The KIngdom

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

THE KINGDOM

Rev 1:5-6

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father — to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

NIV

How can we ever do anything that would classify as being worthy of his love? We are his creation, we are the only portion of his creation into who he breathed his very breathe. He spoke all the rest of creation into existence just with his word, but when he created us, God got down on his knees in the dirt, getting his hands dirty, forming us from that mud, and when he was done he leaned over and breathed the breath of life into our nostrils. It is any wonder Jesus loves us? Then because we strayed, we did not pay attention to his one command, because of his own justice, he needed to ban us from paradise. But because he loves us, he also had a plan to redeem us back, to justify himself back to the creation he loves. He planned to become his own sacrifice to satisfy his own justice. It is all about him and his love for us. We cannot ever be worthy of that kind of love, and we may never be able to express that kind of love. He loves us so much that Jesus experienced a horrible death, as one of us, so that he could free us from the punishment due us because of sin. He took that sin, and punishment so we would not have to experience it if we accept him as our Lord. In addition, if freedom from sin is not enough, he has made us to be a kingdom, which is we are the kingdom of God. Once we die, and are born again, as Jesus explained it to Nicodemus, then we can enter into the kingdom, because we become that kingdom. But that is not all either. We become priests to serve his God and Father. We become priests. This means not just a few select individuals who say they have been called and spend years within a school of higher learning to earn a degree and then garner some ordination from a denomination agreeing to all their doctrines in order to obtain a job preaching at some church. Anyone who accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, who has been born again and who has become the kingdom of God is also a priest who serves his God and Father. Although we use the English term priest, especially within the Catholic Church, we are all considered by God just as the same. The Greek word here means priest, but metaphorically, of Christians, because, purified by the blood of Christ and brought into close contact with God, we devote our life to him alone. This is the concept of the Catholic priest, but it should also be the concept of our lives as we too are priests who are called to serve our Almighty God. How do we serve him?

Rom 12:1-2

12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.

NIV

This should put to rest any question as to how we serve our Lord, how we are his kingdom. There are only two kingdoms in existence, the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light. We know who thinks he rules over the kingdom of darkness, but in essence it is our own evil hearts who reign in the darkness. But Jesus has called us out of that kingdom into the kingdom of light, his light, and so we are now a part of the kingdom of God, being a priest, devoted to him and him alone. That means we forsake any form of devotion to any part of the kingdom of darkness. We forsake everything for his sake, so that through us the world sees his glory and power, forever and ever, amen.