RECONCILIATION IS OUR MINISTRY

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  (2 Corinthians 5:17–21 NKJV)

In Christ, God has done something for the world. God has reconciled people to Himself. In other words, God has made a way for a broken relationship to be made whole, through the death of Jesus on the cross (Colossians 1:20). In this great act of reconciliation, God has made a way for anyone -- literally, anyone -- to come into union with Him.

Coming into union with God in Christ is reconciliation in its most essential form. Any reconciliation we may do on earth that does not find its source and strength in God’s greater, reconciling work of the heart to Himself is destined to struggle and fall short.

God knows that if He can get a heart relating to Him again, experiencing His presence, love, forgiveness, acceptance, and truth, the possibilities of reconciliation between that person and others are endless. We who have been reconciled to God begin to want others to be reconciled to God. We want others to experience the freedom that we have experienced. It is the natural flow of the story.

And that is why sharing the good news of reconciliation is our ministry. Just as one who is forgiven much loves much (Luke 7:47), so, too, we who have experienced God closing the gap between us and Him want to help close that gap for others. 

-- Dan Wilt in “Wake-Up Call”

#6190

THE QUESTION OF SUFFERING – Part 3 of 3

Let me finish the story of Leslie and me in the fog in Wisconsin. We were following the taillights of that truck when the fog slowly began to lift, the rain let up and we entered a town with some lights. And there, silhouetted against the night sky, we saw the steeple of a church and the cross of Christ. After driving through the confusion of the fog for so long, that image struck me with poignancy I'll never forget -- because it was through the cross that Jesus conquered the world for us.

God's ultimate answer to suffering isn't an explanation; it's His incarnation. He isn't some distant, detached and disinterested deity; He entered our world and personally experienced our pain.

Jesus is there in the lowest places of our lives. As philosopher Peter Kreeft says: “Are you broken? He was broken, like bread, for us. Are you despised? He was despised and rejected of men. Do you cry out that you can't take any more? He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Did someone betray you? He was sold out. Are your most tender relationships broken? He loved and was rejected. Jesus is much closer than your closest friend. Because if you've put your trust in Him, then He is in you. And, therefore, your sufferings are His sufferings; your sorrow is His sorrow.”

So when tragedy strikes, when suffering comes, when you're wrestling with pain -- and when you make the choice to run into His arms, here's what you're going to discover: peace to deal with the present, courage to deal with your future and the incredible promise of eternal life in heaven.

“I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. But be courageous! I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33)

-- Lee Strobel in “The Case for Christianity Answer Book” 

#6165

THE LOVE OF GOD FILLS OUR HEARTS

“For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.”  (Romans 5:5b NLT)

There’s a God many of us try to outrun. The God we fear might be watching us from afar with a clipboard of our failures. The God we’re afraid to talk to because we assume He’s angry, distant, or disappointed. Maybe you’ve met this version of Him through harsh words, religious trauma, or your own shame.

But what if that God isn't real? What if the true God -- the one described in Romans 5:5 -- is pouring love into your heart right now, through the presence of the Holy Spirit? What if this God is exactly who your soul has been aching to find?

The God of Scripture is not out to condemn you but to claim you in Christ. Not to shame you, but to heal and transform you. His love is not conditional. It's not earned or revoked. It’s poured out, overflowing, even in our mess, even in our doubts.

This is a God who orchestrates your story with purpose. A God who uses even the broken pieces as breadcrumbs back to Him. He doesn’t delight in your failure, but rather rejoices in every step you take toward Him -- even the shaky ones.

Romans 5:5 reminds us that this love, God’s love, is not a distant idea. It’s a present reality. It dwells inside you, if you let it, through the Spirit He’s already given.

Today, take a deep breath. Rest in the quiet assurance that God is not who you feared -- but far better than you dreamed. He sees you. He loves you. And yes, He’s the God you’ve been looking for all along. 

-- SOUND BITES Ministry, compiled from a variety of sources

#6142

THE DIFFERENCE GRACE MAKES

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”  (2 Corinthians 4:8-9 NIV)

Notice the four gauges Paul used to demonstrate the difference the grace of God made in his life (and will make in yours). Each of these gauges takes some particular measure of the emotional state…

He Was Pressed but Not Crushed.

Paul was saying he felt the pinch, but he wasn’t crushed. The term “pressure” means being pushed into a narrow place. Paul was a man who spent time in some very small prison cells. As you know if you’ve read his prison letters, his joy could not be compacted by lack of space; it only became greater. Grace moved that needle.

He Was Perplexed but Not Despairing.

Church problems left Paul at his wit’s end sometimes. But he never gave up, and he always found the right answer. Grace kept him moving toward the right solution.

