We have all heard a lot about change lately huh. Yesterday our campus pastors met to do some message planning and the theme came up.
The idea was to convey to our congregation that one of our desires as a church was to change the communities we are in. Im all for it.
It got me thinking though.
Change is shallow. Redemption is deep.
Change is only really changing your circumstance.
Redemption is your heart being placed back into alignment with Jesus.
Isnt what we are shooting for redemption?
Isnt that what Jesus came to do? I mean, Jesus was not an agent of change. He was an agent for redemption... a way to get hearts back to God.
What if, as a church we were able to redeem the hearts of the people in our community?
How can that happen?
What ways do you see that Jesus was here to redeem?
4 comments:
This is a very powerful post. I think Jesus taught us all that anyone can be redeemed if they change their heart and follow the Father. I think prior to that, only the chosen people could be saved. How powerful that Jesus felt we ALL were worthy of redemption. It opens my eyes to the fact that all people have good and the ability to change for the good. All people have worth, even our IL governor, who has done such atrocious things.
This is what we need. An incredible paradigm shift. This is great, Brett. The next is how....
Great post. I agree that I don't just want change to be motivated because someone just told me to or that it is currently the fad. I want my life from this point on to reflect this pattern because my heart is changed, because my point of view has changed. I think one way that Jesus brought about redemption was the way he was correcting the current religious leadership's representation of God's heart to the real God's heart. Like the healing on the sabbath, what real prayer and giving meant, and his association with the prostitutes, tax collectors, fishermen, adulterers, etc. That he came to help the hurting and that God is our great physician.
Excellent post. I love that; "Change is shallow". How very true. Change is the only solution the world has. But we have the deeper answer, the lasting answer.
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