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I just returned home from a trip my wife and I took with our 13 year old daughter, Ella. To celebrate her 13th birthday and this new season of life we took a couple of days to walk the streets of New York City. We took in the sights, sounds, smells and everything else that goes with a visit to the ‘Big Apple’. It was a joy and is a trip we will always remember. We talked and laughed and took pictures and ate pizza. From multi-million dollar apartments to homeless people wandering the subways we saw the good the bad and the ugly that this world has to offer. We let her see it all so that she can enter this next season of life with her eyes wide open. Yes, the neon lights are brighter on Broadway but it’s the ‘Narrow Way’ the leads to True life. We wanted her to see the contrast. I saw it too.
One evening we journeyed up to the ‘Top of the Rock”, the lookout post on top of Rockefeller Center in Downtown Manhattan. From there the city lights lit up the night sky as far as you could see. It was breathtaking. I thought about the irony of ‘standing on The Rock’ in the midst of the noise. I thought about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness by satan. I thought about how the devil took Jesus up to a high place in Luke chapter 4 and in an instant showed him all the kingdoms of the world offering them all to Jesus in exchange for His worship. I wonder if Jesus saw New York City that day? I think He saw New York, Paris, Dubai, Beijing and every other world class city that would ever be. I think He saw it all and yet chose the cross for you and for me. Why? (Click Here to Read my post ‘The Illusion of New and Exciting’)
The Words of the Prophets are Written on the Subway Walls
The crazy thing about staring out at that vast ‘Kingdom’ in front of me that evening on top of ‘the Rock’ in NYC is that I couldn’t see a single person. I saw lights and buildings, incredible wealth and innovation and design. I just couldn’t make out a single person in any of it. I think Jesus would have been looking for the people too. Jesus said ‘no thank you’ to the enemy’s offer to have the kingdoms of the world in exchange for His worship. He had His eyes fixed on His Father, the King of the true Kingdom. That Kingdom doesn’t show up in neon. It shows up in flip flops and smiling faces. The Kingdom of God shows up in people and Jesus came to seek and save people. We carry that same Kingdom with us everywhere we go and we’ve been invited to share it with others. (Click Here to Read my post ‘Please Pass the Salt’)
Perhaps you remember the now ‘old movie’ Men in Black. It was a space-age, super-spy movie that came out in the 90’s. In the film the Men in Black are trying to save a galaxy that they can’t seem to identify or locate. The irony was, it was among them the majority of the time. It never occurred to them that an entire galaxy would be encapsulated in a tiny ornament attached to a dog’s collar. They were carrying that galaxy around with them and didn’t even realize it because they had their minds fixed on what it could and couldn’t be. The Kingdom of God is similar in that it isn’t a castle on a hill. The word kingdom comes from the two words ‘kings dominion’. Essentially, anywhere the king has dominion is His king-dom. We carry the King’s dominion with us everywhere we go and when we share His love and truth with others we see His Kingdom come. It expands and welcomes more people into the love and joy of being under the protection, authority and delight of The King of Kings. God saw fit to place His kingdom within people, not behind a moat with a drawbridge. He also thought you and I were the best agents to carry and implement HIs Kingdom throughout the Earth. That is unbelievable. (Click Here to Read my post ‘About This Time Tomorrow’)
Today, remember the Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Share it with everyone you encounter. Don’t look past the people and lust after the perceived glory of higher positions or greater influence. Remember it is the life inside of the people that make a city or a job or a family great. Empty buildings are often referred to as ‘condemned’. Don’t allow yourself to get caught up in the glitz and glamour of lesser ‘kingdoms of this world’ offering power, pomp and position. Bring life into the room by sharing the King’s Dominion with the precious people all around you. As you do, the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His Glory and grace. (Click Here to Read my post ‘Mind the Gap’)
From the Bible
And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written,“‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” – Luke 4:5-8 ESV
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. – Romans 14:17-18 NIV
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. – 1 John 4:10-12 NIV
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