Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / S1-E27 | Everyday Eurasia | Kristin Burchfiel

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S1-E27 | Everyday Eurasia | Kristin Burchfiel · Eurasia Region Podcast

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  Welcome to the special Advent series of the Everyday Eurasia
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  podcast, Inspiring Faith, or Every day.
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  In the coming weeks, we'll be journeying together toward
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  Christmas, A season of anticipation, reflection, and
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  light in the darker days. During this special season of
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  Advent, we will journey through the Advent themes of Hope,
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  Peace, Joy and Love. This second week of Advent we
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  will join Kristen Birchfield. She grew up in Medford, OR USA.
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  She spent her life surfing both locally and globally.
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  Kristen serves now on the Eurasia region where she and her
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  family have lived since 2020, first in a Mount Jordan and now
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  in Lisbon, Portugal. Kristen will speak this week
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  about the team Advent Peace. Hello everyone, greetings again.
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  If you listened to yesterday's podcast you will recall that
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  this week we are talking about the Advent theme of peace and
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  today we will be diving deeper into the peace we have with God
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  through his Son Jesus Christ. The arrival of Jesus fulfills
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  the prophecy of Isaiah that we talked about in our last
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  episode. In Luke 2 we find the story of
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  Jesus's birth, and in verses 13 and 14 it says suddenly a great
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  company of the heavenly hosts appeared, with the Angel
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  praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest heaven and on
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  earth, peace to those on whom His favor rests at this moment.
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  When Christ was born, heaven declared peace on earth through
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  His arrival, a peace that reconciles God and humanity.
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  So with that in mind, our guiding Scripture today comes
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  from 2nd Corinthians 517 through 20, where the apostle Paul
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  writes. Therefore, if anyone is in
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  Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new
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  is here. All this is from God, who
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  reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry
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  of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to Himself
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  in Christ, not counting people's sins against them.
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  And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
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  We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were
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  making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's
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  behalf, be reconciled to God. So here in this passage we see
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  that God has a plan to reconcile the world to himself through
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  Christ. And then get this, he calls us,
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  those who believe in him, to be ambassadors for Christ, to carry
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  the message of reconciliation to others.
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  We are to join God and spreading this message of peace to the
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  world. Just as Jesus came to earth to
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  restore unity between God and humanity, We as believers also
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  have a critical role to play here.
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  Now, I have to confess, Second Corinthians 517 is one of my
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  absolute favorite verses in all of Scripture.
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  It's one of those powerful, foundational verses that speaks
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  into so many parts of our faith, Paul writes.
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  If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation.
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  The old has gone, the new has come.
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  This is such a beautiful reminder of what Christ has done
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  for us in terms of salvation. It points us straight to the
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  heart of the gospel. Jesus took our place while we
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  were still sinners, and through his death and resurrection, we
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  are made new. We're forgiven, we're reconciled
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  to God, and we have peace with Him.
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  The old life is gone, and a new life rooted in grace has begun.
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  This verse also speaks deeply to our ongoing journey of
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  sanctification and Wesley. In theology, we talk about
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  becoming more and more like Christ, about being made holy in
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  love. And this verse reminds us that
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  when we are in Christ, He continues that transforming work
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  in us. We don't hang on to the old ways
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  or the old identities. We step into the new life He is
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  forming within us. I've also pointed to this verse
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  many times in conversations about calling.
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  Because the purpose of Christ's redemptive work isn't just
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  personal. It's communal.
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  It sets God's creation free from the power of the fall.
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  And in this new creation community, Paul reminds us that
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  no one is seen as inferior or less worthy.
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  Not because of social status or race, gender or anything else.
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  Christ, we are all made new, all called, all invited to
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  participate in God's reconciling work.
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  These are all really important things for us as believers, but
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  as amazing as all this is for us, this verse jumps right into
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  verse 18 where God gives us the ministry of reconciliation.
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  We are to go out into the world. So if this verse is good news
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  for me, it needs to be good news for everyone.
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  And I can't help but think about my time spent managing apartment
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  buildings. During my 20s, my husband and I
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  were living in San Francisco, CA and working for a nonprofit that
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  developed and managed affordable housing complexes for families,
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  seniors, and people with special needs.
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  And I was working in one of the most under resourced
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  neighborhoods in the city. And I showed up there very good
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  at the technical aspects of my job, but with very little life
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  experience and very little awareness of that.
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  It was in this place, though, that I learned to be a good
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  listener from the very gracious women in the community.
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  It's where I learned that establishing relationships
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  should always be the first step in entering a new place.
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  It's where I learned the importance of being a literal
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  good neighbor, and it's where I first had the opportunity to
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  really practice reconciliation. You see, I found myself working
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  between a big government system regulating affordable housing
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  programs and the families who needed these programs.
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  The system was putting so much pressure on the families, but so
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  were all of the other systems that they were trying to work
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  within. And oftentimes they were
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  competing systems and I couldn't just walk in and fix the
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  paperwork. That was out of compliance and
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  causing problems for everyone because that was just the
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  symptom of a bigger problem. I had to listen.
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  I had to build relationships and I had to practice vulnerability
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  and let them into my life too. These are the things that it
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  took to be an instrument of peace in that place.
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  There were far more drastic measures I could have taken to
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  get the job done, and perhaps if those gracious women hadn't
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  taken the time to teach me, I would have.
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  But in the end, it was working together to create right
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  relationships within the community that brought peace to
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  that place after years of hostility.
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  So I wonder, as we close our time together today, if we could
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  just take a minute to thank God for sending his Son to reconcile
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  himself to us, to think about what might be a barrier in our
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  hearts and lives that keep us from having a ministry of
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  reconciliation. Let's pray.
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  Gracious and holy God, we thank you for the gift of your Son
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  through his life, death and resurrection.
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  You have made a way for us to be restored to right relationship
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  with you. And how lucky are we that you
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  invite us into the ongoing work of reconciliation in this world.
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  Lord, as new creations in Christ free us from whatever keeps us
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  bound to the old way of living. Help us to live as ambassadors
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  of Your Kingdom, sharing Your message of peace, justice, and
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  mercy wherever we go. Give us eyes to see those who
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  are hurting and ears to listen to those around us.
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  May our lives proclaim that Your peace is not just for us, but
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  for the whole world. You came to redeem.
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  We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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  Thank you for listening to the Everyday Eurasia podcast,
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  Inspiring Fate for everyday. For more Everyday Stories,
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  subscribe on this podcast channel, follow our socials,
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  For our newsletter and further information about the Eurasia
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  region, visit our website, eurasiaregion.org.