What is the Gospel?

At the center of everything we do and teach is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is the announcement of the good news about Jesus Christ to the world.  The teaching of morals and proper behavior is fine, but the only way for anyone to participate in the Eternal Life of God is through the teaching of the Gospel.

So what is this Gospel?

The New Testament declares the Gospel in many different ways.  In fact, the entire New Testament is a declaration of the Gospel, the effects of the Gospel upon the world, and the response of the individual to the Gospel.   But, each speaker and author had a different way of expressing the Gospel.  A quick glance through the book of Acts will reveal how Peter, Stephen, Paul, Philip and others, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, varied their presentation of the Gospel according to their audience.  Even Jesus had different ways of expressing Gospel truth.

There are many ways to express the Gospel (four spiritual laws, roman's road, etc), I would encourage you to make the presentation of the gospel "your own".  Let it be in your voice, in the way you speak, and in the way that your audience will understand.

But where do you start?

I have found a good place to start is to write your own Gospel summary based on Scripture.  Here is mine as an example:

The Gospel is: God, the creator of heaven and earth (Gen 1:1) against whom all have sinned (Rom 3:23), was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them (2 Cor 5:19), but forgiving them through the redemption found in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom 3:24) to be received by faith alone (Rom 3:22), and calls us to participate in His work, through the Holy Spirit, as obedient servants (Rom 12:1-2) under the authority of the Word of God (2 Tim 3:16-17).

That is quite a mouthful!  But, it is a good place to start.  What is your summary?

How about those that are already believers?

The teaching of Gospel truth is relevant to both believers and unbelievers.  Martin Luther said that we must teach the Gospel to ourselves everyday, because we forget it everyday.  The Gospel is what the Spirit uses to change us (and our students) and conform us to the image of Christ.  May we never feel like we or our students have moved beyond the Gospel!

Reflection on Matthew 5:1-12 (The Beatitudes)

The Sermon on the Mount is a revelation of the true righteousness of God.  It is a description of the Kingdom of God, as opposed to the kingdom of this world.  The first twelve verses of the sermon, which we call "the Beatitudes", reveals what the blessing of God looks like as opposed to what blessedness looks like from a worldly standpoint:

To the world's blessing of self-sufficiency unto those who are kings of their own kingdoms; Jesus declares that the blessing of God makes a person "poor in Spirit", aware of their spiritually bankruptcy and therefore fully reliant on God.  It is to them that the real Kingdom belongs.

To the world's blessing of comfort for those who cover their faults with strengths, Jesus declares the blessing and comfort of God to be on "those who mourn" over their own faults, the sin of the world, and the effects of it which resonate through history.

To the world's blessing of the dominate, the masters of the earth, Jesus declares "Blessed are the  meek for they shall inherit the earth".

To the world's blessing of moral superiority, Jesus declares the blessing of God on those who are not fulfilled by their own worldly righteousness and seek a righteousness that comes from God alone.

To the world's blessing of selfishness, Jesus declares "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy"

To the world's blessing of a heart saturated with worldly knowledge achieved through experience, Jesus declares that it is the "pure in heart" who are truly blessed.

To the world's blessing of aggregation and competition, Jesus says that the children of God are peacemakers.

To the world who measures the righteousness of one's actions based on public opinion polls, Jesus says, "blessed are the persecuted".

Jesus declares the Kingdom of God to an upside-down kingdom, where the first is last and the last is first.  G.K. Chesterton said that the Kingdom of God seems upside-down to us because "We are standing on our heads and kicking against the heavens".

When reading these Beatitudes I am always struck by the fact that not only is Jesus describing the true righteousness and blessing found in the Kingdom, he is describing himself, the King of God's Kingdom.

Prayer:
Heavenly Father,

I thank you for Jesus Christ and that even though He was exceedingly rich at Your right hand, yet for  my sake He became poor, that I might inherit the Kingdom (2 Cor 8:9; cff Matt 5:3)

I am so blessed that my elder brother, Christ, mourned over my sin, that I might be comforted (Luke 19:41-44, 2 Cor 1:5; cff Matt 5:4)

I praise You Father, for Your Son did not see equality with God something to be grasped, but was meek and became incarnated, and humbled himself, even unto death, that I may receive an eternal inheritance (Phil 2, 1 Pet 1:3-4; cff Matt 5:5)

I am grateful that your Son hungered in the desert and thirsted on the cross that I may be filled (Matt 4:2, John 19:28, Phil 1:11, cff. Matt 5:6)

Thank you that Christ was merciful, so that I might be shown mercy (1 Peter 1:3, cff Matt 5:7)

You have taken my deceitful heart and have given me Christ's pure heart, that I may see You (Eze 36:26-27; cff Matt 5:8) and you have adopted me as your child through the Prince of Peace. (Isa 9:6, cff Matt 5:9).  And now you have given me the Kingdom, for the sake of your Righteous One, who was persecuted for my sake.

