from 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
The foundation for our call to relationship with others is found in the relationship made possible by God’s willingness to look at our broken relationship with Him and move to make things right. Not because God had somehow wronged us, but because God is gracious to we who have wronged Him.
We are called to take up the cause of bringing the world around us to reconciliation with God…but in order to do that we have to be willing to step outside of our small worldview and live lives in response to the grace offered by God to us through Jesus.
When we view that sacrifice for what it is and what it accomplished, then our view of the world around us begins to change.
w/ Vern Collins
from Romans 12
Loving well is not like sleep well. IF things go smoothly during the night, if there are no worries, if kids don’t wake you up, if there are no nightmares then maybe you will sleep well.
But loving well should not be left up to such chance. God is not a God of luck, God is a God of intentionality…in the way He loves us and in the way He calls us to love others.
Paul gives us a model for how we are to achieve the kind of love that is a reflection of the relationship from which we were created…the relationship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
It begins with grace.
w/ Vern Collins
from Genesis 1:26-27
Our lives tend to be a web of relationships. Marriage, family, dating, friendship, classmate, co-worker, employee and employer, proponent and opponent of an issue or idea…
Relationships can often be a source of great joy or they can be a source of great pain in our lives. There are times when we find ourselves seeking isolation because we have been so wounded by relationships…and there are times when without realizing it, we find ourselves living in a “functional isolation” born our of the illusion of connection we create through social media.
To say that relationship is complicated is an understatement…but what if we saw relationship not just as a challenge we have to navigate, rather something for which we were actually created?
Imagine how you might begin to look at God, and humanity around you differently if you lived like you were created for connection with both.
w/ Vern Collins
