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

Week 22: Resurrection — Following in His Steps, 1 Peter 2:19-25
God calls his own to follow in the steps of the King, Christ Jesus. His innocent suffering on our behalf offers a pattern of true spirituality, not simply as a historical event but a living model for our daily walk. When we make ourselves available to Christ without conditions or qualification, we learn the way of Christ, i.e., to endure unjust pain without retaliation, entrusting ourselves and our cause to God, and fixing our eyes on the Shepherd. In his body he bore the stripes we deserved, and now we can participate personally in the very pattern Christ established. His wounds became the method of our healing; his steps are our way.

Our Focus Today
The Return to the Shepherd, 1 Peter 2:25
Those who were once wandering aimlessly like lost sheep have now been brought back to Christ, the Shepherd and Guardian of their souls, who reclaims and watches over them.

Invocation
Good Shepherd, I come before you as one of those who have no claim on my own keeping. I was both wandering and lost when you found me, and I am held today only because you hold me still. As I meditate on your Word, remind me afresh of the grace of my return to you and the faithfulness of your watching over my life. Show me how to quiet every restless and straying impulse within me, and draw me ever closer to you today. 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: Prov. 22.17-24.34

Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Saturday: Psalm 2, 32, 62, 92, 122 and Proverbs 2

The Return to the Shepherd, 1 Peter 2:25
Those who were once wandering aimlessly like lost sheep have now been brought back to Christ, the Shepherd and Guardian of their souls, who reclaims and watches over them.

Reflection
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the means by which God has restored his relationship between himself and his creation. Through it he has forgiven us, restored us, and recreated us. Now, through Christ’s work the lost sheep have been found and brought back to the Shepherd who owns and oversees them. Christ Jesus is both Shepherd and Guardian, Pastor and Bishop, assuring all that our return to him is permanent not temporary. He is our Pastor, who comforts and guides, and our Guardian who shelters and protects. Now he calls us to be known, kept, and led by the Shepherd of our souls never to wander from his side again.

Engaging God’s Word Today
Are you genuinely resting in the reality that you belong to a Shepherd who actively watches over your soul and to the Bishop who guards, guides, and protects our lives against predators and danger? Why do you think it is so easy for us to try to maintain our lives and keep ourselves secure, and still to carry the anxious burden of being wandering sheep rather than being under the shepherd’s care?

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
In regard to my salvation, Father, you have provided everything I need. You have given me your Son, who is my Pastor, the one who watches over my soul and keeps me from wandering. Yet, he also is my Guardian, the Bishop of my soul, leading, protecting, and defending me against every foe and evil that comes against me. Let me go forward today as a sheep who has been returned to the flock of God. Help me to never wander anymore, navigating by my own thoughts on an uncertain road. Help me to affirm that Jesus is both the Shepherd and Guardian of my soul. He reclaimed me from my straying and is watching still, leading still, and keeping still. Guide every step I take, and may your care settle my soul before you. Amen.

Scripture Memory for this season
Mark 8:31-38 (ESV): The Messiah’s Predicted Suffering: The Kingdom’s Path 
³¹ And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³ But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” 

³⁴ And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever would save his life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. ³⁶ For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? ³⁷ For what can a man give in return for his soul? ³⁸ For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” 

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 season of Epiphany)
• The Presence of the Future, George Eldon Ladd (during seasons of Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Ascension)
• Thy Kingdom Come, Rev. Terry Cornett and Dr. Don Davis (during season of Ascension)
• Kingdom, Church and World, Howard Snyder (during seasons of the Coming of the Holy Spirit, 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 “The Presence of the Future,” during season of Lent, Holy Week, and Resurrection)

THE KINGDOM OF GOD HAS BROKEN THE POWER OF EVIL

“We conclude that Jesus saw in the successful mission of the Seventy an evidence of the defeat of Satan. It is beside the point to ask precisely when Satan was cast down, even as we may not ask when Satan was bound (Matt. 12:29). The Fourth Gospel conceives of the death of Jesus as the time of Satan’s defeat (John 12:31; 16:11; cf. Heb. 2:14); and as we shall see, the Synoptics represent the death of Jesus as an essential fact in the coming of the Kingdom. It is the entire mission of Jesus which brings about Satan’s defeat. We do not need to decide whether Satan’s fall is thought of as preceding the mission of the Seventy or as taking place in their very mission.

The objection that we cannot conceive of the disciples causing the overthrow of Satan is met by the fact that it was not the disciples themselves but only the authority committed to them by Jesus (Luke 10:19) which effected Satan’s fall. They exercised their power only in Jesus’ name. Their authority was a delegated authority. Bowman is right in insisting that this passage teaches that the power of God’s Kingdom has entered into human history through the ministry of his disciples. The deeper significance of these exorcisms is seen in Luke 10:20 where the disciples are told to rejoice above all because their names are written in heaven. Defeat of the forces of evil is but a means to an end. The warfare of the Kingdom only makes room for the peace of the Kingdom. The destruction of evil is part and parcel of the salvation of mankind (sic). The true reason for joy is the salvation that is being achieved. This is achieved because the Kingdom of God has broken the power of evil.”

~ Ladd, George. The Presence of the Future: The Eschatology of Biblical Realism. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids: MI, 1974. Electronic Edition, location 151-157.

On Eagles Wings Prayer Focus: A Long Time Comin‘
On the Road to Emmaus, Luke 24:13-35 

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