Full of Grace

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?

Heaven may be our home, but Jesus has given us a mission to bring along as many people as possible as we make our way home. Salvation is not just a ticket to heaven, but an invitation to extend to the homeless. If we remember the parable of the Good Samaritan, we can see a picture of what it looks like to walk on the path towards heaven as we live out our limited time on earth. The man who falls victim to robbers is skipped over by a priest and a Levite. It is the Good Samaritan who stopped to do everything he could to help the man. He went to great lengths to show love and care to this man. It’s not as if the Samaritan didn’t have a place to be or a to-do list like the priest and Levite, but because he stopped in his tracks, it’s obvious that the Samaritan had his eyes focused on loving people. Nothing can stop you in your tracks without a mission or purpose. If we know that our time is limited on this earth, we need to be people marked with a sense of urgency to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth. If our mission is to love people, then a person in need of love interrupting our busy schedules and to-do lists should be exactly what we are looking for. Nothing we give our lives to is more important than bringing people into the Kingdom of Heaven with us.  This means that we can still drive our kid to soccer games, but what if we picked up a few teammates along the way and invested in intentional relationships with those kids and their parents? And instead of screaming at the ref on the sidelines, you encouraged the players and invested in relationships with the screaming parents on the sidelines? When we live life on mission, each area of our lives becomes an opportunity for the Gospel to invade and transform the lives of others around us. As we tread the difficult path toward heaven, our home, we can start to bring heaven on earth so that people can get a taste of what home will be like in eternity. Reflection/Discussion Question: What area of your life do you need to start using for the mission of the Gospel of Christ?

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.