KINGDOMS IN CONFLICT:  What’s the World Coming To?

  1. GOD’S BIG PICTURE. (Vaughan Roberts, GodsBigPicture.co.uk)

“The kingdom of God:  God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule and blessing… That may sound like an overly simplistic definition for such a significant theme in Scripture, but the simple words contain great depth.  God longs for human beings to enjoy an intimate relationship with him in his presence.  As he is a perfect, holy God, that is possible only as we submit to his loving rule and do not sin.  That is life at its best; life as it was designed to be lived.  To live under God’s rule means to enjoy God’s blessing; the two go together.”  (Vaughan Roberts, GOD’S BIG PICTURE, p.22)

GRAPHIC

GRAPHIC

GRAPHIC

  1. GOD’S STORY: IT’S ALL LEADING TO ONE GRAND CONCLUSION!

GRAPHIC

  • Isaiah 9:6-7; 11:1-9; 25:6-9; 65:17-25
  • Daniel 7:9-27
  • The Psalms – 37:7-13, 21-22, 27-29; 96:10-13
  • Revelation 21-22

 

  • KINGDOMS IN CONFLICT: The Kingdom of God vs. all the kingdoms of this world.
  • We must be radically changed – “born again” – to enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5).

“If only it were so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? ”  ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

  • We must treasure Christ and his kingdom over all other “kingdoms” and “allegiances” (Luke 12:29-34).

Aim at Heaven and you will get earth “thrown in”: aim at earth and you will get neither. It seems a strange rule, but something like it can be seen at work in other matters. Health is a great blessing, but the moment you make health one of your main, direct objects you start becoming a crank and imagining there is something wrong with you. You are only likely to get health provided you want other things more—food, games, work, fun, open air. In the same way, we shall never save civilization as long as civilization is our main object. We must learn to want something else even more. (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)

  • Fear not, little flock, for it is your Heavenly Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom! (Luke 12:32)