For June 27, 2021
It was our Lord’s first declaration preparing the world for His distinctive ministry and message,
Now after that John was put in 
prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God, And saying: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the Gospel!” Mark 1:14-15 (AKJV)
Jesus declares: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand!” To what would become the New Testament World, His proclamation referred to a fulfillment of the promised Messiah, God’s Anointed One, who would restore the throne of David in Jerusalem, free the Jewish people from Roman domination, and establish God’s eternal Kingdom.
Four thousand years of human history has passed now was the time to drastically change the course of human history with the advent of His Son presenting Himself as the Lamb of God, who would take away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)
Jesus Christ would initiate a new Kingdom where love, righteousness, and peace would reign forever. The Lord is no respecter of persons, and His Eternal Kingdom is spiritual, not material. As fallen humans, we crave power, influence, and human supremacy. On the other hand, God wants to transform sinful human hearts because of our proclivity to sin,
The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? (Jeremiah 17:9 NIV)
The Lord knows that once He possesses our hearts, He then can own everything else we possess by default. But even with transformed hearts, we may not experience any significant external changes, like having our names listed in Who’s Who, or having others speak well of us, or even obtaining wealth and notoriety. Nevertheless, we do have a new, internal spiritual being that makes us acceptable before God.
Time was now ready for Jesus Christ to communicate a message and perform and ministry for God’s people everywhere—both Jew and Gentile—that would free us from sin and death forever.
The crux of the message is two-fold: Repent and believe the Gospel! God requires our surrender in order to perform in us His perfect work of redemption since proud, sinful humans will never inherit His glorious, eternal Kingdom,
What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever. (1 Corinthians 15:50 NLT)
We must agree with God that our proud, sinful ways are woefully inadequate for achieving His righteousness, which is always observed and practiced in His glorious Heaven. This is true repentance. God is holy, and His standards are holy.
As sinners, we will always fall short and must turn from our sin and to Him through faith in Jesus Christ, Here we surrender to Him as our Lord and Savior, so that His Holy Spirit can possess us, and transform us from the inside out. As we continue to surrender, His Spirit can forever change our being, position, choices and destiny so that we achieve a noble Christ-likeness.
Romans 8:1 tells us that there is no condemnation to those who in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 12:2 tells us that we are not to be conformed to this world, but are transformed by a renewed mind so that we can live out God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will.
A transformed heart with a renewed mind pleases God, because it produces a progressive yearning for godly things, and a growing disdain for the worldly things. We surrender the control of our lives to the Lord Jesus each day, and His Holy Spirit gives us a growing desire to please Him in everything we do.
By our repentance towards sin, and our humble, reverent, and sincere faith in Christ, we are assured to experience His divine presence forever. Won’t you trust Him today?
What a Wonderful Savior!