WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE ROOTED IN THE GOSPEL?

Jen Oshman 

To be rooted in the gospel is to be like the banyan trees of the tropics. The trees’ roots are many. They shoot out from all over and reach down toward the nutrient-rich soil. The trees thrive because of their many roots and the luscious soil. The soil is just right—exactly what these organisms need. The nutrition causes the trees to grow tall and broad and to reproduce. The far-reaching roots enable the trees to stand firm in the midst of hurricane-force winds, which lash the tropics every year. Even the fiercest storms cannot uproot the banyans.

The banyan trees’ roots connect the trees to their life source, the soil. We too must be rooted in our life source, which is the gospel. As Christians, we know that the gospel is the good news of salvation. It is our rescue from hell and deliverance to heaven.

But the gospel is also the truth that propels us and compels us in all things. It is the very foundation of our lives and worldview and understanding of reality. The gospel is the most basic and important truth for all people. Sending our roots into any other soil causes us to wither.

John Calvin writes, “For true doctrine is not a matter of the tongue, but of life: neither is the Christian doctrine grasped only by the intellect and memory, as truth is grasped in other fields of study. Rather, doctrine is rightly received when it takes possession of the entire soul and finds a dwelling place and shelter in the most intimate affections of the heart.”[1]

In other words, to believe the truth about the gospel, one must do more than mentally assent to it. The truth of the gospel is meant to transform us. And if it does not, then we do not really believe. The gospel has something to say about how we spend our time, where we spend our money, the goals we pursue, the careers we seek, the hobbies we enjoy, the food we eat—everything.

The gospel says that we are not our own.

PAUL PRAYED THAT THE CHURCH WOULD BE ROOTED

The word rooted appears in two places in the Bible. Both are found in letters written by Paul to two different church communities, which he helped to establish. One is to the church at Ephesus and one is to the church at Colossae. In both contexts, Paul urges his readers to be rooted in the gospel.

First, in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul says,

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:14–19)

You can hear Paul’s labor and love for the Ephesians in these words. First, he says he earnestly prays for them. He prays to the Father of every family, meaning we are all created by God. Paul says that he asks God to fill them with power from the Holy Spirit, so that Christ may dwell in them. He wants them to be rooted and grounded in love—not just any love, but the love of the Father, who gives us his Son and empowers us by the Spirit—which is the gospel.

The love of Christ that surpasses knowledge is communicated radically in the gospel message, which the Ephesians believed by faith and Paul longed for them to comprehend. He desired that they (and you and I!) be filled with the fullness of God. The gospel is not peripheral. It is not secondary. It is meant to be the very center of our lives as followers of Christ.

Paul closes his prayer with these powerful words: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Eph. 3:20–21).

When we believe the gospel by faith, when we are empowered by the Holy Spirit, when Christ dwells in our hearts, when we are filled with the fullness of God, then God is able to do far more abundantly than all we could ever ask or imagine! This is the power of the gospel in us. And when this power is at work, it brings glory to Jesus throughout all generations.

When we are rooted in Christ and built up in Christ, we will be established in Christ. This leads to rest in the gospel—a rest that can do far more than we ever ask or imagine.

Second, in his letter to the Colossians, Paul says, “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (Col. 2:6–7).

This prayer points to that moment when the Colossians surrendered to the Lord and believed the gospel by grace, through faith. Paul says if you have received Christ, then be rooted in Christ, be built up in him, be established in him and grow from that foundation.

Receiving Christ, being rooted in the gospel, is a water-shed moment. It changes everything. It takes possession of all who believe.

ROOTS IN THE GOSPEL, NOT IN THIS WORLD

Interestingly, Paul continues from this urging of the Colossians to be rooted in Christ with this exhortation: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ” (Col. 2:8).  

The age of self says that life and meaning begin and end with us. But this is empty deceit and a human-centered tradition.

Like the Colossians, we must be aware of the philosophy of our culture and measure it against the truth of the gospel. The cultural air we breathe says to believe in yourself and you will be saved. But the true gospel says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

The gospel truth that God is both our Creator and Redeemer is the only soil that will nourish us. When we come to the end of ourselves, we must examine the soil in which our hearts have taken root. Are we rooted in ourselves and this world, or in the power of him who made us and longs to save us? Does the one true God nourish our souls? Does he equip us for life and enable us to bring him glory? Or is our soil toxic?

