Prayer: The Gate

I have been thinking about Advent and Christmas and how it is such a powerful symbol for us in terms of reconciliation.  God sent his only son, as a tiny baby to reconcile us to him.  He sent a baby to save the world.  My friend Michael David Severson was writing about this the other day and I told him how honored I would be to post his thoughts as a guest on this site.   Enjoy.  Thank you Michael for joining us today.  What a blessing to have you here!!!

By Michael David S. Severson

 Reconciliation – A much-needed work of healing for today

Jesus declared that it was impossible for offenses not to come. Jesus experienced this in the course of His ministry, and most painfully in the final hours of His life. His ultimate example of how we should respond to offenses can be found among the final words He spoke as His battered, bleeding and abused body hung nailed to a cruel cross:

“Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing!”

Frame in your mind the worst thing you can imagine happening to you, and in the midst of the act, you speak words of forgiveness to your oppressor or attacker. In our own humanity, that is not possible. But with the grace of God that transcends even our own frailty, we can do just that.

I could cite endless examples of fellow believers giving up their lives as a testimony to their uncompromising faithfulness to the Lord to the point of torturous deaths. Fox’s Book of Martyrs catalogs numerous stores about such events. They prayed, even sang hymns of praise as they entered into eternity. You may ask yourself, “What good could come of something so horrible as that?”

The answer is a powerful one- those who oppressed and persecuted those believers ceased from their unrighteous deeds, and the Gospel took root where hostility once forbid it! Those who stood unwavering for this message of Hope in each circumstance, because they were messengers and ambassadors of reconciliation.

We often speak of ministry gifts, spiritual gifts, and what is known in Ephesians 4 as the “5-fold Ministry” of the Apostle, Prophet, Pastor, Teacher and Evangelist. However, there is another specific and vital ministry mentioned by the Apostle Paul in II Corinthians 5:17-21.

Here is the key to that ministry from the New International Version:

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

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.

21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Now let us look at this even closer with the Amplified Bible:

17 Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!

18 But all things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself [received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself] and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation [that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him].

19 It was God [personally present] in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself, not counting up and holding against [men] their trespasses [but canceling them], and committing to us the message of reconciliation (of the restoration to favor).

20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors, God making His appeal as it were through us. We [as Christ's personal representatives] beg you for His sake to lay hold of the divine favor [now offered you] and be reconciled to God.

21 For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become [endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of] the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness].

Many people today, including myself when I was a young man, are scared when it comes to considering an encounter with the Living God. That is a needless and tragic travesty that misrepresents the heart of God our Father.

Jesus repeatedly used this term of “Father”, something foreign to the ears of the people in Israel. The passage of Scripture above demonstrates what the Lord’s true motive is towards us.

All throughout the New Testament following the Gospels, we read of numerous Scriptures which reinforce this truth. Paul was the most outspoken and eloquent spokesman on this account, as he was indeed an oppressor and persecutor of God’s people.

He was a part of Stephen’s death, and later on when he dragged men and women to prison as his zealous hatred of Christianity manifested with relent less energy.

Jesus personally appeared to him in a direct act of reconciliation that not only stopped Paul’s murderous actions, but turned his heart to the Lord with a fervent Love that outshined his former hatred!

I have found that reconciliation has 3 focuses that come from Scripture:

1) Between the Lord and you, 2) Within yourself, and 3) From you to others. This is a progressive work in the order I listed it. God is our Source and means to finding peace from offense against Him, and His righteous and holy nature. We all sin and fall short of Him.

The next part is most vital- we reach a place of reconciliation within ourselves! Paul knew he had sinned, and committed all the acts we have read about. But when the Lord took hold of Paul’s life, all that was terrible, cruel, and destructive passed away.

Paul embraced the new creation he became (as we see testimony of that in II Corinthians 5:17), and he settled in his heart that he was indeed a new creation that operated by the Love of God, not the cruel and oppressive “old man” he once was. And let me emphasize this: It was the LOVE of God that gave Paul that ability!

Finally, the fire of that Love consumed the heart and life of Paul, that with greater zeal he taught, preached, and walked out great journeys to other cities and countries to share what has taken place inside of himself. Paul became, as he would tell us in Romans 2, a “Living Epistle” or as I like to say, Paul became God the Father’s Love-Letter to those he reached with the Gospel, just as Jesus had done not too many years prior to him!

I would like to interject something before I close. The Scripture states that we were given this ministry of reconciliation. At the end of I Corinthians 12, Paul instructs to pray for certain spiritual gifts that are “the best,” however we have a distinction here worth noting.

When something is uniformly given, no one needs to pray to receive this ministry gift. It has already been given to all of us. We are to characterize the Love of God by actively using this ministry gift when we cross the path of people every day. These can be friends, family, or total strangers. The standard is still the same. We give freely what we have freely received!

Our Lord is a generous and Loving God. We then, are to imitate Christ, and to imitate His Love and reconciliation to everyone in this world. This is not something for extreme moments of pain and hardship between you and someone else. It is a lifestyle that we live in the most minute elements of our daily existence, and expand it to whatever heights of glory the Lord will determine to take you!

If we will live out this example before others, we can transform a world, a nation, a people, a race or color, or even our own family members who have experienced offense. There are no borders or walls that can stand against God’s Love. Today is our day to start demolishing them, and building up a Kingdom that exemplifies that Love for everyone. I pray it will start with you.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for tearing down the wall of offense between You and I, and giving me Your great Love that floods my heart. Thank You for transforming me from living in darkness to the Light of Your glorious Love through Christ Jesus, and empowering me to turn to my family, my neighbor, or anyone else and bring them Your message of reconciliation that offers peace and joy beyond what we can even imagine. Thank You Lord for using me as Your servant to bring transformation to this world, and reclaiming everyone to yourself by Jesus’ finished work on the cross.

In His Name I pray and thank You, Amen.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 12th, 2009 at 7:07 pm and is filed under Holidays, grace. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.