Ambassadors for Christ ...

This week we have spoken of kingdoms and kings, and of God’s power over crowns and countries. God chooses to work alongside humanity through history toward an end we can imagine, but which we do not yet understand fully. What is God up to in all of this? Sometimes we wish that God would just give us a special pair of glasses, ones that will let us see things from a heavenly perspective. Maybe a really tiny angel (you know, one of those small enough to fit on the head of a pin) could sit on our shoulder, not to tell us what to do, but to help us hear the kingdom perspective in the conversations around us.

Perhaps Paul can help us out:

For the love of Christ urges us on,
because we are convinced that one has died for all;
therefore all have died.
And he died for all,
so that those who live might live no longer for themselves,
but for him who died and was raised for them.

There is something convincing about the love of Christ, something convicting about the willingness of Jesus to share in our humanity. Even though we can’t altogether see it, or understand it, the confrontation of death by Jesus Christ fascinates us. The creator of life, the eternal, chooses to share in human death. When Jesus experiences death, something happens that takes away the power and permanence of the death that is the separation from life with God. Jesus restores communion between God and God’s people.

From now on, therefore,
we regard no one from a human point of view;
even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view,
we know him no longer in that way.

Before we imitated Jesus, we had a glimpse of who he might be, and a hope for what he might do. Now that we have mimicked his death, and his victory over death, we are in conversation with God. Since his word and his Spirit now shape who we are, our perspective changes radically, much more than a new “pair of glasses” could hope to change our vision. How we hear the events happening in our presence is no longer from the “human point of view” either. How we see Jesus, and how we hear his word, has changed forever.

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation:
everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ,
and has given us the ministry of reconciliation;
that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,
not counting their trespasses against them,
and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
So we are ambassadors for Christ,
since God is making his appeal through us;
we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

So, now that we can see things from a heavenly point of view, what is our challenge? It is to help others see Jesus, too. Why? Because if they see Jesus, then they can be reconciled to God, too. God restored fellowship through Jesus, and he still does this. Yet now God works through the Jesus that is in us. The new creation in us, the reconciled human in us, now must imitate the ministry of Jesus in a way similar to the way that we have imitated the mission of Jesus. We are ambassadors of the kingdom of God to people who find themselves citizens or captives in all sorts of other kingdoms, kingdoms which do not bring about fellowship with God. When we deliver this message of reconciliation, God can and will bring about restored relationships to those around us.

Yet this is slow work. Even when a person sees the way to God, it takes a lifetime to learn to walk the pathway to God. Let’s learn to be patient with others beginning this walk in the same way that Jesus has been patient with us.

Grace and peace,

Ron

2 Corinthians 5:14-21 – NRSV

Clear your blurred vision ...

Shiann brings today’s devotional thought by reminding us that one of the ways that we practice being a truthful people is by allowing God to heal our perspective through our hope and imagination:

Hear the words of Paul:

I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back.

So let's keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision—you'll see it yet! Now that we're on the right track, let's stay on it.

But there's far more to life for us. We're citizens of high heaven! We're waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He'll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.
Philippians 3:12-16 &20-21 from the Message

This scripture is so ripe with promise! May it be true that when I truly learn to keep focused on the goal, that God will “clear my blurred vision.” I have such need for that to happen! It is in the daily process where we work to bend our will that He changes our vision, changes our focus. Isn’t it beautiful that this is a work in tandem? It is not Him alone or me alone doing this great thing. He wouldn’t force it on me and I can certainly not do it without Him!

I long for the completion of the process here I am made whole. That longing can give birth to hope and imagination. Hope and imagination are risky tasks. I don’t frequently have the courage to embark on this journey. So, how hard must it be for one who has even fewer resources?

I wonder how often our guys imagine feeling whole. Only a few temperaments are inclined in this way. The others of us must learn it. Wholeness is a promise! It most certainly won’t look the way we think it should. It certainly will not be in the timing we think should be.

May God bless us with the courage and hope to look at ourselves and see where we are not on track, where His “powerful skill” can work to improve our hearts.

Shiann