Christ is my home.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 1 Corinthians 5:17- 21
I love this text. The young adults I lead know I love this text. ABIDE's slogan for the year is "Go Forth" and we use this text to challenge each other to live up to our role as ambassadors. But this text has wrecked me.
Let me explain a little to give you context.
For the last few weeks I have really been struggling, probably in sin because of it, about what I define as home. I have been restless and dying to feel at "home" in my current place of ministry and it has been difficult. There I said it. It has been difficult because I want to feel at home. I love my church. I love the people I minister with. But in every difficult situation I find myself wondering if this is in fact "home."
It is probably that I have been so shaped by a cultural desire to declare a "home" that I take discontent and translate it as being out of my place. But this is not what Jesus desires for me.
Of all the sermons I listen to it took the truth shared in a Perspectives class to wreck my assumptions and desire to find the perfect home. Jeff Lewis was with us from California Baptist University speaking on the unleashing of the gospel and the global mission of sharing Christ. And in a throw-away line that was not his main point, Jeff highlighted that the language used in the Bible for the Christian (think alien, foreigner, peculiar) indicates that we are not in our "home." Even the title Ambassador indicates we are sent from a distant place.
As a Christian, Christ is my home. The sense or desire for "home" is reckless and misses the point of being a disciple maker. I have been wrecked by this reality in the last couples of days. I needed to be wrecked.
Christ is my home. Wherever I am sent geographically, I am there as an ambassador of reconciliation and a representative of the kingdom. I need no other home. Lord, let me live this truth. Let me see you as my home.
I love this text. The young adults I lead know I love this text. ABIDE's slogan for the year is "Go Forth" and we use this text to challenge each other to live up to our role as ambassadors. But this text has wrecked me.
Let me explain a little to give you context.
For the last few weeks I have really been struggling, probably in sin because of it, about what I define as home. I have been restless and dying to feel at "home" in my current place of ministry and it has been difficult. There I said it. It has been difficult because I want to feel at home. I love my church. I love the people I minister with. But in every difficult situation I find myself wondering if this is in fact "home."
It is probably that I have been so shaped by a cultural desire to declare a "home" that I take discontent and translate it as being out of my place. But this is not what Jesus desires for me.
Of all the sermons I listen to it took the truth shared in a Perspectives class to wreck my assumptions and desire to find the perfect home. Jeff Lewis was with us from California Baptist University speaking on the unleashing of the gospel and the global mission of sharing Christ. And in a throw-away line that was not his main point, Jeff highlighted that the language used in the Bible for the Christian (think alien, foreigner, peculiar) indicates that we are not in our "home." Even the title Ambassador indicates we are sent from a distant place.
As a Christian, Christ is my home. The sense or desire for "home" is reckless and misses the point of being a disciple maker. I have been wrecked by this reality in the last couples of days. I needed to be wrecked.
Christ is my home. Wherever I am sent geographically, I am there as an ambassador of reconciliation and a representative of the kingdom. I need no other home. Lord, let me live this truth. Let me see you as my home.
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