January 16, 2015 – Smriti "Simmi" D. Isaac

“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.”

II Corinthians 5:19-20 MSG – A verse of the day from the Bible presented in Eugene Peterson’s contemporary version called The Message. Accompanied by a personal reflection below.

It’s like asking a friend for a personal reference and fearing that they’ll say things about you based on what you have and how you look. Aren’t you glad God doesn’t reference us like that? And doesn’t even use that criteria when he thinks about us. What a beautiful relationship we have with him! And since we do have this one-on-one personal relationship with a God who looks at us with so much love and forgiveness, ought we not do the same with our fellowmen?