Upside Down - Kingdom Livingনমুনা
"Love is a Taskmaster"
In the Beatitudes (Matt 5:1-12) we are given principles to live our life by. They are new and scary principles. They celebrate things such as suffering and meekness. They are the way of the Kingdom.
The second half of Matthew 5 ups the anti on living the godly life. It redefines the disciplines of life and calibrates what constitutes sin. It throws out the rules and replaces them with principles and values.
The rules on murder, adultery, oaths, divorce, and love have just been made more demanding than ever before. They are demanding because they are now rules of the heart not just of actions. They are rules that are impossible to fulfill to the letter but prepare us for the Kingdom to come by setting our compass to them. They bring us to our knees because we fail at them. They make life wonderful because we strive for them.
Reflections:
1. How do you reconcile the strong demands of Christ with His overall preaching of grace?
2. Find an area of your life where love demands more of you than you are currently giving.
In the Beatitudes (Matt 5:1-12) we are given principles to live our life by. They are new and scary principles. They celebrate things such as suffering and meekness. They are the way of the Kingdom.
The second half of Matthew 5 ups the anti on living the godly life. It redefines the disciplines of life and calibrates what constitutes sin. It throws out the rules and replaces them with principles and values.
The rules on murder, adultery, oaths, divorce, and love have just been made more demanding than ever before. They are demanding because they are now rules of the heart not just of actions. They are rules that are impossible to fulfill to the letter but prepare us for the Kingdom to come by setting our compass to them. They bring us to our knees because we fail at them. They make life wonderful because we strive for them.
Reflections:
1. How do you reconcile the strong demands of Christ with His overall preaching of grace?
2. Find an area of your life where love demands more of you than you are currently giving.
Scripture
About this Plan
Jesus taught us that to follow him, we must often live opposite to our culture; he turned the rules upside down. This 12 day devotional dives into what it means to live Upside Down in a kingdom that isn't definied by race, status, circumstance, gender, or geography, but by a love of Christ. Can we really live a life surrendered to the prayer "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven"?
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