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
For All the Saints: The Church’s Hope of the Kingdom, 1 John 3:1-4
As followers of Christ, we affirm our union with the Father through His Son by His Holy Spirit. As saints (i.e., holy ones, set apart ones) we own a new identity through our union with Christ by faith. This new sense of our identity does not rest on the world’s recognition or acknowledgement of us, but securely upon the Father’s declaration about us: we are what God calls us. Because we belong to Christ, we should expect rejection and misunderstanding from the world, a wretched system that never accepted nor knew Him. Let us then live considering our certain tomorrow, the time of our transformation into sharing the image of Christ, and seek to purify ourselves in hope until we see our risen Lord and King as He truly is.
Our Focus Today
We Are Already God’s Children, But Not Yet Fully Revealed, 1 John 3:2a
The saints live between the “already” of their adoption and the “not yet” of their glory. This already/not-yet tension is the shape of our discipleship and our Kingdom life. We possess our identity fully today while waiting with eager expectation for its complete unveiling at Christ’s return.
Invocation
Faithful Father, thank You that we are Your children now, fully and truly. Yet we confess that our glory is not yet revealed; we do not know how we will change or what we will be in that glorious hour. Still, we long for the day of Christ’s appearing! Teach us to live faithfully in this in-between time, resting in what You have done for us, what You say about us, and hoping in what You will do to fulfill Your promise to us. 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: Ephesians 4-6
Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Thursday: Psalm 5, 35, 65, 95, 125 and Proverbs 5
We Are Already God’s Children, But Not Yet Fully Revealed, 1 John 3:2a
The saints live between the “already” of their adoption and the “not yet” of their glory. This already/not-yet tension is the shape of our discipleship and our Kingdom life. We possess our identity fully today while waiting with eager expectation for its complete unveiling at Christ’s return.
Reflection
We possess our identity as God’s children fully today, even though the details of our future glory remains hidden from us until Christ returns. This already/not-yet tension calls us to live with both a sense of settled assurance as well as that of eager expectation. We must embrace our present calling with confidence, endure the struggle and trials of this present age, accepting our incompleteness with patience, and continue to fix our hope on the day we shall see Him and be transformed in that vision.
Engaging God’s Word Today
Where do you feel the tension between who you already are in Christ and who you are not yet? How might holding both truths, your secure identity and your unfinished transformation, shape the way you respond to your own failures, your growth in discipleship, and your longing for Christ’s return?
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
Thank You Father for affirming us as Your children today and heirs of glory tomorrow. May the assurance of what You already have made us and declared us to be steady us in our walk with Christ and may the hope of what we will most certainly become draw us forward, into faithfulness and perseverance. When we see our incompleteness, help us to remember the promise: when Christ appears, we shall see Him as He is and be made like Him. Thank you for this hope and this gift! Amen.
Scripture Memory for this season
Rev. 11:15, The Kingdom’s Consummation: Second Coming of Christ the King
15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
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
“The twelfth chapter of Matthew clearly sets forth the exorcism of demons as the work of God’s Kingdom. Opposition to our Lord had become intense, but the Pharisees were dumbfounded by Jesus’ mighty power. They had to give some explanation of His mighty works, and so they said, “It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons” (Matt. 12: 24). The Pharisees recognized the presence of supernatural power; but they attributed it to the activity of the Devil himself. “Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand; and if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand?’” (vv. 25-26). It is ridiculous to say that Satan is casting out Satan. That would be civil war, internal strife; that cannot be. What is the explanation of Jesus’ power? “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (v. 28).
What is the Gospel of the Kingdom? What means the announcement that the Kingdom of God has come near? It is this: that God is now acting among men to deliver them from bondage to Satan. It is the announcement that God, in the person of Christ, is doing something—if you please, is attacking the very kingdom of Satan himself. The exorcism of demons is proof that the Kingdom of God has come among men and is at work among them. The casting out of demons is itself a work of the Kingdom of God.
Let us change the idiom and go back to the structure of the two ages. Jesus’ power over demons was the disclosure that the powers of The Age to Come have invaded the present evil Age. It was the proof that the Kingdom of God, which belongs to the age of the future when Christ comes in glory, has already penetrated This Age. Satan is not yet destroyed as he will be when he is cast into the lake of fire. Satan is not yet bound as he will be during the Millennium in the abyss. Yet God’s Kingdom is active; God is attacking the kingdom of Satan. “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (v. 28). The casting out of demons is accomplished by the power of God’s Kingdom. The exorcism of demons is proof that the Kingdom of God is present.”
~ 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 597-604.
On Eagles Wings Prayer Focus: A Long Time Comin‘
Reign of Christ the King, The Kingdom’s Consummation: Second Coming of Christ the King, Rev. 11:15; 19:11-16
Visit our CCK-microsite for a thorough summary of CCK for curious seekers: mycck.church/cck-microsite
