Redemption and Revelation, Beauty and Brokenness, Healing and Wholeness…

These are what Incarnational Living is all about.  But if they are not our actual experience of life with God, if they’re only abstract descriptions of what the Christian life is supposed to be about, then ours is a truncated life.  For me, it all starts with a familiar passage, Isaiah 61:1-4:

“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
² to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
³ to provide for those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.
⁴ They shall build up the ancient ruins,
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.”

As I said, if we have no experience of the hand of God bestowing favor and blessing upon us, then we have no real hope to offer the oppressed, the broken-hearted, the captives, the prisoners, the mourning or the faint.

I want this space to be a forum for discussions on how we as Christ-followers can live in this reality day in and day out, and on how  His favor and blessing transform us from within in order that we may be a blessing in the world–indeed, the very presence of Christ in the world.

We are the Church, the redeemed, the formerly oppressed, broken-hearted, captive, mourning and faint, destined by and through Christ’s indwelling Presence to be “oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.”  We shall be those who “build up the ancient ruins.”