The Kingdom Perspective

Christ Redeemer Church
  • 4.8 (19)
  • Christianity

The Kingdom Perspective is the official podcast of Christ Redeemer Church of Hanover, NH. The podcast exists to disseminate the thought-provoking teaching of CRC to the wider public. If you like what you hear, please pass these on to your friends. Find out more about our church at our website: christredeemerchurch.org.

  1. 3d ago

    The Goodness of God

    Transcript:Hello! This is Pastor Don from Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.All things begin and end with God, which means that we do not really know which end is up until we see all things is the light of His being. For instance, we do not know what goodness is until we have understood that God is good. Historic Christianity does not teach that God is good because He meets the standard of goodness (Of course does!). Rather, God is not good merely because He meets the standard of goodness, but because He IS the standard of goodness. He’s the standard of all goodness, precisely because He is the source of all goodness. God IS good. This only makes sense, because if God is God, then He is the creator/source of all things. All the goodness of creation (all our true understanding of even the idea of goodness) is derivative from and therefore contingent/dependent upon Him. Listen to the 17th century Westminster Confession’s summary of this biblical truth: “God has all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of Himself; and is alone in and unto Himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which He has made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting His own glory in, by, unto, and upon them. He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things; and has most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them whatsoever Himself pleases. In His sight all things are open and manifest, His knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, so as nothing is to Him contingent, or uncertain. He is most holy in all His counsels, in all His works, and in all His commands. To Him is due from angels and men, and every other creature, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience He is pleased to require of them.” (Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 2, Paragraph 2)You see, God does not measure up to some standard of goodness outside of Himself. He IS the standard of goodness.Something to think (deeply) about from The Kingdom Perspective.“I will extol You, my God, O King,And I will bless Your name forever and ever.Every day I will bless You,And I will praise Your name forever and ever.Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised,And His greatness is unsearchable.One generation shall praise Your works to another,And shall declare Your mighty acts.On the glorious splendor of Your majestyAnd on Your wonderful works, I will meditate.Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts,And I will tell of Your greatness.They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodnessAnd will shout joyfully of Your righteousness.The Lord is gracious and merciful;Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.The Lord is good to all,And His mercies are over all His works.All Your works shall give thanks to You, O Lord,And Your godly ones shall bless You.They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdomAnd talk of Your power;To make known to the sons of men Your mighty actsAnd the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom.Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.The Lord sustains all who fallAnd raises up all who are bowed down.The eyes of all look to You,And You give them their food in due time.You open Your handAnd satisfy the desire of every living thing.The Lord is righteous in all His waysAnd kind in all His deeds.The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,To all who call upon Him in truth.He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;He will also hear their cry and will save them.The Lord keeps all who love Him,But all the wicked He will destroy.My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.”~ Psalm 145:1-21 (NASB95)

  2. 5d ago

    The Limits of Your Child’s 'True Self'

    Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   Since time immemorial parents have been managing the tension between a child’s desire for self-expression and their need for external structure and discipline.    Each culture has negotiated this differently—some more permissive and others more restrictive. However, what’s unique about our present cultural moment is that it’s defaulted, almost completely, to an ethos of self-expression. We are warned that the most damaging thing we can do to a child is to question their inner desires or (God forbid) suppress their self-expression.   But here’s the problem: children need their parents to guide them in who they ought to be. Children are hardwired to find their self-definition, not in themselves nor in societal fads, but from their family. That’s why every child naturally looks to their mom or dad for a response to their actions: “Look, Mom!” or “Daddy, watch!”   Now, indeed, it’s possible for a parent to be abusive in their reactions or restrictions, but it does not follow therefore that all restrictions are. Ancient wisdom (not to mention, parental experience) tells us that “folly is bound up in the heart of a child”. Therefore, we do damage to our children and their future if we do not direct and correct their false and foolish desires. No good parent pushes a child into the street, saying, “Just find your own way. Do your own thing!” My friends, if this is true in physical development; how much more in social, emotional, and spiritual!   Certainly, children need to know they are loved and accepted; but they also need to know there are limits to what’s acceptable. They need instruction and consistent and loving correction. Requiring conformity to norms is not uncaring; it is a safeguard to emotional and social chaos.   Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.   “A youngster’s heart is filled with foolishness,    but physical discipline will drive it far away." ~Proverbs 22:15 (NLT)     “My child, listen when your father corrects you.    Don’t neglect your mother’s instruction.    What you learn from them will crown you with grace    and be a chain of honor around your neck.” ~ Proverbs 1:8-9 (NLT)

