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Unshakable?

               Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, (Hebrews 12:28)

          We’ve made it to the big day, the day on which we should be supremely thankful. And I’ll get back to the gratitude in a moment. First, the author of Hebrews tells us one reason we should be thankful: we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Can you imagine? I don’t think I can remember a time, at least as an adult, when my kingdom or the “kingdoms” of my hometown, my county, my state, my nation, or the kingdom of man were unshakable. Even looking at God’s Kingdom, we can see what we think are symptoms of shakiness. Lucifer and his followers rebelled. Man sinned. Jesus had to die. There’s are wars and rumors of wars, and there are prophecies of an upcoming war. We have been told that He will win, and we believe it, but in the meanwhile, it feels a little shaky. The ultimate doesn’t eliminate the current apparent, but (thank God!) the current apparent doesn’t eliminate the ultimate.

          And with that in mind, we come back to the thankfulness part. The current apparent may seem to us to threaten the ultimate, but it doesn’t. What Scripture shows us is that what we think of as shakiness doesn’t actually threaten the stability of the Kingdom. Whether the attacks are big or little, and no matter how hard the shake (of sift us like wheat?), they just don’t shake the Kingdom.

          If God had not allowed Lucifer to tempt Adam and Eve, or if Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned, how could we know that God’s Kingdom can’t be shaken? If the people before the flood had not become set on evil, or Sodom and Gomorrah hadn’t been evil, or Egypt and other nations hadn’t enslaved Israel, how could we know? If Jesus hadn’t come, died, and been raised from the dead, how would we know? The only way we can and will know that God’s Kingdom isn’t shakable is for God to allow what we believe will shake it to have a chance to do so?

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