Welcome to the newest section of Unveiled: our weekly Lectio Divina. In this audio segment, we will pursue deeper awareness of God’s presence with us in scripture at the start of each week.
My plan (we will see if the Spirit leads otherwise) is to follow complete sections of the Bible, or topical sections week by week. In this first series, we will be prayerfully exploring sections of scripture concerned with the kingdom of heaven.
What is the kingdom of heaven?
There was a time in my life where whenever I read sections of scripture regarding the “kingdom of heaven,” I imagined it to be referring to heaven—as in the other-worldly place I had been promised I’d go to when I died.
As my eschatological understanding has broadened, though, I’ve come to understand the kingdom of heaven being “at hand” and “with us.” This is a romantic thought that I love to ponder, but recently I realized I don’t have a strong grasp on what heaven-on-earth might look like, how I’d notice it, and even more importantly, how I’d be a ambassador-for-it in my day to day life.
So, in January of 2023 I set out to read through the Bible in its entirety, and engage Lectio Divina on the passages specifically concerned with what the kingdom is with hopes of increasing my embodied grasp on what God’s kingdom feels and looks like. We are now approaching the half-way mark of 2023, and while I’ve kept up with my daily reading through the Biblical narrative, it has been far too easy to skip my commitment to the Lectio Divina because it’s new (which is pretty much a pattern for all new things in my life).
So, by bringing the practice to you all in my readerly community, I’m hoping that together with the Spirit we can come around these scriptures and answer the questions about “what is the kingdom of heaven?” I’m also hoping we might answer those other questions I mentioned:
How might one notice the kingdom of heaven in our day-to-day life?
How does a Christian find themselves increasing the borders of God’s kingdom while we walk with him in this life? (Just a hunch, it’s probably not through culture-wars and red Starbucks cups).
This inaugural Lectio will be available to all subscribers, but in the future only the first Lectio of the month will come for free subscribers. As a thank-you to those of you who commit the equivalent of one latte a month to Unveiled, the other weekly audio guides will remain private for you!
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Lectio Divina: The Kingdom is Like... pt. 1