RedeemedSample

"God loves you and sent His Son so you could know Him" Have you ever felt in over your head with God? Maybe you try to pay attention at church, but the teaching doesn’t connect with your head, much less your heart. Do parts of the Bible ever feel like thick patches of God-fog to you? You want to seek God. You want to know Him. But you can’t ever seem to find your way. Take a minute and think of some of the ways you have felt in over your spiritual head in the past. Understanding the Bible? Other religions? How would you describe knowing God right now? You and I begin a relationship with God when we are redeemed. As we continue being redeemed, the relationship grows deeper and sweeter as we are being changed into the likeness of Christ. Your relationship with God is not meant to be a scary dive into murky waters, but a real, thriving, everyday relationship. Being redeemed helps us live a better life with meaning and purpose! God’s grace removes our shame. He meets us right where we are. And His love can remove our fear. Our earth assignment is to keep being redeemed. Yep, our everyday life, in this crazy world. And, as you well know, in the real world, somebody’s gotta climb out of the deep end of the pool and make dinner, pay the bills, and mow the lawn. That’s you and me—and all those who choose to follow Jesus Christ. If you’ve ever helped a child with algebra, you might remember that solving an equation begins by reducing the equation to its simplest form. One of God’s sweet gifts of grace is that big, complex theology, like being redeemed, becomes even more glorious when reduced to its simplest form. My apologetics professor taught us to approach the Bible like this. The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things. The un-plain things and the un-main things may be interesting, but the most important things in the Bible are the plain, main things. Hallelujah and amen. Here is a plain, main truth from the Bible: You are loved by God. So very, very loved. Because God loves you, He wants to help you, and He doesn’t want to wait for some far away time to become part of your life. He sent His Son long ago because He wants to help you today.