echoes of redemption | steven dilla

I had dinner a few nights ago with a group of people, and in the course of our conversation found out three of them were radically addicted to alcohol in their past. They told their story, about how their spouses paid the price. How their kids paid the price. How they paid the price, but just didn’t care.

The alcohol was too good.

I also had dinner the other night with some core leaders in our church. People who volunteer their time above and beyond to bring the gospel to the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

It was the same dinner.

There were these people and they were dyeing. Their lives were falling apart. Their marriages were about to end. There was no more hope. Then they met Jesus.

Everything changed.

The alcohol stopped. The relationships were healed. They were baptized. Now they’re leading the church.

How beautiful is redemption? How great is it when it echoes through our lives? I was in awe as I listened to the stories of these amazing Christians. They know what it means to be redeemed because everything in their lives has change. Nothing is the same.

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Ephesians 4:22-24