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CURRENT RADIO SERIES Gifts for a Lifetime   CURRENT TV SERIES Eternity Now

Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my pleas for mercy! In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness! Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.   --Psalm 143:2 The last part of this passage is a powerful statement! Its meaning is clear: our attempts at goodness can never be enough to meet God’s holy and righteous standard. The Bible clearly states that we are an imperfect people who cannot stand before a holy God on our own merits. So how do we become acceptable to God? By standing before Him clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, who has covered us with His blood. Christ started and finished the work of salvation that we could never have even begun, let alone finished, ourselves. So let me ask you a question today:  Are you seeking to be religious or righteous? You see, our human effort and works don’t add up to anything in God’s sight. Being religious by itself isn’t enough because all religion can do is try to get us to clean up our act thinking that in doing so God will accept us. We need to understand that what God desires is for us to be righteous, not religious.  Which is why He sent His Son to die on the cross for you and me.  Through Christ we have been made righteous in the eyes of God.  We are fully accepted in Him. So if you find yourself trying to please God by being religious, I encourage you to stop.  Instead, embrace the truth that God has made you righteous when you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior.  Live in the power of that truth today…and every day! When you accepted the gift of salvaton in Christ, you were made righteous and acceptable to God!

The Glorious Kingdom of God

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it. And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.”
Luke 13:18–21
In the 1600s, Louis XIV, the Sun King of France, took his father’s hunting lodge at Versailles and began remodeling it into a massive palace. In 1682, Louis XIV moved the court there, and it became the official seat of government. Nothing but the best would do for the king and his court. No expense was spared as artisans from around the world were brought in to create sculptures and ornamentation for the royal family to enjoy. Thousands of pounds of gold and silver were used to trim fixtures and furniture throughout the massive building. Today millions of guests each year visit Versailles to marvel at the opulent splendor created by a king with virtually unlimited resources and power on display.
But all of those glories, and everything created by man, pales in comparison to the splendor of Heaven. God does not use gold for decoration—He uses it like we use asphalt. His kingdom is not limited in any way, but rather reaches through time and space. Our limited minds cannot fully grasp the vast wonders of God and His kingdom, but we know it is far beyond anything we know, and He has made us part of it. “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Today’s Growth Principle: 

We must be faithful to share the Good News of God’s kingdom with those around us.