Reason For Hope and praise this christmas Rconcillation
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Let us pray this beautiful morning
Let us pray this beautiful morning
I read this week of a story I thought would be good if I shared it with you
In 1951 an unwanted baby, conceived outside of marriage, was born to a family in Portsmouth, Virginia. The ensuing chaos destroyed the lives of the mother, her husband, and Glenda’s older half-sister.
That baby was Glenda Revell
1. Glenda begins her autobiography with these words:
“If this were just a story about my suffering, it would be ordinary, for suffering is as commonplace as life itself. Rather, this is my account of an extraordinary Savior, who brings light out of darkness, joy out of sorrow, peace out of pain.”
Glenda’s mother was an alcoholic, and vicious toward the girl she believed had ruined her life. When she found out she was pregnant by a man to whom she was not married, she planned to have a back-alley abortion, but lost her courage.
For the first five years of Glenda’s life, her mother wouldn’t even have her in the same home, and so she was raised by an aunt and uncle. When she made visits home, she was savagely beaten.
At age three, Glenda’s mother knocked out her two front teeth. At age five, the aunt and uncle sent her back home.
From then until puberty, Glenda’s “father”, in Glenda’s words, “mutilated her innocence over and over again”.
And her mother, of course, never protected her
As a result, Glenda hated her mother—even wishing to kill her. I won’t go into more details of Glenda’s painful life.
It all started in adultery and attempted abortion, and was filled with alcoholism, abuse, alienation, and abandonment
. I’m afraid that many of you can identify with some—perhaps even many —of the details of Glenda’s story.
But that’s not how we want life to be. And that’s not how life is supposed to be. That’s not how God intended it to be
. Read Zephaniah 3:17
The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
Is this too good to be true?
This is the message of Christmas! God came to live among us, to be our mighty savior. He did this because he delights in us. He’s glad that he created us. He loves us and longs to calm all our fears.
But, of course, this isn’t what Glenda experienced growing up. God’s love and light didn’t reach into Glenda’s home as he intended it to.
Instead of reconciliation, there was agitation, estrangement, evil, and enmity.
Why do we have animosity rather than love, estrangement rather than reconciliation?
Seven hundred years before he was born, Isaiah prophesied about the coming “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6
For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Now that’s what Glenda needed! That’s what we need. But we don’t have it. Some of us don’t have any peace at all—not inside us, nor outside us.
But guess what. Our situation is even worse: the Bible says that our need for reconciliation goes deeper than just and interpersonal disharmony.
The Bible says that we’re at odds with God Isaiah 59:2
But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
But the Bible teaches that absolute reconciliation is available to us now, because of Christmas (Romans 5:8-11
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
As a young nursing student, Glenda experienced reconciliation with God.
Unwanted from birth and abused throughout her childhood, Glenda was desperate for love and a sense of belonging. Her only respite from a miserable home life was school, and the welcoming shade of her favorite willow tree, under which she would dream of another life, another family, and pray to a God she did not yet know.
Ultimately, Glenda's afflictions became the cords with which God drew her to Himself. Fleeing from the pain in this life into the hope of His She Receivied His salvation, she understood that God had saved her from her own sinfulness, more than horrid conditions and treatment by others. This is a story of great hope, an amazing account of how our merciful Savior brings light out of darkness, joy out of sorrow, and peace out of pain.
A couple of Quotes from her book
Sexual defilement of a child is a monstrous sin, and the rape of a child’s spirit is on equal footing. The damage from either would appear irreversible. But as Dr. David Jeremiah has said, “Our God has the power to reverse the irreversible.” It is true, for I have tasted of His cure from both, and it fills me with a longing for Him that the happiest of childhoods could not have given. (Revell, Glenda’s Story: Led by Grace [Gateway to Joy, 1997], 41)
The cure that Glenda refers to is the cross of Christ:
He showed me Calvary once more. . . . I saw the horror of my sin, nailing the Son of God to that miserable cross, torturing Him, mocking Him, spitting on Him. Yet He had forgiven me freely. No one had committed such atrocities against me. How could I do anything less than forgive?
Forgiveness came. And with it came healing, complete peace and freedom — absolute freedom — to serve my God and to enjoy His love and peace now and forevermore. (Ibid., 98)
Maybe you can relate to Glenda’s horrendous childhood, or possibly you carry around guilt from your own past sexual sin. Perhaps it is your husband’s past or present sin that looms large in your heart and mind. You may wonder if you will ever be free from the guilt, fear, and despair.
Physical intimacy is one of the best ways that we can encourage our husbands.
But no matter how distorted your view or traumatic your experience, help is available. I want to urge you to pour out your heart to the Lord of love, to draw near to him so that you may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).
Is that your story? can you relate ? Have you been reconciled to God? Dont look to the evil of others and say well they need God look at Galinda if anyone could feel that way it was her no we must peer deep into our own hearts and souls and ask ourselves Have we been truly reconciled to God ?
Reconciliation has two dimensions: vertically, between us and God, and then horizontally in all our relationships (Ephesians 2:14-16
For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
This is a theological reality, but many of us aren’t experiencing it. All people experience conflict—even the Apostle Paul (Acts 15:36-39). But he resolved it (Colossians 4:10
Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, with Mark the cousin of Barnabas (about whom you received instructions: if he comes to you, welcome him),
2 Timothy 4:11 “Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service.”
Remember Paul and mark were at odds back in Acts but we see Paul has gotten over it now and is reconciled to Mark
God tells us to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9
Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.
; James 3:18 “And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”
2 Corinthians 5:17–20 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
We have a choice: which path will we take? Reconciliation is available to us—vertically, with God Almighty. Horizontally, if we will choose to be peace-makers.
We can hold on to the past say never again will i ever let them treat me this way talk to me this way bypass me this way abuse me this way take advantage of me this way or we can show Love and be reconciled to one another and to Christ for Love keeps no records of wrongs
APPLICATION / CHALLENGE
Be reconciled to God, through the sufficient sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:2-9
in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Seek to reconcile all of your relationships which are strained (Matthew 5:9; Romans 12:18
If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
This Christmas we can be thankful for the Reconciliation that we have with God through Christ
Let us Pray