Shepherd’s Link

May 4, 2007

Shepherd’s Link is a publication by and for the people of Gentle Shepherd MCC.

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For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him God was pleased to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross.

— Colossians 1:9-10 —

I use a software program to reconcile my checking account with the bank, and ever since I installed a new anti-virus software package, the process no longer works. I’ve spent hours on the phone with customer support technicians on all sides of the issue and none of them have been able to solve the problem. It looks like I have discovered an “undocumented feature” of the program (commonly referred to as a bug).

Reconciliation is a powerful word. When you reconcile two accounts you make sure the balance in one adds up to the balance in the other, that there is an agreement—a peace, if you will—between the two. The fullness of one must be contained in the fullness of the other. When the two accounts don’t add up there is no agreement, no peace, no balance between the two and it’s not a pleasant state to be in.

When you think about it, this describes many of our relationships, they are out of balance, broken, at odds, and we desperately need to experience reconciliation in them. We have this out-of-balance condition between ourselves and God, between our family members, and even within ourselves. Sometimes we feel estranged from God; that God has, for some reason, rejected us and left us on our own. Or we might experience a great chasm between ourselves and parents, children, brothers, sisters and friends, especially after we become known to them in new ways. We also have a disconnect between our inner self and our outer self. The way we know ourselves to be on the inside is not at peace with the way we present ourselves on the outside. What are we to do?

Thanks be to God, we have Jesus Christ—the great accountant in the sky—who can take one balance and make up the difference so it adds up to the other balance. The apostle Paul says “God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things.” This means through Christ, God brought everything back to where it needs to be, to its rightful state, its peace-filled state. We can rest assured that the fullness of our being (our spiritual checking account balance) is completely contained and accounted for in the fullness of God (our spiritual bank account balance). From this place of peace we can then experience God’s reconciliation in all of the other places in our lives that are out of balance.

Are you having problems with your family? God has made reconciliation possible. Are you going through an inner turmoil, trying to come to terms with who you are and who the world expects you to be? God has made reconciliation possible. Is God distant from you? God has made reconciliation possible. We think we have to make this reconciliation happen on our own; we think, “If I do such-and-such, then ‘they/she/he/it’ will love me.” This action does not happen because of what we do; it happens by grace and grace alone, because God desires it and makes it happen for us.

May you experience the reconciliation of God in your life today!

Blessings and Peace,