One current Redemption Group participant will be blogging their experience through this round of Redemption Groups.With Pastors Jim and Ryan out of town, we had a past Redemption Group participant and leader teach the lesson this week. I admit, it was a nice change of pace to have a ‘real’ person speak to us. It was a fresh perspective. This week we focused on lasting hope and change. These words resonated with me. Lasting. Hope. Change. I have wanted, hoped, prayed and even pleaded for a lasting change. The difference this time is that I have placed this hope in the right hands.Will I falter? Fail? Relapse? Yes. It’s an almost certain part of my story, because at times we all place our hope in things like denial and accountability. We cling to a morbid introspection, expect to hit rock bottom before changing. We love to define seasons of life, success against securities, and knowledge about God. These things blind us and trick our hearts into thinking we have changed. We’re all guilty of placing hope somewhere else other than in Him.Most of my group identified with morbid introspection. They search and search within themselves to find the problem, develop a plan and attempt to fix it, heal it, mend it and/or change it. This is called hurt hunting. It involves shutting out the Lord, and relying solely on yourself to find the missing piece that is the answer to all our hurt.I am a season of life idolater. I find myself saying these phrases again and again:
If only this were to happen...When x occurs, y will be the answer.
It’s so tempting to think that life is better on the other side. My entire life I put all of my hope in ‘someday’ and in the green pastures. Reality has set in. Tuesday was ‘someday’ and my life had not miraculously changed. That is, until Tuesday’s lesson sunk in.I have sat in this room for the past nine weeks and watched this group pray, grieve and rejoice together. I have witnessed the power of the living Holy Spirit in each of us. Everything about the Gospel is built upon one fundamental and revolutionary premise: You do not have to stay the way you are. Sinners literally become saints by the grace of God. Your life can be radically changed by accepting Him as your savior. This conversion of heart is a miracle that transpires when the word of God intersects with the human personality.No drug, escape, lifestyle, or self-help book offers a high that compares to the lasting hope for change found in acceptance of the Gospel. When you accept Him as your father and receive His grace, you are placing your hope in Him, and Him alone. This is the miracle whereby God changes the tense of your life from where you were, to where you are.
