It's easier to treat Jesus as a one-way ticket to heaven as opposed to following Jesus to the margins here and now: to feed the hungryto care for the sickto forgive debtsto welcome the stranger. But that's where Jesus is.And that's the kingdom come.
You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way." from Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Our obsession with being right in our eschatological and theological arguments is an idolatrous impediment to sharing the gospel (which is meant as good news for all people in the here and now). The fear-induced pressure for us to somehow “save” people from a...
Gathering with other believers to worship remains one of the most significant things we do, because it’s our way of imitating heaven. Worship is the business, the lifeblood, the heartbeat of heaven. Spirit-led worship here and now gives us a taste of heaven unlike...
The Gospel must not only offer a personal salvation in the future life to those who believe; it must also transform all the relationships of life here and now and thus cause the Kingdom of God to prevail in all the world. from The Deeply Formed life: Five...
My favorite lines about Christ's "Second Coming" are in the story "A Christmas Memory," by Truman Capote. In this autobiographical piece of great delicacy, the author describes his last Christmas with the woman who brought him up. The author is seven at the time; she...