Kingdomtide

I ask for patience first and foremost on the part of all those reading my blog. I like to call myself computer illiterate, and the description is fairly accurate, but God has been working in my heart in the last few weeks, and He's been saying "Do Something." So, despite my youth, I've started this blog in the hopes that it will glorify Him, and maybe lead me in new directions as well.
It seems to me appropriate to begin my blog with the same message Jesus has been putting on my heart personally. That is, to work in the world for your own knowledge-gathering, but ultimately for God's glory. One message that has been brought up recently in a sermon I attended is the concept of "Kingdomtide." Picture the shoreline of an ocean. The waves crash onto the shore with all the power God has given them. Each wave makes an impact on the shore and then pulls back out to sea to become part of the ocean before going back to the shoreline. It is a cycle, the waves rushing in, and out. This is the world. The ocean is the kingdom of God, that is, His followers, and each droplet of each wave is a person who trusts in God and follows Him faithfully enough to go out into the world (the shoreline) and make an impact. Lately, it's been put on my heart how important it is to be part of those waves.
Think about it. Nowhere in the bible does God say he expects you to earn A's in all your school subjects, or get everything done that's on your to-do list. His will isn't even for each of us to live without problems once we become Christians. At the end of the first book telling of Jesus' miraculous life, death, and resurrection, Jesus tells the disciples that He has been given "All authority in Heaven and on Earth," and because of this they are to "make disciples of all nations"(NIV). He could have told them anything, given them any command, but He chose to tell them, not to try to succeed in their own personal lives, but to continue His work throughout the nations, drawing more and more people to the truth of His love, His mercy, and His plan for their lives. This mission wasn't just to those eleven disciples but to each man and woman throughout the ages who has accepted Jesus as the King of the world and their lives. Each of us has a Great Commission from God, and that is to become part of the Kingdomtide in our families, our churches, our communities, our nations, and as He was, in our world.