The Ministry of Reconciliation-Gleanings

If you’ve been through my other study on the Holy Spirit that was written beginning March 2011, you’ll know that it is my practice at the end of a study to review what I’ve learned and see where I have grown in my faith.  I call this process "gleanings," after the practice described in Leviticus 19:10 and Ruth 2.  Though we have gathered our spiritual fruit, there may be some left that you don’t want to leave behind. 

In the introduction to this study, I mentioned that my questions about verse 18 from 2 Corinthians lead me to further investigate what the ministry of reconciliation is.  Hopefully by now through your study you have your own answers about this ministry and have determined if you are administering it the way God desires you to.  During this time I have been given opportunities to witness my faith to my friends and I’m glad to have considered these things in this season. 

Get out your notes, your bible, and walk back through the last few months of time with God with me to see what He has taught us.

Prepare your heart: Read 2 Cornithians 5-6:13 slowly and prayerfully, asking God the questions you still have, thanking Him for the things you now see.  A good song to use for this worship time might be Give Yourself Away by Robbie Seay Band (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7QNhJWH07k).

1.        Context- in reading about the argument in the chapter, you were to come up with questions and make a plan for your personal ministry.  Did you follow through with that?  Are your questions answered?

2.       Audience-in the second week of our study we learned about Paul’s relationship with this church.  Have your emotions changed in respect to friends who don’t know the Lord around you?  A greater desire to share your love for Him with others is one indicator of spiritual growth.

3.       Reconciliation-in the third week we studied this term.  Could you at this point explain to someone else why they need Jesus?  What sin and the covering of His blood really means?  Review some of these verses if you still aren’t sure: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31, 1 Peter 2:24, Hebrews 4:15, Galatians 3:14, Romans 8:1-4

4.       Ambassadors: What does being God’s ambassador mean? Review Hebrews 11:13-16, John 14:2-3 and 18:36.

5.       Peace in Relationships-next we read 2 Corinthians 6:1-13.  A key concept in this chapter was living as not to cause offense so the truth of God’s good news through you wouldn’t cause offense (v.3).  Have you made any changes to your life in the hopes of winning some to the Lord.  Review 1 Corinthians 10:32.

6.       Marriage- in living with your spouse, you were to determine which areas in were a struggle.  How are you doing in this regard?  Have things changed even in small ways?

7.       Parenting- what about your relationship with your children?  In reviewing aspects of this relationship are you raising them the way you want to?  Have they seen a change in you? 

8.       Other believers-we ended the study in thinking how we treat other Christians, sometimes the hardest for us to love.  Review Romans 12:9-10, Ephesians 4:31-32, and 1 John 4:7-21. 

I can’t remember what book it was, but this imagery has stuck with me. It talked about the Christian heart as an overflowing well.  If our hearts are full of God’s love, glory and grace, if we are filled to capacity, we will receive more and it will spill over and out of our lives into others.  My prayer through this study is that you would take hold of your calling and that His words of life will spill out into the lives of others—those who don’t know Him and those who do. 

If you’ve gone though this whole study and haven’t done or said one thing to anyone, then why?  Is it fear orfrejection?  Do you feel like you aren’t prepared?  Do you think someone has already heard?  As His ambassador you are in a unique place for the work He has for you.  Ephesians 2:10 says For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.  It is my prayer that through this study the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people (1 Thessalonians 3:12). If you really love someone, you will give them the words of reconciliation, though your actions and through the ones that come out of your mouth.  You must trust God to do with that what He wants with those words, as it is His ministry for you.  I think there is no better words to end this study with than with Paul’s from 1 Corinthians 9:15-24:

¹⁶ For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. ¹⁷ For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. ¹⁸ What then is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

¹⁹ For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. ²⁰ To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under^]the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; ²¹ to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. ²² To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. ²³ I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

²⁴ Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. ²⁵ Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. ²⁶ Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; ²⁷ but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.