Kingdom Come: A Gospel Heritage for the Realities of Basic Needs

By Dena Rosko

The Kingdom Come Trilogy arrives in time to support a vision for the gospel as a shared heritage of the family of God. This book, the first of the Trilogy, is a must-read for ministers, community leaders, educators, seminary learners, care providers, and people of faith who desire to unite and care as a church during dynamic times. The Trilogy offers a heritage model starting with Book I, or the realities of basic needs of our tender beginnings.

The Trilogy weaves a compelling story arc that interprets the gospel of Jesus who invites us to a heritage as children of God that meets basic needs with safe love for a future of continuing for us and the bookend generations that span our lives. This book reminds us of the basic resources needed to nurture a hope in a gospel future of a united neighborly heritage: solidarity of caregiving and whole systems justice with the promise of life and love throughout the circle transitions of our lives to eternity.

Growing a Gospel Heritage for Kingdom Come

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dogwood Group
• Release date: Aug 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781792349737

Book preview

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I want to first, upmost, and foremost thank Jesus as my Savior and Lord, Brother and Best friend, future Redeemer and King, for whispering the word, Kingdom, on my heart and mind October 2016, and for sending his Word to heal and support me with a gospel heritage postpartum, and, now a theology of heritage and practice as a foundation to serve.

I want to thank my son for his joy and support of this work with sleeping well during naps and at night so that I could draft and finish it, and for endless walks and hikes to de-stress and enjoy our time in nature together. I cherish you, I love you, and I'm grateful for your creative, wise, diligent, passionate, neighborly, kind, and joyful self!

I want to thank my parents for their support, deck visits, plant shopping, and prayers, my cousins Claudia and Mike for their prayers, calls, and generosity, and my sister Nicole for encouraging me with my word choice in Book II and coaching.

I want to thank my niece, Uriah, for inspiring me to coach as a prelude to birthing my son, and to this written foundation for coaching others with heritage development.

With respect to Great Grandmas Marie, Dora, and Grandmas Adeline and Katherine (Kitty) for wild resilience, humor, determination, and faith in hardship to nudge the next generation one step closer to a healthy heritage.

I want to thank my foreword writers, Rev. Colleen and Rev. Drs. Linda and Scott, ministers and community contributors, for your generosity of word, time, conscientious feedback, and support of my ministry of nuance to bridge apparent ideological gaps with a dialogue of heritage.

I want to thank Pastor Keith and Debi and Pastor Martin and Thelma, for your pastoral care and advice, and for your friendship and unofficially adopting our family, over the years. I want to thank Pastor and Thelma for love and hospitality to modeling how to care-give for a gospel heritage by how you cared for us. We love you!

I want to thank early adopters of this work for support of the soft launch and for their review and enthusiasm for the launch parties, heritage circles, and special events.

I want to thank Laura, E.J., Anna, Sydney, and neighbor Grandma for walking postpartum and ministry with me.

I want to thank Colleen M., Sandy, Maria, Amy, Kelli, Brooke C., Courtney, Corianne, Babette, Ed, Julie, Nicole, and Emily for your prayers for healing, ministry, and writing.

I want to thank Martha for your daily emails with encouragement and prayers for family.

I want to thank all of my aunts for inspiring and challenging me, for valuing leadership of a woman in the home, city, and church. Thank you, Andrea, in children's ministry for caring for G.

To my cousins, thank you for keeping it real.

I want to thank my neighbors for your hospitality to greet us every day, and for teaching us the outside-in of home.

Thank you Wendy, Ivy, Molly, and Bethany for your generosity with our gifting and sharing community.

I want to thank the civic leaders who have engaged my coaching influence in my city.

I want to thank the bestest friend a girl could ever have, Sara Anne, for loving me unconditionally with your time, letters, and company.

I want to thank your mom, Shay, for your heartfelt and hard-won wisdom and many kindnesses to me and G.

I want to thank ministry friends for your inspiration and commitment, Annie and Nathan, J. and S., J. and A., Nicole, Eric and Maureen, Debby, the late Kim J., and many others.

I want to thank Monique B. for your partnership with creative social justice projects as a sister-in-Christ, and for your leadership as a creative in ministry.

Justice for Jashawna.

Any names, affiliations, or organizations besides my own in this book are not responsible in any way for its content.

To each a home, to all a heritage, for the love of God and each other with hope for kingdom come.