Only God can make us aware of what is toxic in our soil. Only he can show us that we must seek sustenance that comes from him alone. When we are rooted in him, rooted in the gospel, our whole being is forever changed.

Jen Oshman is a wife, mom, and a staff writer for GCD. She has served as a missionary and pastor’s wife for over two decades on three continents. She currently resides in Colorado, where her family planted Redemption Parker, an Acts29 church. Read more of Jen’s writing on her website.

[1] Calvin, Little Book on the Christian Life, 12–13. Emphasis added.

Content taken from Enough about Me by Jen Oshman, ©2020. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, crossway.org.

Posted at: https://gcdiscipleship.com/article-feed/2020/3/2/enough-about-me-excerpt

WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?

By Barbara Juliani

That was the question I asked the nine- and ten-year-old Sunday school class I was teaching. I wondered if they knew the answer. When I was ten, I thought I knew. After all, I was a pastor’s daughter and went to a Christian school. But I didn’t. I had learned a gospel, but not the true gospel.

WHAT WAS MY GOSPEL?

It started out right: You are a sinner whose only hope is to trust in Jesus, ask him for forgiveness for your sins, and he gives you the free gift of eternal life. But then my gospel took a wrong turn. According to my gospel, you also had to work hard, be the best at what you do, and keep the ten commandments.

It turned out my gospel closely resembled the values of my parents’ upbringing with a dash of Oregonian frontier independence thrown in. It was the gospel-according-to-the-Millers.

FOLLOWING THE RULES—AND FAILING

When I was ten, I remember my Sunday School teacher saying to our class, “You kids think being a Christian is just following a bunch of rules.” Her words caught my attention. Did she mean there was more than rule-following involved in being a Christian? But what could that be? If being a Christian didn’t mean being a good person and following rules, what did it mean?

I tried to be good (when convenient). When it wasn’t convenient, I hid my sins (as best I could). Once I wore my older sister’s blouse without asking. I’m pretty sure she said something like, “Don’t touch my things!”

After I wore it, I washed and ironed it to make sure she didn’t notice anything wrong. But the iron was too hot and burned the blouse. I hid it deep in my closet. Whenever I thought about being a Christian, I remembered the hidden blouse—the stealing, the cover-up, my inability to come clean—and realized Christianity couldn’t be for me.

I wasn’t a good person. Soon that became obvious. I stopped trying to be good and left my home and religion.

THE DEADLY GOSPEL

The gospel-according-to-the-Millers led me far away from the real gospel. It wasn’t about the grace and truth of Jesus Christ; it was what Paul calls “no gospel at all” (Galatians 1:7). This “no gospel,” characterized by trying hard to be good through our own efforts, led my father to quit his job as a pastor and a seminary professor and my mother to announce that she didn’t even know if God existed. It was a deadly gospel. It brought death because it was based on our efforts instead of Jesus’s sacrifice. It brought death because deep down we all knew our efforts weren’t enough to save us. It turns out it wasn’t just me who wasn’t a good person.

We all had a hidden blouse that spoke of our sins. For my dad, it was a failing church and the inability to see an impact as he taught young men to be pastors. For my mom, it was her failures as a mother that kept her up at night. She had tried so hard. Why was her daughter not trying too?

THE TRUE GOSPEL

Paul sums up the true gospel like this: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15).

Jesus came to save sinners. That’s the good news that brings lasting faith, hope, and love into the lives of those who trust Jesus.

But the good news is only for those who know the bad news: I am a sinner who needs saving. That is just as true now as it was when I was a little girl hiding my sister’s blouse. As my dad famously said, “Cheer up! You are worse than you think. Cheer up! God loves you more than you know!”

That bad news/good news combination is not only for becoming a Christian. It’s the power of God for living as a Christian.

WE NEED JESUS EVERY DAY

My dad and mom, good people that they were, had to learn the hard way that they were worse than they thought. It turns out that pride and self-righteousness are deadly sins that need to be repented from. And I, bad girl that I was, also needed to know Jesus came to this world to save sinners.

