From: Paul Gage
LIVING IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD MAY 5, 2022
God’s blessings to all the Saints around the world, and also Mother’s Day blessings to all our sisters everywhere,
As we observed and hopefully everyday continue to observe the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ, great evidence of God’s creative and resurrecting powers are literally all around us, here in this part of the vineyard. In other words, “Spring has really sprung!” Such will be the Kingdom of God, I’m sure, when it is in full reality.
All members of the Restoration, since 1830, have talk about, dreamed about and longed for Zion, the Kingdom of God on earth. Will our living in that Kingdom be much different from the “kingdom” we are now living in? In 1973 the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints published a book entitled, “Concepts of Zion.” It included many articles by over thirty authors regarding Zion.
One article that caught my attention was a chapter entitled, “How Will the Kingdom Be Built?” by Robert G. Fisher. He suggested that we imagine that Zion is at hand and that we could create it any way we wished, but to imagine the ideal community unselfishly. How would things be in your imagined kingdom compared to how things are now? Brother Fisher said that in his imagining of the Kingdom, everybody would love everybody else. Or maybe in other words, each person would be willing and able to have JOY! You probably know the song Jesus and Others and You, what a wonderful way to spell JOY!
We all might ask ourselves if we have that Kingdom JOY in our current “kingdom,” and if not, what is holding it back? In the last paragraphs of his article, Brother Fisher gave his answer to the question, How Will the Kingdom Be built? We can build the Kingdom by changing our motives and attitudes in accordance with the notions of a just society (One heart and one mind…) which we sense within ourselves. That God is the ultimate Source of our sense of justice assures us that if we work we will be working with Him and with each other toward the common goal of Zion. We should work to build the Kingdom by acting as though it were already at hand, or in other words, as if we are living in the Kingdom now.
Jesus said in Matthew 4:16 “Repent; for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The Kingdom is at hand—in each one—if we will but devote our lives to living honorably and joyously according to God’s laws and commandments, even as we are reminded in the Sacrament prayers as found in Doctrine and Covenants 17:22 and 23.
May God bless you and keep you,
Paul Gage
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