"And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God."
2 Corinthians 5:18-20
I love this idea of reconciliation between ourselves and God. I think my favorite part is the re- part. The idea of reconciliation presupposes that people used to be friends--that there was a good relationship there. In gospel terms, that is exactly where we were with God. We're his children, and we used to be close with him. In coming to earth and having the veil drawn, and in making mistakes and sinning, we lose that closeness, and we have to repent and work to get it back, and establish maybe even a better relationship than we used to have, similar to earthly parents, where we can become closer to our parents after we get a little older and can understand more adult-level challenges. ...Not to say that we don't need to keep some of that childlike hope and faith handy. :)
I also like the idea of being ambassadors for Christ. Most things we do in life are things that can be influential and good if we make good choices and seek God's will and the welfare of others. Work and school and home choices as well as more obvious church-centric choices. The gospel encompasses all that we do, and can be applied to any part of life. Today, let's be reconciled to God, and let's also be ambassadors for Christ, showing the world how good his people are, how amazing his (heavenly) country is, and what they will gain if they choose to travel there, on his path.
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God."
2 Corinthians 5:18-20
I love this idea of reconciliation between ourselves and God. I think my favorite part is the re- part. The idea of reconciliation presupposes that people used to be friends--that there was a good relationship there. In gospel terms, that is exactly where we were with God. We're his children, and we used to be close with him. In coming to earth and having the veil drawn, and in making mistakes and sinning, we lose that closeness, and we have to repent and work to get it back, and establish maybe even a better relationship than we used to have, similar to earthly parents, where we can become closer to our parents after we get a little older and can understand more adult-level challenges. ...Not to say that we don't need to keep some of that childlike hope and faith handy. :)
I also like the idea of being ambassadors for Christ. Most things we do in life are things that can be influential and good if we make good choices and seek God's will and the welfare of others. Work and school and home choices as well as more obvious church-centric choices. The gospel encompasses all that we do, and can be applied to any part of life. Today, let's be reconciled to God, and let's also be ambassadors for Christ, showing the world how good his people are, how amazing his (heavenly) country is, and what they will gain if they choose to travel there, on his path.
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