“Your kingdom come – Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
– Matthew 6:19

My middle son, Tucker, used to love puzzles.  Not the simple wood-cut baby puzzles, but a good 100+ piece puzzle that would take anyone at least an hour to complete – he was only 3!  I remember once helping him with one that had him baffled and I have to admit that I, too, was stumped.  Turns out, we were missing two or three significant pieces, which really kept us from getting the bigger picture.

Likewise, the “Kingdom of God”.  Never mind that it’s the backdrop for the entirety of the whole Bible, mentioned no less that 140 times in the New Testament alone – we really don’t ‘get it’.  That’s just to say, the church as a whole hasn’t really committed much time coming to terms with the Kingdom – in many ways, it’s the ‘missing piece’ that makes us miss the big picture of our faith. [Read more…]