When my parents learned the true gospel – that they needed daily forgiveness and help from Jesus for their daily sins and struggles – they shared that with me. Not by sitting me down and explaining it, but by living it in front of me.

By then the Miller gospel of self-effort and hard work had kicked in for me, and I had pulled my life together. I was in a stable relationship and going to graduate school at Stanford. My mom and dad had just returned from mission work in war-torn Uganda. My mom told me that she had walked the streets sobbing because she couldn’t love the people there.  

My dad pointed her to the forgiveness and love that was hers in Christ from her heavenly Father. He reminded her that in Christ she now had the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of sonship by which she could call out to her Father in heaven. She did just that and was forgiven and helped.

After listening to her struggle and how God met her, for the first time I thought maybe someone like me could be a Christian. For the first time, my mom sounded like a real person in real trouble who simply turned to God for help.

DRAGGED FROM DARKNESS INTO LIGHT                               

A few weeks later I was walking to class feeling guilty about something I had done. It was a small thing, but I felt the weight of another failure. This time, instead of stuffing my guilt deep down, I remembered that Jesus Christ came to the world to save sinners.

I remembered the forgiveness of sins was mine for the asking. So I asked Jesus to forgive me for that sin and many more. I stepped (was dragged) from darkness and death into the light of God’s love.

That’s the true gospel—the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16). The true gospel was not just for that day. It’s how the power of God flows into my life every day. Every day I am still the worst sinner, and every day I need to turn to Jesus and ask for mercy and help in my time of need.

COMFORT IN THE CROSS

The needs of this day look different today, then they did many years ago, but deep down they are still the same. The overwhelming need of this day is for faith in God’s goodness and love as we grieve the death of our son Gabe from cancer eight months ago. Will I turn to God with my sorrow and grief? Or will I turn away and look to other things to comfort and fulfill me?  

We are wounded by death. But we turn toward the One who was wounded for our transgressions, who died that we might live. We look to Jesus – the author and finisher of our faith – who for the joy set before him endured the cross. We remember the resurrection and that Jesus defeated death. We trust our son into his hands.

We ask for the Spirit to comfort, help, and remind us of the Father’s great love this day. And for his help to endure again another day. I need Jesus today as desperately as I needed him that day long ago when I first asked for forgiveness for my many sins. I feel that need more deeply today than ever before. And he is still forgiving and helping. Because Jesus rose from the dead, I know for sure that there will come a day when he will welcome me to our true home where there is no more death, mourning, crying, or pain. That’s the gospel.

Posted at: https://blog.newgrowthpress.com/what-is-the-gospel/

6 Gospel Promises to Embrace

by Paul David Tripp

Feeling troubled, inadequate, weak, defeated, overwhelmed, alienated, or alone? Here are six gospel promises to embrace today:

1. The Gospel Promises Forgiveness Today

Many of us carry around our sin in a metaphorical backpack of regret, bruising our spiritual shoulders and breaking the back of our faith. Jesus took the weight of our sin on himself so that we wouldn’t have to carry it any longer. He says that he will remember our sins no more but will separate us from those sins as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).

What freedom is found here! We don’t have to live imprisoned by fear, paralyzed by regret, or trapped in the darkness of guilt and shame when Christ offers complete forgiveness.

2. The Gospel Promises Deliverance Today

Christ came not only to forgive our sins, but to deliver us from them. On the Cross, he broke the power of sin’s mastery over us (see Romans 6:1–14). Because the Holy Spirit lives inside you, you have the ability today to say “no” to sin and “yes” to righteousness. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is living within you (Ephesians 1:19-20).

3. The Gospel Promises Restoration Today

It’s tempting to look back on our lives with regret, wishing we could rewind time. The timing of the Restorer is always perfect; the years haven’t been wasted. In his sovereign love, God has been bringing us to this point of insight and conviction at just the right moment, and he promises to restore what has been lost in the process so that we will not be put to shame (see Joel 2:25-27).

4. The Gospel Promises Reconciliation Today

At the heart of the gospel narrative is the coming of the Prince of Peace. In him, we find reconciliation not only with God, but with one another. He’s the only One who can destroy the walls that separate people (Ephesians 2:14–18).

