Restoration

These last couple of days have been pretty busy, to say the least. Cornell lost to Stanford. It was fun to watch anyway and afterward we took Geoff out with us. I wanted to go to the beach, but we couldn't make it there before sunset. So we drove around and got lost in the piers (trying to find the beach) and ended up going abroad the Queen Mary which is a big ship they turned into a hotel and restaurant. We ate there and then dropped Geoff off. Cornell was supposed to fly out early Friday morning, but the plane taking them was in Omaha picking up USC to take them home (because KSU beat them!) so the plane was late and they didn't get back into Ithaca until about 1am (Central time...2am eastern). We got to KC at 1am and into Burlington at 3am. Check out my pictures of Facebook. I have lots of stories, but today I wanted to share a bit I read in Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. I read about three pages on the plane and had to stop just to soak it in:

Restoration

...The goal here isn't simply to not sin. Our purpose is to increase the shalom in this world, which is why approaches to the Christian faith that deal soley with not sinning always fail....The point is becoming more and more the kind of people God had in mind when we were first created.

It is one thing to be forgiven; it is another thing to become more and more and more and more the person God made you to be....

God always has been and always will be. And when I enter into a relationship with God through Christ, I am connected with God now and I will be connected with God forever. For Jesus, salvation is now.

I need a God for now.

I need healing now.

I need help now.

Yes, even greater things will happen someday.

But salvation is now....

The point is not me; it's God.

It is one thing to be saved. To believe in Jesus. It is another thing to be healed. It is possible to be saved and miserable. It is possible to be saved and not be a healthy, whole, life-giving person. It is possible for the cross to have done something for a person but not in them.