Tag Archives: 2 Corinthians

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A Letter Home

(A two-minute read)

Dear Mom and Dad,

I sit down to write you again, missing you more than you can know. Forgive me for taking so long.

How are things at home? Life here has sometimes been complicated. But that’s life in this world. Unfortunately I sometimes step out of the simplicity of God’s kingdom and find myself up to my neck. May I be relieved of all bondage as I carry out my assignments here. Thankfully, it’s only a temporary situation.

There will be plenty of time to catch up on those details later; there’s way too much to put in a letter. Or perhaps those things simply won’t matter.

I don’t have to ask how you both are as I know all is well. And, of course, you can’t speak to me of what you see anyway. How did Paul put it? Oh yes – you would have ‘inexpressible words not permitted for a man to say’. Or, as Uncle Eugene said, you have ‘heard the unspeakable spoken’. What a thrill!

Your love and encouragement has carried me through some very difficult times in recent years. Thanks for the prayers before you left for home. You already know, from your heavenly vantage point, that those helped draw me back to God’s kingdom before it was too late. Happily, I’m here to stay. Feeding pigs became so tiresome!

Thanks for the ring and the robe, by the way. They both fit perfectly.

Although I now hurtle toward my 67th birthday I carry joy because I’m one day closer to being with my Lord, and one day closer to seeing you both again. I look forward to joining you in true rest.

Some of my friends have had the privilege of entering that rest this past year, and I miss them deeply. Obviously my first response was weeping and grief, and yet should I not instead celebrate Christ’s victory over death? Such a paradox. Only God knows why something inherently joyful grieves me so. Perhaps after it’s my turn, this will be revealed.

On the other hand, maybe it won’t be important. Perhaps God’s once-for-an-eternity drying of tears will wipe all memory of it. After all, I’ll be out of this world, so grief itself won’t matter any more.

Finally, let me apologize again that I’ve been out of touch so long, although I do feel like you’re taking a glimpse over my shoulder now and then.

Say hello to all my friends and loved ones and tell them I will see them soon enough.

With deep affection from your son,

Alan

Hands

Coming Together

(A six minute read – part of a year-long series on the Ministry of Reconciliation)

Reconciliation (noun) /ˌrek.ənˌsɪl.iˈeɪ.ʃən/: The process of making two opposite beliefs, ideas or situations agree.

It’s easy to pass this word off as only relevant for person-to-person conflict. Something done after a war, or a genocide, or when a business partnership goes bad. Perhaps it’s a January response to that ugly political discussion at the holiday dinner table.

Reconciliation is much more

Reconciliation is much, much bigger than that. It’s about charting new courses for ourselves. It’s about listening to one another. It’s about being willing to reserve judgment. It’s about wanting to be nice. It’s about healing. Ultimately, its about forgiveness. More on that in a moment.

The Bible says that, as a Christian, I’ve been given the ‘ministry of reconciliation.’ What is that? It means my purpose here is to bring love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control into all I do. Those are the tools in my tool-kit for building reconciliation among estranged parties.

The Biblical word for reconciliation in the Greek is katallagē (καταλλαγή), which means restoration to favor.

It comes from the root word katallassō (καταλλάσσω), which means to change mutually.

See the connection? Mutual change is an adjustment you and I make through compromise. It comes through listening and reserving judgment until we can both change. Only then, can we again favor one another.

What’s that about forgiveness?

If I’m in dispute with you I can’t reconcile with you until I forgive you. Forgive you for being a jerk. For having wrong ideas. For disagreeing with me. For whatever is on my list that gives me the self-righteous excuse to push you away, to stop listening, to stop caring about you.

Only through forgiveness can I become willing to return (repent) to a state of right relationship with you. Only then can I reconcile. Assuming you too are willing, of course. You just might have your own list and be enjoying the fruits of your own anger.

If that’s the case: Houston, we have a problem.

Easily dealt with

Fortunately, there’s an easy solution. Love. Easier said than done, I know, but it’s one of the tools in that tool-kit, remember?

