“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”(2 Cor 5:20 NKJV)
One of the themes that strongly flowed through this year’s Camp Meeting was that of our call to be ‘ambassadors for Christ, reconciling humanity to God’. The messages delivered by Ps. Tom Messer, Bishop Harry & Doreen Westcott, Rev. Dr. John Hoskin and myself, all lifted and challenged everyone who had gathered for this wonderful week of ministry to the whole family.
How quickly we become distracted from our role as ambassadors and find ourselves bogged down in church politics, religious me-ism mentalities, church programming, and a maintenance approach to church life. It’s so easy to lose your sense of appreciation that Jesus came and reconciled us to himself, so that we could become ambassadors proclaiming the goodness, compassion, mercy, peace, joy, strength and the forgiveness of God, which is only found in personal relationship with Jesus the Christ. God loves humanity! God loves the unlovable; He is a friend of sinners! God reached out from beyond the throne of heaven to engage with us on our level through Jesus. We too must step out from behind our religious piety and our walls of spiritual superiority if we are truly going to engage with the very people that Jesus gave His life for, as ambassadors of this treasured message called the Gospel of Christ.
How much of our spiritual lives are focused around our needs rather than the needs of others? How much of our proclamation of the Kingdom is done within the walls of the church? Are our lives one of testimony to the goodness of God or do they blend into the world in which we live – separated only by our religious commitment to attend Church? Hard questions I know and ones that we don’t like to confront, but my friends we live in a day when the people of the world, more than ever, need to encounter ambassadors of the Kingdom, not policemen defending a God that does not need to be defended or religious hoarders of the treasured message of the Kingdom. Our lives must shine the light of the Gospel into the darkness in which we live, not be hidden within the confines of a church building from where they shine dimly at best through shuttered and locked windows.
Won’t you step out of your comfort zone my precious friends, God’s world needs you! You were created to shine not blend in, or be buried under religious legalism. You are God’s ambassador – won’t you stand up, step out and allow God to use your life to draw many into the kingdom of his love?
Blessings to you all - Jeffrey