“Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in His death so that everyone could also be included in His life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own. 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.”
2 Corinthians 5:14-20, The Message
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Bev Duncan @ Walking Well With God says
(in)courage,
I am reminded of the song I learned in Sunday school as a little girl…”What a friend we have in Jesus…” Thank you for the reminder of His unconditional love. Now let us all spread His unconditional love around! Happy Sunday 🙂
Blessings,
Bev
Mary Hood says
Friendship is my word for 2015. This is so encouraging to me this morning. Just now reading Jn 15. All about friendship with Jesus. Thank you. Have a blessed day.
Sarah Skinner says
As I read this passage I started humming “You’ve got a friend in me” by Randy Newman from Toy Story. It gave me a bit of a smile. Have a great day.
Beth Williams says
This reminds me of a song by Matthew West on his “Heart of Christmas” CD “Leaving Heaven”. It talks about Jesus living in paradise but leaving it for us–sinners. In the end he says when time is up he’ll lay down his life, but make room for us He is the reason we get to see Heaven. That is my special music song for next week–gonna be done in sign language!
Blessings to my In(Courage) friends!
~Hope says
Beautiful and timely. Thanks for sharing.
Debbie Hodge says
Jesus is the best friend a girl can have. He listens to everything we say, loves us unconditionally and has made an eternal blissful home for us. Lets pass the Word!
lorna says
Thankyou Jesus! Amen!