Made Alive

Read: Colossians 2:8–15

When you were dead in your transgressions… 

He made you alive together with Him, 

having forgiven us all our transgressions.

Colossians 2:13

Have you ever promised yourself, “This time I’m going to change,” only to find yourself falling into the same old habits again? We try harder, make new promises, and depend on our own strength. Yet some things within us cannot be changed by willpower alone. Paul tells us that our deepest need is not simply to become better people—we need new life. And that is exactly what God gives us in Christ. The fullness of God lives in Jesus (Colossians 2:9), and in Him God came near to us. We could not save ourselves or make ourselves right with God. Yet God did for us what we could never do: He forgave us and made us alive with Christ (v. 13). Before we reached for God, He was already reaching for us.

We often try to overcome anger, fear, pride, bitterness, and other habits by making stronger promises. Richard Foster warns that this can become “will worship”—trusting our determination instead of depending on God. We may look good on the outside for a while, but our words and actions eventually reveal what is happening within our hearts. We cannot change our hearts by willpower alone. Jesus carried our sins to the cross, canceled the debt against us, and broke sin’s power (vv. 14–15). Grace does more than forgive us; it begins changing us from within.

The cross looked like defeat, but through it Christ won the victory and gave us new life. Yet God does not turn us into robots who can no longer choose wrongly. We still have choices to make and temptations to face, and sometimes we will fail. The difference is that sin no longer has to be our master. In Christ, we are free to choose a different way—to love, forgive, obey, and become more like Him. This is the wonder of God’s unlimited grace. Grace meets us when we fail, but it does not leave us where it found us. It forgives us, lifts us up, changes our hearts, and helps us begin again. We do not have to earn God’s love by trying harder. Before we ever reached for Him, He was already reaching for us. Unlimited grace is not permission to remain as we are; it is God’s continuing invitation and power to become who He created us to be—alive and free in Christ.

Prayer: 

Heavenly Father, 

Thank You for making us alive in Christ. Forgive us for depending on our own strength. Change our hearts by Your grace, free us from the power of sin, and help us live each day in the new life You have given us.

Amen.

Meeting God

Bible Reading: Exodus 19:16–24

The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai 

and called Moses to the top of the mountain.

Exodus 19:20

Imagine standing with Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai. Thunder rolled, lightning flashed, a thick cloud covered the mountain, and smoke rose as the trumpet sounded louder and louder. The people trembled (Exodus 19:16–19). Boundaries had been placed around the mountain because sinful people could not casually enter the presence of a holy God. Yet within this frightening scene there is a beautiful movement: God came down, and Moses went up. God had already told Israel why He rescued them from Egypt: “I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (v. 4). Their destination was not simply freedom from Pharaoh. God wanted to bring them to Himself.

C. S. Lewis, reflecting on this passage, reminds us that our language of “meeting” God can never fully describe Him. God is not simply another person standing opposite us. He surrounds us and transcends us. Yet Lewis warns us not to turn God into an impersonal abstraction. The God of Sinai speaks, calls, comes near, and desires relationship. Moses went up the mountain to receive God’s Word and bring it back to the people (Galatians 3:19). But while Moses could bring God’s law, only Christ could deal with the sin that separated us from God.

Jesus is “the mediator of a new covenant” (Hebrews 9:15). He did more than bring us a message from God—He came from God to bring us to God. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). Then Christ suffered, “the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18). At Sinai, the mediator climbed the mountain; in the gospel, the Mediator came down from heaven. Reconciliation begins with that astonishing movement. We could never climb our way to God, so in Christ, God came down to us and opened the way home.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, 

We stand in awe of Your holiness and marvel that You desire us near. Thank You for Jesus, our Mediator, who came down to bring us to You. Help us live close to You and carry Your reconciling love to others. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Ripples of Forgiveness

Bible Reading: Luke 17:1–6

“If they sin against you seven times in a day 

and seven times come back to you saying 

‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.” 

Luke 17:4

Jesus is realistic about broken relationships. Offenses will come, He tells His disciples, and He does not ask them to pretend that wrongdoing does not matter. “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them” (Luke 17:3). Truth must be spoken, repentance matters, and forgiveness must follow. But when Jesus says they must forgive even seven times in a single day, the disciples recognize how demanding reconciliation can be. Their immediate response is telling: “Increase our faith!” (v. 5). They know that what Jesus asks seems beyond their natural strength.

