The Kingdom of God

Hey, I want to share a post I made to a blog I read called Pajamasmedia.com. It's political stuff and I have found that it is really easy to get caught up in worrying about what's going in this kingdom and forget about the invisible spiritual kingdom that Christ has already established. I am a citizen of the United States and I love my country. But first and foremost I love Christ and I am a citizen of His kingdom. Here is what I wrote:

I am a Christian. I rarely see a post that shows any understanding of the Christian faith. But that does not surprise me. Not everyone who calls themselves Christian is really a follower of Christ, although many sincerely believe it when they say it.

I would like to share what it means to be a Christian.

Warning: you may be offended. I hope you will listen. Trust me; I was once very much like some of you.

I believe the Bible is God-inspired and inerrant. There are parables that are not literal stories. These are obvious. Christ did not really want anyone to cut off a hand or pluck out an eye to avoid sin. Self-mutilation is a sin. That was hyperbole to make a point.

However, the Bible teaches, and I believe in a literal six-day creation.

I believe Christ was the son of God.

I believe that Christians have the Holy Spirit living in them and it changes them.

I believe the miracles of the Bible and the greatest miracle of all, the resurrection of Christ.

The God of the Bible is the only God.

The Bible is the story of how He made creatures – us – and is preparing us to be suitable to live forever in His kingdom to worship Him in the manner He sees fit.

The chief purpose of my faith is not to get myself to heaven. That is a side-effect. I was created and redeemed for one purpose: to learn to worship and praise God forever. I will do that in His kingdom, because He planned it that way.

The Bible is a unified story of that plan. The mysterious Book of Revelations tells it like it is. I am telling you this because Christ commands his disciples to share the Gospel.

Christ is the Son of God, Himself divine, eternal, like His Father. Being holy, God hates sin. For His own reasons, which He does not have to explain to me, He created us. We became the sinners that we are. He established the punishment for sin – eternal punishment in hell.

To show His great power and mercy, He had Jesus Christ pay the penalty for my sin and for the sin of all Christians to void my sentence to hell. He is cleaning me up during this life. I am still a sinner, but I have changed. I still sin, but I am no longer a slave to my sins or urges. I don’t always do the right thing, but I hate the sin that remains in my life and I long for the day when I will be free from this body of sin. That will happen when I die (or sooner if Christ returns before that).

One of the ways I know that I am a Christian is that I have a desire to share my story. Actually, I cannot keep it in. I am totally overwhelmed that God would want me for eternity.

I am not consumed with the importance of politics. I see it as a opportunity to tell you about Christ. That is my only agenda. He has an invisible spiritual kingdom. One day He will rule on earth for a thousand years. After that the earth (and the universe) will pass away and I will spend eternity praising and worshipping God. I don’t claim to know exactly what that will be like. I just know that the God who created me and delivered me can be trusted. He is the only thing you can trust.

That’s my faith. I hope that God will reach out to you like he did to me.