“Thy kingdom come!” Do we know what this proclamation means? What does the kingdom mean to us? Is it in some distant second coming? Or is it in the here and now? Jesus taught about the kingdom frequently. It seems to me that he came to teach us how to live, how to […]

The kingdom is a state of heart and mind, not a place. It is embedded in the connective tissue of the universe which is Christ; it is love, as in God is love, that binds us all together. Whoever carries the kingdom in their heart and mind brings it wherever they go. The kingdom is […]

Oh, Lord, I have seen the kingdom and it looks so good to me! I am transported to the kingdom when what I say is just what the other needs to hear, when the newest grandchild is experienced as the teacher, when I am filled to overflowing with life and love, when in me there […]

This I know for sure about the rule/reign/kingdom of God: we are in it, under it—always. God is working in our lives—always. We are connected to God—always. Through God we are connected to all people and all life—always. God loves us—always. God forgives us–always. God welcomes us back—always. And we have little awareness of these […]

One of the interesting things about living a surrendered life is that on the one hand we develop a deep and unshakable faith in God and on the other hand we are still human beings, expressing that faith in the world. Unshakable and human. Constant and inconstant. God’s love and a lesser ability to love. […]

The riches of the Christian tradition are revealed often in the writings of the saints, for instance Catherine of Siena who lived in 14th C. Italy. Many of her letters exist to this day. A force of nature in her own day, she convinced Pope Gregory XI to return the papacy to Rome from Avignon […]

In the 23rd Psalm the word “surely” rings out with confidence and love and expectation and God and me in life together! It is reassuring and definite and without qualifiers. It implies love and providence, needs and challenges met, and no doubt. Look at these synonyms for surely: Absolutely Beyond Doubt Definitely Inevitably Inexorably Infallibly […]

“I am the way and the truth and the life.”[1] It is Jesus’ life and what he modeled for us that interests me in this declaration from the Gospel of John.  I am thinking in terms of lifestyle, a more modern way of looking at it, but we have to go back to the early […]

In the documentary, ”Face to Face with Carl Jung” Part 1,[1] the pioneering Swiss psychiatrist, was asked if he believed in God. Then eighty-four he answered, “That is difficult to answer…I know… I don’t need to believe.” How many of us can say that I know God? I would guess that many would say we […]

On Mondays I post my blog on my website, Facebook and our church ning site. Last week I began to post some brief thoughts for each weekday after Monday on Facebook at facebook.com/#!/pages/By-the-waters/146585815373488. On Friday I was essentially writing about bringing in the kingdom here on earth. The kingdom of heaven is very much on […]