Reedemed
Is it too late for a fresh start? Have you crossed a point of no return? Is your life too broken and too shattered to have any value to God? Can anything good come from all that has happened?
As a youngster I went to the dentist regularly. My dentist had a cozy little office right down the street. The dentist and his hygienists were always so friendly. With perfect gleaming white smiles they would extol the virtues of brushing and flossing. They would warn me about the evils of sugar, especiallyhard candy and soda. But then something changed. Maybe my parents stopped scheduling appointments. Maybe I got busy with school and my paper route. Maybe the dentist went out of business or a new dentist came to town who I didn’t like. Maybe the dentist wanted too much money. I just know thatI stopped going to the dentist.
Some ten years later I found myself in college.I’d met Lara. I can’t remember how the subject came up exactly. Maybe it was Lara’s perfect teeth or my crooked, discolored teeth,my bad breath, or a sore tooth. I dreaded the thought of returning to the dentist. I remember sitting in the dentist's chair.The doctor was studying the x-rays and scrutinizing my teeth one by one. "Hmmm..... there is a spot on this tooth and one on that tooth. Your gums sure bleed a lot. Make a note, he has a ## percent underbite. Has anyone ever talked to you about braces? Oh dear, that doesn’t look good. You have several cavities. We need to schedule an appointment to fill those. Your teeth are so tight that I cannot get floss between them. Do you brush regularly? Do you drink a lot of soda? Do you know thatcarbonated drinks erode the enamel on your teeth?" I feltguilty, guilty, guilty.
Going to church can be a lot like going to the dentist. There are all these friendly people with perfect smiles,people who’ve been reading their Bibles and praying since childhood. And then there is you. You don’t pray, you don’t read your Bible, you don’t give, you lose your temper, you cuss, you have impure thoughts, you’ve made bad choices, you have baggage, and you have weaknesses.
God's assessment of our condition.
In scripture God offers a rather unflattering assessment of our physical, moral, and spiritual condition.Consider these verses.Isaiah 64:6-7 (NIV) tells us, "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins."
Romans 3:23 (NIV) says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
Romans 3:10-12 (NIV) says, "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."
We are like the broken pieces of mirror in these vases. We were created to reflect the fullness of God’s image, but our lives have been shattered by sin. We have nothing left but sharp, jagged edges. Edges that cut and cause others to bleed.
Our concerns are well-founded.Is it too late for a fresh start? Have I crossed a point of no return? Is my life too broken or too jagged to have any value to God? Can anything good come from all that has happened? You only get one set of teeth. Once they're ruined, they're ruined. You only get one life. Onceit's ruined, it's ruined forever, right?How can I find my way back to Eden? How can what’s been lost be recovered?
What do we do when our worship is shattered?
What do we do when our worship is shattered? What do we do when creation is filled with chaos and pain? When relationships have deteriorated into a tangled mess? When our soul is crushed from weight of our sin and guilt?
Some people give up. Some just cope and sort of limp through life. Some cover the pain with work, busyness, hostility,or laughter. Some numb their pain with alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, or crystal methamphetamine. Someovereat and some sin sexually. Some run andsome try to hide from God.
It is hard to face the truth about our shattered condition. But the best place for a person with cavitiesand crooked teeth to be is in a dentist’s chair. The place for broken people is not east of Eden, but in the healing presence of the Great Physician.
Only God can pick up the shattered pieces of our lives and turn them into something beautiful again. The Bible has a word for this. It's called redemption. Redemption is, "the act of saving something or somebody from a declined, dilapidated, or corrupted state and restoring it, him, or her to a better condition."(Encarta Dictionary)
As his body wasted away, Job understood God’s power to redeem. Job 19:25-27 (NIV) says, "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!"
Likewise, the psalmist in Psalm 25:16-22 (NIV) prays, "Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart have multiplied; free me from my anguish. Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins. See how my enemies have increased and how fiercely they hate me! Guard my life and rescue me; let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you. Redeem Israel, O God, from all their troubles!"
From cover to cover the Bible is the story of God’s redemption. It is a story of God’s power to restore that which was decimated by the power of sin and death.
To whomdo we turn when our worship is shattered?
Ephesians 1:3-14 (NIV) says,"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ."
"In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory."
To whomdo we turnwhen creation is chaotic?
Romans 8:18-25 (NIV) says,
"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God."
"We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently."
To whomdo we turn when relationships deteriorate?
Titus 2:11-14 (NIV) says, "...for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good."
To whomdo we turn whenour souls are crushed?
1 Peter 1:18-25 (NIV tells us, "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God."
"Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For,'All men are like grass,and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;the grass withers and the flowers fall,but the word of the Lord stands forever.' And this is the word that was preached to you."
Is it too late for a fresh start? Have I crossed a point of no return? Is my life too broken, too jagged, to have any value to God? Can anything good come from all that has happened?
It’s never too late. We're never too broken ortoo jagged. We're so valuable to God that he was willing to be pierced for our transgressions, so that by his wounds we would be healed.
Isaiah 53:5 (NIV) reminds us, "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."