Embrace The Kingdom
Tags: Religion, Bible, Jesus, Christianity, Christian Living

Embrace The Kingdom

The Kingdom Is Now.

In 2016 I started reading through a passage of scripture that has since become near and dear to my heart. And that passage is from Romans 12 where it says

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. -Romans 12:1–2

As I started thinking through this word transformed I wondered what it meant to really live a transformed life in the year 2016. What does it look like for our minds to actually be renewed? That's when I stumbled upon a concept thanks to the help of some processing with mentors. And that is the concept of Embrace. You see in the Gospel of Mark it says;

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” -Mark 1:15 ESV

What Jesus is communicating here is that the very Kingdom of God is right here, right now. The word for time in the greek here is Kairos. And Kairos doesn’t refer to time as we would think. Jesus is saying that at 12:15 the Kingdom of God is at hand, but rather he is saying at this moment the Kingdom of God is at hand. Another way to put the concept of Kairos is;

The time at which God invades your life.

This concept paired with the thoughts of Romans 12 is indeed life-changing. I believe and believe that scripture argues for the case that God is invading our lives each and every day. That he is here with us. For believers, he lives in us and most importantly his story is all around us. So the point of Romans 12 is all about embracing the concept of the Kingdom of God around us. To experience transformation it means interacting with the story of God that is in this very moment with me and you.

What Does It Mean To Embrace The Kingdom

When it comes to this concept of embracing the Kingdom of God around us I love to get real tangible. I want for us to be able to experience Gods kingdom in a real way. And for this, I usually go back to the words of Jesus each and every time. For us, we are going to look at a parable that Jesus tells about the final days and judgment found in Matthew 25. In Matthew 25 Jesus takes everyone and divides them into two different groups. The first group is called his sheep. Jesus tells the sheep;

‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ -Matthew 25:34–36 ESV

The sheep then wonder when they did these things for Jesus. And Jesus simply responds;

And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ -Matthew 25:40 ESV

Can you guess what the goats did wrong?

Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ -Matthew 25:45

The goats didn’t embrace the story of God around them. They were more concerned with what was going on in there own little world. They were most likely worried about building their own kingdom rather than living out and embracing the story that God is calling us all into. The sheep, however, embraced the story and did it naturally. They feed the poor, helped the widow, visited those in prison, thus interacting with the story of God around them.

Embracing the kingdom of God means following the will of God. And the will of God hasn’t changed since the beginning of time. And the will of God is justice and restoration. Embracing the Kingdom means becoming an agent of change in the world around us each and every week. It means serving the poor, the oppressed, and those hurting.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.-James 1:27 ESV.

When we embrace the Kingdom of God we find out what it means for us to experience true religion in our lives. A religion that is alive and active. That serves those around us and not ourselves. Embracing the Kingdom of God is simple. Be a participant in the Kingdom of God around you.