Malachi 4:6 says, “He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.” Jesus asked the Father that the church would be a community of unity and love (John 17:20–23). Today, the gospel promises hope where your relationships have been damaged or even destroyed.

5. The Gospel Promises Wisdom Today

James says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him” (James 1:5). We may be blind, but we are promised sight because “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” are hidden in Christ (Colossians 2:3). The invitation is simple: “Come, ask, and I will give!”

6. The Gospel Promises Mercy Today

Jesus was tempted as we are in every point, so he understands and sympathizes with our weaknesses. We can come to him and find mercy and grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:14–16).

In the hardest of situations or the most trying of relationships, we never stand alone. We are in Christ, and in him, we can do what would otherwise be impossible.

Remind yourself of these six daily gospel promises as you look forward to the gospel promise of eternity!

God bless,

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

How can you embrace each of these six gospel promises this week? Be specific in your application:

1. Forgiveness. What regrets are you holding onto that Christ has forgiven? How are these potentially crushing and restricting your faith?

2. Deliverance. What sins are you struggling with most today? Have you fallen into believing that you cannot break free? What steps can you take to experience deliverance?

3. Restoration. What has God recently revealed to you (at just the right time) that needs to be restored in your life? What steps can you take towards restoration?

4. Reconciliation. With whom do you need to reconcile? What selfish motives, desires, words, and actions do you need to confess before reconciliation can happen?

5. Wisdom. Where are you feeling unable? Have you asked God for wisdom for that area where you are experiencing weakness and fear?

6. Mercy. How did Christ experience what you are struggling with? Think of examples from his earthly life and ministry. How should this comfort and strengthen you?

Posted at: https://www.paultripp.com/wednesdays-word/posts/six-gospel-promises-to-embrace-today?fbclid=IwAR3xtW8zBwSQIiTe3Z335FPq1QGwGExyxekQDnrIMYthC9xxoBLxWF0SNyk

The Scandal and Sweetness of John 3:16

Article by William Boekestein

John 3:16 has become so familiar that we no longer find its words astonishing. But this remarkable verse reveals amazing truth that should delight us every time we hear it.

A Remarkable Claim

Jesus boldly asserts that God loves the world. God, the maker of heaven and earth, is self-sufficient and needs nothing outside of Himself. He is the Holy One whose pure eyes cannot look upon sin (Hab. 1:13). His desires are always upright, His love completely pure, and His affection never misplaced. How can such a God love the broken, sin-marred world?

In the broadest sense, the world represents the universe that God created. God loves the creation that He spoke into being. His love for the sin-corrupted world is bound up in His plan to totally restore heaven and earth (Acts 3:21).

More specifically, the world represents the human inhabitants of the earth, a race of rebels, traitors, and idolaters–objects far from deserving God’s love. Because man sinned, God would have done no injustice by letting everyone perish (Rom. 3:19). Instead, God chose to love.

The Reach of God’s Love

Christ uses the word world to show the mystery and fullness of God’s love, which is not limited to any race, region, or time. Jesus is not suggesting a universal atonement. He died for those whom God chose to believe in Him (John 6:37) and in whom He works saving faith as a gift of grace (Eph. 2:8). Still, God loves sinners and has provided a way of salvation for a vast host of fallen people (Gen. 15:5).

The Reality of God’s Love

God’s love for the world seems incongruous and far-fetched–even impossible. To believe in this love, we need irrefutable evidence. Jesus’ coming to the world is the irrefutable evidence of the Father’s love for it. People can talk about their love for others, but the proof of love is action, not words (1 John 3:18). “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

The Riches of God’s Love

God’s love is not sentimental but sacrificial. It is agape, a committed and costly affection proved through action. According to John, only one event in the history of the world is capable of demonstrating true love. He writes, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

God’s love for His people can only be understood in relation to His love for His Son. The only begotten Son is the eternal object of the Father’s affection. Twice during Christ’s public ministry, the Father shattered heaven’s silence to affirm His absolute love for His Son (Matt. 3:17; 17:5). Our love for our children is diminished by both our sin and theirs. But the love between God the Father and God the Son is perfect, personal, intimate, deep, eternal, and committed.

