts. We are tapping on the power of the Kingdom to bring into the
lives of others, knowing that one day this kingdom shall be no more, and
the full manifestation of the Kingdom of God will come on earth.
The Kingdom of God
is found in the upper room in prayer, preaching of the Word of God, and
manifestation of God's power. It is found in right believing that
righteousness is all of His grace and discerning the Word of God
carefully. It is centered in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
for the salvation of our souls, and being in the presence of God for the
streams of God's grace, love and mercy to flow to the world. Without
this, the broken world of God's gay children can never be reached nor
restored.
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