There are places we go where we feel close to the presence of God and for a brief moment you have a higher sense of the holiness of God and all you want to do is worship the Creator, the one who made this whole earth and you, as His image bearer and steward of creation. For me, I feel closest to God on top of a mountain. Hiking itself brings quiet to the busy world and when you summit you can look upon the expanse and feel the bigness of God. As I stand there, I often think of Elijah in 1 Kings 19, when Elijah was told to stand on the mountain in the Lord’s presence and then there was a mighty wind, and earthquakes, and fire or Isaiah 6 when Isaiah saw God while being commissioned, but in God’s “holy, holy, holy” presence he felt his unworthiness to have seen our holy sovereign God.
We were created by God to be His image-bearers, stewards of all creation, and to fully dwell in His presence. Since the fall of mankind, we have been separated from the presence of our God and there are now limits to how we can experience Him. The story doesn’t end there though, while separated, God had a plan for redemption of His people. He came to us in human form, through His Son Jesus. Revelation 5:9b-10 says this: “You redeemed people for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation. You made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign on the earth.”
Jesus came and reconciled all of creation to himself (Colossians 1:15-20), but also announced that He is the kingdom come and God’s reign on earth was starting now through Him and to continue through us (Mark 1:15). His Kingdom reign may begin in our hearts, but we’re intended to let the Gospel message transform our whole being and to advance it among the rest of creation. To be ambassadors of the Kingdom, we must remember who the King is and let Him reign in all areas of life while submitting ourselves to carrying out His commands: spreading the Gospel, loving our neighbor, caring for the poor, making disciples.
We can do many good things and provide many outreach programs to those struggling in our community, but without out the Gospel transformation of the whole person, we won’t be doing true Kingdom work. Caring for the poor among us is more than meeting financial or physical needs, caring for people as Jesus did means announcing the good news of reconciliation to God through Jesus’s atoning death.
When we at SERVE 6.8 speak about doing Kingdom work, this is what we mean. We mean we are disciples and ambassadors for Christ. We mean we strive to work with people as whole beings: mind, body, and spirit. We mean we believe in announcing the reconciliation message and that while Jesus demonstrated meeting physical needs, chains are only broken with the full Gospel message.
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