Living Loved
Created, yet quickly fallen.
Was this a cosmic malfunction?
Unanticipated by God?
No! We were created in intentionality.
Intended for relationship, with God.
And we needed to be free to experience that relationship.
But we both desired and feared that closeness.
And we pulled away.
A new creation was needed to close that gap.
To heal that wound.
A new creation in Christ.
The old has gone, the new is here.
From dead to alive.
From darkness to light.
Separated to close.
Without God to united in peace.
Creation and new creation were linked from the beginning.
As creatures, the created, we could do none of this.
Our salvation is his doing.
Such doing is beyond us.
Inaccessible; unmanageable; unimaginable.
The new is created for us, not by us.
We can contribute only a posture of receptivity.
Accepting.
Welcoming.
Absorbing grace as it envelopes us.
Surrendering.
Trusting in another’s way-another’s will.
Unable to explain, but experiencing as truth: grace.
In surrender, we must confess our weakness, our inability.
We confess, not to be judged, but to be made whole.
For we want to be known.
Not judged, not studied, but known.
And we want to be loved.
Loved well.
Loved for who we are.
So we must be known — confess and be known.
And when we trust God,
trust God enough to enter his story,
his mystery,
we discover…
God loves us because.
Just because.
So we can live under the simplicity of God loves us.
Under the simplicity of who we are in Jesus.
Not based on who I am, or who I will be.
Based on who I am in Christ, today.
So today, in Christ Jesus, I can live loved.
Psalm based on the sermon:
In Christ: True or False? Pastor Phil Strong 10/1/17
