A Little Introduction.

It was about two years ago that I learned that ‘the gospel’ was not just me not going to hell.   It was at that time that I learned that I could not tack Christ on the side of my life but rather that Christ must be my life.   His desires must be mine, His plan must be mine, His way, not the highway, because we all know when you choose the highway you lose something important.   God began growing me at that point in regards to what His desires actually were, what His plan was, and how I can contribute.   I  went to Vietnam that summer to teach English to high school students there.   God did some crazy big stuff there, things that require a whole book to grasp it all, but it was only a month and I came back to school last fall.   Well, this last spring I had a whole new learning experience about ‘the gospel’.    The gospel as I used to understand it was simply  death and resurrection, but I have grown to understand it to be bigger than two individual events.   DON’T MISREAD THIS: The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Son of God, second person of the trinity is what makes our participation in the gospel possible, and even is in part the good news, but I do not believe it is all of it. The person of Christ and the work of Christ I do undoubtedly believe encompasses the gospel, but Christ is God and God is unexplainable in His fullness… so the gospel is… to some extent.

Anyways, I have now seen a few things (with the help of Jeff Vanderstelt and others):  I have been saved from the penalty of sin,  I am being saved currently from the power of sin,  and I will be saved from the presence of sin.   Part of this is the people of God that he has saved us into, part of it is His Lordship and reign, part of it is His kingdom both here and coming, part of it is living by the Spirit; but it is more, it, the gospel, affects/should affect every area of our lives, because God is over the whole of our lives, every second given by him, and every category of our life allowed by him. Hopefully this opens up your thinking to my understanding, and what I believe is Scripture’s teaching, of the gospel.   Since the gospel is why we are still here (to spread the knowledge of it, the knowledge of the glory of God) a shift in the understanding of it will naturally affect every area of life, or so it should.   Basically, I see more now than ever, the importance of the community of believers, it is what he saves us into, it is how he displays his glory, it is how he intends us to share the gospel, and bring one another and all the others to a better knowledge and understanding of himself.

In Jeff’s words, “The Church is God’s People (who we are) saved by God’s Power (what He has done and is doing) for God’s Purposes (the good works he created us in Jesus Christ to do).”  We must find a way to effectively minister as a body to the world immediately around us, sharing love, life, and the knowledge of the Most High, knowledge of real reality. Prayer will be vital, opportunities needed, and a massive movement of the Holy Spirit, led by God the Father, given by God the Son, God himself making it all happen. A tall order for a man, but an easy accomplishment for the infinite and only God.