Christ came to earth to show us the riches of God’s love. This is the good news of Christ’s advent. In Jesus Christ, God loves His believing children with this same incomprehensible, infinite, and unchangeable love. Having sacrificed His Son for our salvation is it possible that He will now withhold from us any good thing (Rom. 8:32)? No, for Christ’s incarnation confirms that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:39).

Adapted from Joel Beeke and William Boekestein’s Why Christ Came: 31 Meditations on Christ’s Incarnation.

https://www.ligonier.org/blog/scandal-and-sweetness-john-316/?fbclid=IwAR3DzyYR54p-4V4z0POESEqssZ-CJBY7a17qiZud26fc8zUDjqeoPgz5L-Q

Why Did Christ Die?

Excerpt from John Stott book “The Cross of Christ”

Herod and Pilate, Gentiles and Jews … had together “conspired” against Jesus (Acts 4:27). More important still, we ourselves are also guilty. If we were in their place, we would have done what they did. Indeed we have done it. For whenever we turn away from Christ, we “are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace” (Heb 6:6). We too sacrifice Jesus to our greed like Judas, to our envy like the priests, to our ambition like Pilate. “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” the old negro spiritual asks. And we must answer, “Yes, we were there.” Not as spectators only, but as participants, guilty participants, plotting, scheming, betraying, bargaining and handing him over to be crucified. We may try to wash our hands of responsibility like Pilate. But our attempt will be as futile as his. For there is blood on our hands . . .

Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us (leading to faith and worship), we have to see it as something done by us (leading us to repentance). Indeed, “only the man who is prepared to own his share in the guilt of the cross,” wrote Canon Peter Green, “may claim his share in its grace.”

On the human level, Judas gave him up to the priests, who gave him up to Pilate, who gave him up to the soldiers, who crucified him. But on the divine level, the Father gave him up, and he gave himself up, to die for us. As we face the cross, then, we can say to ourselves both, “I did it, my sins sent him there,” and “He did it, his love took him there.” The apostle Peter brought the two truths together in his remarkable statement on the Day of Pentecost, both that “this man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge” and that “you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” Peter thus attributes Jesus’ death simultaneously to the plan of God and to the wickedness of men. For the cross which . . . is an exposure of human evil is at the same time a revelation of the divine purpose to overcome the human evil thus exposed.

Posted at: https://ftc.co/resource-library/blog-entries/why-did-christ-die

Four Decisions That Will Make Change Possible

Article by Kevin Carson

What is your goal for change this new year? Ten of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions are: lose weight, exercise more, read more, get organized, save more money or spend less money, learn a new skill or hobby, live life to the fullest, spend more time with family and friends, travel more, and quit smoking. Possibly you have one or more of those, or your goals for 2019 may be much different. For sure, you need at least one or two goals for your walk with God. (For setting goals spiritually, check out thislinkto help you think through it.)

Many people desire change but then do a poor job ever changing. This may be for any number of reasons. In a previous blog where I was helping you think through spiritual goals, I listed four decisions you can make that will make change more possible. In this blog, I will better explain those four decisions to help make change possible for you.

Choose One Thing at a Time

First, choose one thing at a time upon which primarily to work. I’m sure your list may include several key items this year that you would like to change. However, you have limited time and energy. If for instance, things are connected, then that may be fine to choose more than one (i.e., diet plan and exercise). Generally speaking though, you will want to focus on a limited number of things.

Regarding limited time and energy, consider two different kinds of shotgun shells. If you shoot birdshot (i.e., used for clay pigeons), there can be up to 848 lead pellets per ounce. However, if you shoot a slug, there is only one piece of lead. For both, the shell will have the same amount of gun powder. Therefore, you take the same amount of force and spread it over 800 ways or 1 way and which one will do the most damage to the target? Of course it is the one way.

In a similar way, this works for everyday change as well. You only have a limited amount of energy. If you limit your goals to one or a couple at a time, this will help you focus and not become overwhelmed. Therefore, you will need to determine where to start and why. What makes one thing more important than another? Begin with what is most important. As you see change, then begin to focus on the next most important thing.

