{"id":24891,"date":"2023-01-11T22:17:22","date_gmt":"2023-01-12T05:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2023-psalm23-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-01-11T22:30:36","modified_gmt":"2023-01-12T05:30:36","slug":"2023-redeem","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2023-redeem\/","title":{"rendered":"The God Who Redeems"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: right;\">By Glenn Packiam<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do not fear, for I have redeemed you.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><strong>Isaiah 43:1<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-24892 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/fear-2-e1673500865301.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/fear-2-e1673500865301.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/fear-2-e1673500865301-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/fear-2-e1673500865301-80x80.jpg 80w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/fear-2-e1673500865301-36x36.jpg 36w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/fear-2-e1673500865301-180x180.jpg 180w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As part of a sermon illustration, I walked toward the beautiful painting an artist had been creating on the platform and made a dark streak across the middle of it. The congregation gasped in horror. The artist simply stood by and watched as I defaced what she\u2019d created. Then, selecting a new brush, she lovingly transformed the ruined painting into an exquisite work of art.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-24893 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/fear-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"343\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/fear-3.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/fear-3-300x172.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Her restorative work reminds me of the work God can perform in our lives when we\u2019ve made a mess of them. The prophet Isaiah rebuked the people of Israel for their spiritual blindness and deafness (Isaiah 42:18\u201319), but then he proclaimed the hope of God\u2019s deliverance and redemption: \u201cDo not fear, for I have redeemed you\u201d (43:1). He can do the same for us.<\/p>\n<p>Even after we\u2019ve sinned, if we confess our sins and turn to God, He forgives and restores us (vv. 5\u20137; see\u00a01 John 1:9). We can\u2019t bring beauty out of the mess, but Jesus can. The good news of the gospel is that He has redeemed us by His blood. The book of Revelation assures us that in the end, <strong>Christ will dry our tears, redeem our past, and make all things new<\/strong> (Revelation 21:4\u20135).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-24894 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/fear-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/fear-4.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/fear-4-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We have a limited vision of our story. But God who knows us \u201cby name\u201d (Isaiah 43:1) will make our lives more beautiful than we could ever imagine. If you\u2019ve been redeemed by faith in Jesus, your story, like the painting, has a glorious ending.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-24895 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/fear-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"735\" height=\"1102\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/fear-1.jpg 735w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/fear-1-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/fear-1-687x1030.jpg 687w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/fear-1-470x705.jpg 470w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 735px) 100vw, 735px\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":24895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[35],"class_list":["post-24891","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-english-writer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/24891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/24891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24896,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/24891\/revisions\/24896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24891"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=24891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}