Columns

Last weekend, Betty and I joined Beth Moore to teach a seminar on the Kingdom of God. It was wonderfully blessed by the manifest presence of the Lord and truly one of the great moments in our lives. Beth was thrilled, along with the men and women in attendance. Their response was most gratifying. (These programs will air on television in a few weeks.)

Jesus came preaching the Gospel of God saying, “The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel!” ¹

Governments established apart from the positive impact and imprint of God’s Kingdom are always doomed to fail. The riotous activity in Egypt this week is but a small picture of what is likely to happen in other places throughout the world – even here in the United States. What we see in the Arab world are not merely out-of-control people, but people controlled by a bad system of beliefs, including bad religion.

Throughout the Old Testament, when the people rejected God’s truth they suffered devastating consequences. Many times when God’s faithful prophets proclaimed the truth, the people rebelled. Their leaders (the kings) wanted the prophets to “tickle their ears” and tell them what they wanted to hear. Jeremiah said that they would superficially heal the land by proclaiming peace when there was no peace.

Nothing and no one is going to tear me out of the kingdom of heaven, or take the kingdom of heaven from within me. In the midst of an evil world, I fear no evil for “the Lord is my Shepherd.” God desires this confidence for all believers.

“What I feared has come upon me,” Job lamented. But we can live within the safe and secure protection of God’s presence. Remember, God removed the hedge around Job to illustrate the devastating consequences of life without the protective walls that come only from the Father.

As with Moses and Jesus, I keep being led to go up on the mountain seeking the presence and Word of God from God. As I search the Scriptures, the Lord who is the Word dwelling among us communicates the desires of His heart to me. It is as though He is writing His Word on my heart and urging me to not only hear His heart and discover His will, but to share it with all who have ears to hear.

I can’t find anyone not to love because I can’t find anyone God doesn’t love. Sometimes it seems I am trying to find someone who merits not only disapproval and sometimes disgust, but even sometimes feeling that hate would be appropriate. You don’t even have to look hard for people to dislike since they have such obnoxious ways, despicable expressions and practices that hate seems to be the appropriate response.

While many people are making New Year’s resolutions, I’m praying for a supernatural recognition of who believers are in Christ. We are kingdom people—no longer orphans, but sons and daughters …

Why were the tears suddenly filling my eyes until they began to stream down my cheeks? Just a few moments earlier, my hands were lifted to heaven in worshipful praise. I had noticed Betty’s hands also lifted, along with many others, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw my daughter Rhonda with hands lifted high, tears filling her eyes, as she, too, praised our Savior. But now my head was nearly in my lap, and I was weeping.

We are approaching the celebration of the greatest gift God ever offered. I am referring, of course, to the birth of our Savior the Lord Jesus. Through this gift all mankind can receive forgiveness and fullness in this lifetime, as well as eternal life. God so loved all of us that He not only offered grace through this Child, but life through the sacrificial death and glorious resurrection of His only begotten Son. God is love and, without a doubt, love is expressed in giving.