What Is the Kingdom of God?

I am just overwhelmed by how AMAZING God is.  He is SO big and wonderful and good and powerful and oh my goodness-I can't wrap my mind around the fact that this INCREDIBLE God would put on skin and pay the penalty that OUR actions have deserved, satisfying HIS OWN justice, the very thing that holds everything together.

And what is this KINGDOM OF GOD?  It's like a mustard seed that became a huge tree or a little yeast working its way through the whole batch of dough.  It is this pearl of great price that is worth selling everything to have.  It is backwards and upside down.  It is the irony of ironies that the Kingdom of God is so big and complex that all the knowledge in the world cannot even fathom yet the faith of a child is required to be a part of it.  It is a farmer sowing seed along the path.  It is the greatest becoming the least, the God of all becoming a servant to man.  It is the towel and the basin.  It is humility over pride.  It is surprising and important that what we do means nothing yet following God requires everything.  What has God entrusted to us?  HIS KINGDOM, and it is advancing and living and active.

Wow!  What in the WORLD is this box that I have put God and His Kingdom in?  He fits nicely in three songs and a sermon and a night serving soup at the homeless shelter.  Or does He?  Maybe I'll be radical and give a large sum of money to the missions fund.  There, now I am a part of the Kingdom.

Who am I kidding?  Well, maybe I'll dedicate my life to missionary service or to be a pastor.  Maybe I'll even be imprisoned and die for His name.  That will make me a part of the Kingdom for sure.

But is the Kingdom of God really about SACRIFICE?  It is said many times in the Bible, "I desire mercy not sacrifice." and "To obey is better than sacrifice."  If sacrifice has been our ultimate measure of someone's committment to the Kingdom, then maybe we are missing the point.

You see the Kingdom of God cannot be measured, and it cannot be fit around our own ideas of it.  The Kingdom of God already is and is also coming.  There is something inherently dangerous about even speaking about the Kingdom of God.  It is a reality that surpasses all realities and will last through eternity while the reality we live in will pass away.  Do we think we understand it?  We are only kidding ourselves.  It's no wonder Jesus says we need to be "born again."  When we become a part of the Kingdom of God, we are entering another reality, where "the wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going." (John 3:8)  A picture that I have of the Kingdom of God is the East Australian Current (EAC) from Finding Nemo.  It is there, it is moving.  I'm jumping in.

God is "blowing me away" with all of this.  It's like the Bible is completely rewritten for me.  I always skipped over the Kingdom of God parts because I didn't understand it.  However, I am discovering that this is why it is SO AMAZING.