  3. Aug 6

    The Vulnerable in the “Wild, Wild West”

    Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   In our globalized Western world, we are increasingly becoming a dog-eat-dog world, sexually speaking. Our push towards a future where sexual desire has no limits gradually trains our minds to see one another as sexual commodities to be used for selfish ends.   As always in such societies, it is the vulnerable that are most susceptible to being commodified. Those with lesser power, privilege, and money are most likely to be the products that are bought and sold in the market of desire. If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re probably on the menu.   We see this in our present moment. Many are shocked to learn that there are more persons enslaved today than ever before in the history of the world. And many if not most are women and children, being sexually trafficked.   Children and young people are always the most at risk. Studies show that many youths are being sexualized at younger and younger ages, by abundant and easily-accessible pornography.   Ironically, this push towards a hyper-sexualized future is often framed as “freedom”, sexual “liberation”. The idea is that my freedom is significantly defined by my most base sensual desires, and so, those desires need to be released, they need to be nurtured, for me to find self-actualization and fulfillment.   But in this “self-actualized” dog-eat-dog world, only the big dogs survive. The rest are consumed for their pleasure.   And that’s something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.   “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.   But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,   ‘Awake, O sleeper,  and arise from the dead,  and Christ will shine on you.’” ~ Ephesians 5:1-14 (ESV)   For further study: https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/2018/findings/country-studies/overview/   https://archive.nytimes.com/bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/06/global-slavery-by-the-numbers/

  4. Aug 4

    Whose Goodness?

    Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   There is a huge societal debate right now on the very concept of goodness and morality. What is the basis of goodness? What makes something right or wrong? Is there even such a thing as an objective, moral “right” or “wrong”?   A number of years ago, I heard of the president of an elite New England university commenting in a public meeting regarding the need to “get back to teaching morality and ethics in our colleges and universities.” The audible, knee-jerk retort of one student was telling: “Whose morality?” he shouted.   As soon as you mention, moral goodness, you have to ask the question of perspective. “Good” according to whom? Morality from whose perspective? Is it this group or that group? This power block or that power block? Whose viewpoint gets to decide.   I am not knocking this response because it highlights one of the critical problems with human beings invoking absolute or objective morality: We are all short-sighted and driven by self-interests, and so it can be dangerous when we begin demanding morality without reflecting on our own limitations and personal interests.   The Bible would agree. Without the God who speaks and engages with His creation, it is ridiculous to speak of “objective moral goodness”. All we are left with is warring political interests.   But if there is a God who is: ·      the source of all reality, whose character is the standard of all goodness, who sees the ends of all actions, whether they be good or evil, and speaks His good truth into His creation, so that we may know it and live by it… …then that changes everything.   Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective. About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” ~ John 7:14-24 (ESV)

  5. Apr 29

    Ezekiel: Weeping Over the Injustice of Our City

    Transcript:Hello! This is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective!In the ninth chapter of Ezekiel, the prophet details God’s judgment against the remnant of Jerusalem. In preparation for the judgment God sends a man dressed in linen to mark those that will be spared from the pending judgment. God commands him: “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” (Ezekiel 9:4). Now, did you catch that? God divides the people between those that “sigh and groan over all the abominations” of the city and those that do not. Then, the judgement of God sweeps through the city slaughtering those who do not mourn over the sin of the city. We learn something here of the fundamental difference between the righteous and the unrighteous. The righteous weep over injustice. The unrighteous do not. The righteous mourn over their sin and the sin of others. The unrighteous do not.The righteous have a tender conscience towards sin and evil, while the unrighteous are hardened cynics. The heart of the righteous breaks over the sins of the city, both individual and societal.But the unrighteous only care for themselves and their own immediate gratification.Now, there is no shortage of sin and evil in our hearts and in our world. And so, to have the posture described here of the righteous (i.e. sighing and groaning over sin) sounds like a rather miserable life. However, remember it was Jesus who taught us: “Blessed [i.e. happy; fulfilled] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4) Do you mourn over the sin of your city, your nation and your world? Do you mourn over the sins of your own heart?“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective. “Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.’”~ Matthew 5:1-4 (ESV)