I thank you for all you have done and I ask that you mold me into one worthy of the righteousness that you have imputed to me.

Amen.

Rest for the Weary

How was your Christmas?
Restful?
Refreshing? Haha yea right!

From the shopping melee that started on Thanksgiving this year, to the cooking and entertaining, to the attending of parties; Christmas has become a very hectic time of year.  Once you reach a certain age, I am pretty sure that everyone prefers Thanksgiving (otherwise known as Black Friday Eve) over Christmas, because with Thanksgiving you just eat and hang out with family.  Not nearly all the drama and craziness, not to mention expense, that goes along with Christmas.

Busyness and anxiety seem to rule our society and not just around Christmas time.  I read recently that the average high school student today has the same anxiety level as the average mental patient did in the 1950s.  That's crazy to think about! pun intended.

But seriously we are a culture on the go!  Between work, children's activities, church and other commitments people are run ragged.  Think about the last time you actually sat quietly for an hour.  When was it?

I bet it was either in class, church or when you were sleeping.  And even then we try to multitask (i.e. sleeping in church).

Even vacations, which are suppose to be restful, can be busy and stressful.  I just got back from spending 11 days in California.  And even in the 80 degree winter weather out there, there was no time for rest, relaxation or reflection.

In fact, the most restful time of the whole 10 days was surfing.  An activity that includes having cold waves pound my head, huffing and puffing because I am so out of shape, and trying not to get caught on the inside or in the rip current.  Though you may have never surfed in your life, I am willing to bet you would rather try to brave the Pacific Ocean on a surfboard than Walmart on Christmas Eve.  Which I also did, and that is a story for another time, but lets just say that it looked like Baghdad after Shock and Awe.

But rest is so important... even the world knows it...  After combing through tons of articles online about rest and dealing with anxiety, I found some common themes that emerged.  The first being the obvious: a good way to deal with anxiety is to rest.  duh!

But how does one rest? The world seems to think in order to rest we either need to remove "unnecessary" things from our hectic schedules or add things to them.

The idea of adding things to my schedule increases my anxiety immediately, especially if that thing is Yoga (an all to often addition suggested by many articles).  The idea of putting on Yoga pants is anything but restful.

And though removing "unnecessary" things seems like a great idea, in reality, things are on our schedule because we have deemed them necessary.  Thus, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to remove anything from our schedules.

Though we may see resting as a pipe dream we are only able to achieve every once in a while, it is a command of Scripture and vital to our overall spiritual health, not to mention our physical health.

In the book of Matthew, Chapter 11, After rebuking the Pharisees, Jesus prays, thanking the Father for revealing himself to the "little children", and then further reveals the heart of the Father, starting in verse 28.

He says, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

To rest, throughout Scripture is a command and a promise.  It is a promise because the Lord promises rest to those He loves, but it is also a command that the Lord takes seriously.  Going all the way back to Genesis chapter 2, on the Seventh Day, the LORD rested and so he blessed that day and set it apart as holy.  Israel refused to heed God's command to rest and went into exile in Babylon for 70 years.

How do we, in this culture of do more, try harder, go, go, go; find rest?

This is what I love about Scripture.  It isn't some rule book that we try to interpret and live by.  No, we let the Bible interpret us, read us, and help us do what it says.  For in these little verses we find how we can rest, when the whole world is laying burden's on us that neither they, nor their fore-father's could bear.

Christ, in this passage tells us how to find rest.  First he says, "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden"

This cry of our Lord is repeated constantly in Scripture.  The Spirit says through the prophet Isaiah "Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters!  Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat!  Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." (Isaiah 55:1)

God wants those who can't help themselves to come to him...

My brothers and sisters, are you weary and heavy laden?

Come to Christ.  Come to him with open hands and an open heart.  Many people come to Christ for salvation and then venture off as if they can do everything else themselves.  No!  Come to Christ and stay there and let his joy and love warm your soul.

The Psalmist in Psalm 127 insists that without the Lord, everything we do is in vain.  He says
"Unless the LORD builds the house,
    they labor in vain who build it.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
    the watchman guards it in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early,
    to stay up late,
    eating the bread of toil;"

 He further says that a mark of one who comes to the Lord is rest, because "[the LORD] gives sleep to his loved ones"

But how do we come to Christ?

We do it by faith.

And what is faith?

John Calvin says faith is "A firm and certain knowledge of God's benevolence towards us,
found upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds
and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit."

you got that?
me either.

Let me put it another way:  Faith is trusting God.  Do you trust God with your anxieties and fears.  With your busy schedule?  Do you?

Do you expect as the Scriptures say, "the goodness of God' (Psalm 27:13)?

