Freedom for Mission: A Word from Curt Solomon

I've been deeply struck this week as I have been preparing for communion.  We pray each week to God our Father, saying--- “In your infinite love you made us for yourself…”  I have been marinating in what it means to be made FOR God.  We talk a lot about being made in His image, and we are "created in Christ Jesus to do good works that He has prepared in advance for us to do.”  We also talk a lot about His deep love for us and that He rescued us from sin and death.  But, I don’t often spend much time processing through the idea that God made us for Himself.  He made you and me for His pleasure and His desire.  He not only desires us enough to redeem us from our sinfulness, but He loves so deeply that He made us to experience the complete love that Father, Son and Holy Spirit share in relationship together.  He made us FOR Himself.  He desires us, supports us, dreams for us, encourages us and gets excited us?  He created us so that He could have relationship with us and and delight in us.  It bends my mind around and around trying to grasp.

Isn’t this understanding of our relationship with God, and the intimacy that He desires from us, pointing us toward being freed up?  Freed up like we talked about in Deuteronomy 15 and the cancelling of debts every 7 years.  Free to grow and change and, yes, mess up, but also free to ask for help from the community around us.  Not only were the people encouraged to cancel debts in those years, but they were also encouraged to help when a brother or sister was in need.  It seems like this is what Freedom for Mission is hoping for us as a community: Freeing up the debt that our community holds so that we can actually do a far better and more thorough job of being ready to serve, care for and be a resource for our neighbors near and far.

God made us for Himself.  We are His and He desires deep intimacy with us.  The questions I ask myself are: Being made for God, how am I following His example of forgiveness for purposes of reconciliation? And, how are my family and I being called to live out God’s desires and dreams for us in the context of the Apostles community?

Your brother in Christ,

Curt