  6. Apr 22

    God's Goodness and Justice

    Transcript:Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.The Bible tells us repeatedly that God is good.For example, Psalm 106 commands:“Praise the Lord!Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,for his steadfast love endures forever!” (Psalm 106:1)And again in Psalm 145:9…The Lord is good to all,And His mercies are over all His works.And Psalm 34:8…Oh taste and see that the LORD is good! Now, some may be thinking: “But I thought God was a judge. What about the angry-at-sin part? I thought God was not only good, but also just?”Well, think with me.God’s essential heart towards His creation is not one of punishment—that is corrective/retributive justice. God is not a grumpy god sitting up in heaven thinking: “What fault can I find today? Who can I get irritated with and punish?Certainly, God IS just and He will by NO MEANS allow the guilty to go unpunished (Ex. 34:7), And so, if you are evil-doer, this should make you terrified.But more to the heart of His character, God is “…abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands” (Ex. 34:6-7). From all eternity and to all eternity, God is overflowing with goodness and generosity.Corrective or retributive justice is not at the heart of who God is, but rather is what happens when God’s goodness (His infinite moral excellence) encounters evil (the warping of or rebellion against His goodness). For God to express His goodness in the face of such evil requires Him to punish it—to correct it. Justice is the necessary by-product of His essential goodness. It is God’s goodness that drives him to judge evil. We expect nothing less among our human rulers. How much more the ultimate ruler of heaven and earth!Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.The Lord said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. No one shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.” So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”~ Exodus 34:1-9 (ESV)

  7. Apr 15

    A Slave of Desire

    Transcript:Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.The Bible tells us that true freedom is the ability to love God and obey His law. This only makes sense. If we were made by God and for God, then we are free only to the degree that we are in union with God and His will for us.This is the reason why, even when we are controlled by our desires, if they are not godly desires, we experience bondage. Think for a moment. When you are driven by your own fearful desires, are you free? No, you are a prisoner of fear.When you are driven by your own lustful desires, are you free? No, you are a prisoner of lust.When we are driven by your own envy and greed, are you free? No, you are a prisoner of envy and greed.When you are driven by your own vengeful desires, are you free? No, you are a prisoner of your own angry bitterness.Jesus put it this way: “Whoever sins is a slave of sin.” Sin (i.e. disobedience to God’s law) is the very opposite of what we were designed for. When the desires of our heart are contrary to God’s law, we are enslaved. To the degree sinful desires drive our hearts, to that degree we are not free. This is the irony of addiction. An addicted person is doing what they want. But anyone who has ever been addicted, or seen a loved one struggling with addiction, knows that addiction is anything but freedom. It’s the epitome of bondage. And sin is our ultimate addiction.Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”~ John 8:31-34 (ESV)

  8. Apr 8

    God's Goodness from Creation to New Creation

    Transcript:Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.The Bible tells us that essential to God’s character is His goodness. God is good and, as Psalm 145 reminds us, “The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.”In the broad narrative of the Bible, this goodness is seen both in the original creation and in the in the new creation—the new heavens and the new earth.In the Genesis account of creation, God repeatedly pronounces his divine benediction upon all He has made. At the end of each day, He declares it “good”, and then on that final day of creation “very good”! Interestingly, the word “good” is repeated a total of seven times, the number of fullness and completeness. The point? The earth is filled to overflowing with God’s goodness. The Hebrew word for good (tov, as in the Jewish toast “mazel tov”, “good luck”) means pleasant, fitting, and beautiful. It is everything as it should be. God’s dynamic fullness and harmony can be seen everywhere in creation.Likewise, we see this abounding goodness at the end of the Bible in the renewed creation. In Revelation 21 and 22, after the banishment of sin, we find a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1) with God crying out from His throne “Behold I am making all thing new” (Revelation 21:5). And from that throne of God comes the “river of the water of life” that feeds the “tree of life” that will be for the “healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:1-2).Do you get the picture? In the original creation and in the final re-creation, God is a God overflowing with goodness to His creation.The first and final image of God presented is not a court room of justice, but a throne room of generosity.God was good long before He had to execute justice on evil.And God will be good long after He is done executing justice on evil.Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.~Genesis 1:26-31 (ESV)

See All (387)

Ratings & Reviews

4.8
out of 5
19 Ratings

About

The Kingdom Perspective is the official podcast of Christ Redeemer Church of Hanover, NH. The podcast exists to disseminate the thought-provoking teaching of CRC to the wider public. If you like what you hear, please pass these on to your friends. Find out more about our church at our website: christredeemerchurch.org.

Information

  • Creator
    Christ Redeemer Church
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    387
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Christ Redeemer Church

You Might Also Like