Redemption Missiles

When I was growing up my mom used to collect Blue Chip Stamps whenever she bought groceries. Then she'd paste them in a little Blue Chip Stamp booklet and redeem them for merchandise like fancy vases she'd use for gift giving.I even got a few booklets of Blue Chip Stamps as a wedding present from one of Mom's friends so I could redeem the stamps for something I'd cherish as a new bride.Easter expands the idea of redemption to a whole new level of hugeness—the death and resurrection of Jesus that, if we so choose, we can redeem for eternal life.Once you participate in redemption by choice, you find your story inserted into God's story......a cosmic story that is still redeeming all THINGS:

• your thoughts
• your emotions
• your choices
• your sons and daughters
• your friends
• your neighborhood
• your world
• even your garden (see Romans 8:22-23).

Redemption Missiles

Tish Harrison Warren writes,

Redemption is crashing into our little stretch of the universe, bit by bit, day by day, mile by coming mile.

WHEN we choose to personally apply the redemption of Jesus Christ to our own lives, a force of grace continually radiates from the God who lives within us towards anyone that we encounter.Those people you love? They're on God's radar. He's after them.The Holy Spirit inside you loads up His grace and launches it like a redemption missile of love toward an unexpecting target.Picture it in your imagination—God's grace shooting forth from your heart and crashing into someone who needs a massive dose of God's acceptance.

For the [remarkable, undeserved] grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men (Titus 2:11 AMP).

That's a lot of grace. Enough to land salvation in the lap of every single man, woman, and child who has ever lived or will live.Once it lands, it ignites—engaging the person in the greatest love story of all time. AND it's still being written.

What about you?

I know there are certain people in your life that you worry about. Wondering if they'll ever choose redemption.I also know that you can't force them to choose God's story. It has to be their choice.But you can pray something like this:

Holy Spirit, may Your grace once again target ___(name of person)___, and overwhelm him/her with Your love, acceptance, and peace.May your grace missile ignite their heart to seek You until they find You.May they feel the passion that drove You to lay down Your life for their redemption.And may Your story capture their heart and draw them into Your arms.

This Easter expect the grace of God to encounter those you love and walk among.God's got a place in His story that is waiting for them.Hugs,Susan