Personal kingdoms come and go by the hour. Even national kingdoms change rapidly. Think of the number of powerful kingdoms that were in existence fifty years ago that are now just history. But God’s kingdom is a completely different matter. To grow God’s kingdom means to allow God to reign as king in our own lives first, then as king in our family and ultimately over every person that is willing to allow Jesus to be their king. At Central, it isn’t our motivation to build a Central kingdom. It is that we could totally fade into the kingdom rule of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Our longing is to first grow that kingdom by helping each other grow closer to God every day. Certainly we want to encourage and aid in that effort with things like classes, worship and even this blog. Everything is built around helping each of us become stronger for Christ and more yielded to Him in everything.
But growing God’s kingdom can’t be just a personal thing. Jesus is the ultimate unselfish, serving and giving person and if we are to be like him we must become totally sold out to helping people made in God’s image with the problems and struggles of life. Jesus came to reach out to the poor, the prisoners, the children and sick and hurting and those who were possessed by demons. Satan is certainly just as active and controlling today as he was then. We are about rescuing people being used by the devil, through drugs, alcohol, pornography or even through mental illness. We are about reaching out with love to abandoned and orphaned children. The need for foster care and adoption in this area is huge. We are also about helping every family to be good parents to their own children and bringing them up for God so that they aren’t ever in that horrible situation. If we can involve even the children in meeting people in their hurts and struggles it will be amazing the difference we can all make.
Growing God’s kingdom means that we are ready to share our story of what Jesus has done in our lives and what he will do in the lives of others if they will let him. Helping that person who is homeless or all alone is never enough if we leave them lost and without God in their life. So, grow personally, grow as a family, grow with your friends, grow by sharing and grow by telling others about Jesus who can change everything for them.
Leon Barnes
For more from Leon visit http://leoninlittlerock.com
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