Do you ever get tired of yourself? Do you get weary of your weaknesses and flaws?  Wouldn't it be great if you could be transformed into a better version of you - someone who exudes grace and love and patience and wisdom? God is in the business of transforming lives. God sent his Son so that flawed, sinful men and women like you and me could be radically transformed into the image and likeness of Christ. 

We see in our passage that, in spite of the hardship and heartaches that we face, the experience of the Christian life is also, and ultimately, an experience of abounding grace. The abounding grace of God to us in Jesus is meant to be the reality that overwhelms each day.

Paul has carefully explained how God, in His abounding grace, has made a way for sinners to be justified, fully and freely and forever, through the sacrifice of Christ. No matter how great our sin, by faith alone, we can receive the free gift of a righteousness. 

We are always living our life according to narratives and beliefs and experiences that are hidden in our heart. And out of that heart, and the hidden motives, we feel and speak and act. The Christian life is meant to be lived under the transforming influence of a new narrative – the narrative of Gods’ eternal love and justifying grace in Jesus Christ.

We talk about why we need to leave home for missions? Alisa also explains the beautiful benefit of sacrificing our lives and comforts for the sake of the Gospel. 

There is a magnificent corporate reality to our salvation: we don’t just get Jesus; we get everything and everyone that belongs to Him. And, just like marriage, it involves a radical change of social and legal status in which we cease to exist “in Adam” with all the deadly consequences of that relationship - and now exist “in Christ”. 

Part 2 of a conversation with Alisa. We talked about calling to the foreign missions field and God's passion for the lost.

 When Jesus stepped out of that tomb on Easter morning, the first bright rays of the Age to Come had dawned on earth. The world that had been in universal bondage to death was now a world where death was a defeated foe. The resurrected life of Jesus Christ is now the power and pattern of life for all those who are united to Him by faith.

As Paul points out in the text, God has invaded the horrid reality of this fallen work with the glorious reality of salvation by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. And this gospel reality makes all the difference as we make our pilgrimage through this fallen world.

Adrian begins a conversation with Alisa about her upbringing and interest in foreign missions.