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 29: Holy Spirit — New Kingdom, Creation, and People: Jeremiah’s New Covenant Promise, Jer. 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:8-13
Jeremiah foresaw a day when God would forge a new covenant with his people — not like Sinai, written in stone, dependent upon our own power and strength but inscribed on the heart. The apostolic witness declares this ancient promise fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth: through his Cross and Resurrection, he inaugurated the New Kingdom, ushered in a New Creation, and constituted a radically different ground for a New Covenant People, bound not by law-keeping but by his finished, atoning work.
Our Focus Today
The Law Written Within, Not Imposed From Without, Jer. 31:33 | Heb. 8:10
Unlike the Sinai covenant, which was externally inscribed on tablets of stone and enforced through sanction, the New Covenant would be written by God directly onto the mind and heart of his people, producing willing, internal, and joyous response to his will by his Spirit.
Invocation
Gracious God, we confess that too often we have approached your commands as obligations to be managed rather than as the desires of a heart renewed by your Spirit. Thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit, and the dynamic power you have given us through him. Fill us with him; come now and do what only you can do — write your law afresh upon our minds and hearts. Let our obedience arise from your Spirit’s power, from a nature genuinely transformed by your grace. 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.
Tuesday: Isa. 30-33
Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Tuesday: Psalm 16, 46, 76, 106, 136 and Proverbs 16
The Law Written Within, Not Imposed From Without, Jer. 31:33 | Heb. 8:10
Unlike the Sinai covenant, which was externally inscribed on tablets of stone and enforced through sanction, the New Covenant would be written by God directly onto the mind and heart of his people, producing willing, internal, and joyous response to his will by his Spirit.
Reflection
The new covenant offers an entirely new basis for a relationship with God, relocating the law of God not abolishing it. From being written on stone tablets to the human heart, we now obey based on inner power and transformation rather than fleshly effort or outward pressure. We can now conform to the will of God based on the Spirit’s leading, no longer a burden to be borne but a desire to be expressed. Let us yield to the Spirit, giving him our minds and hearts, knowing that God will form Christ within us from the inside out, by his Spirit.
Engaging God’s Word Today
In what ways has your experience of following God felt more like you trying to keep God’s law on your own than relying on the Spirit’s power to help? What might it look like, practically and prayerfully, if you were to invite the Spirit to write God’s law more deeply upon your heart and mind, making them a natural expression of who you are becoming in Christ?
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
Go now as those in whom God himself is at work — writing his will upon your heart, renewing your mind, and producing from within you the willing obedience that no external law could ever compel. You do not walk alone, and you do not walk in your own strength. May the Spirit who indwells you continue his transforming work until that day when we see Christ face to face. Amen.
Scripture Memory for this season
Colossians 2:13-15 (ESV): The Messiah on the Cross: The Kingdom’s Triumph Over Sin.
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
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)
• Who Gets to Narrate the World?, Robert E. Webber (during seasons of the Coming of the Holy Spirit, and Headship)
• Thy Kingdom Come, Rev. Terry Cornett and Dr. Don Davis (during season of 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 “Who Gets to Narrate the World?” during season of Coming of the Holy Spirit and Headship)
The triune nature of God’s story
Many Muslims consider the Christian understanding of the triune God to be a heresy. They charge Christians with polytheism, the belief in many gods. For this reason it is imperative that Christians understand what we mean when we confess God to be triune.
I went to a Christian college that faithfully adhered to the triune nature of the Godhead. However, theology, including the doctrine of the Trinity, was “proven” through a rationalistic, proof-oriented method. Proof for the Trinity was based on the inerrant foundation, the Bible. The method used to arrive at a triune conviction was analytical. It consisted of listing all the verses of the Bible that referred to God the Father as God, Jesus as God and the Holy Spirit as God. “See,” it was proclaimed, “God is triune.”
I remember feeling uneasy about this analysis and somewhat guilty that my response was, “Is that all there is?” and “So what?” The whole exercise felt futile to me and caused me to think that doctrine arises out of a logical analysis of Scripture. No one asked me to look for the mystery of the triune God at work in the history of the world from beginning to end.
It wasn’t until I began to study the early church fathers that I began to see that God is not static but dynamic. The static view of God is a Greek notion. God, so to speak, “sits in the heavens.” But the God of the Bible is a triune God of action. God the Creator acts in history and becomes incarnate as a man to rescue the entire created order.
The ancient church fathers follow this narrative approach: The Son reveals the Father and the Spirit. They see God’s redemptive work in cosmic history as the united work of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The entire Godhead is at work in creating the universe; in establishing a covenant relationship with Israel; in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; in the birth and history of the church; and in the final outcome of history. This is why the Nicene Creed (A.D. 325) affirms that Jesus is of the same essence as the Father (a view that Muslims find repugnant) and is the living Word of God, through whom everything was made.
~ Webber, Robert E. Who Gets to Narrate the World?: Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL: 2008. Electronic Edition. Location 277.
On Eagles Wings Prayer Focus: A Long Time Comin‘
God’s Love, Christ’s Grace, and the Spirit’s Fellowship, 2 Cor. 13:11-13.
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