Merry Christmas from Jay and Rhonda.
We join you in celebrating the newborn King of Christmas, our Savior Jesus Christ. But let’s not end the celebration with the babe in the manger. On this journey over the past 20 days, we have visited as a cause for celebration just a few highlights of what the Savior King came to accomplish in ushering in His kingdom into our lives. If you have believed His gospel message … you are now, yes now, in the here and now, a citizen of the kingdom of God.
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Philippians 3:20-21). Our spiritual citizenship already exists in the kingdom of heaven. But we wait patiently for our earth-suit, our physical body, to be redeemed as well. That final redemption is coming, coming on the wings of our Lord as He returns for a second time. So we wait in anticipation and whisper, “Come Lord Jesus!”
“And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems … He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses … And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” (Revelation 19:11-16).
“Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come” (Revelation 12:10).
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).
Yes, come Lord Jesus. Yes, reign Lord Jesus. Until that day, based on all that Christ did FOR US and all that He did TO US, we reign in this life. “For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (Roman 5:17).