2 Corinthians 5:18-20

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:  that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

From Background Notes [BN] for November 9^th & 10^th  written by Pastor Bob Brown:

We, the church, have been given the ministry of showing other people how God wants to make them His friends! That’s what Paul means by “the ministry of reconciliation.”

Reconciliation means “making friends out of enemies.” We are God’s friendship ambassadors, and through the way we receive outsiders into our community, God is making His appeal of friendship to them. That means a willingness to absorb the insult of human sin and to carry the burden of sinful lives so that God’s enemies might become His friends as we have. Such persons might well be angry with God and distrustful of the church. They might fear religion and religious people. They might find church a strangely different place and wonder what kind of God lives here. They may ask us provocative questions and challenge some of our closely-held beliefs. If we are faithful to the ministry of friendship, then, like God, we will “not count their trespasses against them.” [BN,5]

Join us this week in Study, Worship, Praise and Celebration at Chicago First Church of the Nazarene:

* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 8:30am & 11:00am