Broken and Divided: America and the Church

Thy Kingdom Come- God’s Kingdom Revealed

Jesus said, 'The Kingdom of God is within' and 'I only say what I hear the Father saying and I only do what I see the Father doing'. Therefore, It is something we experience, articulate, and do. The Kingdom of God is already here but not yet fully realized.
~ R. Alan Woods

No matter the current circumstances—a church divided, a people divided, a world divided—God’s kingdom will be established. The Church of Jesus Christ, the ecclesia, “the called-out people” will arise. I’m not speaking about the church that you attend on Sundays, the physical structure, or your particular denomination or congregation affiliation. I’m speaking about the Church of the Son of God. Jesus Himself said He was building His Church upon the rock and that even hell could not defeat it (Matthew 16:18). I’m speaking about the Church that Christ purchased with His very blood.

We Are the Church
You and I represent this Church, and Christ intends for us to rise. He gave Himself for us, to make us whole, radiant, pure, and blameless (Ephesians 5:25-27). He intends for His Church—His people—to shine like that city set on a hill for all to see and to give glory to God for His greatness (Matthew 5:14-16). He wants His Church to be the vehicle that lifts Him up and draws others to Him (John 12:32).
In the midst of darkness and chaos, Christ’s true Church will serve as light. We will stand strong and victorious. We will live such that God’s glory will be revealed in us. And, even if God must shake us, and everything around us, in order to wake us up, He will. God’s plans for His Church will not be aborted, for Christ is alive in us. We will arise and become a triumphant and unified people—the glorious Church for which Christ will one day return.
To be perfectly honest, as we search Scripture, the things that are happening in our world today resemble things that happened in the past. Men were lovers of themselves, committing every imaginable type of sin and abomination, as they are today. Scripture tells us that there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). However, in the midst of darkness, the Israelites received a word from the Lord through Isaiah, which is relevant for us as well.
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the people, but the LORD rises upon you and His glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn (Isaiah 60:1-3, NIV).
We are in a better position than the Israelites were in Isaiah’s day, because we have the light of Christ, and the deposit of His Spirit, in us. With God’s Spirit in us and upon us, surely, we can rise and shine and let the world experience the God we serve.

Revealing God to the World
Through the Great Commission, Christ made us His messengers to the world (Matthew 28: 19-20). Paul plainly tells us that, “[w]e are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20, NIV). However, an ambassador is to represent well the one who sends him. So, how do we represent God well? We become like Christ and seek to show Him to the world by the way we live.
First, we must be willing change our spiritual clothing. We must let go of, take off, our old ways that were planted in ignorance, blind hearts, and past sinfulness, because once we came to Christ, that old life was supposed to be finished (Ephesians 4:17-19). Now, it’s time for us to realize what’s been done for us and put on our new lives in Christ.
That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in Him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:20-24, NIV).
Is this easy to do? Yes…and no.
Yes, it is easy because Christ has already and completely removed the penalty of sin for us. The moment we accept Christ, we become new creations; old things have passed away and all things have been made new (2 Corinthians 5:17). It’s done.
On the other hand, challenges persist. Although Christ’s salvation work for us is completed, His sanctification work in us is ongoing; the realization of that new life is a continuing process, not something that happens overnight. There is molding and making that occurs, as God shapes us in the image of Christ. We need not worry that we are beyond God’s transformation power, though. Scripture tells us that, if we surrender to the Holy Spirit, we can be confident that, He who began a good work in us will carry it through to completion (Philippians 1:6).
Each of us who has received Christ as Savior is a part of the Church. We already have the new life of Christ in us and, as we let go of our old life, we will see God’s Spirit at work in us fashioning us after Himself.