Our series during Ordinary time will explore the revelation of God’s Kingdom through his Son. We will look specifically how the incarnation—the ministry, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ—reveals the long-promised Kingdom of God breaking into human history demonstrating God’s love, destroying the powers that ravaged creation, and displaying the Messiah’s promise (to continue reading this essay, click on image above).
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YOUR KINGDOM COME
Pastoral Resources | 2025-26 Themes At-A-Glance
The Time is Fulfilled: The Fall of Humankind and the Curse Overturned, Mark 1:14-20 (cf. Gen 3:1-15)
The arrival of God’s Kingdom in Christ demands our complete and immediate response, for now, through Jesus of Nazareth, the long night of humanity’s exile from Eden has ended and the dawn of restoration has broken into our world. Jesus’ call to “repent and believe” is a summons to turn from our rebellion against God’s rightful rule and embrace by faith the Good News that his reign of grace, justice, and redemption is now at hand. The first disciples’ radical obedience—leaving behind security, identity, and family ties without hesitation—models the wholehearted allegiance Christ requires of all who would embrace his Kingdom rule and mission. The Master calls every disciple today to enter his Kingdom fully, allowing Christ to transform our purposes from self-centered pursuits into Kingdom work. He intends to make us agents of the great restoration that reverses the curse and reclaims all creation for God’s glory.
Our Focus Today
Christ’s Call to Covenant Renewal: Repent and Believe, Mark 1:15
Christ commands us to “repent and believe in the gospel,” calling humanity to turn away from rebellion against God’s rule and to embrace by faith the Good News that his Kingdom has arrived, offering reconciliation and restoration to all who respond.
Invocation
Gracious Father, through your Son you proclaimed the arrival of your Kingdom and called everyone to enter through repentance and faith. I confess that I cannot turn from my rebellion or trust in your Good News apart from the enabling grace of your Holy Spirit. Expose in me every form of self-rule that resists your rightful reign, and grant me the humility to acknowledge my need for the reconciliation and restoration that only your salvation can provide. As I meditate on Christ’s call to discipleship, work in me both the will and the power to forsake my broken allegiance to darkness and embrace with unwavering faith the gracious rule of heaven breaking into my world where I live. Amen.
Gloria Patri
Glory be to the Father,
And to the Son and to the Holy Spirit:
As it was in the beginning,
Is now, and ever shall be,
World without end. Amen, amen.
Chronological Scripture Readings for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the entire Bible in one year in chronological order.
Wednesday: Lev. 17-19
Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Wednesday: Psalm 21, 51, 81, 111, 141 and Proverbs 21
Christ’s Call to Covenant Renewal: Repent and Believe, Mark 1:15
Christ commands us to “repent and believe in the gospel,” calling humanity to turn away from rebellion against God’s rule and to embrace by faith the Good News that his Kingdom has arrived, offering reconciliation and restoration to all who respond.
Reflection
Repentance and faith are the essential responses that together constitute our entrance into the Kingdom of God, and shape our ongoing posture as Kingdom citizens. True repentance without faith leaves us in despair over our rebellion, while claiming faith without repentance reveals that we have not truly grasped the meaning of the Kingdom or his Good News. These twin responses represent covenant renewal at its deepest level—we renounce our broken covenant with sin and death, forged in Eden’s rebellion, and embrace a new covenant relationship with God through Christ, who offers reconciliation and restoration to all who turn to him. We live daily in this pattern of turning away from self-rule and turning toward God’s Kingdom rule and will, allowing his Spirit to reshape our loyalties, priorities, and practices. Thus, we become true disciples living for his Already/Not Yet Kingdom.
Engaging God’s Word Today
In what specific areas of your life is God calling you to a sense of deeper allegiance to him, i.e., to turn away from subtle forms of self-rule and rebellion? How is he also calling you to live out a more radical faith, to trust him in his Kingdom purposes even when they conflict with your own plans and preferences?
Nicene Creed
We believe in one God, The Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.
We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son of God,
Begotten of the Father before all ages,
God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God,
Begotten not created, of the same essence as the Father,
through Whom all things were made.
Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven
and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary and became human.
Who for us too, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried.
The third day He rose again according to the Scriptures, ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and His kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and life-giver,
Who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
Who together with the Father and Son is worshiped and glorified.
Who spoke by the prophets.
We believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sin,
and we look for the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the age to come. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever. Amen.
Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him all creatures here below;
Praise Him above ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Benediction
Now may you heavenly Father, the God of all grace, who has called me into your Kingdom through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, grant me the gift of genuine repentance that turns away from every form of rebellion against your rule. May Christ, your Son and King of the Kingdom, empower me to live daily in this Kingdom covenant pattern—forsaking self-rule and embracing God’s gracious reign, and may I find in my submission to him both the reconciliation and restoration my soul so desperately needs. Reshape my loyalties, priorities, and practices according to the Gospel’s call, that I might live as a faithful citizen of heaven bearing witness to the reality of your sovereign rule in my life. Amen.
Scripture Memory for this season
Isaiah 9:6-7 (ESV): The Prophet’s Vision of the Messianic King: Isaiah’s Testimony
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Scripture Engagement
As disciples of Jesus, the Churches of Christ the King strongly seek to engage the Scriptures to discover the centrality of Christ and his Kingdom in the prophetic and apostolic writings. You will find a rich treasure of resources on engaging Scripture at the Center for Scripture Engagement of Taylor University.
Books We Are Reading this Church Year, and When
• The Most Amazing Story Ever Told, Dr. Don Davis (during season of Advent)
• Get Your Pretense On, Dr. Don Davis (during season of Christmas)
• Destined for the Throne, Paul Billheimer (during seasons of Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, and Resurrection)
• The Presence of the Future, George Eldon Ladd (during seasons of Ascension and Coming of Holy Spirit)
• Kingdom, Church and World, Howard Snyder (during seasons of Headship and Harvest)
• The Gospel of the Kingdom, George Eldon Ladd (during the seasons of Hope and Remembering the Saints, Exalting the King)
Book Reading Reflection: Destined for the Throne
(Reading “Destined for the Throne” during season of Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, and Resurrection)
Because the crown is only for the conqueror, (Rev. 3:21), the church, later to become the bride, must learn the art of spiritual warfare of overcoming evil forces in preparation for assumption of the throne following the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. To enable her to learn the technique of overcoming, God ordained an infinitely wise program of believing prayer. He did not ordain prayer primarily as a way of getting things done. It is his way of giving the church on-the-job training in overcoming the forces hostile to God. This world is a laboratory in which those destined for the throne are learning in actual practice how to overcome Satan and his hierarchy. The prayer closet is the arena which produces the overcomer.
This means that redeemed humanity outranks all other orders of created beings in the universe. Angels are created, not generated. Redeemed humanity is both created and generated, begotten of God, bearing His “genes,” his heredity. Through the new birth, a redeemed human being becomes a bona fide member of the original cosmic family, “next of kin,” to the Trinity. Thus, God has exalted redeemed humanity to such a sublime height that it is impossible for him to elevate them further without breaching the Godhead. This is the basis for the divine accolade of Psalm 8:5: “Thou has made him but little lower than God” (ASV and Amplified).
~ Billheimer, Paul. Destined for the Throne: How Spiritual Warfare Prepares the Bride of Christ for Her Eternal Destiny. Bethany House, Minneapolis, MN, KS, 1975. Electronic Edition. Location, 15-16.
On Eagles Wings Prayer Focus: A Long Time Comin‘
The Time is Fulfilled: The Fall of Humankind and the Curse Overturned, Mark 1:14-15 (cf. Gen 3:1-15)
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