Until that Day,

Dena Michele Rosko, Ph.D., M.A., C.L.C.M.

Renton, Wash.

January 24, 2023

FOREWORD

The day that I met Rev. Dr. Dena Michele Rosko was transformative! Dena led a retreat for the faith-based non-profit board that I served upon. I felt cranky, tired, and cold. It was raining, and not a surprise as we live in the Seattle area.

Dena greeted and thanked everyone for coming as they arrived with enthusiasm and energy in a way that said she was holding holy space for us to learn as we were cared for by her. Dena led the way that day as she asked questions that focused us on the underlying theology of the organization.

I was in seminary at that time, and had been in church leadership for many years. The retreat allowed me to pull the different pieces of leadership together by the questions and discussions that she challenged us with.

That was almost a decade ago, and I still use some of the methods and questions that Dena introduced to us in my call to ministry as an associate pastor in the Presbyterian Church USA. Dena's leadership and passion come from a place in her heart for the gospel where everyone feels valued and lifted up in all that God calls us to be in this world.

Table Fellowship

The heritage theme in this Kingdom Come trilogy intersects with my understanding of table fellowship. All are welcome to the table in all that they are because there is always room at the table for one more. The table is open to all because that's what makes for rich conversation, and is what God calls us to do. No one is left out. All are welcome.

There is enough for everyone. This is about a theology of abundance, and the opposite of scarcity. A theology of scarcity is where there is only a certain amount of grace, love, and life are available, and when you run out, there is no more. Someone will get left out. The table will be full.

I believe that in God's economy, there is enough love for everyone. God loves everyone, and that love will never run out. There is always room at the table for one more because of divine love. Everyone is welcome to the table because God does not withhold grace or love from anyone no matter what you wear, what you look like, or what you do.

The table of God is where everyone is in! We lead richer lives because each person brings something different to the table. We learn from each other, and that means that all people are valued for what they bring to the table in their similarities and differences.

We embody this grace and love of God in the way that we understand that we do not have to adhere to the notions of success or failure defined by an economy that values more work in order to gain more money or possessions.

I learned the practice of grace and love through my grandmother and mother who fully embodied and practiced table fellowship. There was always room at our table for one more. I noticed that people would frequently drop in right before dinner because my mother always had room for one more at the table. We scrambled around the house for another chair, and there was a lot of laughing and joyful conversation.

Interestingly, no matter how many we added to our table, there were always leftovers. Everyone had enough, and no one left hungry. That simple act of table fellowship gave all a sense of belonging to a family. Those relationships have lasted a lifetime.

Table fellowship also encourages us to slow down to really spend time with each other. It encourages and feeds relationship building. Slowing down to form relationships is what Christ continually teaches throughout his ministry. This is radical hospitality.

Radical Hospitality

It requires us to put down our notions of win or lose, and to make room for all. The children and the eldest in our lives are those who are frequently left out because they are not deemed fast enough to keep up with the frantic pace of life in the world today.

I was a caregiver to my mother and my young children at the same time. The cycles of life where each needed someone to slow down to care for them is not valued in our culture. This Kingdom Come trilogy addresses radical hospitality in a way that we need to slow down and care for each other in all the cycles of life that we experience.

As we live into this life, we need radical hospitality as we journey together embodying the kingdom of heaven here, but not yet. All are welcome to sit at the table in the Kingdom of God because we belong to each other. This radical hospitality embodies the unity that Christ calls us to live into by caring for the least of these.

Rev. Dr. Dena Michele Rosko invites us to embody the theology of unity, which is radical in this world right now. During this pandemic we have hoarded resources, but what if we lived into God's love that finds time to slow down? How radical is that?

Rev. Colleen Chinen

Associate Pastor

Steel Lake Presbyterian Church

September 2020

PREFACE

As a little girl I adhered a rainbow sticker on my room light switch that said, God always keeps his promises (see Deut. 7:9; Heb. 10:23). This book paints an arc of rainbow in-between advent to kingdom come from a perspective of heritage as a core promise in the gospel.

This trilogy offers a framework and language for heritage formation as a spiritual discipline and renewal.

The gospel speaks to heritage, especially in Jesus' admonition to, Welcome the little children for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these (Mk. 9:35). That's the destination in-between the arc of the rainbow.

