Broken To Beautiful
Broken to Beautiful
I want to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
Acts 13:38
If you break your favorite vase, no amount of glue will fix it completely. The crack may be difficult to see, but it will always be there. And the vessel will always be weaker than it was before the fall. Our relationship with God has also been broken. There have been many human attempts to put the pieces back together, but our relationship to the holy God can't be mended – only replaced with something new.
Fortunately for us, that's exactly what God has in mind. He has made a way for us to enter into a new relationship with Him – forgiveness through His Son, Jesus.
All we need to do to receive God's forgiveness is to acknowledge our need for it and ask Him for it. It's an act crouched in simplicity, but it isn't necessarily easy.
Our old sin nature doesn't want to examine the places in our hearts where we have failed. We have a hard time admitting our deep need for God. Pride lifts its ugly head, and the invitation goes unanswered. God is patient, however. As soon as you reach up to Him in humility, His hand is extended down to you in love. He loves you so much, and He greatly desires to walk in daily fellowship with you. Maybe you've already accepted His offer. If not, will you let Him replace your old, broken relationship with a brand new one?
+++
The history of the world has shown that mankind yearns for a relationship with the divine. Every culture from the beginning of time, who did not know the one true God, has created a religion to reach out the god or gods of their own imagination.
The only problem with this is that when man sets out to create a god, the god he creates is always in his own image. Every image of the divine created by man is simply man exalted to a greater status. The ancient gods were filled with all the selfishness, sin, and desires of humanity. This enabled people to understand, and to believe, that if my God is like me than I am not that bad.
The challenge for each one of us to accept is that we are truly broken. And in our brokenness we are separated from the true God. And because God is God and He is holy other than we are, there is nothing, and I mean nothing we can do to reach Him. He is holy and we are sinful. He is pure and we are tainted. He is perfect and we are imperfect.
If that were the end of the story we would all be lost. But fortunately for us by God's grace, that is not the end of the story. While God is a lot of things, He is first and foremost a God of love. It is His love which has moved Him to accomplish reconciliation through His Son Jesus Christ. We could not go to God, so God came to us.
It is the sacrificial blood shed on the cross that is paid for our sins. Through simple faith in Christ and trust in Him they're made whole again. Reconciled to God we can now live moment by moment in a relationship with Him.
But we are not yet what we will be. As we live in this broken sinful world, we still see the cracks. Our old sinful nature holds on, and we still make many mistakes. We sin, and yes, it does grieve the heart of our God. But His love for us never changes. Through the blood of Jesus, we are forgiven and our relationship with Him is never broken. We can live in absolute confidence that we are His children and one day we will be delivered from the brokenness of this world, and of our very own lives.
When that day comes the cracks will no longer be present. Who will rise and ascend and experience a wholeness that we have never known. The broken vase will not just be mended, it will be made new, and we will truly be like our God. We will be perfect and holy and fully reconciled and in union and relationship with the God who has loved us from eternity.
We live in the now and not yet. We live forgiven and restored to God, but it is not yet been revealed what we will be on the day we stand face to face with Him.
Hold on to this truth and may it bless you through the day.
Pastor Russ
I want to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
Acts 13:38
If you break your favorite vase, no amount of glue will fix it completely. The crack may be difficult to see, but it will always be there. And the vessel will always be weaker than it was before the fall. Our relationship with God has also been broken. There have been many human attempts to put the pieces back together, but our relationship to the holy God can't be mended – only replaced with something new.
Fortunately for us, that's exactly what God has in mind. He has made a way for us to enter into a new relationship with Him – forgiveness through His Son, Jesus.
All we need to do to receive God's forgiveness is to acknowledge our need for it and ask Him for it. It's an act crouched in simplicity, but it isn't necessarily easy.
Our old sin nature doesn't want to examine the places in our hearts where we have failed. We have a hard time admitting our deep need for God. Pride lifts its ugly head, and the invitation goes unanswered. God is patient, however. As soon as you reach up to Him in humility, His hand is extended down to you in love. He loves you so much, and He greatly desires to walk in daily fellowship with you. Maybe you've already accepted His offer. If not, will you let Him replace your old, broken relationship with a brand new one?
+++
The history of the world has shown that mankind yearns for a relationship with the divine. Every culture from the beginning of time, who did not know the one true God, has created a religion to reach out the god or gods of their own imagination.
The only problem with this is that when man sets out to create a god, the god he creates is always in his own image. Every image of the divine created by man is simply man exalted to a greater status. The ancient gods were filled with all the selfishness, sin, and desires of humanity. This enabled people to understand, and to believe, that if my God is like me than I am not that bad.
The challenge for each one of us to accept is that we are truly broken. And in our brokenness we are separated from the true God. And because God is God and He is holy other than we are, there is nothing, and I mean nothing we can do to reach Him. He is holy and we are sinful. He is pure and we are tainted. He is perfect and we are imperfect.
If that were the end of the story we would all be lost. But fortunately for us by God's grace, that is not the end of the story. While God is a lot of things, He is first and foremost a God of love. It is His love which has moved Him to accomplish reconciliation through His Son Jesus Christ. We could not go to God, so God came to us.
It is the sacrificial blood shed on the cross that is paid for our sins. Through simple faith in Christ and trust in Him they're made whole again. Reconciled to God we can now live moment by moment in a relationship with Him.
But we are not yet what we will be. As we live in this broken sinful world, we still see the cracks. Our old sinful nature holds on, and we still make many mistakes. We sin, and yes, it does grieve the heart of our God. But His love for us never changes. Through the blood of Jesus, we are forgiven and our relationship with Him is never broken. We can live in absolute confidence that we are His children and one day we will be delivered from the brokenness of this world, and of our very own lives.
When that day comes the cracks will no longer be present. Who will rise and ascend and experience a wholeness that we have never known. The broken vase will not just be mended, it will be made new, and we will truly be like our God. We will be perfect and holy and fully reconciled and in union and relationship with the God who has loved us from eternity.
We live in the now and not yet. We live forgiven and restored to God, but it is not yet been revealed what we will be on the day we stand face to face with Him.
Hold on to this truth and may it bless you through the day.
Pastor Russ
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