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“The kingdom of heaven is breaking into the earth.”

A thought by Jon Tyson from his book, The Burden Is Light: Liberating Your Life from the Tyranny of Performance and Success (p. 163). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Now that is good news!!!

Jon says, “Jesus came to disrupt sin, shame, exclusion, oppression, and idolatry. He constantly reframed reality to include those whom the prideful Pharisees screened out. He taught us that faith must be centered on two things: passion for God and compassion for people. The love of God leads us out of our internal obsession and into the brokenness and pain of the world. When we see God clearly, we see others clearly, and we begin to orient our lives around those God desperately seeks to save. The kingdom of heaven is entered only through humility. It belongs to the poor in spirit, the needy, the merciful, those who come empty-handed and relying on grace. God’s love breaks us free from the cocoon of self into new life. We become new creatures, born of compassion and existing for the flourishing of others.”

Jon later says, “Christ emptied himself of his rights and privileges as God, and took on human flesh to rescue us from sin, Satan, death, and hell. Christ was so compelled by his love for us that he left his position of glory to identify with and include us in his divine love. He left a throne of splendor for the womb of an unwed teenage girl. He left the comfort of heaven for the mess of the stable. He left the applause of the heavenly host for the obscurity of the carpenter shop. He left the adoration of the angels for the insults of the crowd and the glory of eternity for the shame of the cross. He took on the nature of a servant and humbled himself out of love for us.

“For this reason, Paul urges us to become like Christ. ‘Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.’ (Philippians 2:2-5) When this sort of humility takes over a life, a new kind of kingdom is born. In the last days, people may be lovers of themselves, but in the kingdom of God, people become servants of all.”

Yes, God’s kingdom has truly come down to earth and it wants to live out through you and me because Christ is in our heart.  Would you ask him to come into your heart and to live out through you?  Will you?


Yes, yes!
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