Living as a Family on Mission

Your-Faith.org

Those connected to Our Savior's Palm Springs will grow as followers of Jesus exhibiting an ever increasing AUTHENTICITY, EMBODIMENT and RESTORATION as disciples.

Restoration: By this we mean

· People who view themselves as sacraments in this world that bring the kingdom of God every place they go.

· People who are equipped to live as and make disciples.

· People who reflect a holy character as they live life together.

Restoration

What does it mean to be restored - to live in the power of the Resurrection of Christ? t I'm trying to figure that out. I love what John Eldredge says about this in his short book Epic :

Look at the life of Jesus. Notice what he did. When Jesus touched the blind, they could see; all the beauty of the world opened before them. When he touched the deaf, they were able to hear; for the first time in their lives they heard laughter and music and their children's voices.

He touched the lame, and they jumped to their feet and began to dance. And he called the dead back to life and gave them to their families.

Do you see? Wherever humanity was broken, Jesus restored it. He is giving us an illustration here, and there, and there again. The coming of the kingdom of God restores the world he made.

God has been whispering this secret to us through creation itself, every year, at springtime, ever since we left the Garden. Sure, winter has its certain set of joys. The wonder of snowfall at midnight, the rush of a sled down a hill, the magic of the holidays. But if winter ever came for good and never left, we would be desolate. Every tree leafless, every flower gone, the grasses on the hillsides dry and brittle. The world forever cold, silent, bleak.

After months and months of winter, I long for the return of summer. Sunshine, warmth, color, and the long days of adventure together. The garden blossoms in all its beauty. The meadows soft and green. Vacation. Holiday. Isn't this what we most deeply long for? To leave the winter of the world behind, what Shakespeare called "the winter of our discontent," and find ourselves suddenly in the open meadows of summer?

If we listen, we will discover something of tremendous joy and wonder. The restoration of the world played out before us each spring and summer is precisely what God is promising us about our lives. Every miracle Jesus ever did was pointing to this Restoration, the day he makes all things new.

God's kingdom is near. God is a work all around us and we are his hands and feet, His sacraments in the world that bring God's live, grace and forgiveness every place we go. What a privilege we have to bring His presence embodied in us to the places we go in our live. As we do this we also bring restoration to a broken world. God is restoring the world through us. He first creates in us a holy character in us, pushing sin aside more and more each day. Then with our identity secure in Him we live lives of authenticity, embodying Jesus, and bring restoration. What a glorious opportunity to be used by God.