And People will come from the east and
the west
and from the north and the south and
will recline at table in the Kingdom of
God.
~ Luke 13: 22-30
What a relief it is to know that
the Kingdom of God is not limited to any particular race, ethnicity or people,
but rather it is by nature Catholic or Universal and composed of people from
the north and south, and from the east and west!
In an era where humanity
constantly display the melancholic trend of not wanting to have anything to do
with God all in the name of freedom to do anything that pleases us and without
recourse to spiritual and moral compasses, it should be encouraging to those
who desire goodness, justice and peace everlasting that irrespective of where
you come from and who you are Jesus welcome all into the Kingdom of God!
The emblems of the Kingdom of God
are eternal life, peace and joy in the presence of the creator of heaven and
earth! We shall lack nothing good and our being will be transformed into the
glorious bodies that will never suffer corruption and in the presence of the
Lord our God it shall be all praise and glory, singing alleluia without end.
The Kingdom of God is not the
exclusive right of Christians alone, neither is it for the Caucasians nor the
rich and powerful. On the contrary, it is open to all mankind, rich and poor,
white and black, Islam, Buddhist, Pagans, and Hinduism, people with various
lifestyle orientations, among others. The simple criteria required of those who
seek to enter this beautiful Kingdom of God are believing in the name of Jesus
Christ, and accepting the fact that he is the Messiah and the Son of the living
God and finally living according to his tenet as exemplified in the scriptures
and emulated by uncountable saints, past and present in this world.
The Kingdom of Earth
Throughout history, man has
continued his quest for true freedom, peace and joy, however and most
regrettably these missions have largely remained elusive principally because,
we have rejected God by acting unjustly toward our neighbors, our greed and
self-centeredness have blinded us to the virtues of generosity, and the hatred
we have for those who does not support our ways of lifestyle, may not come from
our ethnicity or shall the commonality of faith is so intense that we are ready
to kill, destroy or denigrate humanity in order to make a point.
The consequences of these godless
trends are evident in the spiritual and moral decadence that are prevalent in
our society today. Examples of the penalty of relegating God to the background
are beyond imagination, however it suffice to mention but a few:
The misrepresentation and
mischaracterization of love is on the top of the list! As a result of our
obvious egocentrism, most often the kind of love will manifest are the
self-centered or greedy type that whenever expressed must be accompanied with a
return investment status quo. What this kind of mentality does is to perpetuate
the doctrine of an eye for an eye or you only help those you expect something
from in return.
Have you ever experience a
situation whereby you encounter someone more powerful, rich and in position of
high earthly authority utter words like, “I am powerful and can do and undo?”
if so you will understand how mortal man has turned himself into a mini-god!
To be fearless in itself is not a
bad thing, since without being fearless, you may not take the necessary stride
to survive or overcome bullying and other forms of intimidations. To be
fearless before God is completely absorbed, considering the fact that our lives
are in God’s hands and not vice versa. We are witnesses to many so called great
world leaders that claimed to be mini-god and dealt heartlessly, cruelly and
ruthlessly against those they think were opposed to them. Fortunately these
folks are no longer with us, but the almighty God remained and abide forever!
Ours is also a society that have
accepted and put into practice the doctrine of individuality and the concept of
relativism without recourse to God or any kind of divine or moral compasses. We
are free to do anything we like or want and careless about whether there are
repercussions, as long as we are personally satisfied or experience pleasure or
other forms of gratifications.
The only downside is that such
gratifications are as ephemeral as life itself.
In our quest for this
one-dimensional freedom based on our physicality alone, we are in reality less
free and have become captive and slaves to our machinations! We design weapons
for protections, but the same is now used to make us less protected, we design
medications to heal and prolong our longevity from a scientific perspective,
regrettably we now used the same medications to kill and hurt others, we design
scientific mode of transportations such as airplane, cars and trains and ship,
unfortunately either by omission or commission humanity have lost and continue
to loose their lives through these means of transportations. The bottom line is
simply we are unable to achieve the kind of kingdom that is capable of delivering
our quest for infinite love and longevity, health and well-being, true
happiness and joy, satiability and glory.
The results of this synthetic
freedom that completely disregards the tenet of the freedom that God has
fashioned for humanity are, wars after wars, refugee crisis, forced- migrations
with the detrimental consequences of severe discrimination and helplessness of
the victims, destructions of lives and properties. All these inimical
development culminate in many becoming resigned and seeing life on earth as
useless, hopeless and worthless.
Without an iota of doubt, it is
this kind of state of This state of utmost despair has led to the emergence of
another ugliness, that of terrorism and terrorists that feel that life has no
meaning and the use of weapons is the solution to every human problems.
This is the pathetic
representation of the Kingdom of earth in our era, where the rich becomes
richer and the poor become poorer and unfortunately nobody experience true
peace anymore, as every facet of humanity are plague with hurt, betrayal and
lack of peace.
Summarily, the egocentric and
godless choices we make have tremendous negative impact in our society and the
people we encountered, as evident in the prevalence injustices, discrimination
and hatred, killing, lynching and incapacitations of mankind as a result of our
inhumanity.