He Was Persecuted but Not Abandoned.

The word for “persecuted” derives from the idea of being pursued or chased. Paul knew something about that kind of hunting, and he also knew about being hunted. Even when it seemed that his enemies vastly outnumbered his friends, he never felt deserted because almighty God was always with him with sufficient grace for his every need.

He Was Struck Down but Not Destroyed.

Paul was often knocked down, but he was never knocked out. He was sometimes left for dead, but he did not die. He kept getting back up to preach the gospel of God’s grace. When he was in prison, his work seemed to flourish. To the very end of his life, he was planning on new destinations and new churches. The kind of hope Paul had cannot be suppressed no matter how you pound it. Grace renders it eternal.  

-- David Jeremiah in “Keep the Faith: How to Stand Strong in a World Turned Upside Down”

#6045

OUR DAY-TO-DAY LIVES

Then Jesus said to them all: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me.”  (Luke 9:23 NIV)

The structure and the value system of our world have evolved outside of God’s promises for so long that it seems we are compelled to struggle against our very nature in order to follow Jesus. Like the high-board diver who must determine to overcome his reflexes each time he launches himself into the abyss, we must renew our decision for discipleship every single day. Then, also like the diver, we discover the cool, refreshing, life-giving waters and celebrate that what we have left behind is the dryness and dust.

The skewed priorities of the culture we inhabit run deep.  They are etched into the fabric of our decision–making processes and re-enforced through a thousand messages and object lessons every day.

The morality of faithlessness and instant gratification pushes on our decision-making processes every time we engage the world on its terms. From pop-up ads to song lyrics to posters on the subway walls; from selfish drivers to a boss who lacks integrity and expects compromises; from the allure of another drink to the indecent propositions of a co-worker. The world is broken and we live in it: end of story.

And so we dare not leave our faith at home or bottled up at church when we venture out. We dare not pretend that we can live the Christian life on our own. If Jesus had to say [to His Father], “Not what I want but what You want” (Matthew 26:39), then how much more do we need the power of God’s transforming presence in our day-to-day lives? 

-- Derek Maul in “Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men”

THOSE TO WHOM THE CHRISTMAS MESSAGE CAME

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord…”  (Isaiah 61:1-2a NKJV)

Consider for a moment those to whom the Christmas message came. A poor, bewildered carpenter and his young bride far from home; a group of cold and hungry shepherds; a worn-out innkeeper; and a trio of travel-weary wise old men. And throughout this holy infant's life it was with the hurting and the broken ones He chose to spend His time; and He was crucified among them at the end. So if you feel a little weary, a little rushed, a little breathless at the manger, then take heart because this message is for you.

Christmas speaks above all else to the poor and homeless, the hungry, oppressed, and friendless of our world. We must never let ourselves forget that, or our celebrations will be false as Santa's whiskers. But it also speaks to those who are burdened in any way, whether with regrets for the past, heartache in the present, or foreboding for the future. God says to us this night, "Be strong, fear not, for I am with you. I am for you and I will never let you go. Here is my Son to prove it." 

-- J. Barrie Shepherd in “Jubilee: Readings Through the Year from Alive Now”, published by The Upper Room, Nashville, TN.   Used with permission.

#5237

GOD'S WORK OF ART

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”  (Ephesians 2:10 NLT)

One of the great works of art in the Western world is Michelangelo's Pietà, a marble statue of an anguished Mary holding the crucified Christ. Some years ago a fanatic nationalist rushed upon the masterpiece and began smashing it with a sledgehammer. Although the damage was significant, Vatican artists were able to restore the statue to near-perfect condition.

You were created to be a masterpiece of God. Paul writes, "For we are God's poiēma" -- a word that can mean God's "workmanship," or even God's "work of art." God made you to know oneness with Him and with other human beings. God made you to be co-regent with Him -- to "fill the earth and subdue it," to "have dominion" over creation under His reign and with His help. It is the goodness of God's work in creating us that makes our fallenness so tragic. This is why my disappointment in myself runs so deep.

But God is determined to overcome the defacing of His image in us. His plan is not simply to repair most of our brokenness. He wants to make us new creatures. So the story of the human race is not just one of universal disappointment, but one of inextinguishable hope.

-- John Ortberg in “The Life You've Always Wanted”

#5197

THE HANDS AND FEET OF CHRIST

“Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ After He said this, He showed them His hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.” (John 20:19b-20 NIV)

Jesus' hands and feet were not just anyone's hands and feet, but the signs of His real bodily presence. They were the hands and feet of Jesus marked with the wounds of His Crucifixion.  It is of great spiritual importance that Jesus made Himself known to His disciples by showing them His wounded body.  The Resurrection had not taken His wounds away, but, rather, they had become part of His Glory.  They had become glorified wounds.

