God honours faith wherever he finds it. God's mercy and grace is available to anyone who puts their hope in Christ. That same faith also calls us to a life of sharing this Good News with our own mouths and actions. Perhaps you could be the answer to someone's prayer to God!
Still on the topic of Kingdom, this message looks at two passages Matthew 7:15-23 and Matthew 25:31-46. In their own way, both describe the future reality of Jesus Christ, crowned in glory, judging his people. Both passages demonstrate that kingdom actions absent from intimacy with God and carrying his heart is religion and is met with harsh outcomes. The message invites us to consider what it looks like to prioritise relationships with Jesus so that we have more than self to offer a hurting world.
The parable of the growing seed (Mark 4:26-29) is another great parable that Jesus told to show us what the Kingdom of God is like - seed that grows in God's time. Trust the process.
While recently walking the crowded and busy streets of London, I became acutely aware of the masses, the ocean of humanity, who I was passing by and would never see again. Literally thousands upon thousands of faces, who each represent lives, families, generations with entire existences that I will never know anything about.
Bread is a consistent and powerful image through the Bible, a symbol of physical sustenance, divine blessing and community. It serves as the central element of hospitality, and beyond food, it represents the spiritual nourishment and the covenant of deep intimacy between YHWH and his people. The bread of God's presence, the true 'bread' of heaven - communing with Jesus, the 'bread of life' (Jn 6:51). In Ezekiel, as a result of their choices to not value intimacy with YHWH, the people of Judah ended up separated from him, symbolically eating defiled bread that could not sustain them. Likewise, some settle for second hand bread which is an over-reliance on other people's intimacy with Jesus that we partake of without ever going to Jesus - the source. The invitation in this message is to pursue the presence of YHWH, feast on his bread so that we offer the world something more than religion.
The 3 P’s of God’s Kingdom are: the Principle of the Kingdom, the Practice of the Kingdom, and the Purpose of the Kingdom.
In Colossians 2:2-3 Paul makes a clear connection between gaining all the wisdom and knowledge that is found in Christ alone, and being firmly anchored in loving Christian community.
In this message we are reminded about what is true of Kingdom community as YHWH sees it, and what some of the myths are about community that can create disappointment and cause us to disconnect.
What does the word "community" mean to us and how does it relate to the Kingdom of God? How do we reach a place of relationships that move beyond shallow friendships into deep and genuine community that honours God?
On the day of Pentecost a new community of Spirit-born people came into being. What started as a miraculous unity and love still need wisdom and maturity to grow.