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When the now-famous poet Elizabeth Barrett became the wife of Robert Browning, her parents disowned her because they disapproved of the marriage. Their daughter Elizabeth, however, wrote almost every week, telling them that she loved them and longed for a reconciliation. After 10 years, she received a huge box in the mail that contained all the notes she had sent. Not one had been opened! Although these "love letters" have now become a precious part of classical English literature, it’s really sad to think that they were never read by Elizabeth Barrett’s own parents. Had they looked at just one, the broken relationship with their daughter might have been healed.
All of us are alienated from God because of sin, but God has provided a way of reconciliation. In the Bible, He tells about it, and also expresses His earnest desire for fellowship with us.
With his life in disarray, Steven Lavaggi sat on his bedroom’s wooden floor, and began searching his Bible for answers. His wife had just left him to marry a writer for The Rolling Stone Magazine. Ten days later, Steven discovered his son was stricken with Juvenile Diabetes. As if coping with the personal crisis wasn’t enough, Lavaggi also lost his graphic art business.
Unemployed, abandoned, and worrying about his son, Lavaggi turned to God’s Word. As Steven read, he skipped over the black letters, only wanting to read the words of Jesus. The Risen Christ emerged from the pages. Lavaggi gave his life to Jesus.
As a new Christian, he clung to Psalms 91:11: "For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." Out of his brokenness, came a passion to create and message of hope. He left the lucrative world of graphic art to become a fine artist.
Since Steven’s passion is to minister through fine art, he moved to California, to influence the people who influence the world--Hollywood.
He is doing just that. The response to his work is overwhelming. Inspired by the Psalmist’s words he painted a 4’ X 5’ angel. When a friend encouraged him to make the image three dimensional, he collaborated with a sculptor, and together they cast the angel.
While speaking to a crowd of thirty-five hundred natives in Soweto, South Africa, Lavaggi held a 20" sculpture of a black angel above his head. When he did, the crowd erupted with enthusiasm. A man on the stage told him that just a few days before, a preacher had said, "One of the things we need is for international artists to express the love of God through art, perhaps even painting angels in black." When Lavaggi heard this, he grabbed a 20" white angel, held it above his head and said, "these angels were created to be like brothers and sisters, even as we are supposed to be." Later, as he reflected on the day, he decided to call the sculptures, "The Angels of Reconciliation."
His creation graces the cover of the Winter 2000 GROWING CHURCHES magazine and two 20" bronze statues are in the city of Lake Village, Arkansas symbolizing the hope of racial reconciliation in the deep South.
Steven’s message would not exist without his passion! His message is easy to see-it is in the light, but remember, his passion was born in the dark, on a wooden floor while he grieved the loss of his wife, his job and his son’s health. Through the struggle, he gained a passion, and today, he is changing the world.
True Confession and Repentance:
True confession is not the mere mental assent that we
have done wrong, for even a thief will admit he’s done
wrong in the bragging of his accomplishments. No,
confession means seeing and agreeing with God how our
sins have harmed us and others. It is pouring out our
shame and deep sorrow to the Lord over our misdeeds.
It is repenting of our evil ways, turning around and
doing what’s right and good, and it’s seeking
reconciliation with others and our God.
This is repentance the leads to life, whereas the
thief’s boasting leads only to further alienation
from God. As the Bible says, “Godly sorrow brings
repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no
regret, but worldly sorrow brings death”
(1Corinthians 7.10).
LOVE LETTER IGNORED- COMMUNION MEDITATION
When Robert Browning came into her life, Elizabeth Barrett was a 39-year-old invalid. Daughter of a jealous & dominating father, her first 4 books of poetry had been published when she was just 12 years old. At 15 she injured her spine, & the resulting confinement in London affected her lungs, & she came to be regarded as a permanent invalid, doomed to spend her life in bed. But still she kept writing.
As time passed, the grief caused by the drowning of a brother, & her father’s refusal to allow any of his children to marry made her a recluse. Nearing 40, she seemed destined for a life of helplessness & gloom.
But the publication of one of her books brought about a correspondence with another poet, a man by the name of Robert Browning. He visited her, & then they wrote often to each other, with him encouraging her to try to get out of bed & make every effort to resume a normal life. But this met with strong resistance from her parents. And they resented Robert for even suggesting it.
They refused to allow him to visit her again, but the correspondence continued, & soon they were in love. Finally, more than a year later, she escaped the possessive vigilance of her father & they were secretly married. They immediately moved to Italy, & in that sunny climate it wasn’t long until she was strong & active once again.
Her parents disowned her, but she wrote almost every week, telling them that she loved them & longed for a reconciliation. After 10 years of writing to them, she received a huge box in the mail that contained all the letters she had ever sent. Not a one of them had been opened!
Although these "love letters" have now become a precious part of English literature, it’s sad to know that they were never read by her parents. Had they looked at just one, the broken relationship with their daughter might have been healed.
But no, they wouldn’t & they didn’t. We hear a story like that & we think, “Oh, what a pitiful story. What a pitiful thing for her parents to be like that.” You’re right. But let me ask you, “Is it poss...
