The Kingdom of God is not about going up to heaven. It’s not about having a bar code stamped on us allowing us entrance into the pearly gates. The Kingdom of God is about life, all life. God is in this life and wants this life to be better for all people. Jesus came to be the way, certainly, but to also show us the WAY TO LIFE in our daily living, in personal and societal issues.

We are not about saving a soul without regard to how that soul lives right here and now. And when the fullness of the Kingdom comes it will come here to this earth and it is what we are to aspire to as we live from day to day.

I am currently reading a fantastic book called HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ON about John Lewis, written by Jon Meacham. Run; don’t walk to get this book. Lewis knew and marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and as he did so, there were many times Lewis, a pacifist, was beaten bloody and jailed for believing and living like Christ makes a difference in this world.

Let me share a quote from the book:

“In a passage inspired by Rauschenbusch, King was to write, “The gospel at its best deals with the whole man, not only his soul but his body, not only his spiritual well-being, but his material well-being. Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.””― from “His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope”

I am so inspired by this man’s life and how he trusted God, prayed and lived his life as a disciple of Jesus. In these times it does my heart good to see that people are wanting to make a difference that will last for all eternity and hopefully impact the lives of my children and grandchildren in the years ahead.

God rest the soul of John Lewis and let his witness for Christ live on.

We need that witness now more than ever.