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 on the Cross: The Kingdom’s Triumph Over Satan and Sin, Mark 15:21-40; Colossians 2:13-15
On Calvary’s Cross, that which looked like defeat was nothing other than the victorious engagement of the King against the powers of Satan and the guilt of sin. Christ’s death effected the King’s complete answer to the sin question through the ages. His shed blood erased the charge against us and shattered the dominion and domination of the Enemy. Now, through the death of the King on His Cross, the Church can live and operate as victorious agents of the Kingdom’s inbreaking, not simply hoping for victory but as those who are experiencing it, declaring His victory already won, living free from condemnation, unafraid of the powers and their effects, and living boldly to proclaim the victory and strength of the once crucified King who now reigns at God’s right hand.
Our Focus Today
The Cancelled Record of Our Debt, Colossians 2:13–14
By nailing the certificate of debt with its legal demands to the Cross of Jesus, God has forgiven all our trespasses and erases every accusation and the lingering guilt standing against us. Through His death, God has freed the Church to minister with assurance resting in a full and settled pardon of all we have done.
Invocation
Gracious God, we come as those who were once dead in trespasses and sin, but who now have been made alive through the grace in Your Son, Jesus Christ. Our debt was more than we could ever calculate or pay, but You erased it, nailing every accusation made against us by the enemy to the Cross of Christ. Quiet the voices inside me that still like to condemn and discourage me, and settle my heart to rest confidently in Your finished pardon. Free me now to worship and serve You with an awareness of the grace You have already given to me, the grace You make available to all who come to You through Christ. 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: Acts 6.1-8.1a
Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Thursday: Psalm 8, 38, 68, 98, 128 and Proverbs 8
The Cancelled Record of Our Debt, Colossians 2:13–14
By nailing the certificate of debt with its legal demands to the Cross of Jesus, God has forgiven all our trespasses and erases every accusation and the lingering guilt standing against us. Through His death, God has freed the Church to minister with assurance resting in a full and settled pardon of all we have done.
Reflection
God our Father has not simply overlooked our guilt and sin through the Cross. Rather, He has recognized it and abolished it through the work of Christ, His Son. This means that God did not lower the debt we owed, nor did He defer it until some future time of accountability. He cancelled it entirely, nailing the record of our transgressions to the Cross so that no accusation now can stand, whoever raises it against us. Now we live and serve from the settled assurance of God’s pardon for our sin, already complete because of what Jesus did on our behalf. Now we are free to serve knowing fully and joyfully that we are wholly forgiven.
Engaging God’s Word Today
What lingering guilt or accusation do you still carry, as though your sin debt remains active and unpaid? How would your Christian life change if you truly rested in the pardon Christ Jesus won for you, the debt He has already nailed to the cross?
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
Dear Father, You have brought us pardon, release, forgiveness, and love, given freely through Your Son. We go from this place now in the knowledge of our freedom of a debt fully cancelled and paid through the work of Jesus on the Cross. The record that stood against us has been erased, nailed to His cross, and can accuse us no longer. Now, You call us to serve You not to gain or secure Your favor but from the assurance that Your grace is already ours in Christ. Let Your peace of full and settled pardon guard our hearts and minds in Christ today, and always! Amen.
Scripture Memory for this season
Rev. 21:1-5, Creation’s Groaning: The Kingdom’s Cosmic Scope
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
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: The Gospel of the Kingdom
Fundamentally, as we have seen, the Kingdom of God is God’s sovereign reign; but God’s reign expresses itself in different stages through redemptive history. Therefore, men may enter into the realm of God’s reign in its several stages of manifestation and experience the blessings of His reign in differing degrees. God’s Kingdom is the realm of the Age to Come, popularly called heaven; then we shall realize the blessings of His Kingdom (reign) in the perfection of their fulness. But the Kingdom is here now. There is a realm of spiritual blessing into which we may enter today and enjoy in part but in reality the blessings of God’s Kingdom (reign).
We pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The confidence that this prayer is to be answered when God brings human history to the divinely ordained consummation enables the Christian to retain his balance and sanity of mind in this mad world in which we live. Our hearts go out to those who have no such hope. Thank God, His Kingdom is coming, and it will fill all the earth.
But when we pray, “Thy Kingdom come,” we also ask that God’s will be done here and now, today. This is the primary concern of these expositions, that the reader might meet the Kingdom of God, or rather, that the Kingdom of God might meet him. We should also pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” in my church as it is in heaven. The life and fellowship of a Christian church ought to be a fellowship of people among whom God’s will is done—a bit of heaven on earth. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” in my life, as it is in heaven. This is included in our prayer for the coming of the Kingdom. This is part of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
~ Ladd, George Eldon. The Gospel of the Kingdom. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI: 2000. Electronic Edition (copyright © 1959, The Paternoster Press), Location 223-226.
On Eagles Wings Prayer Focus: A Long Time Comin‘
The Ascension and the Day of Pentecost: The Kingdom’s Cosmic Authority, Acts 1:6-11; 2:32-36, Eph. 1:20-23
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