Get Help

Second, get help. Ask one or two godly friends to help you. These are the people who will help keep your feet to the fire. When you are discouraged, you will need someone to help you keep going. When you have questions, you will need someone to ask. When you hit a slow spot, you will need someone who has been there before or who is willing to go with you there now. As you choose this person(s), recognize how important it is to pick someone who will be faithful to help you and who is wise. In some instances, one such person could be someone who you hire like a trainer.

Determine to meet or at least talk regularly to keep you accountable to your goal. At least once a week is recommended. Although, there may be times when you need someone to help you walk through an issue much more than once per week. You may need daily calls plus a meeting. Any combination of communication options work (i.e., phone, text, face-to-face, social media, etc.).

Make a Plan

Third, make a plan. Often the best intentions go undone because no plan is ever made. Instead, make a plan and begin. What are the logical steps to doing what you want to do? Begin to think through these. Make a list to help you sort out the options. Ask a friend to help you think through this. Without a plan, it is just a good intention. With a plan, it can result in change.

You begin with the first step. The first step to life change is key. Then the next. It takes over step at a time. Without taking the first step, then you are standing. Standing is a sign of intention but not of walking. The goal is to help you walk through life with this new habit that helps you change.

Remember the Gospel

Four, remember – do not forget – the Gospel. God provides you the hope and real possibility to change through Christ. You both have the possibility to change and the power to change in Christ (Phil 3-4). There are two key issues regarding the Gospel that you need to keep in mind as you seek to grow.

You are righteous in Christ: “…not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ” (Phil 3:9). You are righteous in Christ. What you do does not make you righteous. Rule keeping and rule following does not make you righteous. You are righteous in Christ. Therefore, God accepts you and is with you as you seek to change.

You have resurrection power in Christ: “My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection…” (Phil 3:10). God gives you power in the Spirit to do those things that bring His honor. Regarding contentment, Paul writes, “I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13). What is true for contentment is also true for every other good thing that you try. God gives you strength to do it in your heart. Of course this does not reference the ability to physically do things that you can’t – such as go win a basketball game or run a marathon. What it does mean is that God grants you the internal strength to accomplish those things that please and honor Him.

Change Is Possible

Change is possible! This is great news. In a matter of time, you will rejoice that you chose the thing most needing changed, asked a partner to walk with you along your journey, made and implemented a plan, and that the Gospel helped you as you preached it to yourself.

Posted at: https://kevincarson.com/2019/01/02/four-decisions-that-will-make-change-possible/

The Therapeutic Gospel

Article by Steve Cornell

When you hear a pastor or teacher invite people to come to Jesus, listen carefully to the emphasis on what Jesus will do for the person who comes to him.

There is a subtle but dangerous distortion of the gospel that has become popular in many Churches.

A growing number of pastors are inviting people to come to Jesus on terms that are not consistent with our Lord’s own invitations to follow him.

Question: Are we twisting the gospel around the felt needs and expectations of a self-centered culture?

The therapeutic gospel leaves one with the distinct impression that, “Jesus and the church exist to make you feel loved, significant, validated, entertained, and charged up. This gospel ameliorates distressing symptoms. It makes you feel better. The logic of this therapeutic gospel is a jesus-for-Me who meets individual desires and assuages psychic aches” (David Powlison).

Most pressing felt needs?

Dr. Powlison summarizes the felt needs that the therapeutic gospel addresses. 

• I want to feel loved for who I am, to be pitied for what I’ve gone through, to feel intimately understood, to be accepted unconditionally;

• I want to experience a sense of personal significance and meaningfulness, to be successful in my career, to know my life matters, to have an impact;

• I want to gain self-esteem, to affirm that I am okay, to be able to assert my opinions and desires;

• I want to be entertained, to feel pleasure in the endless stream of performances that delight my eyes and tickle my ears;

• I want a sense of adventure, excitement, action, and passion so that I experience life as thrilling and moving. 

“In this new gospel, the great ‘evils’ to be redressed do not call for any fundamental change of direction in the human heart. Instead, the problem lies in my sense of rejection from others; in my corrosive experience of life’s vanity; in my nervous sense of self-condemnation and diffidence; in the imminent threat of boredom if my music is turned off; in my fussy complaints when a long, hard road lies ahead. These are today’s significant felt needs that the gospel is bent to serve.”

