Join the Symphony.

Tom Wright said that if history is a symphony, in the death and resurrection of Christ the symphony changes from a minor key to a major key.

God's redemption is a moment in our lives. It is the moment we believe in the blood of Christ to save us from the wrath of God and slavery to sin. But redemption is also a movement. It is a continuous restoring of all things back to their intended order.

I am always astounded(I supposes I shouldn't be) at the 'allness' of the atonement. The vocab for God's redemption at the cross touches every part of our lives and every part of our world. To redeem is an economic word. To justify is a legal word. To reconcile is a family word. To expiate is a religious word. And the list goes on, but the point is that God is still redeeming every part of us and of our world.

The major scale still has some minors. The symphony is certainly not completely resolved. Injustice,abuse, poverty, sickness and brokenness still prevail in a myriad ways. But the overall theme of our symphony is hopeful because God overcame sin at the cross, and is including us in his redemptive symphony to His world.

Many Christians do not recognize that salvation is not just being redeemed from something,and given a ticket to heaven, but also being included in God's redemptive movement.

When we read in 1 Corinthians, 'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him," we often think it is talking about going to heaven one day. Actually it is quoting Isaih 64, "Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down...for no eye has seen, no ear has heard..."

It is a prayer for the breaking in of God's redemptive movement on earth. It is a prayer for the symphony to crescendo into a hopeful anthem of Jesus' redeeming power.
This is why we pray. We believe that the symphony is not done yet. We believe there is so much more that God wants redeem in His world. And we want to be a part of it. Will you join the symphony?

And if you live in the L.A/O.C. area, we invite you to join us this Friday at 7pm at Southlands Church as we pray that God would 'rend the heavens and come down."
www.southlands.net