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reconciliation
Team Huddle
2 min.Read

Reconciliation: The Big Picture of What God is Doing

Keiston France
By Keiston France

What in the World is God Doing?

Have you ever asked that question? I bet there have been moments of frustration in your life when you’ve wondered what the Lord was up to. While I can’t give you a specific answer for each particular situation, I can point you to the BIG picture of what God is doing.

We often get so hyper-focused on trying to figure out the details of life that we miss the larger context.

It’s kind of like walking the streets of a city and then seeing that same city from 30,000 feet in the sky. Seeing the BIG picture of what’s going on around you gives you a fresh perspective on where you are.

Paul zooms out and reminds us of the BIG picture of what God is doing in the world:

“God is reconciling the world to Himself in Christ.”

What Exactly does Reconciliation Mean?

love your neighborReconciliation is the restoration of friendly relations. Humanity’s sin causes a ‘brokenness’ in our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God the Father offers us an opportunity to be restored to a right relationship with Him.

Some will accept this invitation and others will reject it. Those who receive Christ experience a complete change in their relationship with Him. Where there once was enmity, there is now harmony. Reconciliation is truly an astonishing act of the mercy, grace, and forgiveness of Jesus.

The Blessing of Reconciliation

Reflect on several practical implications of how this reconciliation shapes our everyday life:

  • Worship – Recipients of reconciliation respond in heartfelt praise.
  • Relationships – Those who have genuinely experienced reconciliation with God seek harmony and reconciliation with their fellow man. How could we do anything less?
  • Purpose – We’re invited to play a part in what God is doing. Paul says we’ve been given a “ministry” and a “message of reconciliation” (vs. 18,19). This is not just for those who are ordained or employed by a church. Each of us is called to proclaim reconciliation in both word and deed.
  • Hope – God didn’t just create the world and back away. He’s not asleep at the wheel. Even in a crazy year like 2020 or the early chaos of 2021, He is still actively offering reconciliation to the sinful man and guiding all of history according to His sovereign plan.

Being mindful of the BIG picture of what God is doing in the world can help sustain you when it’s unclear what He’s doing in your life. Take heart.  A lot might not make sense right now. But if you’ve been reconciled to God, you have a reason to worship, a purpose to live for, and a basis to hold onto hope. Think about It.

So, What’s The Play Call?

  1. Have you truly been reconciled to God through Jesus?
  2. Is there anyone in your life with whom you currently need to pursue reconciliation?
  3. How could you play a more active role in the ministry and message of reconciliation?
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They Changed Their Minds about Slavery and Left a Bible Record

0
Two businessmen’s unusual conversion in 1700s South Carolina led them to liberate the people they put in bondage. At first glance, William Turpin and his business partner, Thomas Wadsworth, appeared to be like most other prestigious and powerful white men in late 18th-century South Carolina. They were successful Charleston merchants, had business interests across the state, got involved in state politics, and enslaved numerous human beings. Nothing about them seemed out of the ordinary. But, quietly, these two men changed their minds about slavery. They became committed abolitionists and worked to free dozens of enslaved people across South Carolina. When most wealthy, white Carolinians were increasingly committed to slavery and defending it as a Christian institution, Turpin and Wadsworth were compelled by their convictions to break the shackles they had placed on dozens of men and women. In an era when the Bible was edited so that enslaved people wouldn’t get the idea that God cared about their freedom, Turpin left a secret record of emancipation in a copy of the Scriptures, which is now in the South Carolina State Museum. Perhaps it’s not surprising that this story of faith and freedom is mostly unknown. The two men were, after all, working not to attract attention. Neither had deep roots in Charleston or close familial ties to its storied white “planter” dynasties. Turpin’s family was originally from Rhode Island, and Wadsworth was a native of Massachusetts who moved to South Carolina only shortly after the American Revolution. Both had public careers and served in the South Carolina Legislature, but their political profiles were not particularly high. Neither of them appeared to give any of their legislative colleagues the sense that they were developing strong, countercultural opinions on one of the most ...Continue reading...

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