"What Do Others See?"

Good morning and thanks for having coffee with me. Don't forget we have Life Group NEXT Sunday at 6PM at my house. It's our Thanksgiving meal. I will make a small turkey breast and some starch free dressing (yum!) for the evening. What can you bring to offer a healthy choice for your family feast? Remember, if you can bring your recipes as that is part of our evening. Bring your prayer requests also. 2 Corinthians 5:18 The Message (MSG) 16-20 Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you. I love the above passage. As I read it this morning again in the MSG translation, I was reminded of Paul's explanation and admonition to the body of believers at Corinth. None of us can look upon the outward appearance of a person to determine if they are connected with God. That connection happens in the heart WITH God. It's an internal event that produces an external "display." I do totally believe that those who have had that salvation experience live their lives differently. Some after that experience have even looked different, outwardly, to me. For some, their countenance changed immediately. However, we cannot view the internal nor evaluate the external to determine something only God knows. I was thinking this morning about the passage describing the connection with God, the new start, and the encouragement to tell everyone what God did for us. God uses our availability to make connections. I really began to think, "is my life helping others make a connection to God?" Sometimes we struggle with "preaching" and have a difficult time even feeling we can follow this edict. However, our lives preach plenty. As a healthy adult, your conviction and connection to a changed life speaks loudly. Yes, it does. And for us, being in right relationship with God through Jesus makes a bold statement as well. I am different than I was without Jesus. You? I am different as a healthy adult. You? And who knows, our fight for health when coupled with the assistance we got from God could be an opening for someone to connect with God. When people can see that your changed outward appearance followed by your confession of God's grace to stand firm (Galatians 5:1) is real and not another fad, it could allow someone with a closed mind as to God's desire to do life with us daily to be softened. Some have never connected with God's LOVE in such a way that He would desire to be included in every facet of our lives - even our health. I certainly have and what a revelation that was. I applaud you for allowing your life to bring HOPE to others. PK