There is a Kingdom.

Nick Cave sings:

‘There is a Kingdom, 

There is a king.

And he lives within

And he lives without

…And he is everything” 

And as is frequently the case, Nick Cave nails it!

There is a kingdom, The way of heaven, it is real, it is here, it has broken in!

There is a King - his name is Jesus.

He lives Within - the Kingdom is a seed planted by the Holy Spirit in the believer's heart and from within the fertile soil of a warmed heart the seed grows and the individual is transformed from the inside-out so that from their dusty bones radiates the light of God and his eternal kingdom. 

He Lives Without - Whilst the presence of the king is an internal one, the reality of his kingdom is far from just an idea or ‘feelings of love’ floating ephemerally in the interior court of his followers. The kingdom is a lived reality and experience. For from within the kingdom flows out, the presence of Jesus is seen in the actions of hands, the words of mouths, and the lived lives of his followers - his kingdom’s Citizens.

And he is everything - This kingdom which may have started as no more than a spec, on a blot, in an obscure corner of the Roman empire, had no intention of remaining hidden! As William Blake famously said, ‘to see the world in a grain of sand’ - So too did Jesus see the whole world in his mustard seed. From his life planted in the ground, he envisaged not some, or part, or a majority. NO! He saw Everything, the whole world changed forever and ever, his Kingdom everywhere, in everything. 

Such is the Kingdom, such is the king.

Within & without

EVERYTHING.

So we live now, in the way of the Kingdom, following the king.

Changed from within, living without

in EVERYTHING!