Last night our housegroup started studying Power Evangelism. Learning about the Kingdom of God is such an exciting experience. I love the way that everyone gets talking, has questions and stories and ideas etc. The most successful analogy I've found so far for describing the now and the not yet of the Kingdom has been the fruit teabag (you know the ones with those little strings attached).

As you dip the teabag into the boiling water in the mug the tea begins to diffuse. If you take the teabag out after just a few moments, the tea won't have reached its full flavour but it will have a slight taste. The world, with the kingdom of God here but not fully here, is like this - it's lightly, but not fully, flavoured.

Some people were saying: "the teabag is like Jesus, he came and has left the kingdom in part, but has temporarily gone and will return to bring his flavour in full." I'm not sure the analogy really stretches that far, but it's as good as any I've heard before. I guess it probably wouldn't do the mystery of the kingdom justice if there was a comprehensive analogy that explained exactly what it is like!