The Psalmist in Psalm 55:22 says, "Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken."
Do you believe that the Lord can sustain you?

Peter summarizes the words of that Psalm when he says, "Cast your cares on him, because he cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7)

Do you believe it?  Are you willing to trust God with those things that make you toss and turn at night?

Having faith and trusting God can be tough a times.  How do we increase our faith and trust?  It's through experiencing the faithfulness of God.  Let me give you an illustration:

A guy from California was going to La Pointe, WI on vacation in the dead of winter.  He had taken the bus from the airport to Bayfield, but was told he couldn't get to La Pointe till the morning.  So he wanders into a little place there in Bayfield and gets a drink.  While chatting with a local, he finds out that his hotel in La Pointe is just under two miles away.  In fact, he can see it from the bar!

So after a couple drinks, the guy ventures off towards the light that the local pointed out.  After about a mile,

he realizes that he is walking on a frozen portion of Lake Superior and becomes worried that he might break through the ice.  Every steps he hears crack, crack...  He remembers watching a nature show that said to spread your weight out over the ice, so he lays on his stomach spread out over the ice and begins to inch along.  As he nears the end of his journey he hears a loud horn and turns around to see a semi truck driving over the same ice he has been crawling on!

You see the man and the truck were both supported by the ice.  The smallness of the man's faith had no bearing on the support that the ice was giving.  But the experience taught the man that he could trust the ice and not be fearful.

So we come to Christ in faith, and trust that he is faithful and will do what he has promised.

The second way we can learn to rest in Christ is found in verse 29 of Chapter 11.  It says, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me... For my yoke is easy and my burden is light"

The Lord, the Sovereign of the Universe tells us that the way we rest is by participating with Him in His work.  We do this by obeying him and following his lead.  1 John 5 says "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who is born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not burdensome."

You see, we participate in the Love of God by obeying him and his commands aren't burdens.  They are freeing.  The Psalmist in Psalm 119 says that he walks about in freedom because he obeys the precepts of the Lord.  I recently read a book called the Tyranny of Choice.  It puts forth the idea (from a secular view point), that all the options that we now have through technology are oppressive, rather than freeing.  This is what the Bible means when it says "You are a slave to the one you obey" (Romans 6:16).  When we obey ourselves, we end up in sin and oppressed by our own desires.  When we obey God, we are freed.

When we turn from trusting God and resting in Him, we even hear the scriptures differently.  In Isaiah chapter 28, God had been speaking to his people through the prophet, yet the refuse to hear.  They were prideful and relied on themselves.    God's Word said, "This is the resting place. [I][g]ive rest to weary, here is refreshment"(v. 12), but they wouldn't listen.  So instead of hearing God's Words as rest and refreshing, they heard, "Do this and do that. Do that and do this.Obey this rule and obey that rule.  Obey that rule and obey this rule.  Learn a little here and learn a little there." (v. 13)

God meant His Word to be refreshing and not burdensome, but when we don't listen to God and rest in Him, we begin to hear His Word as rules and gibberish.  When we trust God, it is a resting place for our souls.

And what is it that God commands?

"believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another..." (1 John 3:23).  When we operate out of Love, we are participating with God in His work in this world.

Stop striving to live up to others standard, stop trying to out do your neighbor.  As the psalmist says, "Stop striving and Know that the Lord is God.  He is exalted" so we don't have to be.  Trust that the Lord will provide, the Lord will satisfy.  Come to Christ, lay your burdens down, throw off that yoke of slavery that the world gives to you and put the yoke on that Christ gives us.  You are not working alone, you are working along side Jesus Christ in this world.  His yoke is easy and his commands are not burdensome.

Puritan Prayer of Continual Repentance

O God of grace,

Thou hast imputed my sin to my substitute, and hast imputed his righteousness to my soul, 

clothing me with a bridegroom’s robe, decking me with jewels of holiness.

But in my Christian walk I am still in rags; 

my best prayers are stained with sin; 

my penitential tears are so much impurity; 

my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin; 

my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness. 

I need to repent of my repentance; 

I need my tears to be washed; 

I have no robe to bring to cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness; 

I am always standing clothed in filthy garments, and by grace am always receiving change of raiment, for thou dost always justify the ungodly; 

I am always going into the far country, and always returning home as a prodigal, always saying, 

"Father, forgive me," 

and thou art always bringing forth the best robe. 

Every morning let me wear it, every evening return in it, go out to the day’s work in it, be married in it, be wound in death in it, stand before the great white throne in it, enter heaven in it, shining as the sun. 

Grant me never to lose sight of: 

the exceeding sinfulness of sin, 

the exceeding righteousness of salvation, 

the exceeding glory of Christ, 

the exceeding beauty of holiness, 

the exceeding wonder of grace.

