just curious...
what is the good news as you know it?
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
A log of my personal flap and some of the stuff Jesus puts on my heart.
A log of my personal flap and some of the stuff Jesus puts on my heart.
8 comments:
Ive been trying to figure out what to say. I think it IS professing Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and also a true repentance of our sins then striving to Be Like Him. We cannot keep in Christ if we profess, yet walk around like there is no change in our lives...no action...anyone can know him...Satan even knows him and knows more verses than us. I know an addict, or more, who profess Christ and say they pray to him every day, but dont repent and turn from what they do, with that...If they fall then pick themselves back up then God is still with them and pursuing them. Ive seen this side of things too.
I really...am looking into the Gospel message differently. The Gospel is for us, Jesus-His grace is for us. Yet, we simplify it...put Jesus into a box. We cant to that, THe Gospel is a BOLD step of faith...of turning, I mean people turned when they met Jesus they say his Awesomeness. They were healed, and yet the people who turned from him...Still knew him they just didnt want to follow-like the pharisees and the rich young ruler.
The Gospel is bold. We must give ourselves up to follow him. The beggar did it, the woman at the well, the sick woman, the parapalegic....all gave things up to follow. They admitted their dependencies and wanted him.
This is the gospel to me.
PS listen to a sermon by Paul Washer. You should Youtube him. I Think at first its kind of a bad taste, but as I have listened more there is beauty to what he says.
Thats All!
Thanks April. I will listen to Paul Washer. I am in the office all day today so I'll check it out.
The Gospel or Good News to me can be summed up in Redemption. I am broke, God is fixing me. The world is full of darkness but the light penetrates and drives it out. People lie and enslave themselves and the truth comes out and sets them free - more like cuts them free because it usually hurts. The world is diseased but God keeps authoring the wisdom to understand what his creation is supposed to look like. We sin and somehow God uses it to draw us nearer and to build his Kingdom. The lame walk, the hungry eat, the thirsty drink, the naked clothed, the sick are healed and tears are wiped away. (What about those tears of joy? I gotta believe they'll fall like rain)
I do believe the gospel is different for everyone but is the same gospel. Billy Graham caught alot of flack from some when he stated, "I think everybody who knows Christ, whether they're conscious of it or not, they're members of the Body of Christ...God's purpose is to call out a people for His name, whether they come from the Muslim world, Buddhist world, the Christian world, or the non-believing world, they are members of the Body of Christ, because they've been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus...and I think they are saved, and that they are going to be in heaven with us." but I believe he is spot on. Ghandi made Jesus his lord by studying his teachings and moreover, doing them! He saved thousands of lives by bringin peace to India. I know an autistic man that is a virtuoso on the piano. He has never confessed Jesus is his Lord but he plays to God's Glory and there is room in the Kingdom, no there are reservations in the Kingdom for this guy. He loves God with his music by enjoying the gift God gave him and loves other by sharing it whenever he can.
The gospel is beautiful and I believe we are all gifted with the ability to SEE it when it happens.
Hi Just wrote this the other day...have not to edit...but it might speak to you april....hi sam ..later mike 1. OH FATHER WHERE ART THOU? By Michael J Quinlan
Where in the world is God today?
In this fast paced modern Hi Tech internet age has He fallen behind like the rest of the people who refused to conform to the latest craze or fad? Did He pack His bags and head off to a distant planet to start all over again? Only this time no forbidden fruit on a tree and Satan has been left behind to terrorize those that did not make the grade.
If you look at the growth of religious orders and gospels and mega churches He should be able to find a welcome spot. Or have they all just a knowledge of Him or more to the point taken some of His Son’s many words and published their version of the Gospel of Jesus and would not know him if he showed up in person? Or maybe he would not meet the educational “No Saint left behind requirements”!
Many of these well meaning organizations have myriads of information on Him and His creation, and followers can quote many of His sacred scriptures, but then again volumes have been written on Shakespeare by people who claim to be authorities on good old Will, but they have never even talked or shared a beer with the guy! Yet for some reason known only to themselves, know how he lived, felt, and thought. Sounds kind of crazy, and yet if Will came back to life and walked among them would they accept him into their fold? Or would they have painted such an unrealistic picture of him that they would call him an impostor and politely ask him to leave? Book him into a mental hotel or Find him a place on Jerry Springer….” See Willy slap the Dickens out of Prince Charles live on Springer!!!!
I think its time someone yelled stop the bus! And let’s see who is actually on it….. and why we let them on in the first place? Many of us from birth because of the environment we were raised in have been yoked with burdens that were never a predestined load to bear and all this has accomplished so far (For some of us!) is the slowing down and hindering of our growth and wellbeing.
For example if you grew up in a religious organization you were at an early age introduced to their doctrinal lenses on the world around you.
After a while you could become a clone, marry a clone and produce more clones.
Sounds exciting!!! Amen!