When the disciples think they need more faith,  Jesus points instead to faith as small as a mustard seed. The issue is not simply the amount of faith they possess, but whether they will obey with the faith they already have. Earlier, when a Samaritan village rejected Jesus, James and John wanted to call down fire from heaven (Luke 9:54). Now Jesus is teaching them something radically different. The disciples who once imagined themselves administering judgment are being formed into servants who extend forgiveness. Sometimes we ask God for more faith when He is asking us to obey with the faith He has already given us.

C. S. Lewis helps us understand why that obedience may need to be repeated. An offense can be like a stone dropped into still water. The stone falls once, but the ripples continue. A memory, conversation, or unexpected reminder can awaken resentment we thought we had surrendered. Lewis observed that we may need to forgive “seventy times seven” not only for many offenses, but repeatedly for one offense. Forgiveness does not deny the wound, excuse wrongdoing, or automatically restore trust. It means refusing to let resentment become our master. “Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13). When another ripple reaches us, we place the hurt into Christ’s hands again. Sometimes reconciliation means forgiving again—not because the offense happened again, but because the hurt returned.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, 

When the ripples of old wounds return, give us grace to forgive again. Help us obey with the faith You have given us and remember how fully You have forgiven us through Christ. Make us faithful servants of Your reconciliation. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Agree to Disagree

Bible Reading: Luke 6:37–42

First take the plank out of your eye, 

and then you will see clearly 

to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Luke 6:42

John Wesley and George Whitefield were close friends and powerful voices in the eighteenth-century evangelical revival, yet they became sharply divided over theology. Whitefield embraced the Calvinist understanding of God’s sovereign election, while Wesley emphasized God’s grace offered to all and our responsibility to respond. Their disagreement became public, strained their friendship, and divided some of their followers. Yet they did not allow theological disagreement finally to erase Christian brotherhood. After Whitefield’s death, Wesley preached a memorial sermon and asked a memorable question: “Can we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion?” He spoke of Christians being able to “agree to disagree.” Reconciliation does not always require agreement. Unity of heart does not demand uniformity of opinion.

Jesus takes us deeper: “Do not judge… Do not condemn… Forgive” (Luke 6:37). He pictures someone noticing a speck in another person’s eye while overlooking the plank in his own. Jesus is not saying that the speck is imaginary or that truth does not matter. Rather, He changes the order: “First take the plank out of your own eye” (v. 42). Reconciliation begins with a mirror before it becomes a window. Before asking, What is wrong with them? we allow God to ask, What needs changing in me? Like David we pray, “Search me, God, and know my heart” (Psalm 139:23).

E. Stanley Jones emphasized our continuing need for God’s transforming grace. Pride, resentment, stubbornness, and self-will can gather like ashes over the fire God has kindled within us. Our plank may be the need to win the argument, prove ourselves right, rehearse an old injury, or assign motives to another. Grace exposes these things not to humiliate us but to give us clearer vision. “Bear with each other and forgive one another… Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13). Wesley’s question remains searching: Can we be of one heart even when we are not of one opinion? Before reconciliation asks, “What is wrong with them?” grace teaches us to pray, “Lord, what needs changing in me?”

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, 

Teach us to hold truth with humility, to forgive as You have forgiven us, and to remain one in heart even when we disagree. Make us instruments of Your reconciling grace. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

A Place at the Table

 

Bible Reading: Acts 10:34–43

Peter says,

I now realize how true it is that God

does not show favoritism.

Acts 10:34

In 1942, Clarence and Florence Jordan and Martin and Mabel England founded Koinonia Farm in Georgia as a “demonstration plot for the Kingdom of God.” The name Koinonia comes from a Greek word meaning fellowship, communion, sharing, or participation—the shared life described in Acts 2:42. They sought to make that fellowship visible by sharing faith, resources, work, meals, and prayer. In the segregated South, Black and white workers received equal wages and sat together at the same table. Their convictions brought boycotts, intimidation, bullets, and bombs, yet they responded through prayer and nonviolence. The farm eventually helped inspire ministries such as Habitat for Humanity. Koinonia was more than fellowship as friendship; it was an attempt to demonstrate what happens when people reconciled to God begin sharing life with one another.

Peter discovered this kind of koinonia when God led him across a deeply rooted boundary and into the Gentile home of Cornelius. There he confessed, “God does not show favoritism” (Acts 10:34). Peter then proclaimed Jesus—His life, death, and resurrection—and announced that “everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (v. 43). Reconciliation begins here. Our deepest separation is from God through sin, but God Himself has acted in Christ to overcome it. Jesus suffered, “the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18). We didn’t make our own way back; God came looking for us.

