The Kingdom of God is like…
August 10, 2009 // By: Bob Hamp // 2 Comments
I have described the Kingdom as the presence and the power of God. The Kingdom is a concept defining God’s work, not the work of humans. So what about humans? Don’t we have some role in this relationship with God thing? Absolutely we do! So to help us further consider this parable: The Kingdom of God is like an oven.
The oven is an environment of intense heat. Anything placed within the oven is changed by the heat. Cookie dough exerts no effort of its own to change itself; it must simply enter the oven. The heat will do what it does. Heat causes ice to become water, water to become steam, and batter to become brownies.
The atmosphere of the Kingdom, just like an oven, has a transforming power all of its own. As I have said previously, that power is life, love, peace, joy and rightness. If you dive in, then these forces will begin to change you. Try to live from your own resources, and these powers will have no effect on you. The Kingdom of God has the power to effect anything that enters its atmosphere. Our role? Enter in. Change our source. Surrender self-reliance and surrender to the immediate present rule of God. He will bake you. Change will come; but it will be His power, not your effort, that changes you.
BTW: Like the pics you see? You should see my amazing daughters work: Jillianhamp.com
2 Comments
I enjoyed this analogy when I heard you share it recently. But might I suggest a tweaking of it perhaps? (Okay, I admit I am stealing this idea from an old Star Trek episode.)
Instead of an oven, how about the sun? It does all those things an oven does, AND it provides light to the darkness. Then when you have your listeners all caught up in the analogy, you reveal that you were not talking about S-U-N like the sun up in the sky, but S-O-N like the Son of God.
I copy these to a word document at work & share them with some of my coworkers. Before reading the article & without prompting, one of my coworkers said, “The pictures are beautiful.” You & Jillian make quite a team!