Kingdom & Mercy
Jesus came, in Matthew 4, “proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them.” He proclaimed the good news of the kingdom, he showed the signs of the kingdom. Show & tell.
God calls us as kingdom citizens, to live in such a way that our lives proclaim a kingdom that is not of this world. This means seeing all people as image-bearers, in need of compassion. There is no distinction between deserving/undeserving poor. All of us are undeserving. And God calls us as kingdom citizens to demonstrate the reality of the unseen kingdom by living upside-down lives of radical generosity, love-of-stranger hospitality. Not treating people as problems to be solved but image bearers who need God’s mercy.
Therefore, CtK believes that the calling to live lives of Kingdom-shaped Mercy is not for those who are gifted in Mercy but for all people. We believe that participation in Mercy & Justice ministries cannot be “icing on the cake”—a task we can get to if we have time. It is a calling of all Christians. We seek to partner with good existing ministries in Raleigh who are doing “Kingdom work.” We admit that this is an area of weakness and struggle for us as self-consumed individuals and look to God’s leading and the encouragement of one another to hear and heed this calling
