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).
Click on image above to access our Church Year Calendar
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 Need to Receive the Kingdom as a Child, Mark 10:15
The Kingdom teaches us that humble, trusting dependence—not merit, maturity, or achievement—is the sole condition of entrance into it. Christ’s rule requires us as His disciples to unlearn the ways of the world, self-sufficiency and pride, learning how to live in humility and with empty hands.
Invocation
Sovereign Lord, You open Your Kingdom only to those who enter into it as a little child. Strip me of my attitudes of pride and judgmentalism, of impatience and self-sufficiency, and teach me how to unclench my hands and open them up to You. Make me small enough to receive, humble enough to trust, and dependent enough to enter into Your presence based on Your invitation alone. Give me the heart of a little child, today. 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.
Thursday: Luke 8.1-8, 19-21; Mark 3.20-4.20; Matt. 12.22-13.9
Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Thursday: Psalm 3, 33, 63, 93, 123 and Proverbs 3
The Need to Receive the Kingdom as a Child, Mark 10:15
The Kingdom teaches us that humble, trusting dependence—not merit, maturity, or achievement—is the sole condition of entrance into it. Christ’s rule requires us as His disciples to unlearn the ways of the world, self-sufficiency and pride, learning how to live in humility and with empty hands.
Reflection
Entrance into the Kingdom comes only by childlike reception; you must enter it as a little child. Jesus makes humble, trusting dependence—not merit, maturity, or achievement—the sole condition of belonging to His rule. The humble, vulnerable, self-forgetful manner of a child is the only way to unlearn the world’s self-sufficiency and pride. By His Spirit we can learn to lay down our credentials, and learn again to receive grace with the empty, open hands of a child.
Engaging God’s Word Today
Where am I still trying to earn or achieve my place in God’s Kingdom? What would it mean for me today to let go of that futile and empty striving and receive Jesus’ grace in my life with the manner and attitude of a little child?
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
Lord Jesus, to be Your disciple there is so much I need to unlearn and only Your Holy Spirit can really help me do it. Forgive me for the many times I’ve let my old self govern how I treat others and use standards I would pray would never be used against me. Give me the empty, open hands of a child, ready to receive all that grace supplies. I want to lay down the striving of my own self-sufficiency, and I know I need to learn to trust the Father who welcomes His little ones. As the Lord who alone grants entrance into Your Kingdom, keep me humble in dependence, glad in trust, and willing to serve Your people within Your Kingdom rule. 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
Visit our Church App for more information: Scan the QR Code below (if you have difficulty loading the app, click here for instructions how to get the app on your iPhone or Android)
