Author: Craig

Reconciliation

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Key Verse ~ Reconciliation

Reconciliation is the death of hostility.

Between God and people Jesus did the work of making reconciliation a gift available to deal with the hostility of people toward God. Our enmity towards God has been dealt with from God’s perspective; Jesus is our peace.

Ephesians 2:12-16
12remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

Between people reconciliation is the death of hostility. Getting there requires truth, an honest assessment of the reality of the relationship and the conditions that brought it to such disrepair, anger, and grief. Reconciliation cannot be hurried. It takes time. But it it also seems to me to require an alternate source for strength, courage, honesty, and forgiveness.

Still Going

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Permanent.

I’m thankful to live in a place with four season! Watching the cycle of life so clearly is a good reminder. In my garden the tomatoes are almost done. My zucchini finished, days ago. Its time to put in some winter greens.

Leadership too has its cycles.

When I listen to leaders at a transition point I hear their yearning for a legacy. Leave a legacy. This can be problematic. The prophet Isaiah was confronted with legacies that were not all that great. In fact he lamented the destruction of his nation. So God brings their attention to what is truly permanent.

Isaiah 40:6-8
6A voice says, “Cry!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
7The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.

When the music fades… the word of our God will stand forever.
Christian leadership points to the lasting word of God and creates environments where disciples can build their lives on God’s Word.

Stuck at a crossroads.

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I remember feeling stuck!

Not sure what to do next I worked myself into a corner trying to figure out God’s will. Discernment is often a process. We can get impatient. But I also felt stuck with the foreboding sense of fear: “I might make the wrong decision.” It was a major decision. Literally. What was I going to study?

The following verse from Psalm 37 helped me to relax and trust that God would use, shape and change the internal desires of my heart as my heart took delight in Him. All of Psalm 37 is helpful in setting a course of life during these periods of decision and transition.

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4

Delight yourself in the Lord! I began to know that I could make a decision. Aim at something. And trust that God would lead me to the next decision.

To make God my delight is turn the affections of my soul first to Jesus and to trust that He will guide me into how to relate people, the stuff of earth, and myself.

Confidence in the Gospel

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Confidence in the Gospel

Is it possible to locate“content” that can change your life? As I listen to students in our  community I hear their hope tinged with cynicism. Perhaps rightfully so. The degree is not enough.

The Apostle Paul had great confidence in the Gospel of Jesus. He trusted the content of the Gospel as the “word of truth” capable of transforming lives and generating love.

Check out what he said in Colossians 1:3-7

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf 8and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

The Gospel informs and the Spirit transforms.

The Gospel travels on the tracks of relationships.

The Gospel invites us into new relationships with Jesus and His people.

The Gospel transforms as we hear and understand the grace of God.

The Gospel must be animated in the lives of Jesus’ disciples.

What did you learn about God?

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What did you learn about God from this text?

I had to cut short a “discovery study” with a new believer this week. We stopped with this question for the following text.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.  In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation of our sins.”  1 John 4:7-10

Love is from God.

We can be born of God.

We can know God.

God is love.

God makes His love known.

God made His love known by sending Jesus, His Son, into the world.

God wants us to live through Jesus.

God loves us even when we do not love Him.

God loved us when He sent Jesus as the sacrifice to take away our sins.

 

All this generated some joy for me.

And this text causes me to ask, really, what’s the evidence of knowing God?

Love.

Sometimes I think I need an enlarged vision of love.

Therefore, I need a clear vision of God. So I will fix my attention on Jesus, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.