Verse of the Day 7/28

Through the Bible - Psalms 56-58, Romans 1

 

Good morning,

As we saw yesterday, instead of shame, ridicule, and hatred ours should be a mission of forgiveness and reconciliation. 

 

"Reconcile" is an accounting word.  In business you may have heard of an external audit, where an outside party is brought in to go over and "reconcile" the books, to remove false entries.

 

2 Cor 5:19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.   NIV

Monday's "Today in the Word" devotional had this to say about reconciliation,"Reconciliation as a noun or verb appears 5 times (vv. 18-20), indicating that it is the central theme. As one New Testament scholar puts it, reconciliation is God's "cosmic restoration" project to make new all that is chaotic and distorted in the world, beginning with His relationship with humanity. God is the first Reconciler. As with His justice, righteousness, and love, we are also called to bear His image as reconcilers. Reconciliation is more than a message; it is a ministry. It is the work of forgiveness and peacemaking and of healing broken relationships, beginning with our relationship with God and extending throughout the whole world. Reconciliation is the pathway to new creation."

 

God is the reconciler and he calls us to join Him in this mission.  Colossians 2:14 gives us a good picture of how God accomplished this reconciliation.

Colossians 2:14 (Amplified Bible)  Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross.

Think of that, He cancelled, blotted out, wiped away, and erased the sin and the sentence that was due to us, He removed the barriers that stood between us,  that we may be reconciled that we might be in harmony, in right standing before Him.  If we are to bring others into fellowship with Him it starts with doing the same things that stand in between us and our relationships with others.  It is not an easy thing to do but it is part of being God's ambassadors.

 

What are some of the barriers between you and someone that you are trying to witness to?

 

Read the passage below from The Message, are you ready to be used by God "to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them."?

 

In Christ,
Mike
mikevw@bellsouth.net
http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com
Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace  NIV
2 Cor 5:14-6:1

 

A New Life

 

Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.

 

Because 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.

 

How? you say. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.

 

THE MESSAGE