Kingdom Living 1

(Do look up my earlier ramblings on Virtues vs Values (2/21/11) and Kingdom Living to make more sense of this rambling!)

I am now walking through the Book of Judges in my Bible Study journey. It amazes me that from so long ago, man's capacity to sin and turn away from God was as rampant as it is today. They (the Israelites) were His chosen people and even with them, the cycle of sin prevailed. Indeed, God made us so human.

Two things struck me - man's nature to sin, and God's nature to forgive ... again and again and again. It just surfaces our need to be vigilant against temptation that is all around us. If we are serious about walking on the straight and narrow, we really need to look at what we can do to head towards The Kingdom.

Seriously, the 5 Cs will not get you there. Nope, not the car, cash, condo, credit card or club membership - these are all of this world, not the next - plus they are temporary and you can't bring any of them with you. Everything on this earth is on "loan".

There is an alternative C and you need just one C - Christ. So, what were His virtues that we can TRY to emulate to get us where He has gone?

There are at least 7 virtues reflected in the life of Christ. The first Kingdom Virtue is Truth. The Earth-side value is Tolerance. Joe Stowell states clearly that the source of truth comes from the authoritative Word of God. The character traits we want to develop would include integrity, reliability and transparency. We must refuse to cheat, lie, deceive or erode what is true by either our attitude or our actions.

I have news for you - we can't do this on our own steam. We need all the help we can get and that comes from a closer walk with God and that can only happen when we read, study, meditate and understand His word.

Amen! Let us join hands and help each other walk towards God's Kingdom as we live the life He has given us on this earth.