The Kingdom

Tonight as I was reading from Luke, a verse jumped out at me.

"The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation,

nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because

the kingdom of God is within you."

~ Luke 17:20-21

After this, Jesus goes on to tell his disciples about the end times.

What stood out to me was the fact that Jesus did not say "The kingdom of God will come when I return." Instead he says, "The kingdom of God is within you." For me, the clear use of the present-tense in His statement stood out like never before.

Here is what I have come to believe about the kingdom of God:

I believe that the kingdom is coming, but is not yet fully here.

I believe this means that, though Jesus paid everything on the cross, the full implications of that will not be realized until he returns.

So while we can and do access the kingdom now, we still experience the brokenness of humanity's curse.

I believe this explains things such as unanswered prayers when asking for healing in someone's life, pain and disappointment caused by those whom we trust, and the countless injustices plaguing our globe.

I also believe it explains the joy of witnessing a miracle in someone's life or body, unspeakable peace in a life once crushed by broken promises, and the not-of-this-world love between the Rescuer and the Rescued.

The kingdom is coming, but is not yet fully here.

And at the same time, in Luke 17, Jesus is saying that the kingdom is here. Within us. As I sat and stared at the text on the page, something about this statement still didn't make sense with what I believed about the kingdom of God.

And then I remembered a quote I recently read by author and pastor, Rob Bell. He said,

"With every action, comment, conversation, we have the choice to invite Heaven or Hell to Earth."

The kingdom is within me, but I choose whether or not to act upon it. I choose whether to invite Heaven or Hell into the time I spend with my family, the interactions with the kids I nanny, the conversations I have with my friends... everything I do.

I've been astonished lately by my constant need to be incredibly proactive. It seems that regardless of what I'm doing, the temptation is to settle. It may sound silly, but even at nineteen years of age, I've realized that if I don't have a specific plan laid out for the direction I want to go, I will be satisfied with getting by with average. And I'll come out with regrets.

I want as few regrets as possible.

Will I look back and wonder why I chose not to act upon the kingdom that was within me? Or will I open up my eyes to the opportunities to inject the life of the kingdom into the people and atmosphere around me?

It's easier to say than to do.

A.W. Tozer says that "The Presence and the manifestation of the Presence are not the same. There can be the one without the other. God is here when we are wholly unaware of it."

The same goes for His kingdom, because God's kingdom is not solely a physical place. It is also manifested by His sovereignty and rule over creation. His kingdom is here even when we are wholly unaware of it.

So if I were to state one goal for this year, I would say that it is to be made more alert to the reverberations of the kingdom in my daily, ordinary life.

The kingdom is not just something we get to look forward to. It is not saved for those whose lives meet the extraordinary standards of our imagination. It is not the final step in our walk with God, something we must always strive for and rarely achieve.

The kingdom is within us.

Now.

The kingdom is within me when I emerge from my bedroom in the morning. As I say goodbye to my family and head to work. As I play games with the kids I nanny. As I clean. As I cook. As I return home and am met at the door by enthusiastic brothers. As I have my GodTime. As I eat dinner with my family. As I walk across the church lobby on Sunday morning. As I sit through a sermon on Friday night. As I read. As I write.

I could go my whole life waiting for the right "conditions" to be a person who actively lives, breathes, and speaks the kingdom into her surroundings. Maybe when I have the right job. Maybe when I live in a foreign country. Maybe when I meet someone who is clearly desperate for kingdom intervention.

But what if those conditions are a long time in coming, or don't come at all? What if I'm never put in a situation that screams THIS IS IT? And what if maybe, just maybe, the people I interact with on a daily, weekly, or even yearly basis are just as hungry for a taste of the kingdom as anyone else?

The kingdom is within me.

The implications of this truth overwhelm me. What does it look like, to invite the kingdom into everything I do? How do I remain kingdom-minded when I have so many other things fighting for my time and attention?

I don't exactly know. Only the Holy Spirit can do that work in me.

But I can cooperate.

"A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us,

altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it.

God Himself is here awaiting our response to His presence.

This eternal world will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon it's reality."

~A.W. Tozer

Some Food For Thought

Sometimes when I'm reading and don't have anything to write on, I put the thought-provoking quotes I find in my phone. I decided to share them with you, simply because I don't feel like writing an entire blog post tonight. Here they are.

"There have been some who were so occupied in spreading Christianity that they never gave a thought to Christ." ~ C.S. Lewis

Reading this challenged me. I want to be in love with the person of Christ, not the idea of Christianity.

"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer." ~ Psalm 19:15

There are a lot of Psalms that I love, but this is definitely one of my favorites. I hope that my life is spent bringing pleasure to Him first.

"The life that asserts 'God and I are enough' is only in fact hindering Him." ~ Watchman Nee

We were created for authentic community, Christian or not. I want to be someone who not only allows God to use others to sharpen me, but who God uses to show His love to others.

"True prayer begins at the heart of God, is made known to the hearts of men, is prayed back to God again, and God answers." ~ Watchman Nee

I love this. So often I forget that prayer is supposed to be about relationship. It's a conversation, and the pressure is not for me to come up with the right thing to say, it's to listen.

"Agape doesn't love somebody because they're beautiful. Agape loves in such a way that it makes them beautiful." ~ Rob Bell

Agape is the Greek word for the way God loves us. It is also the way we are called to love others. This quote overwhelmed me, giving me a sense of awe for who God has made me as His daughter, and the responsibility I have now to live as such.

"There are two reasons for loving God: no one is more worthy of our love, and no one can return more in response to our love." ~ Bernard of Clairvaux

This reminds of me of a song by Michael Card that I heard when I was little. One of the lyrics said of God that He "could not love more, and would not love less." I am thankful both for the right to love Him as Father, and the knowledge that I am so deeply and irreversibly loved in return.

That's all I have for now. Most of the other quotes I put in my phone, I later used as Facebook statuses, so I didn't have too many in there anymore. I'm sure there will be more to come, though.