echoes of redemption

Late last night, I got an email from a pastor friend about the header here at EchoesOfRedemption.com:

Not sure I can put it into words… the quote – speaks to me about painting a picture that captures the imagination. the pic – picture of what was once imagined being realized and it being even better than once thought.

I wake up in the middle of the night dreaming of what God is doing. I want others to do the same. We are not there yet.

Everyone views that image differently, but here’s the ethos behind the picture to me (and my reply to my friend):

“Missions is less about the transportation of God from one place to another and more about the identification of a God who is already there. You see God where others don’t And then you point him out.” – Rob Bell.

So, yes, we’re painting a picture – and it’s a picture of what we see God already doing. Jonathan Edwards believed that no man can, of himself, come to God. That by the time a man makes a decision for God, the Holy Spirit is deeply at work in his life (for what sinful man would willfully choose God?). The choice itself is an act of grace.

There are so many implications to this belief – chief of which, is that God is working in the “non-believer’s” life as much as he is in the “believer’s” life. And that maybe those terms are entirely too small to encapsulate all God is doing.

And maybe the Spirit is at work all around us and maybe our job as pastors is to be tour-guides for our cities to see and experience this God that is larger than any of us could ever imagine.

God always hears the cry of the oppressed. And we see lack of access to clean water as fundamentally oppressive.

So when water bursts forth, redemption comes with every drop. And God is at work.

With 1 in 6 people globally lacking access to clean water, there is already a crises. But the future doesn’t look any better.

60% of the world is in danger of water shortages or contamination.

And here’s why:

You can also learn more  here. And do something about it here:

Start making a difference today, by myCharityWater.org

This is Caroline. Beautiful smile, right? She’s smiling because she’s drinking clean water for the first time. She used to walk three hours every day to fetch dirty water. But not anymore. Her village just got a well. Clean water will change everything for Caroline and her community. For every Caroline, there are millions more children hoping to smile like that. Almost a billion people on the planet don’t have clean water right now. Who knows how many people you will impact. This is where it begins. Start a campaign, create a group, invite your friends. Give up your birthday, climb a mountain and run a marathon. And smile. Because what you do here changes lives. 

-mycharity: water team.