The work of God

I am overwhelmed at times that God desires me to be involved deeply in His work in the world today. His invitation moves me from being a spectator to being a participant, not as some insignificant pawn in His hand but as a partner. Paul, in his letter to the church at Corinth, understood the invitation.

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

The invitation of God is to a ministry of reconciliation. As we reconcile people to God, they discover abundant life. This ministry of reconciliation is not some ethereal concept but a practical lifestyle. People get lost. They wander away from God, heeding the allure of the self-god. As they
give ear to the self-god, they become even more lost until all that they can hear is the enemy of their soul speaking through the self-god.

Our ministry is to bring people back to God in a practical way. The ministry of reconciliation requires us to become deeply involved with people. Bringing people to abundant life cannot be done from a distance. The example of Jesus coming to earth to live with us points to the deeply interactive nature of this ministry. God immersed Himself in our world, living among us. He felt what we feel, experienced the suffering we suffer so that He might reconcile us to the intended relationship with God. (Again - I am not talking about a theoretical relationship but a practical interaction with Him).

In the same way, if we are to be involved with God in His work of reconciling people to Himself, then we have to get involved with people. We must interact with broken, wounded people; people whose sin repulses the religious. Our interaction with them cannot be from a position of superiority based on our goodness. Our attitude must be one of humility born from the realization of our own tendencies toward sin. I had a man ask me why I pursued him. I replied that someday I might need him to pursue me.

For far too many years, I wanted to reconcile people to God from a distance. I wanted the recognition that I was working with God but I was unwilling to draw close to those who needed reconciliation. A number of years ago, God began to show me that while we had started churches, while we looked successful as defined by secular success, in reality, we never really discipled people. We didn't participate with God in His redemptive work on a heart level. When we started Grace Covenant Church, we built our house in a wooded area that the base of a mountain. One purpose for choosing that location was that I wanted to get away from people when I was not preaching/teaching. I wanted to be involved in the ministry of reconciliation from a distance.

Fortunately, God has been gracious with me. He gave me another chance to become involved with reconciling people to Himself. For the past several years, we have had the privilege of interacting with broken people, people who have gotten lost. We have seen the process of reconciliation begin to affect their lives. We've seen them discover God and life. We've cried together, eaten together, and shared our stories together. When we have experienced breakthrough, we've celebrated together. In the process, God's work of reconciliation affected us as well, drawing us closer to Him, restoring us to a partnership with Him