The Seeds Of The Kingdom

The Kingdom of God is an influence which permeates our minds and our hearts. It aligns us with Jesus and his will for us and the world.

A new thing is being unleashed within you. What can be born? What will grow in you? What harvest will it yield? What shelter will you provide?

Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians shed light for us. Through Christ, God has been at work reconciling the world unto Godself. Christ has died for all, so that all might live. “Therefore,” Paul says, “we no longer regard anyone from a human point of view.”

The greatest realization of God’s kingdom is the coming of Jesus Christ in our world. Like a seed, he was sown into our midst. And as a kernel of wheat must first die before it can be reborn, Jesus poured out his life on the cross. There was no going back. The germination of what was about to be revealed demanded his everything. But inside his sacrifice lay the potential of all that was contained in his being. It was the light of the world, the light no darkness can overcome. He was buried in his tomb. Then night followed day and day followed night. Through the death of Good Friday came the light of Easter morning. His death has borne the harvest of reconciliation.

Let that new life in Christ seep into you. Let it permeate you. Come to see yourself as Christ sees you. You are a child of God. You are a new creation. Everything old has passed away! You are entirely made new in Christ.

And as this awareness increases, like the mustard shrub it will grow into a sheltering place for your spirit. And that sheltering place will continue to expand, for that’s how it is with God’s kingdom. It will grow until it’s big enough to shelter still more.

Paul speaks of a ministry of reconciliation. God has given us a ministry of reconciliation. We are called to be ambassadors of Christ’s reconciling work. This ministry of reconciliation is one of the church’s highest callings. And how desperately our world is in need of reconciliation!

• In our broken relationships, we can bring the oil of healing.

• Within the divisions of our nation, we can bring the golden cord to bind us together.

• When racism or other hatreds threatens to divide, we encourage one another to regard no one from a human point of view. For in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.

The church of Jesus Christ has been given a ministry of reconciliation. How those seeds of reconciliation might sprout and grow, we do not know. But let us be about this mission. We plow the fields and scatter the good seeds of reconciliation. But the harvest of concord and friendship belongs to the One who makes all things new. The harvest belongs to God.