Full of Grace

Although suffering was never supposed to be a part of the plan, God used and still uses Jesus to turn our graves into gardens. Psalm 30:11-12 says, “You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. Lore my God, I will praise you forever” (NIV). Not only will God replace our wailing with dancing and clothe us with joy in Heaven, he is doing this work right now. When we live life in the Holy Spirit, we have a deposit guaranteeing what is to come (Ephesians 1:14). This means that we get to experience Christ’s victory over sin and death in our lives right now. We don’t have to wait for Heaven to experience this victory, we just have to wait for Heaven for the fullness of the victory. Right now, Jesus wants to replace our fear with faith. He wants to replace our anger with unending joy. He wants to replace our apathy with purpose. He wants to show up in our pain and suffering and offer hope and peace. Jesus is undoing the damage of sin and death every single day, and he is inviting us to be a part of this work. Every time someone is baptized, we are a part of this work. Every time someone surrenders to Jesus, we are a part of this work. Every time we overcome sin and temptation, we are a part of this work. Every time we disciple believers to follow Jesus whole-heartedly, we are a part of this work. Jesus wants to use our brokenness and make it into something beautiful, and then he wants to use our stories to make more brokenness beautiful. The work of Heaven is happening in our midst right now, are you ready to be a part of it? Reflection/Discussion Question: How have you been a part of or experienced Jesus’s redemptive work in your life?

If we can understand that this world will never be like heaven, it changes everything. It’s not that making this world a better place is a bad goal, but this world can never be free of brokenness and darkness until Jesus returns. If our goal is to make this world free of suffering, injustice, or pain then we will strive for nothing. Heaven shows us how broken and upside-down our world has become. And while Jesus is invading the hearts of people and changing the world, his ultimate goal to make all things new won’t come until he returns. Until then, this world will be subject to futility (Romans 8:20).  If this is the case, we can expect suffering in this life. We can expect that every year will bring pain, disappointment, and heartache. Hardship won’t come as a surprise if we are expecting that the world will always be broken. This is why it’s not our goal to strive to bring equality for the sake of equality or joy for the sake of joy. While these are good things, we were created for perfect unity under the authority of Jesus in the Body of Christ. We can experience the gifts of Jesus in our broken world, but for now we can only experience a taste. Instead of striving to make this world better, we can strive to bring the Kingdom of God here on earth so that people experience a taste of the Kingdom on their journey home. When we carry the Kingdom of God with us, we can face the constant darkness in this life with joy, peace, and hope because we know the end. We know that the darkness doesn’t win. We know that the pain won’t last forever. We know that disappointments will come undone. We know that our hearts will be mended. Not only can Jesus begin this transformation in us here and now, he promises to complete his work in us when we arrive in heaven and get to spend eternity in the place of perfection that we were created for. Reflection/Discussion Question: How does it change your perspective when you think about the fact that this world will always be broken?

There are a lot of people around me returning from the war from Ukraine, people who saw things they shouldn't have seen and went through other things that I hope I will never see. These people are trying to start living anew, as if all this did not happen in their lives and do not understand how this can happen in the 21st century? I pray for all these people, and when I go to church, I want to say that all the churches of Russia and Belarus pray that this war will end as soon as possible and we will live in peace again, because we all have relatives in Ukraine, the closest people. I thank God that I have the opportunity to at least listen to people and be their support, to pray for those who have never believed in God and every day tell these people about how God loves them and to see these people in my church every new Sunday.