By Garold Anderson
God loved us so much that, while we were yet His enemies, He sent His son to die for us. This means that we can receive and live in amazing grace. some people think that, when they get saved, they will be perfect, but the reality of our lives is that we all make mistakes. We have to bring these mistakes before the throne of God and ask for His mercy.
The use of communication, of creative expression, is powerful. There are so many things to creatively communicate. When we come into a church building and we think about drama we often think about 'something happens...and then there is the telling of the Gospel that Jesus loves a person and they get saved, and that's it. But the Bible is filled with many other ideas. I want to challenge you to think beyond what you've experienced before.
Me and Thea are going to be performing a piece today that has four movements called 'Ish and Isha'. When I have finished the piece I want us to use it as meditation. I grew up in a small church in Oklahoma and when I first heard the word meditation, I thought that it was some new age idea. I want to talk today a little bit about Biblical meditation; to take a moment and to consider something. How often do you stop and consider something? How often to you stop and really think about the words of the songs we sing?
So, as we perform this piece I want you to drink it in and then we will listen to a piece of music by a friend of mine. The piece will be from a well-known composer named Bach. As we listen to the music I want you to think back on what you've seen. I want you to consider your response and respond in your heart to what you see to God, to people you know and to people you don't know.
The reality of our lives is that we face situations that hurt us. Meditation is about taking the memories and the thoughts before the throne of God. Jesus said that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That is the past, He is also the God of the present and the future. All things are not forgotten, but they are brought into the heart of God.
It is a different way to look at theatre, to place something before us that is very real. I often say to people that when we open the Bible and read the stories they are sometimes very nice but they all seem to far away from us. With this dramatization we have tried to make the story of the fall very close. The reality does not just affect Adam and Eve, it affects me.
What is the reality of the life that we face? Isn't this how it? What you need to do is go and bring people to Jesus because when you get to know Jesus everything is just going to be ok. I don't think that's really Biblical. Everything gets better when we come back into a relationship with God. But that doesn't mean that everything will go fine. You and I know in the reality of our lives that we face relationships, in our marriages and families, that we need something that is beyond a one moment experience with God. Jesus help me! And now I'm saved. But now what? This is the question that we face every day. Christianity is not a magic potion that, once you've taken it, means everything will be fine. What is this thing we've entered into?
Paul paints such a different picture. When I first read this chapter with eyes that really saw this it was actually shocking to me. I don't want to say that it is wrong to use the word saved, but Paul uses such a different terminology, he uses the word 'reconciled'. That means to be brought back together with someone. He says that the amazing thing about God's love is that while we were His enemies He allowed His Son to die for us. There's a real salvation that is presented but what Paul is saying is that the first thing that God did was bring us back home. To look at you as the enemy and to say 'let me do this for you'. He has so much more for us that He wants to do for us day by day, but the first God wants to get clear is that we are His sons and daughters and we are coming home.
The Greek words are very strange words that we don't have in the English word. They are this ongoing idea of perpetual salvation, from faith to faith, from glory to glory. Why do need that? We prayed once, and now we're all perfect aren't we? Now all my problems are gone and every relationship I have is beautiful. No. There is a hope of that day of being with Him face to face, but now we face momentary difficulties and sometimes they are great difficulties. This is the truth. We are human beings and we are broken, we have come to know that our Father loves us. As much as we want to say by faith that we are righteous, we know that we make mistakes. We miss the mark of what we want to accomplish. We have relationships that we want to honour each in, but then something gets said and we start done a path of saying things that are so hurtful. And now we live in conflict and start thinking, am I not a child of God? I have missed the mark, and the Bible calls that sin. We know that we sin.
This is the mystery that there really is hope, strength, life and salvation for me on an ongoing basis. Here is another part of the mystery: the same applies for the others sitting next to you. We think our way is right because we sons of God, but grace is also in my wife's life. In the conflicts that we have there is also grace and hope for us because while we the enemy of God He gave His son for me. In that attitude I have to come back to my wife. In that attitude we can get past Ish and Isha. This is the amazing thing called Christianity. Not that Christ died for us and now we are all perfect, but that we now have the opportunity to extend the grace which we have received to others. We have the opportunity to reach up on high and ask God to have mercy on ourselves and others. We can be God's Kingdom in this earth, right in the midst of the brokenness of our lives.
This book I have in my hand is so fascinating; the imagery is just brilliant.
Once you pour water out a cup you cannot get it back in. Sometimes we spill the water. At the beginning of a conflict, the releasing of our words is like the releasing of a great flood, so abandon a quarrel before it breaks out. Those are wise words but the reality of my life is that sometimes I let words out that I really wish I hadn't, and then I can't get them back. We know how to communicate well and often the communication is like the water poured out. We can't get it back but there is grace.
The reality of Christianity can go in two ways: it can be closing my eyes and saying everything is ok and ignoring the facts that I'm still filled with hurt and pain, or the reality is that I know my Redeemer lives and that in this day there is real amazing grace, and even though it hurts me very much to look at the mistakes in my own life, I am going to stop up to the plate and ask God to have mercy on me and to help me grow. I am going to ask God to help me receive the next part of the salvation you have given me, and help me to extend to my family and the people in my neighbourhood. Christianity is a day by day journey.
In a real quick way, through these dramatic pieces and through these verse, I've tried to bring us to the understanding of the reality of our lives and the journey we undertake with God. But I also believe that the words we speak can either bring life or death. We need to learn to go to the Bible and find blessings for one another. We have to meditated on God's power and ask Him to bring restoration in our lives as well as asking God that we might bless those in our lives.
I know that there are issues in life but we can speak blessings and curses; let us people who speak blessings. Let us live in the blessing of God.
