Religion can be a dangerous thing. The religious leaders of first-century Israel had taken their expression of religion so far from God’s intention that Jesus considered them cursed (listen to yesterday’s sermon here). In our day, many people are turned away from religion because what they see is a far cry from what God intended it to be. Even followers of Jesus can go off the rails by majoring on the minors and minoring on the majors.
What the world desperately needs to see, and what Christians desperately need to experience, is an authentic faith that organically overflows into a life of warm devotion to God and loving, sacrificial concern for others. This is precisely what Jesus came to bring. He came to give people a new heart and a new spirit that would transform us from the inside out and show the world what true human life was meant to be.
The offense of the gospel is that we all need to be remade. The promise and hope of the gospel is that God will do this very thing. On the cross, Jesus was undone, transformed into a broken and mangled reflection of human life, so that we who are broken and mangled could be transformed into his glory and beauty.
May this hope sustain you through another week, and may the Spirit transform us, be it ever so slowly, into purer reflections of his love and light.
Journey Together cohort
Redeemer West Side has been invited to participate in a pilot program aimed at normalizing conversations about death and dying in the church, and to participate in end-of-life learning together as a community. This program is an initiative by Here to Honor, a startup founded by Eva Ting (former W83 Director) and was incubated in the RWS Incubator last year.
Upcoming Events
- Mar 31 | Coffee Club
- Apr 2 | Palm Sunday Service
- Apr 7 | Good Friday Services
- Apr 9 | Easter Services
- Apr 23 | New at RWS
- Apr 23 | Volunteer Choir Info Session
- Apr 23 | Mercy & Justice Highlight: Young Life Info Session
