My journey
began several years ago when a sweet young lady came to my door and wanted to
share some Scripture with me. Of course, I allowed her to do so. For about a
year she would come and share a scripture about every 2-3 months and give me
some reading material. Sometimes she had a ‘trainee’ with her. One day she
turned to a passage in Daniel (I tried to look up the specific one but there
are 53 references to the kingdom in Daniel and I really don’t remember which
one). She read about the kingdom and asked my opinion. I told her I believed
there is a kingdom of God’s believers on earth that are called to win as many
into the kingdom of believers as they can before the Lord returns to take us to
the heavenly kingdom. She did not agree with that. She only believes there is
a heavenly kingdom.
After she left, that got me to thinking. I did a long
study on the kingdom and how it IS here on earth and how there is a heavenly
kingdom we will go to when we die (or Jesus comes back). The next time she
returned, I was armed with scripture. It just so happens that my house was
clean the day she and her trainee stopped by. I invited them in and we sat on
the couch and all opened our Bibles. I shared with them my scriptures. She
shared with me her scriptures. After a short while when I decided this was
going no where, I said, “You know, we probably should agree to disagree.
Whether you believe your interpretation or I believe what I have found, neither
is a ‘bad’ view to hold. Neither is denying God or against his teaching. And,
believing that a kingdom of believers is here on earth is not a bad concept, it
is just different than your concept.” Well, they really didn't like that, but
they were nice about it and the sweet lady expressed that it was really
refreshing to actually have someone talk to them and not brush them off. It was
nice to know someone took the time to study the scriptures.
After that, she did
come back several more times but we did not talk about the kingdom any more.
What I found to be most interesting came after the visit I had with her about
the kingdom. Two older men came to my house. They were obviously from the same
church as the sweet lady. It seemed they were ‘checking up’ on me because of
something she had told them. God was with me that day!! They asked me questions
and I talked with them on the front porch for a short while. At one point in
our conversation, I made a comment (I really don’t remember what it was, but it
was about my understanding of some scripture we were discussing.) You know that
long pause you get when someone is digesting something you said? Well, they paused and stared at me. One finally nodded in agreement with a look on his
face like, “I never thought of that before.” I credit God for putting the words
in my mouth for that situation and for giving me the opportunity to nicely
debate others who have a zest for scripture, too. I like debating. I learn a
lot.
Anyway, I
have always been fascinated by the whole ‘kingdom’ concept ever since these
encounters. So, I started researching the “The kingdom of heaven is like…”
passages in Matthew. Each week I will share one of those with you. And my
interpretation is that there has to be a kingdom on earth fighting good and
evil. There is also a kingdom in the heavenly realm fighting good and evil.
But, Heaven, I think, is were there is no evil and no tears and all is at peace
with us worshiping God constantly.
Next week,
I will start with Matthew 13:24-30 “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who
sowed good seed in his field.”
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