Upside Down Kingdom

We pretend we have our gravity shoes
To keep us on the ground.
Living in God’s Kingdom
The world is upside down.

Everything you did before
Just turn it on its head.
My way or the highway
Becomes His way instead.

Jesus on a mountain.
Acoustics great to teach.
Turns to His disciples
Well within His reach.

He pronounced a blessing
As He had done before.
New attitudes of living
Will open heaven’s door.

Everything they thought they knew,
Now opposite and strange
The Kingdom for the lowly,
The weak, the blind, the lame.

The Kingdom where the poor
Become the owners now.
Those who mourn are comforted
Without even asking how.

The meek will gain inheritance.
The hungry and thirsty filled.
The merciful knows what mercy is.
The soil He will till.

Those that are the pure in heart
Will surely get to see
God in all His glory,
All His might and majesty.

Peacemakers have another name.
The sons of God they’re called.
Persecuted for doing right.
Heaven…no longer walled.

Blessings come when insults
And false words are wrongly said.
Because of HIM they suffer.
Rejoice…be glad instead.

The reward is kept in heaven
Just like those who’ve gone before.
The great reward in heaven
Be with Him forevermore.

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Kingdom living.
Living for the King.

How different is a life lived for Him.
The Christian Manifesto for the Kingdom…the Beatitudes.
A shifting of our attitudes.
An upside down Kingdom.

Not upside down…where wrong is now right.
Upside down because the world’s ways are turned on their head!

How wonderful…this Kingdom perspective.
It is very difficult to keep the Kingdom in focus when we take our eyes off Jesus.

Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost slipped: I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills…This is what the wicked are like, always carefree, they increase in wealth. Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning…When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. (Psalm 73:1-5, 12-14,16, 17)

The world’s kingdom looks around…compares…envies…despairs.
God’s Kingdom looks up…at His face…for His approval…for our salvation.

Regret looks back…Fear looks around…Faith looks up!

Look up!
The attitude of the Beatitudes is one of paradox.
Nothing is as it seems.

Success by the world’s standards is fleeting.
Beauty by the world’s standards is only skin deep.
Acceptance by the world’s standards is I’ll scratch your back…and you scratch mine.

Paradox.
For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10)
Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant. (Matthew 20:26)
But many who are first will be last, and the last first. (Mark 10:31)
He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies. (John 11:25)

Upside down.
Opposite from the world.

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him. “Teacher, ” they said, “we want You to do for us whatever we ask…Let one of us sit at Your right and the other at Your left in Your glory.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking,” Jesus said.  (Mark 10:35,37,38)

James and John were in the Kingdom of the World mindset.
They wanted to sit on thrones on the right and the left of Jesus and rule along side Him.
They didn’t realize that the places on the right and the left of Jesus were not thrones.
They were wooden crosses.

Upside Down Kingdom.

A Kingdom that Satan never understood…when he thought he was victorious.
Satan thought it was all over…and the kingdom all his…when Jesus died on the cross.
Little did he know that the Holy Kernel was planted in the ground three days.
Little did he know that the Holy Kernel would rise again and produce much fruit.
Fruit for the Upside Down Kingdom of His Father.
Amen.