Kingdom | English Devotion | NHFCSG

Kingdom 

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end. 

(Luke 1:32-33) 

Christmas represents a beginning that only makes sense if we comprehend the end. The beginning was a baby. The beginning was quiet humility in an earthy stable. 

The end is the explosion of divine glory bright enough for the whole world to see--like a hydrogen bomb without the destruction. 

The end is a kingdom. Jesus came not just for the moment of purity that his birth brought about, but to move toward the kingdom of God, introducing people to it, and bringing it as the central reality of their lives. 

"His kingdom will never end." What Herod didn't understand was that by killing all the baby boys in Bethlehem, he was not protecting his kingdom, but showing how weak and pitiful it was.

All human power will slip from human hands like water dribbling out of cupped hands though they try to hold it. But the kingdom of Christ is different. It will never end. 

There is no rival to his authority, though people will continue to disbelieve in it. There is no one sitting at the right hand of God this very moment except him. 

No other authority was there when the earth was created and will be there when the final judgment comes. 

Don't ever think that Christmas is a way for us to wrap God up in a package, put a bow on it, and keep the whole thing under our control.

 A way for us to avoid God except for those extra-special religious seasons.

The first Christmas was the arrival of a king. Rulers from the east knew it, so they came to present gifts. King Herod knew it, so he tried murder. 

It is the Battle of Bethlehem, the beginning of a war in which the King of Kings is intent to take back territory that belonged to him all along, and to liberate captives like you and me.

Prayer for today: 

Dear God, help me to live these days with a conscious knowledge that you are reigning in this broken world as king. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.