Suffering, failure, loneliness, sorrow, discouragement, and death will be part of your journey, but the Kingdom of God will conquer all these horrors. No evil can resist grace forever… If you reject the ragamuffin gospel and turn your back on Christianity, do so because you find the answers of Jesus incredible, blasphemous, or hopelessly hopeful.
~Brennan Manning
“You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. … “This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all—you are the head of gold. Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”
~ from The Book of Daniel
Oh beloved, it is true.
We, in case you can’t sense it, are deep into the end parts of history. Oh, it is not that there is no future. There is indeed a future, and it will have no end. However, the milieu in which we now exist, is about to be washed away in a flood of SomeThing that is entirely more potent than the most powerful potentate this world has to offer.
The thing that is coming is something that has been growing since the day of Pentecost some two thousand years ago. It is within anyone who is looking for it in a Person named Jesus Christ of Nazareth. For, He has sent His Very Holy Spirit to make His abode within us – forever.
But, just having G_d live in us is not the end game.
Can we see it?
G_d wants to up our game into something that is well beyond the simple rising and falling of our politco-socio-religio-eco groups. No, He is going to bring about a Kingdom which has no end.
And, that Kingdom will need representatives. Ever thought about who those officials, satraps, emissaries, ministers and servants will be? You beloved. You are destined to be a king, or a queen – forever.
Yes, the lives we are going through now are difficult, and even painful. However, in the Kingdom to come, each difficulty will be our joyful recreation for the season. Each challenge will enthrall us, as we work with our High King Jesus on the issues. Each potential crisis will be turned to songs of everlasting joy in a place where there is no more death, and no more sorry and no more crying, and no more pain.
So, are you feeling like you are not making a difference? Are you feeling like you are fading into irrelevance in this world? This may, in fact, be true. But, your training will not be wasted. The authority you are gaining as you give away your rights, and submit to His leading – will elevate you to a position far beyond your current paygrade – and your wildest imaginations!
Tonight is your night. Time to embrace your royal status!
Are we not told to seek first the Kingdom of God—not the means to advance it—and that all these things shall be added to us? Such promises are surely sufficient.
~Hudson Taylor