On the other hand you could have had non religious parents who were independent free thinkers and encouraged you to explore and discover the ends of the earth and live a vibrant life. With encouragement like that the world would be your Oyster and you would be a cool person to hang out with and your of spring would be fruitful and multiply? (Sounds real attractive to me)
Then of course you could have grown up in a drug, alcohol, dysfunctional family environment. Learned how to yell, fight, self sabotage and in general live a very depressing and unhealthy life, you know! Marry, Divorce, Re Marry produce more unhappy Fagan’s (Oliver twist), who unless they received some serious intervention would carry on the family tradition and be the butt end of comedians jokes. The chances of an early checkout in that sinario are pretty good!
Another case that could find a home in the first and third paragraph above is race and color and that has been the catalyst for some pretty distraous consequences on account of mans false illusions about his superiority.
Now if our mental heath is dependent upon the environment we have grown up in! Then Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest would most definitely come into play and the world would be a very unfair place, would it not. Just ask your local Rabbi! But that’s not happening is it?
Ok! Now ask yourself if there is a God…Where in the world is he in all of this, I mean why would he create man and then let him of the leash only to mess up the backyard and scare of the neighbors. Is this the loving thing to-do?
If you look at the last 2000 years we have had one religious war after another. The middle east, northern Ireland, The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, WW2( Yes Hitler believed he was doing gods work by eradicating the Jewish population), Bosnia . So if God is a religious God I sure don’t want to meet him and most defiantly not on a bad day.
Maybe he is in corporate America? Then again they don’t really have a head just a breathing mass of hungry share holders and some for some reason known only to themselves are always hungry for more and will never be satisfied.
Yes maybe there are some corporations that do genuinely care, can’t think of any at the moment lol. But they do care about their public image and the good old bottom line and if you have ever had a pink slip then you know all about corporate unconditional love, no security there!
Now I don’t think he lives in statues or religious artifacts because if that was the case you could buy him take home and pop him up on the mantel piece or nail him to the wall. Better still stick your old bath tub out in the front lawn end up and depending on which God is in vogue proudly display it, kneel before it, and ask it lots of questions even pray to it.
I have news for you whether its made of wood, alabaster or a precious metal it wont answer you back and if it did your property would be declared a scared spot and there goes your peace and quiet as you struggle home through the candle awed multitudes.
I have lived in this country (North America) since June 25th 1988 and while I love the vastness and beauty of this contentment I’m not in love with American Christianity. My journey through the American churches has been sadly disappointing. I came here with a passion for God and all that he has to offer us. I expected (naively) that the church here would be just as passionate, but I was greatly disappointed. You see I had and still have a wonderful love for god and the glorious wonders and life he has to offer through an intimate relationship with him.
Over the past 20 years I have only met a hand full of people who were thoroughly passionate about God, the vast majority had a knowledge about him or were more concerned about their status before others or telling other Christians how they should live their lives or building their own kingdoms and bringing converts into the same bondage as themselves
. In short I believe God brought me to this country to teach me how to love the lost sheep of his flock and it has been very hard class to take! Many times I have wanted to quit. But as I slowly progress and gain his understanding of unconditional love I gain understanding of how he feels by the churches rejection of his love
. All God wanted in the very beginning was a relationship with Adam and eve. It was so simple! God having healthy fellowship with his creation. They talked about everything and laughed at each others humor , there were no big list of rules to follow except one don’t eat the fruit of just one tree….that was it!
Yes we all know the rest of the story and the resulting fall out. The world has not lived in peace since and will not until it surrenders its false illusions of grandeur and superiority at the foot of his throne and accepts the free gift of his son Jesus and the Holy Spirit. There is no other way, the struggle has been going on for centuries and will continue until Jesus returns to claim those that love and follow him and those that have rejected him will tragically not enter into his eternal peace and life everlasting.
So where is God? He is here right now ready and willing to enter your life and the best way to ask him in is to ask him or his son Jesus to give you the faith to believe that they exist and leave the rest up to him and not to religion……
hey Mike! thanks for dropping by
Hey Sam, I like your question.
I think the Gospel or Good News is that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, very close, here in the person of Jesus Christ, and that we can be reconciled to God and a part of that Kingdom (the purpose for which we were created).
Part of what that means for me is when things are bad, unfair, broken, where there is pain, injustice, things I don't understand, when I sin and focus on myself, when I hear about and see tragedy - all those times the Good News is "it's not always going to be like this. Someday Jesus is going to come back and make things right."
me too Pastor...me too
“that God reconciles the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them, and he commits to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18)
To me good news can be simply worded like this: God is not mad at you. He is not upset with you. He is not interested in holding anything against you. Instead he is actively engaged in reconciling everything to himself—everything in you, everything in me, everything in all of creation. We all speak for God as his very ambassadors when our lives say this.
“The son of man is come to seek and to save whatever got lost.” It’s really good news.
Thanks Steve.
I was being reconciled this morning, I felt it.
Post a Comment