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Showing posts with the label being a King

Consumed with the Kingdom

I keep hearing Jesus say over and over, the Kingdom, the Kingdom, the Kingdom (52x in Matthew’s Gospel). I've never noticed how much he spoke about it. We must know what he means or we breeze through said texts with no notion about what he wanted to tell us. In the U.S. when we think of a kingdom we think Disney, as in Magic Kingdom. We revolted against England to escape the king. We are “free” people. We don't want a king telling us what to do.  When Jesus talked about the Kingdom, he was speaking about his coming perfect rule over his people. He initially spoke only to the Jews but then sent his men to tell the World. In Acts 10 the centurion Cornilus and his family became the first Gentile converts to Christ and that expansion of the Kingdom theme has continued to the ends of the earth.  The Kingdom for Jesus was presented to the Jews over 2000 years ago and according to plan, they rejected it. Notice that I said, “according to plan”. It was actually according to plan that ...

Living Up to Expectations

walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called (Ephesians 4.1) I’m sorry but I cannot imagine being primped to be a duke, prince or king! I have always thought of Prince Charles as a big wuss in waiting. His whole life has been spent preparing to be “the next king of England.” This poor guy has gone above and beyond the call of duty in being groomed for a position that Elizabeth II, his mom, doesn’t seem to want to give up. Elizabeth’s mother, the Honourable Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, lived for 101 years for Pete’s sake! Does Charley have a chance? Doubt it. Why this talk about princely preening? Well my friend it is because we as God’s children are in a similar process. In Ephesians 4.1 Paul goes into some interesting details. He tells us the following. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, The word vocation trips us up. I went through my career at GM working my best so that I would plea...