Quotes about Kingdom

Ruth's story helped me see that neither I nor any of God's daughters belong on the sidelines, while our brothers build his kingdom without us. He means for us to work alongside our brothers, and he is doing great things through his daughters, even though we, like Ruth and Naomi, may never live to see the full significance of our contributions.

Jesus didn't come to give us a kinder, gentler patriarchy or a new-and-improved version of any other social system known to humankind. In his own words, he came to bring a "kingdom that is not of this world" (John 18:36, emphasis added)—the kingdom we lost in the fall, a kingdom that is utterly foreign to us.

Women in the Bible are wise teachers. They offer up a boatload of profound theology intended to enrich the whole church's understanding of who God is, what it means to walk with him, and how we are to build his kingdom in this broken world.

When men are called to full-fledged kingdom living but the other half of the church is asked to sit on the sidelines, there is no Blessed Alliance, the bride of Christ limps, and we misrepresent God's oneness.

God's tactics are counterintuitive to our male-centered world, but therein lies the surprise for the Enemy, for the world, and for us. For when men and women are allied together, richer discussions result in better decisions, the elimination of blind spots, and a greater kingdom force in the world. If you don't believe me, just compare Esther, Mordecai, Mary, and Joseph each operating solo with what they accomplished by working together.

Jesus firmly and consistently reinforced human equality by spending a lot of time in the margins of society, most notably in relationships with women. He didn't simply bring relief and comfort to the down and out. He engaged, recruited, and mobilized for his kingdom people who didn't count for anything in the eyes of society or of religious leaders. His interactions with women violated patriarchal propriety and repeatedly shocked his disciples.

Pharasaical tendencies in all of us make the walk of faith doable. We can be moral, go to church, read our Bibles, and give our 10 percent. Jesus and Ruth knock down the walls of that kind of thinking. Real kingdom living is clostly. It will stretch, bend, and break us. Following Jesus isn't the path to a tame or easy life. It is about taking up a cross--which means laying down our lives as Jesus did for the sake of others.

I come not to bring negative peace, but I come to bring positive peace. I come not to bring this old peace which is merely the absence of tension; I come to bring a positive peace which is the presence of justice and the Kingdom of God. Peace is not merely the absence of something, but it's the presence of something.

So live for the kingdom of God. Seek to bring glory to Jesus Christ and the Lord will use you. It is my prayer, my constant and daily prayer, that God would keep me useable.

The Church is everywhere represented as one. It is one body, one family, one fold, one kingdom. It is one because pervaded by one Spirit. We are all baptized into one Spirit so as to become, says the apostle, on body.

A kingdom man is a man who visibly demonstrates the comprehensive rule of God underneath the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every area of his life.

Jesus said, 'Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' There are no exceptions. Baptism is a necessary ordinance.