Advent is our time to be reminded that Jesus has come, is coming, and will come. I grew up in a church that tended to think of the gospel message as getting yourself right with God and claiming Christ as your savior so that you could go to heaven when you die. It was all about “Do you know where you will spend eternity?” I have come to see that salvation is about more than making sure you can go to heaven when you die. I believe in the resurrection, the final judgment, heaven and hell. But the good news of Jesus not only has to do with life after death, but also with life as God wants us to live it before death. The Gospel has to do with following Jesus every day, saying to God, “Not my will but Your will be done. Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”
Daniel Vestal, the Coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship writes in his Christmas letter, “The goal of the Gospel is not only that one day when Christ appears we shall be like Him, but also that we be conformed to the image of Christ today.” He continues, “The good news is that this Kingdom that has come in Jesus is now available to all . . .. As people are born of the Spirit, as people become like a child, as people care for the suffering, as people become humble, as people live as servants to one another, the Kingdom comes. As people confess ‘Jesus is Lord’ and live in radical obedience to His ethic, the Kingdom comes.”
We look forward to the day when the kingdom of God will come on earth as it is in heaven. There will come a day when “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them” (Isaiah 11:6). There will come a day when "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15), when perfect justice will be done in this world. This is the Good News: The Kingdom has come. The Kingdom is coming. The Kingdom will come.
Thank you for your gifts to the Global Missions Offering of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. We have already given $449. Our goal is $500. We will exceed our goal and we will be serving “the kingdom of our Lord and his Messiah,” helping missionaries in many places on the globe to live as servants, preach the Good News, and care for the suffering.
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