Reverse the Curse
In the beginning there was Chaos (yes, with a capital "c"). The Earth was "formless and void", "wild and waste", it was an "inky blackness" where God's Spirit "brooded like a bird above the watery abyss" of the chaotic tehom. God, who existed without beginning, who is the beginning, spoke or maybe sang this Chaos into submission. God's poetic voice brought chaos to harmony, brought waste to a state of utter goodness. God created the heavens and the earth.
But something happened. A foreign invader entered the scene, something that did not belong. The invader was sin, a curse, and it's result was chaos (yes, with a little "c"), a reversion of harmony back into chaos. Death, pain, struggle, warfare, revenge, all of these things began to transform the creation into de-creation. Water once again flooded the earth but where on earth was the spirit. God saw that it was not good. God entered into covenant with his people. He made a promise of epic proportions, one that he would never give up on. God wrapped himself around his people and disrupted the terrible pattern of chaos. God created, once again, the heavens and the earth.
God called his people to follow him, to disrupt the pattern with him, to reverse the curse with him. God has called us, his people, to glorify him in a world which quite loudly suggests that God is not glorious at all. He has called us to enter into his victory in world which quite confidently suggests that he has lost and that we have lost right along with him. God has called us to live lives of peace in chaos and live of blessing in the midst of this curse. God has called us to the kind of glory that is displayed on a cross and experienced in resurrection, to sing a song that says "forgive them father, for they know not what they do." We are called to live against the pattern of the curse and join with him in new creation speaking the words of peace into a world of violence.
We live in a world that suggests that God is not glorious and that the world is not good. We live in a world ill with a curse and we live to heal the world and to reverse the curse. This life is not about our own self fulfillment or prosperity, in fact it will quite likely lead us toward suffering, but we cry aloud with God from the cross "behold, I am making all things new."
"and I saw a new heaven and a new earth..."
But something happened. A foreign invader entered the scene, something that did not belong. The invader was sin, a curse, and it's result was chaos (yes, with a little "c"), a reversion of harmony back into chaos. Death, pain, struggle, warfare, revenge, all of these things began to transform the creation into de-creation. Water once again flooded the earth but where on earth was the spirit. God saw that it was not good. God entered into covenant with his people. He made a promise of epic proportions, one that he would never give up on. God wrapped himself around his people and disrupted the terrible pattern of chaos. God created, once again, the heavens and the earth.
God called his people to follow him, to disrupt the pattern with him, to reverse the curse with him. God has called us, his people, to glorify him in a world which quite loudly suggests that God is not glorious at all. He has called us to enter into his victory in world which quite confidently suggests that he has lost and that we have lost right along with him. God has called us to live lives of peace in chaos and live of blessing in the midst of this curse. God has called us to the kind of glory that is displayed on a cross and experienced in resurrection, to sing a song that says "forgive them father, for they know not what they do." We are called to live against the pattern of the curse and join with him in new creation speaking the words of peace into a world of violence.
We live in a world that suggests that God is not glorious and that the world is not good. We live in a world ill with a curse and we live to heal the world and to reverse the curse. This life is not about our own self fulfillment or prosperity, in fact it will quite likely lead us toward suffering, but we cry aloud with God from the cross "behold, I am making all things new."
"and I saw a new heaven and a new earth..."
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