Beginnings and Motivations

I wrote this trilogy amid motherhood to connect stories and themes in Scripture as a gospel heritage towards a vision of kingdom come. This trilogy frames the gospel as a heritage theology and practice towards a vision for kingdom come. This kingdom opposite the schemes of the violent [who] take it by force because a gospel heritage values faith, hope, and love as responses and solutions to suffering to continue generations to kingdom come (see Matt. 5, 11:12, 23-25).

I began to write this trilogy in April 2017 when I systematically studied the Scriptures that mentioned kingdom with attention to heritage and family. During that time, I piloted a group study around the content. Some of my first listens happened on a tatami mat in the nursery. We encountered realities postpartum that gave me a heart for integrating heritage into my vocational work and ministry.

I read through the Holy Bible four times for kingdom passages and heritage themes during drafting and editing. I read through a fifth time during proofread and revisions. Both phases I emphasized the plight of women and children at tension with leadership, in need of heritage, with a vision as hope for kingdom come. This vision shares a more complete story of the gospel to invite people to embrace.

Meanwhile, I received high-quality, accessible, and scholarship funded ministry and biblical training to support this heritage ecuministry. I am certified as a life coach minister seeking ordination from an international ecumenical Institute. These efforts encouraged my progress, and challenged me to include essentials to ensure a Christian core to this treatment of heritage theology and formation. Community, seminary, and pastoral leaders and a pilot group aided the credibility, accountability, and practice.

I story systems for loving solutions. I've integrated writing, photography, ministry, research, and entrepreneurship since I was 12 years old. I became a person of faith at six years old when I answered a pulpit message about God's love for us and heaven (Jn. 3:16).

Our pastor at the time and his family unofficially adopted mine. My parents raised me in a small church where people cared for each other. These early years imprinted me with a love for God, prayer, and the family of God.

This trilogy draws on my research of carers in the beginnings and end of life, and my background in organizational anthropology, organizational systems, communication, leadership, development and well-being, cultural anthropology, and writing to paint a visual of a circle of concentric rings that encircle the most valuable tucked in at the center: the advent and coda of the most vulnerable person who needs our attention and care.

Mostly, I wrote this book for my son to know what his mama believes realizing that my son inspired and taught me this gospel, to ground meaning of a heritage of faith, hope, and love, to heal carers including myself, and to unpack the implications of a gospel of the kingdom for supporting the healing and solidarity of others for heritage and church. Children are indeed a heritage from the LORD and a joy indeed (see Gen. 22:1-22; Psa. 126-127:3).

I hope that my written works bless my children, and shine a glimmer of hope for future generations.

Heritage Theology and Practice

Heritage formation as gospel care tends to the person in relation to God and people in the context of systems that support or thwart the continuing of generations towards kingdom come. Heritage theology with the practice of formation reminds us that God calls us to peace and goodwill as family of God and loving neighbors of each other (see 1 Cor. 13; Eph. 1, 3; Jms. 2:8; Lam. 3:22-23; Lk. 1, 10:25-28; Mk. 12:28-34; Matt. 22:34-40; Rev. 22; Zech. 8).

A family tree after shades of gray by ash grit gain visage for green oasis. We do well to design sectors to bridge transitions to children and elder. For nearly 20 years I've researched, written, and practiced lifespan integration by nurturing lifecycle integration in tandem with people I love, church family, for congregations, and for neighbors.

Jesus said that he knows his children when they do for the least of these (Matt. 25:31-40). I researched and wrote the Heritage Chronicles, a culmination of nine books in different genres about heritage, from 2000 to 2020, or for 20 years with most content from 2016 to present.

Heritage theology provides a framework and a model for ministry leaders and laypersons to dialogue and unite over the gospel with a future vision for kingdom come. I wrote the Kingdom Come trilogy with a contemplative writing style for unifying language and a timely theology for heritage.

This trilogy approaches heritage as a family and community style caregiving that integrates the generations and supports carers into our daily lives as we move forward towards kingdom come. I wrote an accompanying devotional and prayer book to this trilogy to dovetail into coaching and facilitation so that people and groups can gather or read without being lost in the larger interpretation here. I consult, coach, and advocate for better practices of heritage in spiritual, community, and civic organizations. I build heritage practices by storied systems design. This work can help carers to engage their transitions, and us to better care for them.

