How to Ascend in the Kingdom of God

I was thinking about the name of this blog, and I love it because it came from a picture that God gave me one day quite some time ago. And yet, as I pondered the life we are called to as followers of Jesus, I realized how often we are called to do exactly the opposite. Instead of ascending, we must descend. Perhaps this blog should be entitled “Invitations to Descend” – instead of an upward trajectory, ours is downwards.  

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The deep breath of Advent

Often around this time of year when I notice the date on the calendar I feel my heart rate quicken. The time until Christmas Day is no longer counted in weeks but in days. There is a feeling of dread in amongst the delight and anticipation, because the Christmas season is usually so full. Full of busy and bustle, obligations and appointments, expectation and shopping – all the things that must be done before the hard deadline of the 25th.

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The invitation of Jesus

There is a cry repeated throughout scripture and one that is voiced numerous times by the Son of God himself. Jesus says,

“Come to me.”

Here are just a few instances where this is found in the Bible: Isaiah 55:1-3, Matthew 11:28-30, numerous verses in John 6, Revelation 22:17.

I wonder if often we, myself included, fail to do just this. It is as if we are happy to do things for God, to talk about “God stuff”, to read books about God, to sing and listen to songs about God, to even speak to God. But do we take the time to actually come to him? What would that look like if we did and how would it be different? And what does this mean in practice?

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