bridges

in his book, Christian Mission in the Modern World, Christian apologist John Stott so wonderfully put it:

"Conversion must not take the convert out of the world but rather send Him back into it, the same person in the same world, and yet a new person with new conviction as new standards. If Jesus' first command was 'come!', His second was 'go!', that is, we are to go back to the world out of which we have come, and go back as Christ's ambassadors."

I am humbled, and convicted, over this statement. Jesus never intended for us to find ourselves in the deepest revelation of His love, and then regard ourselves as higher than, or unable to relate to, the world He so graciously lifted us from. Jesus always stayed relevant; He related more to the poor and the sinners than He did to royalty and the well-read. He chose to hang out with tax collectors and make Himself available to adulterous whores rather than spend His time defending Himself or righteously leading the Pharisees. He chose fishermen as His disciples, not rabbis.

The revelation of this this morning absolutely ravages my heart. Coming back from Haiti, I felt so distant from even my close circle of friends; I felt strange and different after the transformation my heart had experienced after becoming so graciously and mercifully engulfed by His flame. At a loss for words to convey the journey I had been enduring, I turned inward; accepting that "they just didn't get it." and making no further motion to use my experience to make God's love relevant and relate to where others were.

The Lord led by example. He walked this earth to let us know that He could relate to us. He suspended His godliness and came as man to be tempted and tried and defeated: only to rise victorious over death and the enemy. In that, He created a bridge to link us to the Father, to close the gap that was once widen with sin. We are called to do the same; we are to be a bridge unto the Father. We are called to live in this world, different and changed, yet with a similar background and a story of how the Father has chosen us to become His beloved children.

Jesus, forgive me of my shortcomings and my self-righteousness. Use my life to bridge the world to you.