We can practice heritage with tenderness to the cycles of life, the bookend generations, and those who cherish them. This Trilogy interprets the gospel as the message of God's salvation for love and life of his children through his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit who indwells and empowers us to remain a family of God until kingdom come.

A We Story for All

Each book shares the me (I), we (II), future (III) story of a gospel heritage with a vision for kingdom come.

A gospel heritage invites all to receive the peace, goodwill, and favor of God as his family (see Lk. 1). The fringe of the cloak of Jesus heals (see Matt. 14:36). Whereas, the fringe of anti-the-Christ violence harms even those who defend it. The gospel reduces this violence by reminding us to turn towards God who gives us life and love, and to live to love each other in solidarity forward to kingdom come.

Extremism of our world has left us bereft of a We story for all. We sorely need an identity and vision of heritage. Human history highlights painful eras of men and groups of people who magnified themselves above another at great harm that scaled to many, especially future generations.

We become our neighbor's elders and children.

The heart of a gospel heritage: We can reclaim our We story by revisiting what the gospel promises about heritage for us as a family of God. We witness heritage in the natural world as transition to family. God in wisdom knew this profound reality of our need for companionship as he sets the lonely in families (Psa. 48:13; 68:56).

God sent his Son as a baby, and not an abusive giant who demanded compliance or slavery (see 1 Sam. 17). God sent salvation in soft ways as evidenced in the advent of Jesus, in the teachings of Jesus in the Beatitudes and parables, and his compassionate gaze towards crowds who hounded him for healing and help (see Lk. 1-2; Matt. 1, 5-25).

We need more love and neighborliness, and systems hospitable to heritage, in our daily lives. The leadership of Jesus' day, as today, mistreated people to justify phobic hoarding resources to maintain profits of systems anti-the-Christ at the expense of healing when they should have celebrated saved lives, and hoped for a risen Savior (see Isa. 61:1-11; Lk. 11:42; Matt. 8:33-34, 23:23; Psa. 127:3). A gospel heritage counters such fear with love (1 Jn. 3-4).

We strategize around faith, hope, and love. We write a vision and make it plain (Hab. 2:2). I desire that this trilogy bridge cultures of faith that have long argued with each other over ideological zeal and economics to the detriment of serving neighbors and being united in Christ.

The task of a heritage gospel continues us as we stand in the gap for each other from now until kingdom come. The larger work will happen around support conversations and deeds done in love long after I publish these books.

Fellowship of Integration

We fellowship when we integrate each other into our daily lives. I encourage people to support a heritage of continuing for bookend generations and those in-between this arc of caring for the babies and elders in our lives.

This trilogy offers a heritage vision of the gospel, and rebukes the heresy of hyper-headship to restore fellowship. We become wary of wolves in sheep clothing that confuse faith with ideology, phobia, and finance at the expense of living, loving, and healing heritage (see Matt. 7:15). For instance, Hyper-headship a heresy, a lie, that worships false gods instead of Jesus, and uses violence to magnify a person instead of the empathy of Jesus (see 1 Cor. 10:7; Exod. 20:3-6; Gal. 4:8; Isa. 44:9-20, 45:20; Jdgs. 10:14; Lev. 19:4; Lk. 4:8; Matt. 4:10; Phil. 2; Psa. 16:4, 135:15-18; Rev. 9:20).

Hyper-headship a heretic blasphemy when people call it gospel, and spiritual abuse when religious leaders enforce it as gospel in their congregations and to survivors. Hyper-headship is heresy that reduces church to religion. When religion enforces it that's spiritual abuse that enslaves people to a false god (see Gal. 4:8, 5:19-21; Psa. 135:15-18).

Let not zeal consume. Death and life are in the power of the tongue (Prov. 18:2), especially when it comes to gossip, slander, and abuse; whereas, the integrity of treating others to align with the way of God who delights in love, justice, and righteousness in the earth to give and receive blessing by mercy, to do good by everyone, especially the household of faith," as we redeem lives and generations to kingdom come (see 1 Peter 3:7; Gal. 6:10; Jer. 9:24; Lk. 6:35; Matt. 5:7, 7:12; Prov. 15, 18:8, 26:20; Rom. 11:22; Ruth 1-4).

