GodReflection: Lonely? —Glad you are here, you are family.
Jesus creates a new pathway back to God. He came to show the heart of God. He came to die on a cross as the sacrifice to atone and fix the sin caused by Adam. He came to exit the tomb to demonstrate his power over death. In short, he came to offer eternal life.
He did all of that and more. I am slow to catch on. It’s beginning to dawn upon me that Jesus came to design church and to use his church to cure our loneliness.
For three years, he taught people how to live in community under the rule of God. By sermon, example, miracles, questions, aha moments, and his walk among the crowds he taught people how to be church.
He introduces the God of extraordinary grace through parables. His stories introduce the God who throws a party each time one of us lost creatures return to Father Creator to discover we are not alone.
The design is for his church to live in the same manner as the Father. We are to gush grace onto all humankind. We get to dispense God’s grace to erase loneliness from the lives of those we encounter. Jesus guarantee’s God’s grace and demonstrates it through love, forgiveness, faith, trust, prayer, relationship, hope, and eternity to reassures us we are not alone.
He told the parable of the vine to teach the church’s connection to him and his relationship to the father. His parable about the good shepherd taught his care for the church. As he healed and loved the poor he shares the heart of God. His church is to display the same heart to wipe loneliness from the face of the earth.
He taught that his church should imitate children’s love, innocence, and trust in our walk with God. He taught that his church was to live in peace and use utmost gentleness to reach out to fellow Christ followers who are offensive. All this erases loneliness.
Jesus wants his church to be at peace. So much so that he reminds me to refrain from worship until I make an offence right with someone I may have hurt or offended. As Jesus forgiveness is without limits toward me, so should my forgiveness be without limits toward others. His church is the fellowship of the pure in heart.
The Acts of the Apostles and the New Testament Letters add rich texture to living as the body of Christ. The apostles and other authors of our New Testament didn’t design church. I should never again divorce Jesus of the Gospels from the holy architecture of church design. Acts and The Letters supplement but they do not design.
I must remember—Jesus is the Divine Architect, His design for Church cures our loneliness. He invites you also to be a member of his family—you will be glad you are here—you are family.
Stay tuned.
Gary J. Sorrells
A GodReflection on Jesus’s Cure for Loneliness.
God Reflection 