Spring Break

“For just as spring break is a taste of summer time in the midst of the semester, so also the kingdom of God is present in the midst of history, as we taste of its blessings now, and look forward to the summer time of God’s kingdom when Christ returns, the Holy City the New Jerusalem descends, and the whole creation is restored in new heavens and the new earth. Amen, come Lord Jesus.”

      — David Naugle   "The Gospel of the Kingdom of God"

HT: Of First Importance

From the Future, Fully Alive in the Present

"Please understand, there are so many ways in which I am not yet like Jesus. But like Jesus, I now know my identity as God's beloved son. Like Jesus, I live with an awareness of God's presence that I didn't have before. Like Jesus, I'm now able to live unafraid of the future, because the future has already come barreling down on me. I'm learning to live more boldly, less fearfully, and less tentatively than I used to. I am more like a man from the future who is fully alive in the present."

-Jonathan Martin, Prototype: What Happens When You Discover That You Are More Like Jesus Than You Think, page 17

Already Part of New Order

"..when the Bible says you are a new creation, it means that you have already been made part of that whole new order of things. Jesus is the first of the new creation, and in him you too are a new creation (see 2 Cor. 5:17; cf. 1 Cor. 15:23). In Christ, we are transformed.  Idolators, thieves, liars, sexual perverts, addicts, abusers, and victims - all of us already get new names, new identities, and new hearts with new desires (see 1 Cor. 6:9-11). Already, he is healing our wounds, covering our shame, and freeing us from the bondage to sin and temptation."

Mike Wilkerson, Redemption: Freed by Jesus from the Idols We Worship and the Wounds We Carry, page 36