We repent from to turn towards each other safely in fellowship. Turn from harm to turn towards safety, love, liberty, and life, or a hope and a future (see Jer. 29:11; Jn. 10:10, 14). We, God's dear children, flee from idolatry (see 1 Cor. 10:14; 1 Jn. 5:21; Col. 3:5). We turn towards God's love for us (see Jon. 2:8). We only compete to outdo  one another in showing honor and love one another with sibling affection (see Rom. 12:10, 13:8). We practice hospitality (Heb. 13:2). We discern who to align with and whom to come out of and be separate, and if a person departs in spite, let him depart, and turn away wrath with gentle response (see 1 Cor. 7:15; 2 Cor. 6:14-18; Prov. 15). We share our faith with gentleness and respect and prepare to give reason for the hope, not hate or fear, within you (1 Peter 3:15).

We don't misconstrue or equivocate structural ostracism with reasonable and healthy boundaries against abuse, especially when those boundaries protect our well-being and those in our care. Integration doesn't mean we let wolves into the sheep pen. We've responsibility to safeguard and care for the least of these (Matt. 25:40-45).

We discern and rebuke and exhort with all authority all systems anti-the-Christ, including the abuse that hyper-headship justifies and suffers the least of these (see Titus 2:15). People can influence us for God, for good, for love, for health and safety, and people can influence us against those. In matters of heritage, Jesus gently leads those with young with his empathetic priesthood (see Heb. 4:15; Isa. 40:11).

Jesus earned his priesthood through his empathy, and won the crowds with his compassionate and miraculous responses as we gaze on his wounds that heal us, the empathetic high priest whose gaze of compassion found us (Heb. 4:14-16; Isa. 53:5; Matt. 9:36; Numb. 21:9). Integration to fellowship needs the empathetic and gentle leadership, and the powerful return of Christ kingdom come.

As a person thinks in the heart, and with truth, honor, justice, purity, loveliness, excellence, worth praise, or not, so the person is, and so we are (see Phil. 4:7-13; Prov. 23:7). I've condensed what I hope, under the pressures of our times, a compelling and coherent narrative a gospel heritage towards a vision of the kingdom of heaven. Not a quick-grab to save one soul for idyllic ease, but a reach to scale a message of faith, hope, and love to many. We return to a collective empathy and future vision for a whole gospel.

Solidarity as Unity of the Church

This perspective offers to unify the church with language of contemplative, nuanced, and precise terms and examples from Scripture so that we cling to a salvation for heritage as children of God instead of the violent methods of sin, such as systems anti-the-Christ, instead of the tendency to blame a person or group. Instead, we create generative questions and solutions of churches in partnership for the gospel, which as a ripple effect can bless and redeem systems for heritage (see Jer. 29:9-11; Matt. 5:14, 25; Phil. 1:5-7).

This trilogy highlights heritage because of the gospel themes of a God off love making a way for the family of God, covenants with the people of God, the stories and language about nurturing this family in birth and care giving terms, and the family tree of God in Scriptures. For instance, the gospel arose from a context of childism and slavery throughout history. A people God promised will birth a large family that will bless the nations (Gen. 12:1-3, 17-22).

This trilogy sketches this scale of the kingdom of the children of God. The gospel refers to the coming kingdom and defeat of evil as the final wallop to the woes of this world. With that, this trilogy elevates a perspective of the gospel that differs than a consumerist individualistic salvation. There exists few literature or books supporting all matters peripartum, and heritage as an advent to family from both a systems and faith-based perspective.

The effort to dialogue instead of debate faith dials down the fear and fight to give us tools to better learn how to unite as a family of God. The gospel of the kingdom of Jesus calls us to do the work now of building that kingdom now with its methods of love, peace, comfort, and life.

Put to our times, the call to the church needs to include dismantling the systems anti-the-Christ, or that magnify oneself above the image of God to oppress and ostracize people from their basic needs, safe love.

We as the church may benefit from a shared language, a theology, around restorative justice, and hospitable evangelism to unify the split between ideologies that have made pews cold, and tarnished our witness.

I hope that a gospel heritage imprints a unifying message with which to organize faith in trying times. We better serve a gospel heritage as a family of faith.

I desire that this trilogy and its accompanying devotional and prayer book unite the church around a theology of heritage with a whole gospel that merges individual and kingdom salvations as Jesus will redeem and make all new (see 1 Thess. 4:9-18; 2 Cor. 5; Gal. 2:20; Rev. 20-22).

