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04/17/2002 Entry: "Kingdom of God"
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."(Mark 1:14,15 NRSV)
Here is the Christian message “in a nutshell”, announced by Jesus as his ministry in Galilee began.“The kingdom of God is near”. The Jews had always believed that God was the king of the earth. He made it; it was his. Yet some people refused to recognise his kingship, so they still had to look forward to a day when he would be recognised as king. When Jesus spoke about the kingdom of God, he was speaking against this background. “the kingdom” is not a place or a group of people, bot God’s rule, the situation where he is king and his will is done.Jesus came to bring that situation, and in his ministry this ‘kingdom of God’ had already come into the world.“Repent”. To repent means to turn around, to change direction. It is much more than simply being sorry. It means a radical change of heart, an accepting of God’s rule within our lives.“Believe”. To believe in the good news means to take Jesus at his word, to accept that God is the kind of God that Jesus told us about, to believe that God loves us so much that he will make any sacrifice to bring us back to himself. Above all, “believe” means to commit ourselves to the God who Jesus reveals in a reationship of faith and trust."The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news"
