Word of Life Church Podcast

Without seeing the kingdom all we are left with is a docile, sentimental, personal "Jesus" who has little to do with the world God loves and wants to save. Jesus without a kingdom is like an eagle without the open sky or a whale without the expansive ocean or a bear without the thick woods. You cannot lock up Jesus in the captivity of your own personal spirituality and expect to see Jesus as he is. To see Jesus as king requires you see the kingdom of God and catching a glimpse of the kingdom of God changes how you see everything else.

All of Creation—from the mightiest mountain to the tiniest grain of sand—is a gift from God. People and animals, plants and every grain of sand, all belong. To be rightly connected to God’s good Creation can bring dimensions of revelation and restoration that may come in no other way.

Is the blessing and mercy of Christ just for those in the center of God's will or is it also for those on the fringe? If we carefully observe Jesus in the Gospels the answer should be obvious. But the little Pharisee that lives in all of us objects to this. We need to ask ourselves if we are trying to reconcile scandalous grace with a moral economy of merit? If so, the kingdom of God will remain either invisible or offensive.

Life can have a way of becoming a grey tedium of dull routine for many people. Every day can seem very 'everyday.' In the midst of our seemingly humdrum lives, is there a way to redeem a sense of the holy? Is God closer than we might think? If so, how might we find him? And once we do, how might our lives change?

We know God by approximation and encounter. Within the approximation we have been given by the church we see that God is righteous. Righteousness is a Bible word that many fail to understand. God’s righteousness is his covenant faithfulness. This reimagining of the word righteousness fits within the big story the Bible tells: a story of creation, corruption, covenant, and new creation. God has remained faithful to his covenant to bless the world through Israel. As followers of Jesus the Messiah we are invited to participate with God in blessing and restoring the world as we seek after his covenant faithfulness and embody it as we live our lives of worship, work, and play.