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 Messiah’s Blessing of the Children: The Kingdom’s Upside-down Values, Mark 10:13-16; Matthew 18:1-5
The Kingdom dramatically opposes the values, vision, and practices of the world system, which according to the Scriptures, is under the control of the enemy, the devil. The Kingdom of God operates on reversed values, where the small, vulnerable, and dependent are welcomed first and the humble are counted as the greatest. Jesus makes childlike trust the only doorway in and self-lowering service the only measure of honor that counts for anything in the Kingdom of God. This contradicts much of what passes now as Christian moralism in our time with its nationalistic tendencies, which emphasize dominating and controlling the culture not serving the people in it. As disciples, we can apply this rule by living lives according to Christ’s pattern of humility, while guarding access for the powerless and overlooked and pursuing greatness through our descent and service, not our exaltation and ambition.
Our Focus Today
The Indignation of the Lord, Mark 10:14
Jesus showed displeasure with His disciples when they rejected the children from coming to Him. Hindering the lowly from coming to Him provokes the King’s righteous anger because it betrays the letter in the spirit of His Kingdom. Let every disciple of Christ feel His same holy urgency about protecting access for the overlooked to the Master and His Kingdom come.
Invocation
Righteous Lord, You were stirred to holy anger when the little ones were turned away from You. Awaken in me that same sacred urgency for the small, unlovely, insignificant, and the overlooked. Confront the complacency in me that allows me to tolerate barriers You would tear down and make me a zealous defender of access for the lowly into Your Kingdom rule. Draw near and let none be hindered from Your welcome. In Jesus’ name, 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: Matt. 6.5-7.29; Luke 6.37-49
Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Tuesday: Psalm 1, 31, 61, 91, 121 and Proverbs 1
The Indignation of the Lord, Mark 10:14
Jesus showed displeasure with His disciples when they rejected the children from coming to Him. Hindering the lowly from coming to Him provokes the King’s righteous anger because it betrays the letter in the spirit of His Kingdom. Let every disciple of Christ feel His same holy urgency about protecting access for the overlooked to the Master and His Kingdom come.
Reflection
Hindering the lowly from coming to Jesus provoked His righteous anger at His disciples, who totally misread the values and vision of the Kingdom. Christ’s indignation exposes how seriously heaven regards every barrier we raise against the small and the overlooked, for the Kingdom belongs to precisely such as these. Let’s seek to share Jesus’ holy urgency—removing obstacles to enter His Kingdom rather than erecting them, and guarding access for the very ones He delights to receive.
Engaging God’s Word Today
Do I share Christ’s indignation over the barriers that keep the lowly from Him, or have I grown comfortable with obstacles that His heart would never tolerate?
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
Forgive me for the times that I have sought to create a barrier for people to enter Your Kingdom. I’m sorry I’ve been so judgmental and so insecure that I couldn’t see how You love everyone and want them to become one of Yours. Show me today how to begin carrying the Master’s holy urgency for the overlooked. Tear down every barrier that keeps the lowly from Your side, and guard with zeal the access You so freely grant. May the Lord who welcomes the broken rekindle within me a righteous love and hospitable spirit, sending me as an advocate to all for Your ever-waiting Kingdom. Amen.
Scripture Memory for this season
1 Peter 2:9-10, The Church as Visible Sign: Locus and Agent of the Kingdom
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
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)
• Kingdom, Church and World: Biblical Themes for Today, Howard Snyder (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: Kingdom, Church and World: Biblical Themes for Today
The Kingdom of God in Scripture and its meaning for us today
The Kingdom of God is a key thread in Scripture, tying the whole Bible together. It is not the only unifying theme nor should it replace other themes which are clearly biblical. Yet it is a critically important theme, especially today, and its recent resurgence in the church is, I believe, one of the most significant developments of this century.
Once you begin to look in Scripture for the theme of God’s reign or kingdom, it turns up everywhere. Take an example I recently encountered in my own devotional study:
“All you have made will praise you, oh Lord. Your saints will extol you. They will tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures through all generations.” (Psalm 145:10-13)
This one Psalm, in fact, contains a substantial theology of the kingdom, stressing God’s sovereign reign, his mighty acts, his compassion and nearness to those who seek Him, his righteousness and justice.
The kingdom is such a key theme of Scripture that Richard Lovelace can say, “The Messianic kingdom is not only the main theme of Jesus’ preaching, it is the central category unifying biblical revelation.” In John Bright’s comments “The concept of the kingdom of God involves, in a real sense, the total message of the Bible. To grasp what is meant by the kingdom of God is to come very close to the heart of the Bible’s gospel of salvation.” As Stanley Jones wrote over four decades ago, “Jesus’s message was the kingdom of God. It was the center and circumference of all he taught and did. The Kingdom of God is the master conception, the master plan, the master purpose, the master will that gathers everything up into itself and gives it redemption, coherence, purpose, and goal.”
~ Snyder, Howard. Kingdom, Church, and World: Biblical Themes for Today. Wipf and Stock Publishers, Eugene, OR: 2001. Electronic Edition. Location 12-13.
On Eagles Wings Prayer Focus: A Long Time Comin‘
The Messiah’s Call to Discipleship: The Kingdom’s Demands (rich young ruler), Mark 10:17-27, Luke 18:18-30
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