Restoration

I have been focusing much of my time looking at what it means to live out the value of restoration.  This is through the restoration of our relationship with God, community, ourselves, and creation.  So often we neglect to live out the wholeness that the Lord has called us to, for we focus so much time and energy into our personal relationship with the Lord -- but then forget about that relationship being intricately woven together with community and creation.

In the book of Jeremiah 30.17 it says: "For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, says the Lord, because they have called you an outcast: 'It is Zion; no one cares for her!'"  Here the Lord is saying that he will restore the Israelites health, heal their wounds, and restore their status.  God's restoration is holistic ----- it is a restoration of our relationship with creation, with community, and with ourselves.

Lesslie Newbigin writes: "To man thus in bondage and in self-contradiction, the message of salvation is sent.  Salvation means that man is released from this bondage, and that the contradictions of which we have spoken are overcome ..... It means the healing of that which is wounded, the mending of that which is broken, the setting free of that which is bound."

We believe that we are called to live lives of restoration ------ where we live as God's ambassadors in the world ------- offering healing, health, and the restoration of the status of people as children of God.  The Lord has called us to live lives of embodying hope ------ therefore the miracle of restoration can be seen through our actions and words.

An important part of our restoration with creation is our willingness to live simplified lives.  Therefore, we are called to re-use, recycle, and re-purpose.  Because God's restoration is holistic we also know that it is of vital importance that we live out our calling of restoration through simple actions that benefit all of the world.