Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Go into all the world and make disciples by living forgiven
It is the great call for Christians to fulfill their purpose in this world. We are followers of Jesus going into our world to make other followers. We want people in our world to join us in following Jesus. One way we live the great commission is to go into our world and live forgiven.
She was caught in the act. I don't know her name and I do not know anything about the man she was involved with. But it was adultery. And they brought her Jesus ready to stone her. Exactly how Satan still handles sin. Condemnation. Guilt. Shame. Humiliation. Wounds that will never heal.
But she met Jesus. By the time the encounter is over, there is no more condemnation. That is what happens when you meet Jesus. Free from condemnation.
And Jesus told her to go. Great commission language. Go. But go where? Back into her life. Back to her friends and family. Back into her world. But with one difference. Stop sinning.
That is why we live forgiven in this world. Because Jesus has taken away our sin. We believe Jesus makes the alcoholic sober, the angry man sweet, the greedy person generous, and the sexually immoral pure. We not only believe it, we are living proof. We may not be perfect, but we are becoming more like Jesus every day.
And we become the living proof that the Jesus story works. We give credibility to his message.
Peter got it. Remember his reaction when Jesus filled his boat with fish. Fish from waters that did not have fish the night before. More fish than Peter ever imagined.
He fell on his knees and told Jesus to get away from him because he was a sinful man.
But Jesus told him to not be afraid, to follow him, and they were going to fish/catch men.
Which is how you end up with a bunch of people like us going into our world, our neighborhoods, our schools, our ball fields, and testifying with our lives that Jesus really is good news.
Making disciples, catching men, saving souls.
It starts with going into our world and living forgiven.
She was caught in the act. I don't know her name and I do not know anything about the man she was involved with. But it was adultery. And they brought her Jesus ready to stone her. Exactly how Satan still handles sin. Condemnation. Guilt. Shame. Humiliation. Wounds that will never heal.
But she met Jesus. By the time the encounter is over, there is no more condemnation. That is what happens when you meet Jesus. Free from condemnation.
And Jesus told her to go. Great commission language. Go. But go where? Back into her life. Back to her friends and family. Back into her world. But with one difference. Stop sinning.
That is why we live forgiven in this world. Because Jesus has taken away our sin. We believe Jesus makes the alcoholic sober, the angry man sweet, the greedy person generous, and the sexually immoral pure. We not only believe it, we are living proof. We may not be perfect, but we are becoming more like Jesus every day.
And we become the living proof that the Jesus story works. We give credibility to his message.
Peter got it. Remember his reaction when Jesus filled his boat with fish. Fish from waters that did not have fish the night before. More fish than Peter ever imagined.
He fell on his knees and told Jesus to get away from him because he was a sinful man.
But Jesus told him to not be afraid, to follow him, and they were going to fish/catch men.
Which is how you end up with a bunch of people like us going into our world, our neighborhoods, our schools, our ball fields, and testifying with our lives that Jesus really is good news.
Making disciples, catching men, saving souls.
It starts with going into our world and living forgiven.
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When the woman was caught in adultery, shame had to blast its way into her mind. Forget embarrassment, she was about to have her life taken.
I ponder the things we do to feel good (numb out), yet never ponder the after effects of out actions ... like the potential of being stoned by a crowd. A crowd which can often mimic the church of today in some cases. Where stoning is not an options the church crowd can abandon you instead of embrace you--like Christ did to the adulterous woman.
At that moment, Christ saved her--literally. He absorbed her shame--like a sponge. She had to be dumbfounded that a man (not another woman) was defending her life and saving her from ridicule. Like water to a sponge, he absorbed her life.
The example that leaves us a church-goers/Christians, is to meet that person at the moment of shame and despair with a message of love and hope. It absorbs the shame, offers grace and reminds us we are all sinners.
STEPHEN
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I ponder the things we do to feel good (numb out), yet never ponder the after effects of out actions ... like the potential of being stoned by a crowd. A crowd which can often mimic the church of today in some cases. Where stoning is not an options the church crowd can abandon you instead of embrace you--like Christ did to the adulterous woman.
At that moment, Christ saved her--literally. He absorbed her shame--like a sponge. She had to be dumbfounded that a man (not another woman) was defending her life and saving her from ridicule. Like water to a sponge, he absorbed her life.
The example that leaves us a church-goers/Christians, is to meet that person at the moment of shame and despair with a message of love and hope. It absorbs the shame, offers grace and reminds us we are all sinners.
STEPHEN
# posted by 
: 9:14 AM PST
: 9:14 AM PST << Home
