kingdom

Last Sunday I was talking about the Kingdom of God. It is one of my favourite subjects and something that Jesus talked about most of all.

 

He explained the Kingdom, demonstrated what the Kingdom was like and told stories about it.

‘Kingdom’ is a favourite topic for stories and films and all things cultural.

 

Stephen Fry stars in a television series that is filmed locally in Swaffam. In it, everyone tries very hard to speak in Norfolk dialects - but fail abysmally! Harrison Ford at the age of 65 has just starred in ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’. Terry Brooks, one of my favourite authors has a series of books based on ‘The Magic Kingdom of Landover’. You can buy stencil designs from a company called ‘Stencil Kingdom’! There are, it seems, many, many different kingdoms. There are political kingdoms, insect kingdoms and Disney has commandeered the animal kingdom – hence ‘Disney’s Animal Kingdom’ in Orlando, Florida. If you reside in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland you live in the United Kingdom.

 

In a Kingdom someone rules. In my own personal kingdom I have a lot of influence even if it is only over me, me, me! If I want to experience God’s Kingdom I will have to, at some time or another, encounter the King of that Kingdom, Jesus Christ. The bible shows us that His Kingdom is above all others and at the name of Jesus, every knee will one day bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus really and truthfully is the Lord over all. So what is it like? Why have so many in the past laid down their lives for the King and His Kingdom? Why is it that persecuted people who suffer because of Jesus Christ consider it a better option to continue loving and serving Him, when life is so tough and difficult for them, than to give up and turn away?