When Jesus began his teaching ministry on earth he mentioned the Kingdom of God often. He would tell stories about what the Kingdom of God is like. He would repeat that the Kingdom of God was near.
And it was. It was near in Him.
God came close to us in human form.
God gave of Gods self in unfathomable ways.
Our world didn’t deserve this sacrificial love.
We didn’t recognize God’s nature or authority.
We worshipped other gods.
And sometimes still do.
But God came close, hurtling obstacles, finding
the closeness of conversation and human touch,
God reached out to us with the human hands of Jesus to save us.
To be all that we couldn’t be on our own.
To stand in our place.
To teach us the way.
The Son of Man came to seek and to save that
which was lost. As we are found in Christ, and realize
our need, we run home with tears in our eyes.
We are accepted and embraced.
We begin to resemble our true family again.
As we look
to Jesus Christ,
from that day forward,
we begin to live and look a lot more like him.
The Holy Spirit works, nudging us to go to great lengths to love others.
Christ in us reveals Christ in the world today…
God chooses us to echo the message of the Son of God.
I watched the video “I AM” this morning as I was preparing a message
to teenagers.
I’m not saying that it was written with Christ in mind. But I can’t help
but see the story depicted as one that resembles a heart filled with Christ.
I can’t help but imagine those who follow the Way of Christ doing similar
things.
Don’t let the stereotypical rich brother reaches out to the poor brother
story get in the way of the message. Love changes everyone.
Love is
symbiotic.
I have gone places to serve and to love only to find myself the one
who was farthest from home and needing a compassionate embrace.
It doesn’t matter what we have to work with when we have Christ at work within.
We have been given the ministry of reconciliation. Jesus has made it possible.
We are able to have a relationship with God and we’re able to have
a relationship with those around us, even if they are far from where
we think they should be. We honor them as we go to great lengths to love them.
We pray that others will do the same for us. Often, we don’t realize when we’ve wandered
and in need of rescue.
How does your life say “I love you” to those struggle in your midst?
How does your ministry say “I love you” to those who are on the edge?
Are you in need of the strength of love in your life? What’s keeping you from reaching
out and telling someone your need?