Validate to Encourage the Oppressed

The trilogy elevates the gospel to help us to live by love in our vulnerable seasons, and to scale our resources and currencies to bridge the gap from where we fall short now to the whole, and a kingdom that lasts and treats people well.

I intend to validate and encourage the oppressed (Isa. 1:17) of systems anti-the-Christ that distort church to religious ideological systems as the original sin of scale to the nations. Systems anti-the-Christ as population control hurt heritage, and limit its carers. God wants no one sold as slaves or to perish (see 2 Peter 3:1-9; Exod. 1-10, 21; Gen. 29, 37-50; Jdgs. 19-21; Lev. 25:1-10); Jesus paid it all to free us from yoke of slavery (1 Jn. 2:2, 4:10; 1 Sam. 17; 1 Tim. 6:1-2; Cor. 5:18-19; Col. 1:20-22, 3:22-24; Eph. 6:5-8; Gal. 5:1; Heb. 9:5, 11; Jn. 8:36; Rev. 18:13; Rom. 3:25, 5:1-11; Titus 2:9-10).

Heritage teaches us to integrate the bookend generations into our lives. This book frames narratives in Scripture about women and children whose faith seemed too scandalous to survive, but survive it did, and thrive it will.

I hope that this trilogy validates what carers go through. Transitions of joy can become a milieu in a world of suffering. This book offers a wider lens that names ostracism as Satan's system from the sin of elitism, and integrates gospel solutions into heritage work, and what we do as researchers, practitioners, and a society for the generations to continue.

A gospel heritage for kingdom come invites a futurist and spiritual systems perspective that validates the realities with a vision of heritage. Validation sets the crux of how you begin to empathize with someone else's suffering, and the compassionate action to alleviate it.

Healing becomes a validating and just response in a world inhospitable to children, or that prefers dominance and ideology over a neighborly kind.

Unique Offerings

I wrote this trilogy to scale a message of what seems lacking, a theology of heritage meets commentary plus prose, for a whole gospel, and carried this labor of love (see 2 Cor. 4:10; Col. 1:24-29; Gal. 6:17). A time and season bids me release the work as coherent and compelling as I can so that by sharing the many others complete it (see Col. 1-4; Eccl. 3).

Over six years, I developed and organized content on-the-go and in-office. I wrote and revised the trilogy as I listened through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation four times searching for content about the kingdom, and with tender sensitivity to the plight and joys of women and children. I read through the Scriptures a fifth time for an additional year while proofreading the trilogy, listening for heritage and kingdom themes, to match these passages with the sections.

I bookended this effort with accountability of training, feedback from a few selected seminary leaders, formal and informal mentorship, contractual and pro-bono coaching engagements with ministry leaders and communities.

I underwent ministry and postdoctoral training for life coach certification, writing for ministry, and ordination for writing, coaching, women's, kingdom, and heritage ministry. I reached out to folks doing the work of ministry, community, and education for feedback on the offerings here. This work since 2001 has been developed in communities, writing, and education for faith-inspired organizations.

The writing of a scroll, again, with the hopes to hear and heed the heart of God for his heritage as a guide through dynamic times to remind us to stay united in our love for God, each other, and those precious ones who will inherit the kingdom (see 1 Jn. 3-4, 5:2; Eph. 1:5, 3:20; Gal. 3:23-4:31; Jer. 36:1-32; Jn. 17; Mk.; Matt. 18:1-6; Rev. 19-22). We need not push Scriptures through a cheese grater to defend the pile of shreds as if no substance remained. We hear the whole story.

We can gaze unflinchingly, yet moved, and rest assured that the promises of God, in all its reality and glory, illumine our way (see 1 Cor. 6:13; Dan. 2:32; Ezek. 3:3; Hab. 3:16; Isa. 46:3; Jer. 1:5; Job 40:16; Jn. 7:38; Jonah 1:17, 2:1-2; Lk. 15:11-32; Mk. 7:19; Matt. 12:40, 15:17; Phil. 3:19; Prov. 20:27-30; Psa. 17:14, 22:10, 31:9, 44:25, 119:105; Rev. 10:9-10; Rom. 16:18; Songs 5:14, 7:2). These books are not canon, but a secondary source at best to amplify the invitation to a we story growing towards the vision of kingdom come.

Perhaps if we're engaged in this work, then we're less prone to being artifacts of culture, or persisting the noise