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Please come home!
God created us for relationship with Him, but sin broke that fellowship. The resulting situation between God and us is so severe that the Apostle Paul says we “were God’s enemies, and deserving God’s punishment.” (Romans 5:9,10) An unbreakable wall stands between God and us.
Reconciliation means our broken relationship has been fixed. We could never break through the wall of sin that keeps us from God, but God broke through for us! God’s justice requires payment for our sin; so God reconciled the world to Himself in Christ. Jesus’ death on the cross became the payment for our sin and means of our reconciliation with God. God has broken the wall of sin that separates us from Him and He has fixed our relationship with Him. Remember, He did all of this through Jesus out of His incredible love, mercy, and grace and He wants us to come home to Him.
In his book No wonder They Call Him Savior, Max Lucado tells a story that goes something like this…Maria and her daughter, Christina, lived in a poor neighborhood on the outside of a Brazilian village. Times were hard. Christina often spoke of going to the city. One morning, Maria awoke to find Christina gone. Maria’s heart broke. She gathered up all the money she had and ran out of her home. On the way to the city, Maria got photographs made of herself. Maria knew Christina would have no way of supporting herself except for doing some unthinkable things. Maria loved Christina and began to search for her. She went to every bar, nightclub, and brothel she could find. At each one she would leave her photo taped to a bathroom mirror, stuck in a corner phone booth, or on a bulletin board. Maria spent all of her money looking for Christina.
One day Christina came down stairs after meeting with a “client.” As she reached the bottom of the stairs she saw a photo of her mother. Christina started to cry as she moved to take the photo down from the wall. Her throat tightened as she read the back of the photo, “Whatever you’ve done, whatever you have become, it doesn’t matter. Please come home!” Christina went home!
Friends, Jesus has made reconciliation possible. Whatever you’ve done, whatever you have become, it doesn’t matter to God. He loves you and wants you to PLEASE COME HOME! Won’t you?
Jim thanks for the encouragment this morning. It puts reconcilation in a new light with the story of the mother and daughter. I started thinking about my kids and how much I love them. Now that they are away from home going to school I do enjoy when they come home(reconcilation). Reconcilation (returning to relationship) is very sweet and wonderful. I thank God He reconciled me to Himself. I hope and pray all will have a great day full of relationship with God and man.
The comfort of knowing God wants us to come home, no matter what we’ve done or who we’ve become is one that many (lost people) don’t have. To me, that is the difference between the lost and those that follow Christ. As believers, we know our sins are not too much for God to handle. The lost don’t know that in their hearts…they don’t trust that they can still be forgiven.
In Atlanta snow storms, the radio broadcasters will tell us how bad it is and how we should not drive unless absolutely necessary. Of course there are many who just don’t believe it’s that bad. Usually you find such folks stuck in the ditch wishing they would have listened to the advice given over the airwaves.
Our situation without Christ is really bad. Most don’t see this. One look at the cross… one glance at the extremes God went to for our reconciliation … and you see how bad and extreme our sin really is.
Being brought back to God is such a powerful, unbelievable, grace thing. What an extreme gift. It blows me away! But is redemption and reconciliation (boy, those are some big churchy words) at the center of my daily life? Will others have a shot at that same redemption and reconciliation because of they way I live today? God help me!
Jim… thanks for being the “Pastors Pastor.” Thanks for being with us on Monday mornings. Thanks for encouraging the staff. Thanks for the coffee and donuts. Thanks for loving on us. Thanks for meeting 5 new people every Sunday. I hope others follow your lead.
Blessings on you and the fam. May God pour back into you to the measure you have been pouring into us!
Jim -
As usual, your message taught us again. And, the more that I witness, the more I see that Alan Scott made a wise choice.
Thank you Jim for your words of encouragement this morning and for your friendship. That particular passage is one of my favorites as I can truly say because of Him I became a new creation. I like to refer to myself as, “a work in progress”. I think we all are.
What an incredible gift He has given us! What an incredible God!! I heard these words to a worship song the other day and although very simple, the truth in them was very meaningful to me. “I have nothing to give you. But I have a life to live.”
Thanks Jim for your insight and encourgement. I love this teaching it is such a sweet reminder of the grace that has been given to us.
This concept, this reconciliation is so counter-culture. To be seen without our blemishes. To be accepted back without worry of what we have done. No wonder people reject the gospel, it is almost un-believeable, but then there is us. There are those who have believed, and who have received such an amazing gift. I know who I was, I know what I came home from. But does my life show that I have been changed, does my life show that I have something different. Am I a new creation, am I a new creature. In my heart I know the answer is yes, but I want to be more different. I want to be a strange creation of God, that people would look at my life and never see me. They would only see Jesus, they would only see that there is reconciliation. There is a concept that our culture is saying does not exist, and our culture is wrong, and lost, and hungry, and hurting. I know that they are because so was I. Now I am found, I am satisfied, I am healed…it is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. God make me an Ambassador.