"A coworker and I have tasked ourselves with presenting the Gospel to each other this week.
My coworker is not a believer, but has recently committed herself to studying the Word
We assigned each other the homework on Thursday afternoon after reading through the first chapter of John (we have started studying a chapter/week of John after recently finishing James together before Christmas).
She wrote down the assignment in her journal Thursday.
Then handed me a page & a half of typed Gospel explanation on Friday...
I was asked not to read it until finishing my own assignment -- which I have now completed.
I have yet to read her thoughts but plan on doing so as soon as I get home.
It's been a ride going through the Word together.
I'm embarrassed to say that I believe she has retained more than I.
I've realized that, most of the time, I serve as a sounding board for her thoughts on the scripture and her questions regarding seeking wisdom, finding joy amidst trials, and humbling ourselves with a teachable spirit.
Her questions have been answered by the text 100% of the time.
Shocking, huh?
Realizing I've never asked most of you this, I'd like to learn from my best friends.
What is the Gospel?
Do we need pages and pages to explain it?
Or half a page?
No clue.
But I think we need to explain it.
I know life is busy and crazy and full of other things to do.
Apparently I've been doing all those other things for awhile because I can't remember the last time I outlined this part of my soul.
Thoughts appreciated."
.... Heavy, huh. Ok so write out your respond, seize this time to put "all those other things" aside and really do this, it took me over a week to finish mine, but once you finish yours you can read mine.
(Its below) Don't cheat yourself.
My Response:
"I must tell you that this charge you gave us is in large part my emotional life raft right now because as I write you back I reflect on the past few weeks. And I praise God that he orchestrated your words to come just at the time they did!
My dad’s cancer is back. Courtney, I wish I had told you sooner (So I’m sorry for dropping this all in the same letter) but no time like the present, huh... Anyway it was so divine placement because I got your email about the Gospel the night before his surgery on the 17th. The week prior to getting your email I fell into an emotional pit. Tears were hard to squeeze out but yet all I wanted to do was cry and I ate every meal but I had little desires or cravings or taste and I considered throwing something but I knew I would not feel any better or any release. So I sat on my bed a lot and aimlessly ran errands with my mom (which I really do enjoy but had no joy at the time). All that to say I know I fell into this pit because the enemy so easily robs me of my hope and he wins when I quit clinging to the promises I know to be true. We knew for sure dad’s cancer came back the 28th of Dec but the doctors wanted more scans besides his usual MRI to verify this, then after more meetings with his oncologist, internist, and surgeons he took a week off chemo and scheduled one surgery for the liver on the 17th and another surgery for the lung on the 23rd. And on the eve of my dad’s first surgery your email was the Lord’s reminder and invitation for me to cling to His truth and promise and LOVE for me. Isn’t that just SO like our GOD?! To invite me to proclaim his mercy and grace in a time when I need most to do that for myself. So I stayed up until 2am and tried to write out the gospel and I think I wrote maybe three rough drafts and they just weren’t it. I had a track, God’s story (like history of Abraham to David to Jesus) and some verses. But I kept wondering what’s the essential?
God made us in his perfect and pleasing image so that we might be like Him and so that we might
. But here’s the thing- I have prayed and asked the Lord to bring suffering in our lives. In the same breath I ask him to heal my dad and please use another mean in our life then to continue to shake us to our knees, but if not I trust the Lord and his will be done. Because I know that suffering produces hope and hope perseverance. Because in suffering I know the Lord as my sole provider. And in suffering I often fall into a pit where only the Lord can pull me out and in this kind of suffering I see that’s all I want and need is for Him to rescue me.
So I think that’s the Gospel that GOD has rescued us. Essentially.
Ephesians spells out the gospel so wonderfully in my opinion-
Chpt 2:1-10
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. BUT because of His great love for us, GOD, who is RICH IN MERCY, made us alive in CHRIST, even when we were dead in our transgressions- IT IS BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might share the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which he has prepared in advance for us to do.
I read an article by Kathy and Dr. Tim Keller in relevant magazine by and in their article they’re talking about how marriage is so painful and wonderful at the same time because simply put it was designed to reflect the gospel.
