{"id":4994,"date":"2025-10-28T09:10:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=4994"},"modified":"2025-10-28T09:11:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:11:43","slug":"thy-kingdom-come-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/28\/thy-kingdom-come-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Thy Kingdom Come"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

How does the growth of God\u2019s kingdom \u2013 the extending of his reign over human life \u2013 actually take place?

Such gains rarely happen through epic battles or signature pieces of legislation. God seems pleased instead to use countless small acts of courage, generosity, and kindness. \u00a0

Ernest Gordon was a young Scottish soldier in World War II. He was captured by the Japanese forces occupying Southeast Asia. \u00a0

Gordon was forced, along with other prisoners of war, to build a railroad for the Japanese army across mountainous jungle terrain.

The project included the famous bridge over the river Kwai.\u00a0David Lean\u2019s 1957 movie, which dramatized that part of the construction, fell well short of portraying the almost incomprehensible suffering endured by the Allied POWs.

More than 80,000 died building the railway.\u00a0Exhausted workers were beaten to death.\u00a0The prisoners descended into depression and bitterness.\u00a0They stole rations from each other.\u00a0They became like the animals they saw in the jungle.

But then miracles of grace began to happen.\u00a0Hearts were transformed by God\u2019s love.\u00a0

In his book To End All Wars, <\/em>Gordon documents his own decision not to surrender to hopelessness. He chose courage, hope, and forgiveness \u2013 even of his captors, who were treating him brutally.

At the end of one day, after his work party had labored for hours in the sun, Gordon\u2019s team was compelled to stand in line while the prison guards counted the tools. That\u2019s when the construction boss announced that one of the shovels was missing.

He demanded that the shovel be produced, and that the thief present himself for appropriate punishment.\u00a0

No one spoke.\u00a0No one moved.

The leader became enraged.\u00a0\u201cAll die, all die!\u201d he screamed.\u00a0 \u00a0

At that moment one of the prisoners, a man who had recently committed his life to Christ, stepped forward without a word.\u00a0

The construction boss attacked him fiercely.\u00a0The prisoner did not survive the beating.\u00a0

Gordon goes on to report that when the work party got back to the camp, the tools were counted again.\u00a0It turned out that no shovel had been missing after all.

How does God\u2019s reign advance on earth?

Not through hatred, coercion, or threats.\u00a0Not through resolutions to pay back hurt for hurt.\u00a0

One of history\u2019s great ironies is that the peace that is available through God\u2019s kingdom has not been achieved through violence against the king\u2019s enemies.

Rather, it came through violence against the true King himself.

By surrendering his life, Jesus gave life to the world.

Fueled day-by-day by God\u2019s grace, peace, and power, our call is to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here How does the growth of God\u2019s kingdom \u2013 the extending of his reign over human life \u2013 actually take place? Such gains rarely happen through epic battles or signature pieces of legislation. God seems pleased instead to use countless small acts of courage, generosity, and kindness. \u00a0 Ernest Gordon was a… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4995,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[94,208],"class_list":["post-4994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-courage","tag-sacrifice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4996,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4994\/revisions\/4996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}