Now All Things Are of God Who Has Reconciled by Kathi Macias
Happy birthday to me! Yep, today is my 33rd birthday as a believer, and I’ve been having a party all morning.
Those of you who know me know that I’m an early riser—not always by choice, but an early riser nonetheless—so I’ve already had a couple of hours to spend with the One who made my spiritual birthday possible. And what a great time it has been! But it’s been a humbling time as well, as I reflected on the faithfulness of God throughout those 33 years, even in the face of my own faithlessness.
Oh, I’ve never once said I was throwing in the towel; never once declared that I no longer believed in or wished to serve Him; never once doubted my salvation or eternal destiny. But how many times my absorption with self and the things of this world have nudged my First Love from His rightful place in the throne of my heart. And how my testimony has been damaged and others’ hearts broken as a result!
But always He stood ready to call me back to His great and faithful heart, this Lion of Judah, this Father of the fatherless, this King of all kings. As I reflected on His faithfulness, I thought of the words of this worship chorus: “Amazing love, how can it be, that You my King would die for me?” And yet, it was that very pronouncement from the lips of the King Himself that opened my eyes at last to receive Him as my personal Savior, when I knelt by my bed that hot afternoon on July 5, 1974, and heard Him say, as I envisioned Him carrying His cross and making His way to Calvary, “I did it for you.” Those five words forever changed my life. Despite my own failings—and they are too numerous to count—I have never been the same since that day. No longer was my faith limited to the head knowledge that Jesus had died for the sins of the world, as I had heard so many times in churches; now that faith had traveled to my heart and become personal: He did it for me. He died for my sins because my heart was so black and my sins so evil that nothing less than the hideous torture and death of God’s only Son could atone for them and restore me to relationship with the Father.
The Scriptures tell us that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them,” and that He “has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God” (vv. 19-20).
That’s why we’re here, ladies and gentlemen. Whether we are writers or speakers by profession, or whether we sell shoes or flip burgers or oversee a multi-billion dollar company. Our purpose here on this earth is to be ambassadors for God, representing Him to a world lost and dying in sin, telling them that there is a way out of that sin and that they can be restored to relationship to the Father Himself.
Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” He left no wiggle room on that, folks. And in a world that praises the new tolerance (“I’m okay, you’re okay” and anything goes because it’s all about me), John 14:6 is not a popular or politically correct statement. It rules out all other religions or beliefs. It rules out “nice” people who seem to do more good than evil. It rules out everyone who refuses to bow their knee to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Many have died to proclaim and maintain the exclusivity of John 14:6 over the centuries since Jesus first spoke it; many—possibly even you and I—will die for it in years to come. But it’s the only truth that can set people free from this sinful, dying world and restore them to their Father. If we have to pay the ultimate price to proclaim it, may we count it a privilege as so many have before us.
As I look back on 33 years of God’s faithfulness to walk with me—and often to carry me—my prayer is that I will use the remainder of years He gives me on this earth to faithfully fulfill the ministry of reconciliation to which He has called me. May you do the same, dear friends and fellow scribes.
July 5th 2007