August 2015 Monthly Letter
Dear Reconciler Family,
Worshipers gather to pray in a hotel parking lot across the street from the scene of the massacre. Credit: David Goldman, AP
I always appreciate notes and letters from our supporters. They are uplifting and give us feedback on how we’re doing. Here’s one from Vivian.
Dear Jannice and Curtis,
I’m thankful you are helping reconcile in many communities. I pray God will use you to bring peace in many troubled areas of our nation. I pray, too, that those with whom you have worked will think of peaceful responses to troubled people. I know I have opportunities in my small area of influence to encourage those I see each day, to show love and kindness.
God bless you!
She was alluding to the massacre in Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
In the funeral services for 41-year-old Reverend Clementa Pinckney, he was quoted as having said, “We all have a sense of history, but our own view of history.”
President Obama said, “If we can tap grace, everything can change.” He went on to say, “We’ve had many civil rights bills but it’s not in bills, it’s a heart thing. It takes action.”
What kind of action does it take to have a more peaceful society? And what kind of heart does it take?
Here are just a few passages from the Word of God that point the way in answering these two questions.
The apostle Paul wrote about the kind of heart Christ wants us to have. In 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 he wrote, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God was making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
A good ambassador properly represents his leader and his country. Jesus is our leader and king. We represent him wherever we go. Our greatest desire should be to live as he lived (Jesus in us) and show the world the heart of God. The country we represent is heaven. Doesn’t your heart just beat to see our Master in heaven and hear him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant…”?
The action that we must take daily is to love and treat every human being with dignity and respect. We must see everyone we meet as a child of God. And even though they may not have come to Christ, the hope is that they all will. Because Jesus loves every one of us, and while we were yet sinners he died for us all.
What a blessing it has been to see God’s grace in action during the last month in Charleston, South Carolina. May that same grace, love and peace of God always dwell in our hearts.
Blessings to you all,
