A God-Shaped World
Exploring Jesus’s Teachings about the Kingdom of God and the Implications for the Church Today
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The kingdom of God was the central, dominant theme of the preaching of Jesus. The Lord's Prayer teaches us that the kingdom of God (your kingdom come) is inseparably tied to God’s character (hallowed by your name) and God’s will (your will be done).
The kingdom of God grows out of and is an expression of the character of God. The kingdom of God involves the doing of God’s will. Thus, the kingdom of God is the realm in which the Divine character shapes the way we live so that we do the will of God in every dimension of our lives. The kingdom of God is where the ways of God are lived.
By definition, heaven would be such a place – as it is in heaven. Heaven is a place where life is patterned after the merciful, gracious character of God, the ways of God are lived, and the will of God is done. But Jesus proclaimed that the kingdom had come near (NRSV) and was at hand (NIV). The word that Jesus used carried the idea of the kingdom being here, now – in our midst, at this moment. He taught his followers to pray that the kingdom would come on earth.
Thus, the kingdom of God is where life is patterned after the merciful, gracious character of God, the ways of God are lived, and the will of God is done … here on earth!
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About the Book
The kingdom of God was the central theme of Jesus’s preaching. Yet in spite of the centrality of the kingdom in Jesus’s ministry, the kingdom of God is far from a dominant theme in most mainline Protestant pulpits and churches. Preaching and teaching about the kingdom have been supplanted by such great themes as personal salvation, heaven and hell, faith, sin, the church, missions and evangelism, justice issues, stewardship, and moral living. So where is the kingdom?
In A God-Shaped World, author and pastor Steve Langford shows how the kingdom of God grows out of and is an expression of the character of God. The kingdom of God is the realm in which the divine character shapes the way we live so that we do the will of God in every dimension of our lives. A God-Shaped World identifies the four central characteristics of the kingdom of God, how out of step the ways of the kingdom are to the fear-based, self-serving ways inherent to the human condition, and the implications of the kingdom for followers of Jesus today.
The Lord’s Prayer teaches us that the kingdom of God is inseparably tied to God’s character and will. The kingdom of God is where life is patterned after the merciful, gracious character of God, where the ways of God are lived, and where the will of God is done—here on the earth!
About the Author
Dr. Steve Langford, also known as Pastor Steve, has given his adult life to the study and teaching of scripture in the local church. He is a gifted teacher who does not shrink from prophetically proclaiming the truth of scripture. He is also a lifelong student who earned degrees in biblical studies from Howard Payne University (BA) and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MDIV and DMIN). Dr. Langford and his wife of forty-seven years have three adult sons and four grandchildren. He is also the author of Why the Bible Is So Hard to Understand (2015).