Jesus is the Lord who came to save us by dying for us on the Cross.  The wounds in Jesus' glorified body remind us of the way in which we are saved.  But they also remind us that our own wounds are much more than roadblocks on our way to God.  They show us our own unique way to follow the suffering Christ, and they are destined to become glorified in our resurrected life.  Just as Jesus was identified by His wounds, so are we.

This mystery is hard to grasp, but it is of the greatest importance in helping us to deal with our own brokenness. 

-- Henri Nouwen 

#5071

CULTIVATING COMPASSION

SPECIAL NOTE: This Sunday, March 29, marks the 21st anniversary of this SOUND BITES Ministry in memory of our son, Dustin, who had died the previous year. His death taught us about the power of compassion and that we need not walk this journey alone. Today, In the midst of Covid-19, “our times cry out for a mass movement of compassion.” While we are called to “shelter in place” or to be “safer at home,” we can still reach out to those in our sphere with virtual hugs, with phone calls to check in, with cards or e-mails expressing love and concern, and with prayers and support for those who are on the front lines of this war. From our homes we can become “everyday pilgrims whom God can use to bring healing to our broken world.” -- DW

CULTIVATING COMPASSION

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”  (Colossians 3:13 NIV)

Our times cry out for a mass movement of compassion. This urgent need coincides with the goal of the Christ-following life, for unless our faith makes us compassionate, it can hardly be called Christian.

Following Jesus means moving out of our privatized, isolated, and self-enclosed worlds into a compassionate engagement with our suffering neighbor. As we open ourselves to the pilgrimage experience,…  we journey from self-centeredness to compassion. May you and I become everyday pilgrims whom God can use to bring healing to our broken world.

-- Trevor Hudson in “A Mile in My Shoes: Cultivating Compassion”

#4808

HOLDING ON TO HOPE

“We know that in everything God works for good with those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.”  (Romans 8:28 RSV)

Hope is a necessity for real living, but especially in a wounded [or broken] moment. As Christians, we can have the hope and expectation that life will be good again. It may not be the same, but it can be good again. Hope is belief in possibility. It is not unrealistic optimism that everything will work out and things will be like they were before. It is confidence and faith that however things turnout, God will be with us, will see us through, and will bring healing.

Hope comes out of resurrection faith, the faith that no matter how bad things get, God is in the midst working with us for good. That’s what Paul was saying in Romans: “In everything God works for good…”

Hold on to your hope!

-- James W. Moore and Bob J. Moore in “Lord, Give Me Patience!... And Give It to Me Right Now!”


#4720

GIVING GOD THE BROKEN PIECES

“But the Lord said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”  (2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV)

My prayer is, “God, take my broken pieces and remold them into what seems best to You.”

The question is whether or not we are willing to let the cracks show. For some of us, nothing could be more unthinkable. We want to airbrush any mistakes or flaws or scars.

But God looks at our brokenness much more like something called Kintsugi. This is a ceramic restoration process developed in Japan in the fifteen hundreds. Broken pieces are sealed together, but instead of hiding the cracks, the cracks are boldly highlighted and traced over with gold.

Normally anything broken that has been refurbished sells at a discount, but not Kintsugi pottery. Most often, the ceramic piece actually turns out to be more beautiful and more valuable than before it was broken. In fact, many collectors have been accused of deliberately breaking prized ceramics so they could be made whole with gold. That sounds a lot like the economy in the kingdom of heaven. The broken are the most valuable.

This is the redeeming power of God through Jesus Christ. When we finally come to the end of ourselves and give God the broken pieces, He can make us whole.

-- Kyle Idleman in “The End of Me: Where Real Life in the Upside-Down Ways of Jesus Begins”


#4616

SHARED SUFFERING AND BROKEN SOULS

Loss is not simply something to be recovered from. Hope does not mean returning to happiness as soon as possible. God comes to us in our grief and shares it.  In that shared grief, we find love. “Mourn with those who mourn.” Paul says. (Romans 12:15) Love meets in shared suffering and broken souls like no other kind of love.

One of the most common results of people who go through deep grief is that they come to have a deeper appreciation for other people. People diagnosed with a serious illness often describe this paradox. They hate having their body invaded by the illness, but they wake up to how much people matter. They quit wasting time and emotion on what doesn’t count…

God comes to us in our grief, and because He shares our grief, it begins to mingle ever so slightly with hope.

We cling to each other, and love meets in shared suffering and broken souls like no other kind of love.

-- John Ortberg in “The Me I Want to Be”

#4279

THE JADE CARVER

A Chinese jade carver finds a  priceless piece of jade -- with a major flaw. He could try to hide the flaw. Instead he carefully studies the jade and its flaw and plans an exquisite carving, making the defect the central part of a perfect design.