The Kingdom of God
In order to appreciate the Kingdom
of God, we must emphasis what it is not! When Saint Paul was writing to the
Galatians he stated the work of the flesh, which personifies the Kingdom of
earth:
Now the works of the flesh are
evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity,
strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy,
drunkenness, orgies and things like these. (Galatians 5: 19-21)
The Kingdom of God is completely
the perfect opposite of the fallibility of the kingdom of earth and its emblems
are life, righteousness, power, justice, peace, love and glory through
eternity. As a result of man’s limitations to describe the physical nature of
the throne of grace and the eternal glory of the Kingdom of God is impossible
to comprehend and therefore it suffices to use the words of the prophet Isaiah
as a prelude to challenge our imagination:
Wolves and sheep will live
together in peace, and leopards will lie down with young goats. Calves and lion
cubs will feed together and little children will take care of them. Cows and
bears will eat together and their calves and cubs will lie down in peace. Lions
will eat straw as cattle’s do. Even a baby will not be harmed if it plays near
a poisonous snake. (Isaiah 11:6-8)
The above scenarios are not
humanly possible and therefore to fully comprehend the nature of the Kingdom of
God is beyond the imagination of mankind, nevertheless the characteristics
described by the prophets and especially Jesus Christ, the Son of the living
God enables those who desire God to have a glimpse of the glory and greatness
that awaits us, if we eventually make heaven.
The Kingdom of God is life and not
death and it is for all eternity! There is absolute peace, justice and
righteousness in the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God is so powerful
that no evil can ever prevail against it! And those who make heaven will enjoy
happiness and joy that can never be expressed by human understanding and the
mankind insatiability for what is good will be quenched forever.
Whatever pleases us here on earth,
whatever we truly desire and longed for and whatever dreams we want to
accomplished and which we hope will make us extremely happy and satisfied, is
nothing in comparison to the glory that waits us in heaven.
Composition of the Kingdom
of God
The most amazing part of the
Kingdom of God outside the fact that it is eternal, glorious and full of love
and life is the composition attribute that Jesus Christ eloquently described
today in our hearing! People from the North and South, and from the East and
West are all welcome in the Kingdom of God! White and Black, rich and poor,
religious and impious, people of every kind and types and nature are welcome
into this Kingdom of God through the amazing and divine grace and providential
care of the almighty and eternal God!
What an awesome feeling it must be
to know and without an iota of doubt that, neither my race nor ethnicity,
nationality, socio-economic status, lifestyle orientation, religious belief or
lack of it excludes me from the Kingdom of God, as long as I am willing to
accept Jesus Christ into my life as my Lord, Son of the living God and my
savior.
All are welcome in my Father’s
house or kingdom, as Jesus Christ will remind us throughout the scriptures and
through the lives of the saints and the faithful that live a life full of
emulation of our Lord and savior.
We know through the scriptures that after the fall of our first
parents Adam and Eve, because of God’s infinite love for mankind and through
divine providence designed a way for humanity to return to him. This loving
God, faithful and steadfast beyond understanding decided to subject his Only
Begotten Son, Jesus Christ to death on the cross, so that upon him will hang
our transgressions and through his death, resurrection and ascension into
heaven, will now serve as our advocate with the Father and effectively
reconcile us on the path to the Kingdom of God, which is everlasting joy in the
presence of the angels and saints
Therefore no matter what religion you may belong to, whether it is
Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Paganism, African traditional
worshipers and others not listed here, you are in line to enter the Kingdom of
God too, because Jesus Christ did not die for Christians alone, but for the
entire humanity!
What is needed is for us to
confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God, the Messiah and savior
of the world and live according to his tenet here on earth.
In the Kingdom of God, we are no
longer going to see ourselves as Black or White, Africans or Americans, Asians
or Europeans, rich or poor, educated or illiterate, wise of foolish by our
standards, married or unmarried! Instead, we shall be like the angels every
ready to serve and be in the presence of the almighty God, in his glory,
praising, singing and worshiping him world without end, and as for our being,
the transformation shall be complete; from corruptible to incorruptible where
there is no more sickness, pain and death.
Let us challenge ourselves
together to begin to prepare toward the coming of the Kingdom of God by living
the godly life today!
Let us live our lives based on
love, hope and faith in God!
Let us thrive for heaven by loving
one another and becoming an instrument of God’s peace, reconciliation and joy
to our families, friends and community and those we encounter in life!
Let the joy of the Lord, be our
strength as we march on, seeing in our sufferings and challenges the call to
carry our cross as Jesus Christ did, and so bring comfort to those experiencing
pains and hurts, and make this life meaningful again.
PRAYER
Dear heavenly Father,
I thank you so much for making thy
Kingdom of heaven open to the entire humanity. In the name of Jesus Christ, we
pray that you encourage us to put into practice what our Lord, is preaching and
so become the light of the world. May your will be done in our life today and
always, as we hope to be united with You and your Son our Lord Jesus Christ who
in union with the Holy Spirit lives and reign one God world without end. Amen!
Ref: Luke 13, Galatians 5, Isaiah
6,
podeh2016
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