Last week, I wrote about my friend Brian, who met love in the midst of a group of young people who talked him out of suicide. God’s love, expressed through them, radically changed his life.

That love reconciled Brian to God, from whom he’d been estranged his entire life. It also reconciled him to other people, whom he’d been blaming for his troubles. Finally, it reconciled him to himself.

He was living one way, met love, and now lives another.

I’m not saying that love without God in it can’t lead to some level of reconciliation. It can. But I don’t believe it transforms us, and it’s much harder for it to last. Reconciliation is God language. We can borrow it, but if He’s not in it, it’s not as powerful as when He is. His involvement gives it a capital letter, as it were.

Reconciliation happens everywhere

God is always all-in. He does nothing by half measures. If God is love, then He is always love, and is love all the time. He is not arbitrary. Sure, it’s easy to ask amid a pandemic, ‘Oh yeah? So where’s God in this?’

That’s a great question. In fact, that’s the right question. Because God always comes into evil situations – whether created by the devil directly, or by my own sin. When I look for Him – I can find a path to reconciliation.

God showed up in our neighborhood as Jesus Christ, to reconcile the world to Himself, no longer counting our sins against us – if we believe in Him.1 It’s pretty simple, really.

So He continues: reconciling all of creation to Himself. It’s happening all the time everywhere, whether we can see it or not.

Of course, we can work against it. If I come up and hit you in the nose, that’s not what you’d call a reconciling gesture. However, even in that stupid act and its aftermath, there is an opportunity for reconciliation to begin.

Physically, it’s obvious: the blood clots and then soon stops flowing; in a short time the pain and swelling recede; damaged tissue repairs itself; not too long after, it’s as though nothing happened.

On a heart level it’s a different matter. If I’m not willing to apologize profusely (and probably, have a pretty good excuse that you’ll accept!) you won’t begin to think about forgiving me. Thus, I stop that omnipresent reconciliation in its tracks. Or, if you think I’m offering a bogus excuse, or are insincere, you may also call a halt to the healing.

See? Even when it doesn’t happen, it’s still available. The potential remains. We just have to grab it, and it becomes real.

Looking ahead

Hang on to this idea that reconciliation is happening all the time, everywhere. Because we’ll explore that in the coming weeks. And I think you’ll be surprised to find out that it shows up in some seemingly unlikely places.

1. 2 Corinthians 5:19-21 (NLT) ‘For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.’

Definition courtesy of Cambridge Dictionary

Read the entire series

Rainbow on my Bible

The Power of a Word

(A two minute read)

What we say is powerful, perhaps more powerful than we know.

You and I are made in God’s image. So, just as His words have creative power, our words have creative power.

My words, and the ideas they contain, are planted as seeds. If they fall on good soil, and are fed and watered, there’s a harvest. If they are good seeds, a good harvest. If not – there’s trouble.

Since my words have creative power, I should be careful what I say. Not because other people will judge my words, but that God may.

Words, like actions, have consequences. They are also our offspring, and I’m responsible for them. If a minor child is in trouble with authority, isn’t the parent held responsible? So it is with words. If something I say creates trouble, or strife, or negativity, or distress, shouldn’t I carry the consequences for that word?

My words are also powerful in my own life. Do I use words to build myself up, or tear myself down? Do I proclaim myself accident-prone and then see that become a self-fulfilling prophecy? Or do I speak words of grace and dexterity over myself?

What I say about myself comes out of my secrets, the things I hold closest to my heart. My beliefs about myself. I say what I believe, and believe what I say. And it shapes me. So what’s my template?

If I myself is all I have, so as to only measure myself against myself, or – worse still – against you, my options are very limited.* But when I measure myself against who God says I am, my growth potential is unlimited. So I go looking for those words.

To have success, and make positive change in my life, I speak God’s words. Because with God, nothing is impossible. And His words? Well now, His living word – that’s Jesus Christ. What could be more effective than that?

*2 Corinthians 10:12
† 1 Peter 2:9

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