It's not supposed to be this way.

Today, I read Chapter 1 from Recovering Redemption by Matt Chandler and Michael Snetzer.  To say it was good would be an understatement.  It tied in well with part of the message I preached a few weeks ago about Jesus being angry and weeping at the effect sin has had our world, relationships, and even death itself.

I have a feeling this blog will be filled with quotes and thoughts from this book for weeks to come.  I only read one chapter and might have wore out a highlighter in the process. Here are a few quotes that spoke to me:

"Because if you're looking at this world--and at yourself--and you're convinced neither one of them is the way they're supposed to be, then you're being given an important piece of bad news...In order for good news to be good--like the gospel is good--it must invade bad spaces."

(Speaking of creation in Genesis 1-2) "Nothing is their world was dead or dying around them. Nothing was ominous or unsafe. Nothing was leaking or running late or costing too much or hard to do. God was perfect, creation was perfect, they were perfect, everything was perfect. . .The Word of God begins where our understanding of the gospel needs to begin: amid the flawless glories of Creation. . .Our souls, in other words, possess a dim memory of Genesis 1 and 2. And we miss it. We crave it. We need it."

"For what's broken in us--what's aching for recovery--is beyond our ability to fix. And from the moment it broke, all attempts to redeem it by ourselves are doomed to futility and failure. We need God."

"Sin fractured the proper ordering of God's creation."

"No, we valiantly raise up our dust-to-dust handfuls of broken pieces, assured by faith that the same gospel which drew us to Him for salvation is the same gospel that will keep saving us going forward--saving us from what our world and others and even ourselves have done to destroy what God has redeemed."