One day at the end of this present age all earthly governments will tumble and every human flag will fall. Then people of every nation will join voices to ascribe sovereignty and dominion to God alone. Those who trust in God now will be vindicated in public. God's poor will receive a kingdom. His people who once suffered, persecuted and powerless, will share in his reign forever (Dan. 2:44; 7:18, 22, 27). But that is then and this is now.
Where is God's kingdom today -- the kingdom that has come and is yet to come? We see it wherever self-willed and self-seeking men and women begin, like little children, to trust the Father and to pursue his agenda (Mark 10:14-15; Matt. 6:33). We know that it is present where people who once were self-sufficient approach God like beggars, conscious of personal inability and devoid of all claims, pleading without shame for his undeserved kindness (Matt. 5:3). God's kingdom is evident in the tears, labor and suffering of those who seek justice, of those who struggle and sacrifice for the weak, the poor and the powerless -- for people, in other words, whose only hope is the intervention of a force from beyond the darkness of this fallen world (Matt. 3:10).
What gives proof
that God's kingdom is present? The transformation of religion does
that, when rituals and rules serve rather than subdue, when internal
motivations overshadow external appearances and performance, when
righteousness, joy and peace count for more than theoretical
religious issues and debates (Rom. 14:17). "Thy kingdom come," we pray, "as
in heaven, so on earth." Where Jesus is, there is God's kingdom. Is there
any sign that it is present in my life? In
yours?
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