Welcome to today’s Blog! The Scripture is 2 Corinthians 5: 16-21. I encourage you to pray, then read, then ask God what He’s saying to you through His Word today. I liked The Message version of this passage, so that’s what’s printed below: 16-20Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you. 21How? You ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God. (The Message)
What grabs me and has convicted me about this passage is the call given to me to share this incredibly Good News with the people around me. As a representative or ambassador of Christ, He is counting on me to proclaim, announce, and be a bearer of this Good News in a broken world that desperately needs “GOOD NEWS”! In all honesty, I can get somewhat complacent or “used to” what this Good News means for me, and loose the zealousness with which I should be sharing it. I can easily forget the impact that it has on people who are far from God... who have no hope...who desperately need a fresh start and new beginning in their life. It should be fresh for me every day and a priority for me to get the word out about this amazing God who made us right with Him and gives us a fresh start! The Message version says we are speaking for Christ... the NIV version says God is making His appeal through us. So I have a responsibility and high calling as His agent to speak freely about this Good News and live authentically in it so people get a glimpse of what this Good News means for their life and their eternal destiny! Pastor said on Sunday, “God calls people to Him to work through them.” I love that because it has such purpose. I am not here to be saved then rest in that salvation... but to receive new life and work for Christ’s cause as zealously and diligently and intentionally as I possibly can because of that salvation! If God put all the wrong on Jesus, who never did anything wrong, so I could be right with Him... how can I possibly not live out this calling as an ambassador with zeal and to the best of my ability?
I want my response to God’s amazing gift to honor Him and His cause. To have compassion on a broken world, like Jesus did, is my deepest desire. I want to have God’s heart for humanity and the world. And I want to have a splagknizomai (gut wrenching compassion) desire to see people have a new beginning because of Jesus.
Lord, help me to have Your heart, Your desires, and Your zeal to share the Good News! Please equip me to be your ambassador to a broken world. I love you, Amen.
What grabbed your attention in this passage? Do you just wait around and hope for an opportunity to share the Good News or are you intentional about looking and praying for opportunities? Are you being creative in where you go, what you're involved in and what you do... specifically so that you are in contact with people far from Him? Or do you avoid mingling with people far from God because of their attitude, language or lifestyle? These are questions I'm asking myself as well.... I would love to hear your thoughts!
Denise