“Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel,
saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent,
and believe in the good news.’” –Mark 1:15
Have
you ever been going about your day and have been stopped by something amazing
happening? Maybe it is a gorgeous sunset that seems fake. Maybe it is a puppy
so happy and joyful it seems out of place. Maybe it is a person running up to
someone that dropped money out of their pocket to hand it to them. Maybe it is
that super cool kid at school hanging out with that student who has special
needs.
These
things seem wonderful, beautiful, yet strange to us, I think because they
represent something that is other than what this world normally offers. Nothing
we make can look as beautiful as a sunset. Puppies are able to be so carefree
from all of the worries of the world. People normally would keep the money for
themselves. That cool kid could hang out with so many different people, why
choose that student?
Jesus
came and proclaimed the GOOD NEWS (what the word “gospel” means) about this
thing called the Kingdom of God. Though I always thought this meant the place I’ll
go after I die (heaven), the Bible seems to point to more than that. Check out what
Jesus says in
Luke
17:20-21:
Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God
would come, Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God does not come with your careful
observation. You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For
the Kingdom of God is already among you.”
So,
if it is “already among you,” that means it isn’t just the place you go after
you die! If you’ve been at Rewired or Infuse over the past few weeks, you’ll
know where I’m going with this. You see, the Kingdom of God is a revolution
against the broken, sick, dark things of this world, all started with Jesus.
Those moments that we see something beautifully different that seems against
the ways of this world (selfishness, sickness, brokenness, loneliness, boredom,
etc.), I think are moments we see God’s Kingdom transforming this world. These are
moments where this world starts looking more like heaven!
The
revolution is still going on, and Jesus asked you to be a part of it. When he
taught his disciples to pray, he added a pretty cool line you may recognize: “Your
Kingdom come and Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” Pretty rad, right? Let’s keep
thinking about this over the next few weeks as we look at all that Jesus said
and did.
See
you all soon!
-Brandon
For
you blog posters out there, here are a couple questions:
1) What is something crazy
awesome you experienced this week that seemed like a bit of Heaven here on Earth?
(something you saw, ate, did, heard, etc.)
2) If you could change one
thing in this world with a snap, what would that be?
3) How can you continue
Jesus’ revolution in a real way?
