More Than “Heaven Someday”

(Kathy Gabler)—Can the Church, after this many centuries of preaching and teaching and experiencing God still have mis-beliefs and mis-understandings about Him and His Word? We don’t want to say, “Amen,” but we can say, “Evidently.”  However, the good news is that as long as we are not stubbornly or fearfully determined to stop and camp out on a “someday” or “no way” or “never now”, God who is faithful intends to open our understanding of “Thy Kingdom come”.  Just like yeast spreading, our understanding should be continually increasing and more and more folks should be realizing that “THY KINGDOM COME” means more than heaven “someday”.  It means more than Thy Salvation come or Thy Religion come.  It means more than Thy Tradition come and even more than Thy Church come!  It might hit a holy nerve to realize that the Kingdom is more than the Church and that it actually encompasses the Church!  The Church can be a touchy subject with us Christians because the Church cradles our concepts of  Christianity.  “Churchianity” provides the platform for our worship and represents God to a community.  Churchianity usually defines our expectations upon God and His Word.  Even so, when we pray, “Thy Kingdom come”, it can rattle Churchianity and initiate changes.  In fact, we need to be aware that “Thy Kingdom come” is going to cause more radical rattles this year, both personally and corporately, because there are some NEW  NORMS in the making.