On Redemption and Restoration
Most likely you woke up today with your first thought being "What needs to get done?" Life seems like a race sometimes and aren't we just trying to hold it all together? Not just for ourselves, but for everybody else too?
You can rise and breathe in the first morning air and forget Who first breathed it into you.
You can walk to the sink and fill the glass unknowing of what a miracle it is - how your cells join forces and fight to keep you alive.
There is nothing ordinary about the "ordinary". We forget Who He is and just what He's doing in each of us.
We overlook the miracle of living and the One Who is redeeming us, day after day. All our mistakes, all our failures, our brokenness - crafted into beauty. Day by day.
" '...Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine'...'You are My witnesses,' declares the Lord, 'and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He...I, I am the Lord, and besides Me there is no Savior.' " (Isaiah 43:1, 10-11)
Over these past six months, I've really seen Him at work in my life, especially along the theme of redemption.
Not just in the redemption of my mistakes as a person, or the redemption of my character/soul, but the redemption of numerous friendships. I have really witnessed God's power in this area.
It can look like a million different things - releasing the long-harbored resentment; speaking up with the truth; risking being vulnerable to let the light shine from the hurt places; biting the lip and swallowing the differences, knowing the person across from you is more important.
"Instead of giving someone a piece of your mind, it turns out far better if you give them a piece of your heart."
These people with whom my friendships have been restored - they've become my brothers and sisters, my fellow members and partakers in Christ. It is therefore my responsibility to love them. It's not just "the right thing to do". The interrupter is far more important than the interrupted, and I need to live with this knowledge.
You only love as much as you hurt, and church isn't so much sitting under a sermon in a particular building on a Sunday. It's more of seriously and honestly confessing our sins and struggles to one another; praying to truly see God's power manifested around us; celebrating our victories together and mourning collectively when one of us is hurting.
Christ's body was broken and blood poured out to redeem a world of broken, ugly sinners. We must let our hearts also be torn apart and love poured out in vulnerability if we really believe He's going to fix it all. Because "greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."
The church is not a building, it's a brotherhood of people from all over the world. We aren't called to love just the people of our denominational sect, but all of our brothers and sisters. Just as when the church began and they shared all things between each other, let us share our joy, our grief, our prayers and provisions - and not hold back from communion with each other because we are different or have been hurt in the past. For "[We] are Your servants and Your people, whom You have REDEEMED by Your great power and by Your strong hand." (Nehemiah 1:10)
You can rise and breathe in the first morning air and forget Who first breathed it into you.
You can walk to the sink and fill the glass unknowing of what a miracle it is - how your cells join forces and fight to keep you alive.
There is nothing ordinary about the "ordinary". We forget Who He is and just what He's doing in each of us.
We overlook the miracle of living and the One Who is redeeming us, day after day. All our mistakes, all our failures, our brokenness - crafted into beauty. Day by day.
" '...Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine'...'You are My witnesses,' declares the Lord, 'and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He...I, I am the Lord, and besides Me there is no Savior.' " (Isaiah 43:1, 10-11)
Over these past six months, I've really seen Him at work in my life, especially along the theme of redemption.
Not just in the redemption of my mistakes as a person, or the redemption of my character/soul, but the redemption of numerous friendships. I have really witnessed God's power in this area.
It can look like a million different things - releasing the long-harbored resentment; speaking up with the truth; risking being vulnerable to let the light shine from the hurt places; biting the lip and swallowing the differences, knowing the person across from you is more important.
"Instead of giving someone a piece of your mind, it turns out far better if you give them a piece of your heart."
These people with whom my friendships have been restored - they've become my brothers and sisters, my fellow members and partakers in Christ. It is therefore my responsibility to love them. It's not just "the right thing to do". The interrupter is far more important than the interrupted, and I need to live with this knowledge.
You only love as much as you hurt, and church isn't so much sitting under a sermon in a particular building on a Sunday. It's more of seriously and honestly confessing our sins and struggles to one another; praying to truly see God's power manifested around us; celebrating our victories together and mourning collectively when one of us is hurting.
Christ's body was broken and blood poured out to redeem a world of broken, ugly sinners. We must let our hearts also be torn apart and love poured out in vulnerability if we really believe He's going to fix it all. Because "greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."
The church is not a building, it's a brotherhood of people from all over the world. We aren't called to love just the people of our denominational sect, but all of our brothers and sisters. Just as when the church began and they shared all things between each other, let us share our joy, our grief, our prayers and provisions - and not hold back from communion with each other because we are different or have been hurt in the past. For "[We] are Your servants and Your people, whom You have REDEEMED by Your great power and by Your strong hand." (Nehemiah 1:10)
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