I LOVE REDEMPTION
11th Mar 2015
A few years ago, Joyce & I visited an amazing work in Cambodia. It is led by Ted & Sou Olbrich and is transforming the lives of thousands of children and older people in over 100 orphanage/churches. To get an idea of the scope of this work you need to visit their websitewww.fcopi.org
So when a few days ago I was looking at my news feed on Facebook and saw this picture and the words, “Two orphans married by an orphan. All raised in our church/homes”, all the memories of our visit came flooding back, and reminded me of the way God loves to rescue and redeem broken lives.
Cambodia has a greater number of orphan and separated children than almost anywhere in the world. Some years ago God led Ted and Sou to pioneer this remarkable work. Children rescued from abandonment and exploitation, gathered into homes, brought to living faith in Jesus, educated, given value and dignity and able live lives of joy, peace and fruitfulness.
I love redemption! God specialises in taking hopeless cases and making them into new creations in Christ Jesus. Last year we spent two weeks in the Philippines and as we gathered in Church on the Sunday, the scripture that God gave to me was Job 19:25, “I know that my Redeemer lives.” Our team gave testimony of how God had redeemed and restored them from desperate situations of addiction, failure, marriage breakdown and hopelessness. I think this was a great surprise to our Filipino brothers and sisters, who thought that those from the developed world had no problems in life! At the close of the meeting our great Redeemer worked in many lives.
At one time I was asked to speak to a church congregation shattered by a moral lapse. As I prayed, the only scripture I could hear from God was, “For with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.” (Psalm 130:7)
There are no hopeless situations with God, because “with him is full redemption.”
by Charles Sibthorpe
