Kingdom of God

I had the opportunity to sit in a service this weekend where the topic of conversation was the 'Kingdom of God.' Its hard to be completely bias's in my comments since I hold such a hard view of the church and the interaction of modern thought to the Bible, But that thought aside, I can say I am happy to hear that the Kingdom conversation is surely coming to the forefront of the church world. Anyway, the service at least got me to re-think my view of the kingdom of God in my life.

The speaker point was that the church, individually and corporately, should be "billboards" for the 'Lost' to see so they may know of 'our savior.' In addition to advertising, the Kingdom was used to show, how everything we possess is God's so in turn everything is God's. Both of the points, I have to say, I agree with, to an extent. However, the Kingdom of God is much more than personal salvation---right? Can I say that? Let me explain or try to.... I believe the Kingdom of God is to be a active force in the world, but not just to occupy and to make other Christians. The entire message of Jesus was letting the Jews and Gentiles know, that it is indeed 'at hand'. I do believe that this 'at hand' wasn't referring to the future afterlife, that most evangelicals live for---death. This 'at hand' seems to mean just that, Jesus was offering an alternative to the live they were living. Maybe the Kingdom at hand meant that the focus shouldn't have been on a King that would come to run out the Romans, but rather to bring heaven on earth. Maybe it was a call for those that were in the church to be a force, not of the powerful elite but of the meek.