sad...! 67 years...!

it was worth the Son of God dying, it’s worth talking about. it’s a life or death issue for people, speaking of the new life.

lots of drama as it played out, so definitely not boring...but ratings? to be a follower of Christ, you’re supposed to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him...not exactly what the world wants to hear or do, so ratings might be a factor…

but it can’t stop us from teaching/explaining/living/blogging the Good News...we have to present the truth and the hope...the Good News!

This is something I’ve been thinking about.  All around me, whether it’s friends or in the bloggysphere, I hear about the Church.  What the Church should do, can do, and isn’t doing.  How can we pray for the Church?  How can we expand the Church?

These are all good and important questions.

But I think we sometimes, if not often, forget the Church’s better half.  Our faithful husband, love, savior, and king: Jesus.

Maybe we should look for unity not in each other, but in a united focus upon Him.  Only in that way can we truly be a family anyway.

I came up under Southern Baptist teaching (church and christian school) mostly, and from what I remember the focus was always saving people FROM hell. For a really long time I was a christian strictly to escape damnation.

A few years back I began to feel a stirring that there had to be more and began searching. Without going into great detail, its been a process that lead me to places like Shlog and Letters from Kamp Krusty, where the present Kingdom that we are save for is being taught.

I think its easier (requires less of us physically and emotionally)to worry about someones eternity than their present reality. The work of the present Kingdom gets a little messy (physically and emotionally) at times and we don’t like that.

This all reminds me of a saying that I’ve heard - “He’s so heavenly minded that he’s no earthly good.”

Why? Too dangerous.

Kingdom talk gets you killed. The world wants you dead because you’re a threat. The King wants you to die to yourself. And if you’ve said,” You’re my King, and I will do what you say.”, the only choice is obedience or rebellion.

I believe people are afraid to talk about it.  They’re afraid if they talk about it that it will be a turn off to their audience.

Sure, I’m a firm believer that when mentoring, you shouldn’t just jump right in to the gospel.  If you have no trust from the person you’re mentoring, why should they believe a word you say.  For that reason I believe it’s uber important for a relationship to be built, which in return will build trust, which in return will allow there to be an outlet for the gospel to be shared.

With that said, as bloggers, we have no reason not to share.  Ultimately we are writing for ourselves, but for others to be able to experience what we do, with the ability to give input.

Now with ALL of that said, it’s important to live our lives in an example of how God would like for us to live.  Yet, it’s very important as well that we don’t forget about speaking the good news and sharing his Word.

Just my thoughts.

http://www.vagabondrunn.wordpress.com

Anyone else having problems viewing the YouTube video?

Shaun, I remember you saying once in a concert that the Good News was what you were saved for, but I can’t remember what the “for” was.  I’m thinkin your video says it, but for some reason when I click the link, I don’t get the video.

I know what I’d call Good News.  Is it the same as what you’d call Good News?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on it so I could, if not answer, at least think on the questions you posted.  Maybe there’s a post where you explain?...Sorry, I don’t know why the video’s not working for me…

Too simple, the idea that what we’re saved for is sitting right in front of us in the Bible. My observations are that we tend to try and make everything so super spiritual and theologically hard to make ourselves seem smarter when really the Good News is so simple a two year old could do it. I also think that we think that it’s supposed to be difficult to understand or we think that God’s trying to trick us. Because even though the gift of salvation is free our culture has pounded into us that nothing is free and therefore it’s can’t just be simple enough to take salvation and do the work that God has set before us. It’s got to be hard because nothing is free.

Youtube’s working for me.  But here’s another link for ya fancypants.

http://vimeo.com/867930

i think it’s because so many of us either don’t KNOW the truth of Grace, or we’ve slipped away from the truth of Grace and forgotten that it is the center of salvation. 

and i think that has happened because grace is an awfully hard reality to accept and live under, especially in a performance-driven, self-sufficiency-valuing society like america.

and, i love that you used psalm 73.  that’s IT, isn’t it??

whom have i in heaven but You?  and on earth, there is NOTHING i desire besides You.  my flesh and my heart may fail, but the Lord is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

because it’s not about what i can do/say/think/feel/theologize/give/create/believe ... but it’s about Jesus.  Who He is and what He does.

“I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him.”—ecc 3:14

Seems to be a good theme in the blogosphere today…

Simple.  People don’t want to offend people, and without telling people that they are bad, the good news doesn’t seem so good.  People tell people how to “feel good” and how God apparently wants them to be rich instead of telling them we are scum, scum that He died for and that we should be living sacrifices. 

Why? Fear.
Fear of standing up an living how we ought to...and they wonder how people can so easily die for the faith in other countries...now that is living.

Thanks. Got it.

Yup, I’d say that’s about right except I’d say it with at least half the accent you have.  =-)

Seriously:  N.T. Wright recently wrote a book about the New Heaven and Earth.  It’s called:  Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church I haven’t read it.  You might have.  I really want to.

