I know that chapters and verses were added to the Bible centuries after it was written and collected, but I fully believe that its organization is as inspired as its words. When Christ is quoted in Luke, first telling us to have no fear because His Father takes pleasure in sharing us with us the Kingdom, and then immediately tells us to sell what we have and give it to the poor, I must believe that these two thoughts are related. 

One doesn’t hear much about sacrifice in Evangelical American churches. In my own church, my own denomination, one hears a message on giving two or three times a year… with special emphasis on missions or tithing. Rarely, though, does the message from American pulpits compel us to sacrifice, and it almost never urges us to sell all we have and give the money to the poor. 

In Luke, we find Christ relating such self-sacrifice to the Kingdom of God. He tells us that by so doing, we are “laying up treasures in heaven.” In Acts, we find thousands of Christians selling all they have and sharing it with the poor, and we see it related directly to church growth that has rarely been seen again. 

After that, such self-sacrifice is seen in church history only rarely, and usually during persecution or grave disasters. 

Today, in America, the political pendulum is swinging from the extreme left to the extreme right. A great number of evangelical Christians stand on the right, awaiting its arrival. In its wake, that pendulum will clean up a great many messes that it made in its long journey to the left. Government handouts will end, jobs will return, and the economy will prosper. The poor will realize they are better off standing on their own two feet than being supported by props meant to entrap them. 

Yet, like any economy, there will be a few people left behind. These are the truly disabled, the old and feeble, the widowed and orphaned, the disabled veterans, the addicted, the uneducated, and those whose jobs have disappeared and are too old to learn other skills. Sure, a great number of people have been taught to depend on welfare when they should have been taught to work, but a portion of those truly do need our help, and should not be left behind. 

Sell everything we have and give the money to the poor? That’s a personal decision, something every one of us must work out with God. Show compassion and generosity to those in need? That is not just our social duty. It is our duty as a citizens of His Kingdom. 

Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. – Luke 12:32-34 NKJV

I anxiously await the day when there is a new heaven and a new earth. Christ will sit on the throne. There will be no need for a sun, for Christ is the Light. The lion will lie down with the lamb.  The beauty will surpass even the wildest beauty I can imagine. I anxiously await the Kingdom of God; do you?

As anxious as I am for His kingdom, the Father is even more anxious for me to be a part of it. So anxious is He that He gives His flock a foretaste of the Kingdom, for the Kingdom of God is within you and I. 

Many Christians miss this: the Kingdom is within us, or in our souls. One reason they miss it is because modern Bible translations miss it. We find that statement in Luke 17:21 in the King James Version. “The Kingdom of God is within you.” The NIV, though, and many other translations, put it this way “The Kingdom of God is in your midst.” Big difference. 

The Greek word translated either “within you” or “in the midst” is entos, which literally means inside, or “in your soul.”

Is it too much to think that God’s Kingdom begins in our hearts? Maybe it is. Maybe the reason it is so difficult to imagine is because so few Christians actually accept Jesus as king in their lives.

Following Jesus is not simply believing that He exists. It is not just believing in the concept that He is God. Following Jesus is more than saying a prayer, asking Him to come into our hearts. 

Following Jesus is repentance from the ways of man and adherence to the ways of God. It is walking in Christ’s footsteps. It is a day-by-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute, breath-by-breath, thought-by-thought relationship with our Creator and Lord. 

Such a relationship can begin only with absolute surrender to Him, and absolutely allowing Him to rid our lives of the filth and fill our lives with His love. Only then may we get a foretaste of the Kingdom of God. 
Fear Not for it’s God’s pleasure to give us His Kingdom. 

God led the Israelites to the edge of the Promised Land, and told them to cross the Jordan River and make it there own. Very specifically, He reminded them of their previous victories, and very specifically He told them what lands to take and what lands to pass by. He practically paved the way, or set stones up the hillside to make their way easier. God offered to hold their hands, win their battles, crash the gates and crumble the walls of their enemies. 

It is difficult to see things from a godly perspective. Whereas God saw their enemies as evil and heartless, the Israelites saw them as mighty giants. God saw their enemies as His enemies, but the Israelites saw them as bigger than God. God saw their enemies as irredeemable. The Israelites saw them as unconquerable. 

Because they were unable to see beyond their own eyes, because they could not see things like God sees them… because of their lack of faith, the Israelites were to spend 40 more years in the wilderness. They were to live as nomads in the hills before the Promised Land, but not to cross into it, and to remain their until that generation – the generation of rebellious, fearful doubters – died off. 

In the end, it was the next generation who took the Promised Land. From the first generation, only Joshua and Caleb were left, and neither of them ever doubted. 

What a picture for us to follow. As a teenager, I was confused, doubted, and frightened. I turned away from God and did things my own way. I wish with all my heart that I had not rebelled, but I did. God let me wander in the wilderness for forty years until all my doubts had died, and until I had no rebellion left in me. Now that my doubts are gone, I once again accept His hand. I have no fear as, together, He and I look ahead toward the Promised Land. 

If you have ever doubted… if you have ever been so fearful that you rebelled against God, then Fear Not. He still offers you His hand, and will lead you into the Promised Land.

… And He takes me by the hand

and leads me to the Promised Land,

what a day, glorious day that will be.

– What a Day That Will Be, by Jim Hill.