Devotions based on Scot McKnight’s book, One.Life

Jesus was a Dream Awakener. He startled people when He said,” The time has come, the kingdom of God is near, and repent and believe the good news!”  For Jesus the word kingdom meant God’s dream for this world come true. It’s not just about our experience with God but about the society of God, the Church, living together in a community. The author is from South Africa and there is an African word Ubuntu that means, “a person is a person through other persons.”  We are designed to connect with others who are also designed to connect. “Ubuntu teaches us that life society works only when humans live out their connectedness, and that kind of connectedness with God and others, and with our past and our future, is what Jesus means when He says, ‘kingdom’.”  We can’t exist in isolation but we are connected and what we do affects the whole world.  Jesus envisioned God’s people living before Him and with others in a way that embodied the will of God in a new kind of society. This interconnected society is noted by caring for others, empowered by love, dwelling in peace, flowing in wisdom, shaped by justice, caring about its future etc

The Lord’s prayer perfectly expresses the dream of Jesus. “May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.  God’s kingdom coming means God’s will being done on earth through all of us.