“The Gospel is—we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared to believe, and at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/relationship/features/27749-you-never-marry-the-right-person
Preach it Kellers! - I am more desperate and desolate and destitute then I could ever want to really believe and accept. BUT CHRIST ALONE has made me clean, worthy, and an heir to His heavenly throne and kingdom-, which is more than I could have ever wildly hoped for. What a beautiful contrast, what hope!
I think that is the Gospel.
To digress for a moment, I’m going back to a little of my current situation. So in between my dad’s surgeries I went back to school, went to a few classes and then went back to Dallas for the second surgery. And flew back to college station for good for the semester on the night of the 23rd. And when I started debriefing with friends and roommates in between the two surgeries and after his most recent here is what I proclaimed- Romans 8:18-29 and most loudly vs 28.
I may not always feel this happiness in my heart, I may feel like I’m in an emotional pit, but my God is not a God of feeling. My God is however author of time and He will say what happens in my family’s life. My God is my sole provider and He is the one who gives me breath. My God is my savior and with out Him I am forever trapped and lost. My God is my redeemer and with no sacrifice or price paid by me he rescued me from wrath. 1Timothy 1:12-17.
This is of no glory to me but all to the Lord- I seriously pray that God continually bring suffering on my life. I ask that if the Lord wills that he will heal my dad of cancer, but to then use another means to bring trials in my life because it is only through this that I have gotten the JOY and PRIVELEGE of knowing God as my healer, provider, father, all the things above. When I look down the road of my life I don’t have a want for my dad to die before I’m old, nor do I have a want to struggle in marriage or struggle with children or experience loss. But I know that in all of those things the Lord draws me, draws us into Him. So I pray that he never lets up. It is pure joy and honor to face trials of many kinds because of the hope we gain. Matt Chandler said it would be so cruel if God withheld these struggles that draw us to more of him just for the sake that we could remain healthy and happy but never know the depths of his love.
So it’s now the 24th and I am halfway through your assignment and coincidentally without a lesson plan or game plan for 2015 bible study. I think over what to do for this week, maybe share what God’s doing in my life or maybe wing something… And 30 min before the girls get there I see that you and Kelly have commented on the bstud status so what do I take that as? - Another invitation from the Lord for us to proclaim his Truth.
So I took the laptop to bible study, read your email to them and said, “alright, lets do it, tell me the gospel”. So we sat there as they each chimed in and tossed around what is the gospel.
The Lord moved that night and used these girls as vessels of righteousness to speak His truth over me so that I just got to hear the Gospel over and over. And then see too who needed more clarity in the Gospel. And another divine thing happened at bible study. One of the girls asked- “Is it just the Gospel?” Does knowing the gospel = salvation? Does believing the gospel = salvation or accepting the gospel= salvation or is there more? Is salvation accepting and following or can it stop somewhere and if so where because heaven knows I don’t want to add to it, right?
So I have some ideas on an answer to that but I left my girls with a passage to read. And I want to know your thoughts on that question.
So how do we mark salvation, both in our lives and another? How is our friend saved?
I want your initial thoughts and then also thoughts on the chapter-
I had the girls read Mark 10:17-end of chpt 10."
My dad’s cancer is back. Courtney, I wish I had told you sooner (So I’m sorry for dropping this all in the same letter) but no time like the present, huh... Anyway it was so divine placement because I got your email about the Gospel the night before his surgery on the 17th. The week prior to getting your email I fell into an emotional pit. Tears were hard to squeeze out but yet all I wanted to do was cry and I ate every meal but I had little desires or cravings or taste and I considered throwing something but I knew I would not feel any better or any release. So I sat on my bed a lot and aimlessly ran errands with my mom (which I really do enjoy but had no joy at the time). All that to say I know I fell into this pit because the enemy so easily robs me of my hope and he wins when I quit clinging to the promises I know to be true. We knew for sure dad’s cancer came back the 28th of Dec but the doctors wanted more scans besides his usual MRI to verify this, then after more meetings with his oncologist, internist, and surgeons he took a week off chemo and scheduled one surgery for the liver on the 17th and another surgery for the lung on the 23rd. And on the eve of my dad’s first surgery your email was the Lord’s reminder and invitation for me to cling to His truth and promise and LOVE for me. Isn’t that just SO like our GOD?! To invite me to proclaim his mercy and grace in a time when I need most to do that for myself. So I stayed up until 2am and tried to write out the gospel and I think I wrote maybe three rough drafts and they just weren’t it. I had a track, God’s story (like history of Abraham to David to Jesus) and some verses. But I kept wondering what’s the essential?
