Redeeming the Time: Changing the World

This Sunday, you will not really be able to grasp the week's theme without reading the Scriptures from all the sectors: Old Testament, Psalms, Gospel and Epistle. So here they all are:

• Old Testament: Isa. 13:6 - 13
• Psalms: Ps. 103 & 98
  
• Epistle: Heb. 12:18 - 29
• Gospel: John 3:22 - 30

Just as it is difficult to imagine what the world was like before the Fall, so it is difficult for us to imagine the magnitude of the changes Jesus brought in His first coming. The Scriptures tell us that they were changes as fundamental as the changes wrought at the Fall, or the Flood.

Jesus Incarnate brings us a world and a relationship with God that is as different from the best that was possible before as night and day. And while the ruin of the old world falls around us, we find that not only are we unscathed, we are unshackled.

No longer do we fear the voice of the Lord. No longer are we shaken by His judgements on the wicked, because we possess and identify with the Word, the Rock that cannot be shaken. That is why this Sunday's theme is Joy.

So for Friday, consider these Scriptures, and ask yourself:

• Where is the rubble falling in my life?
• What evil have I been rescued from this year?
• How will I joy in the freedom from sin and/or ignorance that these bring?
• How has Jesus' identification with me in my flesh-bound existence changed my world?
• How will I express this change, and my joy in it?

Come back Friday to share your ideas.