Caring Christians sharing God's MESSAGE of Grace.
What does it mean to be caring Christians sharing God's message of grace?
February is a month for messages, isn't it? Around February 14th, school-age children (and some of us adults too) send and receive those little hearts with messages like"you're cool" and"I love you" written on them, as well as some of the most recent idioms in the English language. Some of us send our messages of love in the form of a card, an e-mail, a bouquet to those who are special in our lives.
If someone sends us confusing signals, perhaps saying one thing and doing another, we refer the jumbled communication as a "mixed message." The metaphor of message is very adequate to describe what God is communicating to us in the Bible.
One Biblical scholar, Eugene Peterson, has even titled his contemporary paraphrase of Scripture The Message. I highly recommend it for your reading, as it speaks the words of Scripture using language that is clear and common in today's world.
The Scriptures make it clear that Jesus was a person with a message. In Mark 1:38 Jesus tells the disciples"Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do." Jesus sent a clear message that God's kingdom was at hand, and that it was manifested through him as he healed people of all that oppressed them.
How many people do you know right now who need to hear a message of hope, of release from past baggage, or of reconciliation? There is brokenness all around us, and there is brokenness in each of us. Yet God does not want us to limp along, broken and bruised. God's message for us is that in Jesus, there is plentiful light to brighten the darkness of our fears and hostilities, our pain and our sorrow. Those who have been in sales can attest to the fact that it is difficult to sell a product you don't believe in. Likewise, it is hard for us to share a message about Jesus if we have encountered its incredible capacity to change our lives first hand.
1 John 1:5 says"This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all." The message of Christ has been passed on like a torch through the generations by people who have heard it and taken it to heart. It is our privilege and our calling in our generation to pass on the torch, sharing the message that God wants to get out to the whole world.
In 2 Corinthians 5: 19 it says that"in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us."
We are entrusted with the good news about Jesus. He is the message, and Christ is determined to communicate it to all who have ears to hear. What an honor is bestowed on us, to be carriers of that message in our daily routine.