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
The New Israel: The Kingdom Apostolic Community Is Formed, Mark 1:19-20
When Jesus calls James and John, who leave their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, he establishes that Kingdom allegiance transcends even the sacred bonds of family and inheritance, for he is gathering a new community whose primary identity and mission derive from their relationship to the King.
Invocation
Heavenly Father, through your Son Jesus Christ you have now called us out of our former identities and into a new community defined by allegiance to your Kingdom and you will. I acknowledge that my deepest loyalty belongs to you rather than to any other, whether family lineage, cultural tradition, or inherited expectations. I do confess how easily I can allow earthly relationships and obligations—even good and legitimate ones—to claim the ultimate allegiance that rightfully belongs to Christ alone. I am shocked at how reluctant I am to make choices that might disappoint or alienate those closest to me. As I think about how James and John left their father Zebedee in the boat to follow Jesus, grant me that same kind of perspective and grit to embrace my primary identity as a member of your covenant community, the new Israel, whose mission and purpose flow from our relationship to Christ the King. Make me a servant of his will. 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.
Saturday: Lev. 25-26
Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Saturday: Psalm 24, 54, 84, 114, 144 and Proverbs 24
The New Israel: The Kingdom Apostolic Community Is Formed, Mark 1:19-20
When Jesus calls James and John, who leave their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, he establishes that Kingdom allegiance transcends even the sacred bonds of family and inheritance, for he is gathering a new community whose primary identity and mission derive from their relationship to the King.
Reflection
The formation of Kingdom community requires us to recognize that our primary identity and deepest loyalty must be found in our relationship to Christ rather than in family lineage, cultural heritage, or inherited expectations. While Jesus doesn’t call us to abandon legitimate family responsibilities or to treat our earthly families with contempt, he does call us to obedience to his lordship. However, when family loyalty (or any other allegiance) conflicts with Christ’s known will for our lives, our commitment to Christ takes precedence. This truth challenges cultures and contexts where family honor, parental expectations, or inherited obligations are considered absolute. The Kingdom creates a new community that transcends biological, ethnic, and social boundaries that have traditionally defined human identity. We are citizens of the Kingdom, called to live as members of God’s new Israel, the church, where our brothers and sisters are those who share our allegiance to the King, and where our mission flows not from family tradition or cultural inheritance but from Christ’s call to discipleship and allegiance to his Kingdom. This is our new and true identity in Christ.
Engaging God’s Word Today
In what ways do family expectations, inherited obligations, or cultural traditions compete with your wholehearted allegiance to Christ and full participation in his Kingdom community? How is Jesus calling you to reorder these loyalties according to his priorities?
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 the God who is forming a new covenant community through Jesus Christ grant to us the freedom from the tyranny of family expectations, cultural obligations, and inherited identities that compete with our wholehearted allegiance to his Kingdom. Lord Jesus Christ, who called James and John to leave their father and follow him, help me to recognize that my primary identity is found not in my biological family or any earthly inheritance but in my relationship to the King and your union with your people. Holy Spirit enable me to live as part of God’s new Israel, where brothers and sisters are those who share Kingdom allegiance, and where our mission derives not primarily from family or ethnic tradition but from Christ’s call to participate in the ingathering of all nations into the reign of God. 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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