The Threads Blog

When Jesus came to earth, He brought the announcement of God’s kingdom with Him (Matthew 4:17). The “kingdom of heaven” sounds like an elusive concept, but it’s more a part of our lives than we realize. At the moment of our salvation, when we repented of our sinful natures and accepted God’s forgiveness, we joined His kingdom. And when we believe and trust Him and live out the gospel in our daily lives, we’re acting as the kingdom people we are.

What a rare jewel you are. You shine like a diamond in the rough, a pure and precious stone in the middle of the rubble. You have caught God’s eye and He is preparing you to accomplish something great. Just as a diamond is cleaned and cut, you are going to be challenged during your unique experience at school, but the end result is beautiful. Here are seven “S” words I wish I would’ve been given last year before my first day of college at Grand Canyon University.

Things can’t get much worse than jail. Cold concrete, little to no interaction with others, no windows, just some steel bars, a lock, and a bench if you’re lucky. Sadly for Jeremiah, jail wasn’t the worst of it. King Zedekiah let him out of jail but confined him to the palace courtyard. From there, Jeremiah continued to prophesy to the people of Jerusalem, much to the dismay of several palace officials who preferred he be silenced for good. They argued that he was a traitor and that his message of doom weakened the morale of the soldiers. So they threw him in a muddy cistern.

On January 3, 1993, the Buffalo Bills were playing a terrible game of football against the Houston Oilers. In the third quarter the score was 35-3, and the game might as well have been over. A Houston radio announcer made the now famous statement, “The lights are on here at Rich Stadium; they’ve been on since this morning; you could pretty much turn them out on the Bills right now.” But suddenly a different Bills team took to the field, and when they beat the Oilers 38-35, one of the most improbable games in NFL history was recorded. That twist of fate so immortalized the game that it is known today simply as “The Comeback.”

It was 3 a.m., and Chet received a call from the city jail. His brother, Kelly, had been picked up for public intoxication in front of a bar in downtown Seattle. “I’m so sick of this,” Chet whispered to God under his breath. Chet didn’t know what to do. The first time he’d bailed Kelly out, Kelly just had a list of excuses about his reasons for returning to a lifestyle of binge drinking.

“I chose you.” The first words God said to Jeremiah, recorded in Jeremiah 1:5, jump out at us. As Christians we often refer to our pursuit of God, but this statement reveals we aren’t the only ones doing the pursuing. God chooses people, and He chooses them to do seemingly impossible things.