Dec. 20, 2016
Over the past several weeks we have been exploring the deep places where God wants to transform us. He is transforming us for a reason. What is that reason? Where are we headed? We are being transformed in order to go back into a broken world and redeem two important words and concepts: glory and righteousness. Glory is our motive for worship. Yet, there occurred a glory exchange early on in human history. We exchanged God's glory for our own. Yet, our glory is very short-lived. Humanity is in such bad shape largely because of this glory exchange. We seek our own worship and glory. Isaiah 40 compares human glory to God's glory. The comparison is of a vapor like instant to a Word that lasts forever. We need a weightier glory. A glory that is bigger than us. A glory that can capture our attention. A glory that only God is worthy of. And this God of glory chooses to love and pursue us. The world needs this glory! The second point of redemption the world is desperate for is righteousness. If we are living in a world that "is not the way it is supposed to be" (and who would argue this?), then a world of pure righteousness IS the way it is supposed to be. There exists a righteousness problem in the world. I have it. You have it. Everybody has this problem. When righteousness shows up, things are righted. God alone is righteous...we desperately need Him. The world desperately needs him! This is the only kind of righteousness that will redeem the world; a righteousness that brings justice, equality, and peace. God is putting the world back together through Jesus Christ. That is why the gospel is good news. Though the world has exchanged God's glory and righteousness for it's own, God does not give up. He pursues us. He chooses to put the world back together, through Jesus Christ, largely through the lives of the redeemed. We are being transformed in order that we may be planted as "oaks of righteousness." Where does God want to plant you? Isaiah 61:1 - 3
