16 Dec God’s Kingdom is Near
BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED!
Last several weeks I was thinking about God’s kingdom and it’s formulation. As we know the main topic and theme for Jesus during his ministry was that “God’s kingdom is near”. If we think about it we will discover that the principles of this kingdom are reversed: if you want to be blessed you must give up what you have, if you want eternal life then you must lose your life. and this is him. But who knows the King? I am going to coney my sense about four types of people: Slave: (Mathew 18:23-30) The slave motive for the existence of the kingdom of God is survival instinct while the driving force is fear. He always depended on someone’s help and did not know his rights. He has no dreams and thinks only about today’s needs. The institution of slavery may be an outdated topic in the 21st century, but man is a slave in his character and mind. As “Lord brought the Jews out of Egypt, but Egypt could not have been brought out of the Jews.” Remember when The Jews remained slaves even after their exodus from Egypt, but Joseph was not a slave even during his slavery. (He had analyzed who he was and did everything perfectly and found grace in everyone’s eyes: Gen. 39:2,3 ) Follower:(Mathew 4:24,25) Followers motivation is to receive the benefits. Their character is to wait for someone and if someone starts anything new they follow, but they are not the initiators. Remember there were many people who followed Jesus, but they had own reasons (i.e. John 6:26 “Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.”) And the same people who were following Jesus and were shouting “Hosanna blessed the cometh” shouted “Crucify him”. Citizen: They know what is good and bad, what is right and what is wrong. They know their rights and follow them. They do good things to those who have done good things for them. (Luka 6:32-34). But Heir: (Luka 6:35-38) The motive of heir is Self-sacrifice. Heir does not build his own kingdom but analyzes the principles of the kingdom of God and thus lives it. His food is the execution of the king’s will. Heirs know the King. We are heirs in his kingdom, we who believe in Jesus Christ and want to fulfill Father’s will. God himself calls us his heirs (James 2:5; Col. 3:24; Eph. 1:11;). But who are you? Do you know who is your King and who are you in his Kingdom? He who has a close relationship with the king, he who knows the king can truly worship and exalt him. And this king is King of kings, Lord of Lords, he who created everything perfectly, he who rules the universe deserves to be exalted perfectly. Living for him and dying for him is everything that is worth on this earth.
THE AUTHOR
Bela Todadze
Greetings. I am writing from ETS (European Theological Seminary) in Germany. I was born on 29th October, 1994, in the country of Georgia. My parents got saved in their 20’s so I was born in a faithful family, but Orthodox society. My family consists of 7 members, parents and 5 siblings. I thank god for them. I graduated from school in 2012, then from university in 2020 where my faculty was: “international relations” and now in ETS I am taking a counseling major. I am planning and hoping to get my masters in counseling in “Marriage and Family”.