2 September

Paul writes that we are ‘Christ’s ambassadors’ (2 Corinthians 5:20). The Greek word translated as ‘ambassador’ is presbeuo. It shares the same root as ‘presbyter’, which is one of the words used to describe church leaders. Whether you are in a recognised leadership role in the church or not, you are an ambassador of Christ, with the extraordinary privilege and responsibility of representing Jesus in this world. You are God’s representative on earth.
As is often said, ‘People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.’
The characteristic name for God in Isaiah is “The Holy,”’ writes Eugene Peterson. ‘Holiness is the most attractive quality, the most intensive experience we ever get of sheer life – authentic, firsthand living, not life looked at and enjoyed from a distance… Holiness is a furnace that transforms the men and women who enter it.’