You could think about it like this: The reconciliation from God is not so much like today’s Aboriginal reconciliation debate. It’s more like the story of an Aboriginal man the white men named Bill. He was alive at the end of the nineteenth century. He lived a traditional life on the land somewhere around where modern-day
Taree is. The only difference was, his tribe had been contacted by two catholic missionaries who told them the Gospel, and they accepted it. Bill learnt English, and while he still lived his traditional life, he had some contact with white civilisation.
Two pastoralists tended some of the land near where Bill’s tribe hunted and spent most of their time. They decided, and we don’t know if it’s true or not, that Bill’s people had stolen three sheep from their properties. Feeling quite justified about what they were about to do, they took their shotguns and killed ten members of Bill’s tribe during the night, including two of his sons. When the local authorities got wind of the massacre, the press ran a story about it. The pastoralists had been arrested, and
the paper quoted them as saying, something like, "There’s nothing wrong with it. They were only niggers." The journalist went out to see the remainder of Bill’s tribe,no doubt expecting to be able to write that they weren’t really people at all - they couldn’t speak properly, they lived like savages. When he got there, Bill spoke to
him, and the journalist was taken aback that this nigger could speak so well. In the paper a few days later, a story appeared about this interview with Bill. The article recorded that the journalist had asked Bill what he wanted to say to the two pastoralist, the two men who had killed his family and were proud of the fact. Bill replied in his simple English, "I don’t like what they did, but that’s alright. I just want to be their friend."
"I forgive them," Bill was saying. It goes against this world’s way of thinking, doesn’t it? You only need to be nice to people who are nice to you. If somebody does something wrong against you, you should fight for your rights, fight for punishment, not forgive. Those two pastoralists were by no means asking for forgiveness. They weren’t even sorry. And that’s exactly the situation we were in when God offered us reconciliation.
"Here are at least two good things that middle age gives you: the inestimable boon of freedom, and the precious gift of laughter. What makes youth unhappy is its desire to be like everybody else; what makes middle age tolerable is its reconciliation with oneself."
William Matthews
Why did the Magi come?
They were looking for “Messiah the Prince” of Daniel’s
prophecy
An examination of Daniel’s prophecy shows why
they expected Jesus at this time
Daniel 9:24-26 - “Seventy weeks are determined
upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the
transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to
make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in
everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision
and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know
therefore and understand, that from the going forth
of the commandment to restore and to build
Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be
seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the
street shall be built again, and the wall, even in
troublous times. And after threescore and two
weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself:
and the people of the prince that shall come shall
destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end
thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of
the war desolations are determined.”
It would be 69 “weeks” from King Cyrus’ decree to send a remnant back to Jerusalem under Ezra & Nehemiah to
restore the city & the temple until the saviour came.
Prophetically - 1 week = 7 years
69x7=483 years
The wise men kept track from generation to generation
for 483 years and knew the time was at hand for
Daniel’s prophecy to be fulfilled & now came
seeking.
They did not follow star - simply saw star in the east
Appeared to signal them to start
already knew seeking King of the Jews
naturally went to Jewish capital
Only when came to Bethlehem did star
lead & stop over where Jesus was
Amy Biehl died a violent death in 1993. She was a 26-year-old Fulbright scholar who had gone to South Africa to help register black voters for their first free election. But even though she was seeking to help the people of South Africa, as she was driving one day, she was dragged out of her car, stabbed and beaten to death by a mob which was committed to violence in order to overthrow of the apartheid government. Soon afterward, Amy’s parents, Linda and Peter Biehl, quit their jobs and moved from their Orange County, California home to South Africa — not to seek revenge, but to start a foundation in Amy’s name. Today, two of her killers work for the foundation. They call Mrs. Biehl “Makhulu,” or grandmother, because of the way she treats them. She says, “Forgiving is looking at ourselves and saying, ‘I don’t want to go through life feeling hateful and revengeful, because that’s not going to do me any good.’ We took Amy’s lead. We did what we felt she would want.”
That is the picture of reconciliation. It not only forgives, it reaches out to restore. It pays back good for evil. It is following the heart and character of God, for the Bible says, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the mi...
In a church I used to attend, two friends of mine had a broken relationship. One did some work for the other one, and it wasn’t acceptable when it was finished. They haven’t spoken since, and they attend the same church. One is a believer and one is not. I don’t know who is right and who is wrong or at fault. The Bible does mention who is right or wrong only that reconciliation is necessary. However, the greater responsibility for reconcilation of a relationship is on the Christian.
Peace isn't just a truce. General McArthur said "A truce just says you don’t shoot for awhile. Peace comes when the truth is known, the issue is settled, & the parties embrace each other."
Peacemakers don’t just try to stop conflict. They’re doing something far more meaningful, something healing and restoring. They try to bring about reconciliation and relationship, even if it means going through the conflict.
I had friends who once got into a conflict situation. One was a single guy who had taken the others, a couple, out one evening. But the evening went so late that it put them and their babysitter out. They had quite a heated but honest discussion, and do you know what? Their friendship grew! That couple could have just avoided the whole thing, but they confronted the truth in love and a deeper relationship resulted.
The cross was the greatest act of violence and conflict possible. In fact, much of Jesus ministry involved conflict and confrontation. He wasn’t afraid of it because he was committed in love to working through that if need be to bring reconciliation.
Peacemakers don’t try to stop conflict; they work for reconciliation.
Source: From Alex Huggett’s Sermon: Blessed are the Peacemakers
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