Expected Arrival Times (August)

August 2024 (4-31 August).

Open the Resource Pack PDF for all the information on the weekly subthemes and the daily prompts and Bible readings which shape our Daily Worship and Sunday Live services. Take a look at our Connect Bible Study Questions PDF to see the material adapted for small Connect groups or personal Bible study. (We also have a blue text on white background version).

Introduction

The Kingdom — God’s reign, God’s project of restoration for humanity, for life in all its fullness — has come… is here… is soon… is being realised… will come… and is already in the process of becoming! All at the same time!

The Kingdom is God’s vision for a renewed world of reconciled relationships — how things are meant to be, how they can be, and how they actually are here and now as the Kingdom is being built for us and with us! One of the ways the Kingdom is revealed to us is through divine compassion, glory and wonder. Indeed we get a taste of it at Communion!

While we still live in a world of fractured relationships — between one another and with our planet — we also live in one that has witnessed the redemptive and restorative love of Christ who loved us to the cross and beyond!

So, last month we got packing with God, we’re on our way, and we want to know what the expected arrival time is! Jesus said the Kingdom is already at hand, in fact it’s already in our midst, and yet it’s simultaneously something we deeply long for — the way we long for home, for belonging, for meaning. The Kingdom is not so much a matter of an Arrival Time, but of Arrival Times, as God’s grace finds us exactly when and where we are.

Yes, the Kingdom can be a hard thing to define and date and tie down, BUT it’s not hard to be a part of, or contribute to! In fact it’s quite a welcoming place… by design. It’s hard to get our head around in the same way concepts like love and happiness can become complicated once you put them under the microscope. But just like love and happiness that doesn’t stop them making sense in everyday life, or being instantly recognisable. You don’t need to be able to pin down the exact dimensions of love to love someone. You just love them! The Kingdom can be like that — it is the rightness of God in action. And it’s at hand!

Overview

• Now and Not Yet! — How the Kingdom has arrived and is still arriving!
• Eyes Open! — What the Kingdom is like…
• On time! — How the Kingdom arrives in our lives.
• The time is now! — What it means to be citizens of heaven, in the here and now.

Each week of the four week theme runs Sunday-Saturday and has its own subtheme, which contains daily Bible readings and prompts for thought (see the Resource Pack PDF for more information). Check out our Connect Bible Study Questions PDF to see the material adapted for small Connect groups or personal Bible study.