Happy Wednesday! It was such a beautiful day. My day began with a time of prayer, sharing and Bible meditation with several of the teachers at my school. Before Spring Break my principal asked if I would consider leading a devotional time once a week. I felt so honored that she would ask me to do this. We began last week and had our second meeting today. We simply gather (I make the coffee), I read a passage from a wonderful book titled, God Calling, bring a brief meditation on a passage of scripture and then we talk about how that passage works in our lives. We draw for prayer partners for the week, lift prayer concerns, have prayer and go to class. It is a wonderful way to begin the day. Our group has grown in number in just one week. How great is our God!

Luke 11:1-4 is a passage containing The Lord’s Prayer. I have talked about this passage before, but as I was preparing for devotion time this morning I did a little bit of reading and discovered that the word “kingdom” refers to any place where God’s will is being done. The passage says, “Thy Kingdom come.” Followed by “thy will be done.”

Recently our church took orders for the new Lutheran Study Bible. The translation is the New Revised Standard Version. It is a great Bible. The study notes are so great. It was in the study notes where I found the meaning for the word Kingdom in the passage of the Lord’s Prayer. The word “kingdom” does not refer to the end times or when we come face to face with Jesus at our death. It refers to when God’s will is done in our lives. The next sentence says, “Thy will be done.” It does not say my will be done but Thy, the will of God our heavenly Father.

So I guess my question is; where is the Kingdom of God in our lives? The passage says “on earth as it is in heaven”. I figure God’s will in heaven is pretty well a given. So how do we turn every part of our lives over to Him who loves us so much that He spends all of our life on earth growing us in His likeness? For God’s Kingdom to come to us, He sets us apart. God gives us His name. God claims us as brother to Jesus and children of God. God does not want just our own selected parts of our lives surrendered over to Him. God wants all of our lives to belong to Him. As children of the King, the Kingdom is ours as we are His heirs. To inherit the kingdom of God we cannot have one foot in heaven and one foot in the world. We must keep our hearts, minds, hands and spirits focused and seeking God’s will for our lives.

As we look to the end of this Holy Week, tomorrow is Maundy Thursday. Tomorrow we will remember how our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ obediently followed His Father’s will as He began the final steps to the cross and shared the Last Supper with the disciples. All of the players are in place and the table is set. Let us follow the steps of Christ to the cross and seek His will for our lives and our place in His kingdom here on earth.

Take joy in the journey. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.

PS Please pray for Geni as she is struggling with physics. She says, “Mom physics is killing my soul.” Please also pray for Bruce. He will see a heart specialist on Friday for further diagnosis and hopeful treatment of a heart murmur. Thank you all. Love you, gc