![\"Missions-Catalyst-no-tagline_large\"](\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Missions-Catalyst-no-tagline_large.png\")
<\/h2>\n<\/h2>\n![\"breadknead\"](\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/breadknead.jpg\")
<\/h2>\nThe kingdom of God is like yeast…<\/p>\n
By Shane Bennett<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s Sunday evening here in China and just two hours away from my hotel room, my son is getting ready to fall asleep for his last time in an orphanage. Tomorrow he\u2019ll be an orphan no more.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n ~ Written by a dear friend, April 10th, 2016<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019ve been wondering lately what the kingdom of God looks like and what the path is from here to there. It may be a little boy in China who didn\u2019t fit and was cut free from all ties until someone found him and helped him find a place where he fits. After all, Paul said in Ephesians 1:5<\/a>, \u201cGod decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.\u201d<\/p>\n Seriously? Great pleasure? That\u2019s almost too good to be true. And maybe that\u2019s one way to think of the kingdom of God. It\u2019s his good pleasure worked out in real life on the earth.<\/p>\n If you grew up in church, as I did, the term \u201ckingdom of God\u201d has been in your psyche since you were young. It\u2019s part of the insider vernacular, along with phrases like \u201cbless her heart,\u201d \u201clove the sinner, hate the sin,\u201d \u201cglory\u201d and \u201cpartake\u201d (honestly, does anyone \u201cpartake\u201d anything besides communion?) You know there\u2019s something there, but the shorthand has become so common, the meaning is seldom considered.<\/p>\n Jesus said some confusing, amazing, earthy things about the kingdom of God. For starters: It\u2019s at hand<\/a>. Thoughtful Jews listening to him said, \u201cWhat?!? We didn\u2019t hear any explosions and the bad guys aren\u2019t all dead. Are you sure you know what you mean when you say \u2018kingdom of God\u2019?\u201d If they were surprised, I\u2019d be arrogant to assume I won\u2019t be surprised. But you and do I have the benefit of much time to consider the \u201ckingdom of God is like\u201d parables of Jesus.<\/p>\n A couple of them really connect for me these days.<\/p>\n Yeast and Dough<\/em><\/p>\n The kingdom of God is \u201clike yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.\u201d For me this speaks of the unabating nature of the kingdom. It will permeate all. It will accomplish God\u2019s purposes. It\u2019s relentless<\/a>.<\/p>\n Wheat and Weeds<\/em><\/p>\n With that hope in mind, I also appreciate the one about the wheat and the weeds<\/a>. Look around or just half-way pay attention and you can see there\u2019s a lot of nastiness at work in the world: evil, brokenness, oppression, injustice, sickness, longing, and despair. Yet somehow the farmer has it in hand. He\u2019s not surprised, nor is he absent. His eye is keenly on the harvest. I don\u2019t get it, but then that has never been the arbiter of reality. The farmer says, \u201cI\u2019ve got this.\u201d I\u2019m filled with (sometimes cautious) hope.<\/p>\n George Ladd helped us understand what Jesus taught, that the kingdom of God is both now and not yet. It\u2019s here and it\u2019s on the way. We live in the middle, with the heaviest of lifting having already been done, but much work to do and many dreams to dream before the day ends (or dawns).<\/p>\n C.S. Lewis also gives us some potent kingdom metaphors in several of his books: the melting snows in springtime Narnia, the \u201cmore real than real\u201d diamond-hard grass in The Great Divorce<\/em>, or one that almost always makes me cry when Aslan tells the children in the beginning of the last chapter of The Last Battle<\/em>, \u201cThe term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Dream with me for a minute: What will we see when God has finally answered with a resounding \u201cYES!\u201d the prayer Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:10, \u201cLet your kingdom come, let your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven?\u201d<\/p>\n What do you imagine the fullness of the kingdom of God on the earth looks like on that day? What does your neighborhood look like? Your house, your small group, your kids, your heart? Dream out beyond your situation. What does the world look like?<\/p>\n What comes to mind for you?<\/p>\n I imagine beauty and peace and justice. I dream about light and hope and cooperative productivity. But I confess, my dreams are vague and my imagination is anemic. And my participation in the kingdom\u2019s advent is too often rather lame.<\/p>\n Just last week, I was working on a job for my wife\u2019s business, cleaning out trash from an abandoned house. A little old lady came tottering down the alley, talking to no one we could see. She carried a bed spread still in original packaging and a small stuffed dog. She asked if she could poke through the trash we were loading onto the trailer. I didn\u2019t know what to do for her and I didn\u2019t care enough to try. Who knows how God may have wanted his kingdom to come that day. I\u2019m pretty sure, though, in the kingdom that\u2019s coming, she will not have been abandoned by her family, her husband will be true, and she won\u2019t have to nick clothes from trash piles.<\/p>\n Will you join me in the hard work of dreaming, announcing, and crafting the coming kingdom? It\u2019s here now. As I write these words, I sense deeply that I am a forgiven child of the Most High God and that the words of Jesus I\u2019ve been taught are words of life. We have hope; death is not the end. But the kingdom of God is also still on the way. We dream of an end to malaria, then work late nights in the lab searching for it. It\u2019s on the way when we tell someone who\u2019s never heard that we\u2019ve found hope in Jesus. It\u2019s on the way when we\u2019re kind in word and deed to people like those Jesus was kind to. It\u2019s on its way when we accurately identify our enemy and wield the power and authority of God to push back evil.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an honor to be a kingdom apprentice with you, serving alongside intrepid sisters and brothers under the powerful leadership of a wise and good and relentless king.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re willing, I\u2019d love to hear your hopes and read about what images come to mind for you when you consider the fullness of God\u2019s kingdom on earth.<\/p>\n \u00bb Comment on our website<\/a> or Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The kingdom of God is like yeast… Orphaned No More: Dreaming and Working for the Now and Not Yet Kingdom of God By Shane Bennett \u201cIt\u2019s Sunday evening here in China and just two hours away from my hotel room, my son is getting ready to fall asleep for his last time in an orphanage. … Continue reading Practical Mobilization: Orphaned No More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-practical-mobilization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6318,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6316\/revisions\/6318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Consider the Kingdom<\/h3>\n
Living in the Middle<\/h3>\n
Dream with Me<\/h3>\n
Serving in the Kingdom<\/h3>\n