Joining Jesus

[Note: I started writing this blog in hopes of getting to a very specific point. However, as I was writing, the Holy Spirit dropped an entirely different direction on me. So that is what is here. The shift happened about the third paragraph. I was not able to finish my original thought about language, and hopefully I'll get back to that in another post, but I am so thankful the Holy Spirit is at work, teaching me to follow Jesus. I pray He helps you see Jesus clearly through what He has shown me today.]

Language matters. A lot.

It may seem like a picky, but the words we use to describe concepts dramatically affect our understanding of those concepts. Inherently, words have no meaning apart from the concepts they label. It is the concept that carries the value. That is why we teach children to speak by identifying an object & associating it with a word. The word identifies the underlying concept. We teach children their body parts: Nose. Tummy. Fingers. Bottom. We teach them shapes and colors: Red Circle. Blue Square. Orange Triangle. And we teach them animals: Dog. Elephant. Bunny. Lion.

From the very beginning, this has been the case. God creates light, and He "called the light day, and the darkness He called night" (Gen 1:4).  He separates the waters; "He called the dry land earth, and the gathering of waters He called sea" (Gen 1:10). And the story goes on. What is interesting, though, is that God stops "naming" things specifically, and starts describing the types of things He is making: "vegetation," "plants yielding seed," "fruit trees bearing fruit," "swarms of living creatures," "birds," "great sea monsters," "every winged bird," "living creatures," "cattle," "creeping things," "beasts of the earth" (Gen 1:11-24) -- you get the point. The he creates man and calls him Adam. And to Adam God gives the responsibility of naming every creature: "Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called the living creature, that was its name" (Gen 1:19). God entrusted to Adam the priviledge and great responsibility of participating in the work He begun--not because He is incapable, but because He desires to bring us into the good work He is doing.

God enjoys inviting us into His work. We see it with Adam. We see it with Moses.  We see it with David. We see it with the Prophets. And now, we are invited to participate in bringing the good news of the salvation of God through His Son Jesus to a lost & dying world. We get to participate in God's good work now! Paul says this so clearly & powerfully in II Corinthians 5:

For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconcilling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (II Corinthians 5:14-21)

By the blood of Jesus, I have been invited to join God in what He is doing here & now--reconciling the world to Himself.  Not only am I invited to join Him, He has entrusted me with the good news of the kingdom of God!
He has committed to us the word of reconciliation! (NASB)
He gave us the ministry of reconciliation! (ESV)
He has given us this task of reconciling people to Him! (NLT)
The responsibility of the gospel is now with us. The followers of Jesus are to be the ministers of reconciliation, the heralds of good news, the light of the world. We don't do this because we are the hope--we don't proclaim ourselves--but we tell of what we have seen, testify about what we know--that Jesus Christ Himself is the hope for every man, woman, boy, and girl! The message is so simple: "be reconciled to God." The message is so urgent: "we beg you." The message has so much authority: "on behalf of Christ."

Though not adequate, God "has made us adequate as servants of a new covenant" (II Cor 3:6). And so we carry the truth of the gospel--the good news that Jesus has made it possible for us to be right with God--to a lost, broken & dying world. But not just any lost, broken & dying. God has charged me to carry the gospel to mine. To the people in my radius. The people I see and talk to and interact with every day. I must be present with them. There's probably another whole blog to be written on this topic, but I'll leave it there for now.

God has called us to join Him. He has equipped us (and is equipping us) for the good work He desires to do through us. So let's join Him, knowing that we are not going at this alone! After all, it is His work.