“There is a greatness inherent within you. That greatness comes from God. He has bestowed each of us with unique gifts and talents to be used for kingdom building here on earth.”
― Gabriella Marigold Lindsay, Living F.I.T.: A 40-Day Guide to Living Faithfully, Intentionally, and Tenaciously
The First Step
“The first step to that kingdom of God within is to find peace within even among chaos.” ― N.K.David
The Friday Affirmation
I am surrounded by healing energy.
When God Wants to Sort Out the World
“When God wants to sort out the world, as the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount make clear, he doesn’t send in the tanks. He sends in the meek, the broken, the justice hungry, the peacemakers, the pure-hearted and so on.”― N.T. Wright, The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was & Is
His Great Upside Down Kingdom
“We are to be agents of His great upside down Kindgom, where the outcasts are listened to, the broken are given dignity, and those suffering under the weight of sexual exploitation are rescued and healed.”
― Mary E. DeMuth, We Too: How the Church Can Respond Redemptively to the Sexual Abuse Crisis
The Kingdom is Right Here
“The kingdom, Jesus taught, is right here–present yet hidden, immanent yet transcendent. It is at hand–among us and beyond us, now and not-yet. The kingdom of heaven, he said, belongs to the poor, the meek, the peacemakers, the merciful, and those who hunger and thirst for God. It advances not through power and might, but through missions of mercy, kindness, and humility. In this kingdom, many who are last will be first and many who are first will be last. The rich don’t usually get it, Jesus said, but children always do. This is a kingdom whose savior arrives not on a warhorse, but a donkey, not through triumph and conquest, but through death and resurrection. This kingdom is the only kingdom that will last.”
― Rachel Held Evans, Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again
Where we Belong
“If we only had eyes to see and ears to hear and wits to understand, we would know that the Kingdom of God in the sense of holiness, goodness, beauty is as close as breathing and is crying out to born both within ourselves and within the world; we would know that the Kingdom of God is what we all of us hunger for above all other things even when we don’t know its name or realize that it’s what we’re starving to death for. The Kingdom of God is where our best dreams come from and our truest prayers. We glimpse it at those moments when we find ourselves being better than we are and wiser than we know. We catch sight of it when at some moment of crisis a strength seems to come to us that is greater than our own strength. The Kingdom of God is where we belong. It is home, and whether we realize it or not, I think we are all of us homesick for it.”
― Frederick Buechner
Holy Troublemakers
Already Here
“Jesus said, ‘The Kingdom of God is within’ and ‘I only say what I hear the Father saying and I only do what I see the Father doing’. Therefore, It is something we experience, articulate, and do. The Kingdom of God is already here but not yet fully realized.”
― R. Alan Woods, The Journey Is The Destination: A Photo Journal
The Friday Affirmation
“Conscious breathing is my anchor.” —Thích Nhất Hạnh from Stepping into Freedom: An Introduction to Buddhist Monastic Training:
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