Refuge

The Kingdom of God is a refuge. God is a refuge. Refuge being a source of help, relief, or comfort in times of trouble. A place of safety that we resort to for help. God is a refuge, a place, a person of safety that we can resort to when we need help. We know that we can go there and find what we need. Jesus put it like this:

He said, "Then you see how every student well-trained in God's kingdom is like the owner of a general store who can put his hands on anything you need, old or new, exactly when you need it."

Matthew 13:52

So here it actually go further, we are to be well trained in God's kingdom. If we are, we become the the people who can put our hands on anything that someone needs exactly when they need it. What do most people need? Exactly what the kingdom of God offers - love, kindness, patience, care, forgiveness and peace. If we know well the kingdom because we have been practicing living the way of Jesus, we can offer to people what they are looking for - a refuge, a place of safety to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, to have a relationship with us that allows a relationship with God. We have the kingdom to give people - humanity. This is how we are the "light of the world." This is how people get to see Jesus because

And I, as I am lifted up from the earth, will attract everyone to me and gather them around me."

John 12:32

"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

John 8:12

"You are the light of the world."

Matthew 5:14

So will we lift Jesus up by living the way he taught us? Will we become the light of the world because we live this way and people will follow the light to the owner of the general store? Will we be light to a person that can only see darkness? Can we end that darkness, light turning on the lights in a room, when we practice being Jesus, living His way, and having no agenda outside of that? Could people find refuge, safety, protection, and what they need and then ask the most important question they could ask - "Why have you done all this for me?" We would be ready with an answer that communicates that we have been loved in the same way and we want to share it with others who need to be rescued from darkness. Maybe then they would want to know this God and do be a refuge for others.

Namaste'