The church therefore brings together people who might never naturally choose one another. Christ “has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14). Peter crossed Cornelius’s doorway; Koinonia crossed the racial boundaries of its time. What doorway might God be asking us to cross? Who is missing from our table? Reconciliation brings us to God; koinonia draws the reconciled into shared life with one another. Perhaps our churches, homes, and lives can become small “demonstration plots for the Kingdom of God”—places where barriers fall, strangers become family, and Christ’s reconciling love becomes visible around a shared table.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, 

Thank You for welcoming us through Christ. Break down the barriers within our hearts and enlarge our tables. Teach us to share life with others in true fellowship, and make us visible signs of Your reconciling love. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Room for Grace

 

Bible Reading: 2 Corinthians 13:1–12

“Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, 

be of one mind, live in peace.” 

2 Corinthians 13:11

On November 14, 1940, Coventry Cathedral was bombed and burned during a devastating wartime attack. The following morning, as Provost Richard Howard and others walked through the ruins, they found two charred roof beams lying across each other like a cross. They bound them together and placed them in the ruined sanctuary. Behind the altar were later inscribed two simple words: “Father Forgive.” Significantly, it did not say Father, forgive them. The words embraced everyone, acknowledging Paul’s truth that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). From those ruins grew Coventry’s ministry of reconciliation and its Litany of Reconciliation, confronting hatred, greed, envy, indifference, lust, and pride with the repeated prayer: “Father Forgive.” The ruins remained, but instead of becoming merely a monument to hatred, they became a witness to the reconciling power of the cross.

Paul writes to a Corinthian church that knew something about broken relationships. There had been rivalry, accusations, disappointment, and division. Yet his closing appeal is filled with hope: “Strive for full restoration… live in peace” (2 Corinthians 13:11). Restoration does not mean pretending that nothing was broken. It means allowing God’s grace to begin repairing what has been damaged. Significantly, Paul first says, “Examine yourselves” (v. 5). Reconciliation begins not merely by identifying what someone else must change, but by allowing God to show us what needs changing within us. “Search me, God, and know my heart” (Psalm 139:23).

Eugene Peterson’s image of “negative space” offers a helpful response. As empty space in a painting allows the main subject to be seen, we make room for God’s grace by deliberately leaving some things out—retaliation, gossip, harsh words, self-justification, and the need to have the last word. The negative space becomes room for grace. Into it God can place kindness, tenderness, forgiveness, and peace: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). Like Coventry’s cross rising amid the ruins, God’s reconciling grace can become most visible precisely where something has been broken.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, 

Forgive us. Examine our hearts and remove the resentment, pride, and harmful words that deepen division. Rekindle Your love within us and fill the space with kindness, forgiveness, and peace. Help us repair what can be repaired and become faithful ambassadors of Your reconciling love. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Costly Reconciliation

Bible Reading: Romans 5:1–11

God demonstrates His own love for us in this: 

while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

When apartheid ended in South Africa, the country faced the enormous challenge of dealing with decades of injustice, suffering, and racial division. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who helped lead the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, believed that healing could not come by simply forgetting the past. Victims needed to tell their stories, wrongdoing needed to be acknowledged, and perpetrators needed to face the truth. Tutu observed, “True reconciliation is never cheap, for it is based on forgiveness which is costly. Forgiveness in turn depends on repentance.” In this we can hear an echo of Romans 5. Paul does not minimize the seriousness of our sin or pretend that humanity’s estrangement from God does not matter. Instead, God faces the reality of sin and moves toward those estranged from Him with costly, reconciling love. At the cross, truth about sin and grace toward sinners meet.

Paul writes, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Even more astonishingly, “while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (v. 10). “God’s enemies” means people estranged from God by sin and living contrary to Him—yet still pursued by His love. God did not wait for us to become friendly toward Him before moving toward us. We didn’t make our own way back; God came looking for us. Christ, “the righteous for the unrighteous,” suffered “to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18). Reconciliation is therefore costly because grace does not ignore what has gone wrong; it acts in love to overcome the separation.

Dallas Willard reminds us that forgiveness does not mean forgetting what happened, denying that we still hurt, or automatically restoring every broken relationship. We can face truth while relinquishing revenge and entrusting judgment to God (Romans 12:19). This is where Tutu’s example challenges us personally. Because God moved toward us while we were still sinners, His grace enables us to take the difficult first steps toward others. We can face truth without hatred, remember without revenge, and seek healing without denying the wound. Having been reconciled to God, we are entrusted with “the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18). We are reconciled so that we may become reconcilers.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, 

Give us courage to face truth, grace to forgive, and freedom from bitterness and revenge. Make us faithful instruments of Your reconciliation. 

In Jesus’ name, Amen.