January 12, 2020 - INSCRIPTIONS FROM THE HEART

Lord of Redemption

Redemption is a beautiful thing. Redemption, by definition, is the act of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil. Part of what we believe about God is that He can redeem anything: men (Acts 9), situations (Romans 8), even evil intentions can be turned around for the good (Genesis 50). What I find interesting is that while knowing God, many believers are often surprised by the things God redeems. For example, very recently, rap artist Kanye West announced late-2019 that moving forward, he would no longer be doing secular music but will be releasing a gospel rap album with no cursing.

To a lot of people, this would have been a big surprise, including me. I must admit, I was a big Kanye West fan. I first started listening to Kanye when I was 13 all the way through college/university. Listening to him was my guilty pleasure. But considering his music has been very secular, full of cursing, and his character questionable, I eventually stopped. Then very recently, on our way to the annual pastor’s prayer retreat, Erica played “Jesus is King”, Kanye’s newest gospel album. And in his album, he’s there... talking about Jesus, saying His name for all his fans and the world to hear, quoting verses from the Bible, not swearing and all I kept thinking was, “Lord, is this for real?” Ephesians 1:7-8a tells us:

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.”

It says that we have redemption through Jesus -- in accordance with God’s grace that He lavished or poured out excessively on us. Often, when we look into the things God redeems, we tend to judge the person, the situation, or even the circumstances. But I say, don’t look at these things, look at our God is who is capable of redeeming all these things with His grace instead.

By grace, He redeems, even the most seemingly irredeemable -- you and me. Even the various situations we conclude to be hopeless or fruitless. Let’s remember God’s amazing grace as we gather today; as we pray through our different situations, as we pray for different people -- knowing God can redeem, by His will and for His glory.

Have a blessed Sunday everyone! 

Pastor Immanuel Garcera