Kingdom Building

October 23, 2019

Scripture Reading: Psalm 65

By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance,
   O God of our salvation;
you are the hope of all the ends of the earth
   and of the farthest seas.
By your strength you established the mountains;
   you are girded with might.
You silence the roaring of the seas,
   the roaring of their waves,
   the tumult of the peoples.
Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by your signs;
you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy. –Psalm 65:5-8

I think it has almost become cliché that we serve an awesome God even though God has proven time after time that God does deliver us when we turn around and trust God. So, while we may sing Our God is an Awesome God on Sunday morning, we are running around like Chicken Little* crying out, “the sky is falling” over which we have no control. We live in a chaotic time that when looked back on by historians will be described as far more eventful than the Industrial Revolution. We have a choice whether to be a part of a positive outcome or not.

God did not create us in God’s image to be helpless. Christ did not call us to ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. (Mark 16:15) or to love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39) because it was easy. He knew how hard it would be, but he also knew that it is the best way of being for all God’s children and he called us to partner with him to make it a reality throughout the world.

We never, ever do anything in the name of God alone.

Turn you eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace**

Prayer: Grant us the courage to answer you call. Amen.

*https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Chicken_Little
** Chorus of Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus by Helen Howarth Lemmel see at https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/645

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.