Anyway, I think it’s about viewing heaven as the physical kingdom of God, what Jesus started on earth, instead of an ethereal floating place we’re used to imagining in the church today.  It will be real, material, physical.  It is real… But he talks about how the current, what he calls incorrect, view of an ethereal heaven we have leads to wrong actions in the present...a lack of hope.

But, then again, I haven’t read it.  But your post made me think about it.

Man, I have been asking “why” for a long time myself.

I try to teach/explain/live/blog the Good News Jesus taught.

Check out my blog when you get some time. http://www.howbeautifularethefeet.com

Good post today.

-Brian

I agree with Clint. Growing up in a southern Baptist Church I always thought that the reason Christians are supposed to witness to people is for “Fire Insurrance,” in other words, just saving people from hell.

But recently there was this speaker who came and spoke at my church who was a muslim before he turned to Christ. I loved the way he presented the Gospel because it was so simple and relational, as it should be. Here’s basically what he said.

“God wants so much more than just to save us. The first and foremost reason he created us was to have a personal relationship with us. He is our Daddy in Heaven who just wanted a family. And He wanted to return to how things were before we screwed up…

As for why I, personally, ignore the opportunity to share my faith because I’m nervous or scared… All the reasons that I can come up with are overwhelmingly trivial, because the Good News is actually ridiculously simple: 1.) God had a personal relationship with Adam and Eve. 2.) We lost that relationship when Adam and Eve sinned. 3.) God sent His Son to redeem us to restore that relationship and asked that all we have to recieve it is ask.”

That’s sad.  While the kingdom of God often doesn’t get the same billing as other topics, 67 years is an awfully long time to never hear about it in the present tense.  I have a tough time imagining that happening in any of the evangelical churches that I grew up in.

MB

Do you understand the Good News to be something different than I do? Am I wrong?

I’m still working through this.  The teaching I’ve received ties the gospel directly to explanations in Paul’s letters of redemption, Jesus’ blood, the cross, Jesus’ resurrection, substitutionary atonement, reconciliation with God… all things directly related to an individual’s relationship with God.  They would narrow the focus of the gospel’s definition to one piece of the kingdom-is-at-hand puzzle, while you and others seem to be wrapping up our relationship with others, our relationship to creation, the out-workings of faith, a lot of things into the gospel message.

My pastor would probably say that’s dangerous, because a person’s relationship with God must be right before anything else makes sense.  He may even go so far as to say that you are preaching a different gospel along the lines of what Paul was referring to in Galatians 1.  I don’t know.  I think what you are teaching is good, and it may just be an issue of semantics.  I still like to hear those who define the gospel as “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” explain what Paul means in 1 Corinthians 15 in light of that definition.

I sent out a letter asking people to pray for me as I plan to participate in a mission trip to Zambia this year.  In explaining my purpose, I spoke about the kingdom of God, quoting Mark 1:14-15.  An aged former pastor, mentor of mine pledged his prayers and said, “Please keep in mind: ‘The purpose of the gospel is not to make bad people good and good people better but to bring dead people back to life.’ Ephes. 2:1-10” I don’t know if he was concerned about what I wrote or if this is the way he would encourage anyone.  Would you agree with this purpose?

Keith, my short answer to your comment is: First, thanks for being so honest about your reservations and what you’ve been taught so far.  Thanks for the chance to address all that.  Secondly, it’s not an either or situation: Either the Good News is about me OR the Good News is about God redeeming all things (creation, economies, relationships, bodies, minds, etc).  It’s both AND.

Read 1 John 3 and 4 for a good primer on the relationship between our love of God, God’s love of us, and our love of others.  And what that love looks like lived out.

I can’t say it any better than John.

Like the video.  Glad you clarified about the very “real hell and real heaven”.  There are so many false teachings out there now that are leading people astray and having them believe heaven and hell are within ourselves.  I do believe that loving and providing for the poor are a part of the Good News Jesus came to share. 

Good stuff.

Keith,

I have a couple thoughts, for what they are worth. 

The kingdom of God is about making God the ruler, not just of our individual lives, but of our communal life as the body of Christ.  In that sense, it has to encompass all those other things.  If as the Church we really make Jesus Lord and ruler, then we will be loving our neighbor.

Regarding the statement, “‘The purpose of the gospel is not to make bad people good and good people better but to bring dead people back to life.’”, it is true that the ultimate purpose is to bring dead people back to life.  However, somewhat paradoxically, if that is the only way we interact with people outside the church, then we aren’t likely to achieve that purpose.  If Jesus is to rule our hearts and minds, then we need to love our neighbor and work for justice for the poor and those lacking a voice, regardless of their interest or responsiveness to conversion.  When people see that this love Christians have is for them as a person and not just for them as a potential convert, that Jesus is most able to use us to help meet both immediate and eternal needs. 

Shaun put it well that it is a both AND proposition.  I would add that neither is accomplished very well on its own, and sometimes the most effective means of evangelism is just letting go of that as the primary focus, and focusing on loving others.

Some of these comments are probably shaded by my own past constant anxiety and fretting about sharing the gospel with strangers everywhere I went, so take it with a grain of salt.  God bless your efforts to bring the His reign to this earth.

MB