A New Heaven and A New Earth (audio)

Here is my sermon on The New Heaven and New Earth From Revelation 21:1-7.  This sermon goes a long with my three part blog post "God's Eternal Purpose and Our Eternal Hope"
Click here to download or press play to stream

The Need for Care in Healthcare

Today I worked as an actor.  My stage was a hospital bed, my audience: nurses, x-ray techs and repository therapists in training.  I played a thirty year old construction worker (hey don't laugh, I once helped frame a house), who had fallen off a roof and is now paralyzed from the waist down.  I had been in the hospital for 4 weeks, had a catheter, feeding tube, breathing tube, and was becoming anxious.

I was given two tasks: have a respiratory issue, which would require breathing tube adjustment, some

therapy and a chest x-ray; the second issue was less physical, and more "spiritual".  The person in charge of the simulation asked me to ask about my condition, and how my life was going to change.  Some of the questions were about if my condition was permanent, another one was about how long I had to be in the hospital, if I could use the bathroom on my own, if I could have sex, and other questions like that to make the nursing staff uncomfortable.

How they were trained to answer left me saddened.  Not that they did anything wrong.  Nurses, x-ray techs, and repository therapists are trained to deal with our physical aliments, and the questions, they would defer to other people.  When I asked about my condition, they would check to make sure my brain was operating correctly.  They would ask if the doctor had already explained these things to me.

Often the nurses would reassure me that a social worker, psychiatrist, or chaplain would help me with my issues, as they walked out and closed the door behind them.  I am sure that these professionals can and do help tremendously in these situations, but as I laid there, I thought, if this was real what would I really need?

I needed someone to cry with me, to be with me, to love me as I am and not as I should be.  In short, someone who could demonstrate the love of Christ and step into my situation.  Someone to be weak with me, there were enough people around me "being strong".  Some one who could care about me, not for me.

As the simulation ended, before getting up, I prayed for those who will not get up from that bed.  I was reminded that "Christ sometimes cures, but He always heals".  And as Christians we are called to "weep with those who weep" and to demonstrate what it truly means to be human: To be like a Christ and step into other's pain and suffering, for no other reason that just to be with them and love them.

God's Eternal Purpose and Our Eternal Hope (Part 3 of 3)

In the past two blogs, I have spoken about how God's eternal purpose of bring glory to himself, gives us eternal hope.  We looked at this eternal hope by looking at Revelation 21:1-7.  So far, going through this

passage, we have seen two parts of God's three-fold purpose:

1) to create a companion for His Son (We are that companion that God is making suitable for His Son)

2) to create a place for Him to dwell and rest (That place is our eternal abode with Him)

Now we we see his third purpose, to share His trinitarian life with you and I.  You could call this purpose, God's desire to have a people (or family).

He will wipe away from them every tear from their eyes.

God, is comforting his people in this passage. We have many tears because of the effects of sin and how our sins have damaged our relationships: with one another and with God. God will make these relationships right, but in doing so, there will be many tears shed... They must be shed. So here God comforts us, as a mother comforts her weeping child.

Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away.”

A complete restoration and reversal of the curse from Gen 3. No more will our relationships with one another be cut off due to death, no more pain in our hearts from the loss of a relationship, either through death or through our own stubbornness. This old order of things has passed away. Our relationships with one another will grow for all eternity as we share the in the relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

This is a work he has already started in you and me. Paul writes, “if anyone be in Christ he is a new creation, the old things have passed away and behold all things are becoming new”. This is the concept that theologians call “here, but not yet”. "He who has begun a good work in you, will take it to completion." Here is the completeness of the work of God. We are new, our relationships are new, and one day this whole universe will be made new.

He said, “Write, for these words of God are faithful and true.”

God’s words are faithful and true, stay near them, listen to them, heed them, wrap them around your heart and mind, encourage one another with these words.

He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son. He who overcomes is the one who believes in Jesus Christ. For How can we enter this everlasting life given to us by the trinity, if we don’t even believe that such a life exists? It is only in Christ that we see such a life. 

The Scriptures tell us that a Father’s crown of glory is his children. Our heavenly Father’s glory is you and me. This relationship, which we get a preview of when we see the relationship between a parent and a child, will come to it’s fullness when God expels sin, presents us as a companion for His son, dwells with us, and we inherit what he has promised for his children. That is it... Forever we will live with God, sharing in his divine love, drinking from the water of life. The symbolic metaphor for the trinitarian life. That everlasting life available through Christ. The catch is... you must be thirsty. Are you thirsty for life as it should be, relationships as they should be? Come and drink. It starts now... “here, but not in it’s fullness”... Eternity begins today, relationships are restored today, marriages become fulfilling today... but they will be brought to their fullness on that day... when the dead are raised and heaven and earth merge.