To bring healing and joy to the broken heart of God.

I recently read "What Christians Should Know About Reconciliation" by John Dawson. It really is a life changing book, one I think all Christians, and definitely people in ministry, should read. I think one of the most important points he made, and one I had never heard before, was the reasons he gave for the reconciling, why we should seek to heal wounds in the first place;

"Jesus Himself should be the focus of the reconciler's heart. Our essential motive in all this is to bring healing and joy to the broken heart of God. We seek the healing of wounds, not because people or cultures deserve healing, but because Jesus deserves to see the reward of the cross, the reconciliation of people to the Father and to each other."

We hear so much about the hurting; those with AIDS, the hungry, the poor, the war-torn countries. It is good and right that our hearts bleed for them. But our hearts bleed for them because of Jesus. Because we have someone who showed us what is right and what is wrong and what true life really looks like. We look around at the world and see how things are, then we look at Jesus and see how they should be. He is the hope, the inspiration, and the strength we need to go out and begin to set things right. And more than that, he is the reason they should be set right.