We are not in charge, but we are not idle. We are engaged. We become a part of God’s project. Every time you bring a slice of this up-there life down here, the Kingdom of God breaks into all the messed-up kingdoms of this world.

Every time you are in conflict with someone, when you want to hurt them, gossip about them, avoid them, but instead you go to them and seek reconciliation and forgiveness, the Kingdom is breaking into this world.

Every time you have a chunk of money and you decide to give sacrificially to somebody who is hungry or homeless or poor, the Kingdom is breaking into the world.

Every time somebody who has an addiction wants to partner with God so badly that they’re willing to stop hiding, acknowledge the truth, and get help from a loving community, the Kingdom is breaking into the world.

Every time a workaholic parent decides to stop idolizing their job and rearranges their life to begin to love and care for the little children entrusted to them, the Kingdom is breaking into the world.

This good news happens through Jesus. Jesus himself—through his incarnation—is literally “up there” coming “down here.” “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14).

The Good News is not that we’re called to do these things on our own, as though we’re being given a longer to-do list. The Good News is that a power has become available to increasingly turn us into the kind of people who naturally and recreationally do such things.

John Ortberg, Eternity Is Now in Session: A Radical Rediscovery of What Jesus Really Taught about Salvation, Eternity, and Getting to the Good Place (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Momentum, 2018).

I have just completed a series of lessons on the theme of Eternity Is Now In Session. They are available on Amazon in both print and Kindle versions, as well as part of my Good Questions Have Groups Talking Subscription service. For a medium-sized church, lesson subscriptions are only $10 per teacher per year. 


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