The world is pretty messed up. We don’t need to look far to find racial conflict, injustices, corruption, poverty, hatred and environmental degradation in our Malaysian society.
It’s easy to get really upset and angry about what’s wrong with the world. We all hope and yearn for a better world to live in.
If our hunger points to food and our thirst points to water, could our desire for a "better world" be a clue to something else? Perhaps we have forgotten how it once looked like.
Created For Good
At the very beginning, God worked creatively to get the universe up and running. He also made people in His own likeness so that we could enjoy a loving relationship with God, with each other and be His partners in eco-management - caring and ruling the earth. It was designed to be a place of beauty, abundance and harmony.
Broken By Evil
Until the day when everything went terribly wrong. We decided to run our lives apart from God and became self-centered. But there is no happiness apart from God. As a result, we seek our own good above others' and exploit natural resources in greed. Death, sorrow and sickness entered the world. The wonderful relationship with God, with each other and with nature was tragically broken.
Rescued By Grace
But God loved the world too much to leave it that way so he came to our rescue in the person of Jesus. Not because of how good, humble or smart we are. He lived the perfect life of love that we should have lived. He died the sacrificial death that we should have died for our wrong doing. Through his death on the cross and coming back to life again, Jesus restored our relationship with God and broke down the walls of hatred that divide us from each other and the entire creation.
Renewed To Change Together
The renewal of a “better world” that reached its climax in the death and resurrection of Jesus will be fully completed in the future. In the meantime, Jesus invites you and I to follow after Him and sends us out as His people of healing justice to transform relationships, social systems and environmental stewardship.
It's not about us or our selfish agenda.
It's all about God and His Kingdom for the world.
Where are you in this Story? Will you be part of this revolution of grace?
Darlene asked me to write something about God's Story for the new church plant website. (Yes, I would be part of a church planting effort in Puchong starting from March 2010 so TheAgora may be orphaned soon but we're still thinking thru how it might fit the young church... or maybe not!) This draft gospel presentation was inspired by the 'Four Circles' developed by James Choung. I tried to contextualize a tad for Msians so your feedbacks would be most welcome!
It’s easy to get really upset and angry about what’s wrong with the world. We all hope and yearn for a better world to live in.
If our hunger points to food and our thirst points to water, could our desire for a "better world" be a clue to something else? Perhaps we have forgotten how it once looked like.
Created For Good
At the very beginning, God worked creatively to get the universe up and running. He also made people in His own likeness so that we could enjoy a loving relationship with God, with each other and be His partners in eco-management - caring and ruling the earth. It was designed to be a place of beauty, abundance and harmony. Broken By Evil
Until the day when everything went terribly wrong. We decided to run our lives apart from God and became self-centered. But there is no happiness apart from God. As a result, we seek our own good above others' and exploit natural resources in greed. Death, sorrow and sickness entered the world. The wonderful relationship with God, with each other and with nature was tragically broken. Rescued By Grace
But God loved the world too much to leave it that way so he came to our rescue in the person of Jesus. Not because of how good, humble or smart we are. He lived the perfect life of love that we should have lived. He died the sacrificial death that we should have died for our wrong doing. Through his death on the cross and coming back to life again, Jesus restored our relationship with God and broke down the walls of hatred that divide us from each other and the entire creation. Renewed To Change Together
The renewal of a “better world” that reached its climax in the death and resurrection of Jesus will be fully completed in the future. In the meantime, Jesus invites you and I to follow after Him and sends us out as His people of healing justice to transform relationships, social systems and environmental stewardship. It's not about us or our selfish agenda.
It's all about God and His Kingdom for the world.
Where are you in this Story? Will you be part of this revolution of grace?
Darlene asked me to write something about God's Story for the new church plant website. (Yes, I would be part of a church planting effort in Puchong starting from March 2010 so TheAgora may be orphaned soon but we're still thinking thru how it might fit the young church... or maybe not!) This draft gospel presentation was inspired by the 'Four Circles' developed by James Choung. I tried to contextualize a tad for Msians so your feedbacks would be most welcome!
Comments
Thanks for dropping by at my new blog too! And you actually recognized me! Been out of the blogging scene for awhile, so hopefully I can get back to being a part of the conversation through this new blog (no longer as sojourner at wingedseeds.. hehe) and through interactions with other blogs.
Yes, I've been wondering why all these exciting things are happening in Malaysia while I'm away! e.g. the A Rocha conference, Ron Choong's talks etc.
How are you doing back there?