God did this for Joseph’s brothers in Genesis. In bitter hatred they sold their brother into a life of slavery in a distant land. They almost caused their father’s death by lying about it. Through much suffering God made them willing to repent. But He did more. He used their sinful failure to save multitudes of people, including themselves, from death through famine. He took the blackest fragment from their lives and made it central in a beautiful picture of salvation for themselves, for Joseph, and for their entire family.

This is also what God did at Calvary. He took man’s greatest failure, his most shameful atrocity -- killing the Son of God -- and made it central in a perfect picture of salvation, available to all people for all time. He can do this today with the black events of your past. He’s not pleased when we waste our lives by endlessly focusing on our terrible backgrounds, our wounds, our handicaps, or our sins and failures. He wants you to rely on Him to forgive, to overrule, and to bring about beautiful results.

-- Warren and Ruth Myers in Discovering God’s Will: Experiencing Afresh How Good God Is


#4016

WHEN OUR HEARTS BREAK

I once heard a wise priest say, in a meditation on gratitude, that we should be especially grateful for whatever breaks our hearts. Reflecting on God's promise to write "upon" our hearts rather than "within" them, he suggested that our own hearts are so hard that all God can do is write upon the surface (Jeremiah 31:33). It is only when our hearts break, that they break open: then the word of God can enter deeply, like a seed in a harrowed field.


-- Deborah Smith Douglas, from "Wounded and Healed" in WEAVINGS: A Journal of the Christian Spiritual Life, March/April 2000, published by The Upper Room, Nashville, TN.   Used with permission.




#3866

MAKING THE BROKEN BEAUTIFUL

The bad news is that I'm not okay and neither are you. We're both badly broken. Not "gently used," like the clothing requested by Goodwill. We're ripped, torn, and ragged. Citizens of the global junk heap.

The good news is that God makes the broken whole. He takes the overlooked, the undervalued, the left out, the written off, the damaged and destroyed, and then He does what only He can do.

God loves to make the broken beautiful.

In his book Lord, Break Me, William MacDonald points out that in the physical world, broken things lose their value. They are thrown away -- glassware, dishes, furniture. Flaws are fatal. But in the spiritual world, the reverse is true. Broken things are precious. Broken people reveal the beauty and power of God.

-- Kyle Idleman in The End of Me

#3802

GOD'S FAITHFUL PRESENCE

Our life is full of brokenness -- broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live with that brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful except by returning again and again to God's faithful presence in our lives.

-- Henri Nouwen

#3780

PEACE IN CHRIST

God's ultimate answer to suffering isn't an explanation; it's His incarnation. He isn't some distant, detached and disinterested deity; He entered our world and personally experienced our pain.

Jesus is there in the lowest places of our lives. As philosopher Peter Kreeft says: "Are you broken? He was broken, like bread, for us. Are you despised? He was despised and rejected of men. Do you cry out that you can't take any more? He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Did someone betray you? He was sold out. Are your most tender relationships broken? He loved and was rejected.

"Jesus is much closer than your closest friend. Because if you've put your trust in Him, then He is in you. And, therefore, your sufferings are His sufferings; your sorrow is His sorrow."

So when tragedy strikes, when suffering comes, when you're wrestling with pain – and when you make the choice to run into His arms, here's what you're going to discover: peace to deal with the present, courage to deal with your future and the incredible promise of eternal life in heaven.

"I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. But be courageous! I have conquered the world." (John 16:33)

-- Lee Strobel  in The Case for Christianity Answer Book

#3777

A REPENTANT HEART

"The sacrifice You desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God." (Psalm  51:17 NLT)

Repentance is but a kind of table-talk, till we see so much of the deformity of our inward nature as to be in some degree frightened and terrified at the sight of it...  Sooner or later repentance must have a broken and a contrite heart…

-- William Law in Christian Regeneration


#3389

SEEING GOD

I suddenly saw that all the time it was not I who had been seeking God, but God who had been seeking me. I had made myself the centre of my own existence and had my back turned to God. All the beauty and truth which I had discovered had come to me as a reflection of His beauty, but I had kept my eyes fixed on the reflection and was always looking at myself. But God had brought me to the point at which I was compelled to turn away from the reflection, both of myself and of the world which could only mirror my own image. During that night the mirror had been broken, and I had felt abandoned because I could no longer gaze upon the image of my own reason and the finite world which it knew. God had brought me to my knees and made me acknowledge my own nothingness, and out of that knowledge I had been reborn. I was no longer the centre of my life and therefore I could see God in everything.

-- Bede Griffiths in The Golden String


#2654