God made us in his perfect and pleasing image so that we might be like Him and so that we might
. But here’s the thing- I have prayed and asked the Lord to bring suffering in our lives. In the same breath I ask him to heal my dad and please use another mean in our life then to continue to shake us to our knees, but if not I trust the Lord and his will be done. Because I know that suffering produces hope and hope perseverance. Because in suffering I know the Lord as my sole provider. And in suffering I often fall into a pit where only the Lord can pull me out and in this kind of suffering I see that’s all I want and need is for Him to rescue me.
So I think that’s the Gospel that GOD has rescued us. Essentially.
Ephesians spells out the gospel so wonderfully in my opinion-
Chpt 2:1-10
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. BUT because of His great love for us, GOD, who is RICH IN MERCY, made us alive in CHRIST, even when we were dead in our transgressions- IT IS BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might share the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which he has prepared in advance for us to do.
I read an article by Kathy and Dr. Tim Keller in relevant magazine by and in their article they’re talking about how marriage is so painful and wonderful at the same time because simply put it was designed to reflect the gospel.
“The Gospel is—we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared to believe, and at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/relationship/features/27749-you-never-marry-the-right-person
Preach it Kellers! - I am more desperate and desolate and destitute then I could ever want to really believe and accept. BUT CHRIST ALONE has made me clean, worthy, and an heir to His heavenly throne and kingdom-, which is more than I could have ever wildly hoped for. What a beautiful contrast, what hope!
I think that is the Gospel.
To digress for a moment, I’m going back to a little of my current situation. So in between my dad’s surgeries I went back to school, went to a few classes and then went back to Dallas for the second surgery. And flew back to college station for good for the semester on the night of the 23rd. And when I started debriefing with friends and roommates in between the two surgeries and after his most recent here is what I proclaimed- Romans 8:18-29 and most loudly vs 28.
I may not always feel this happiness in my heart, I may feel like I’m in an emotional pit, but my God is not a God of feeling. My God is however author of time and He will say what happens in my family’s life. My God is my sole provider and He is the one who gives me breath. My God is my savior and with out Him I am forever trapped and lost. My God is my redeemer and with no sacrifice or price paid by me he rescued me from wrath. 1Timothy 1:12-17.
This is of no glory to me but all to the Lord- I seriously pray that God continually bring suffering on my life. I ask that if the Lord wills that he will heal my dad of cancer, but to then use another means to bring trials in my life because it is only through this that I have gotten the JOY and PRIVELEGE of knowing God as my healer, provider, father, all the things above. When I look down the road of my life I don’t have a want for my dad to die before I’m old, nor do I have a want to struggle in marriage or struggle with children or experience loss. But I know that in all of those things the Lord draws me, draws us into Him. So I pray that he never lets up. It is pure joy and honor to face trials of many kinds because of the hope we gain. Matt Chandler said it would be so cruel if God withheld these struggles that draw us to more of him just for the sake that we could remain healthy and happy but never know the depths of his love.
So it’s now the 24th and I am halfway through your assignment and coincidentally without a lesson plan or game plan for 2015 bible study. I think over what to do for this week, maybe share what God’s doing in my life or maybe wing something… And 30 min before the girls get there I see that you and Kelly have commented on the bstud status so what do I take that as? - Another invitation from the Lord for us to proclaim his Truth.
So I took the laptop to bible study, read your email to them and said, “alright, lets do it, tell me the gospel”. So we sat there as they each chimed in and tossed around what is the gospel.
The Lord moved that night and used these girls as vessels of righteousness to speak His truth over me so that I just got to hear the Gospel over and over. And then see too who needed more clarity in the Gospel. And another divine thing happened at bible study. One of the girls asked- “Is it just the Gospel?” Does knowing the gospel = salvation? Does believing the gospel = salvation or accepting the gospel= salvation or is there more? Is salvation accepting and following or can it stop somewhere and if so where because heaven knows I don’t want to add to it, right?
So I have some ideas on an answer to that but I left my girls with a passage to read. And I want to know your thoughts on that question.
So how do we mark salvation, both in our lives and another? How is our friend saved?
I want your initial thoughts and then also thoughts on the chapter-
I had the girls read Mark 10:17-end of chpt 10."