These felt needs “are defined just like a medical problem. You feel bad; the therapy makes you feel better. The definition of the disease bypasses the sinful human heart. You are not the agent of your deepest problems, but merely a sufferer and victim of unmet needs. The offer of a cure skips over the sin-bearing Savior. Repentance from unbelief, willfulness, and wickedness is not the issue. Sinners are not called to a U-turn and to a new life that is life indeed. Such a gospel massages self-love. There is nothing in its inner logic to make you love God and love any other person besides yourself. This therapeutic gospel may often mention the word ‘Jesus,’ but he has morphed into the meeter-of-your-needs, not the Savior from your sins. It corrects Jesus’ work. The therapeutic gospel unhinges the gospel.” (David Powlison).

Posted at: https://thinkpoint.wordpress.com/2014/06/04/the-therapeutic-gospel/

How to Evangelize Friends Identifying as LGBTQ+

Article by Rosaria Butterfield

What if your daughter, raised in a Christian home, returns from college radicalized by the LGBTQ community? What if she comes out as pansexual and tells you in no uncertain terms that it is her way or the highway? What if you discover that your most obedient and faithful daughter, the one you never had to worry about with boys or drugs or reckless bad-choice making, has been struggling with same-sex attraction since she was 12?

It is deeply frightening when a child you have loved and raised and prayed for daily leaves the faith, and with it, God’s protection. It can feel shameful to admit to others in your church that you are torn between your faith and your child—that you fear losing one for the other.

It may feel unsafe to ask for help from your elders and pastors with matters that isolate you and set you apart from others in painful ways. You may feel jealous or angry or deeply depressed that while your peers in the church are planning biblical weddings for believing children, you are wrestling with whether to attend the gay wedding of your prodigal.

If these are your feelings and concerns, take heart. The Lord is near.

Or perhaps you feel the weight of others in your church who struggle with same-sex attraction and are faithful members of your church, forsaking sin and living in chastity, but still feeling torn between the culture of the church and the culture of the world.

If you are struggling with same-sex attraction in God’s way—forsaking sin, drinking deeply of the means of grace—then you are a hero of the faith. Nothing less.

You may feel as if all your Christian friends do is make straw arguments against homosexuality—declaring it a choice and a bad choice, and demanding that real believers won’t struggle with that struggle. You may be sick and tired of hearing “arguments against” something and are hungering for the Jesus who argues for people, and who beckons and promises comfort for bruised reeds.

Or perhaps you are someone who also struggles with same-sex attraction. You are silent, though, and the hateful things people in your church say make you more silent every day. Your shame may be increasing as you are saying to yourself: If they only knew how I feel and how I struggle, they would kick me out for good. You may wonder if you will ever hear these words of Jesus in real time: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:28–30).

This is a painful reality for so many sisters in the church. If you are someone struggling with same-sex attraction in God’s way—forsaking sin, drinking deeply of the means of grace—then you are a hero of the faith. Nothing less.

If this is your burden, then the Bible has the answer for it: the practice of daily, ordinary, radical hospitality.

Daily Hospitality for Sexual Strugglers

Where should you start? As a church community, designate a house where members live and where people can gather daily. Yes, I said daily. And then start gathering daily. And not by invitation only.

Make it a place where the day closes with a meal for all, and with Bible reading and prayer, and where unbelievers are invited to hear the words of grace and salvation, where children of all ages are welcome, and where unbelievers and believers break bread and ideas shoulder to shoulder.

This is the best way that I know of to evangelize your LGBTQ neighbors—and everyone else. To live communally as Bible-believing Christians who care for each other in body and soul. To live openly, such that you know each other well enough to know each other’s sin patterns and temptations. To be a community where everyone is repenting of something all the time. To be a community where Christ could come, eat, wash his feet, and lay down his head. To be a community where hard conversations are had over warm soup and fresh bread.

You see, two hours on a Sunday morning and two hours at a small group on Tuesday night is not enough. God so loves you that he wants you to live 24/7 as a Christ follower, doing the will of God from the heart and the home.

Maybe this seems pie-in-the-sky crazy. Maybe it is.

But this is the kind of house in which I first saw the gospel lived and loved.

And, by God’s grace, this is the kind of house in which I now live.

The best way to evangelize your LGBTQ neighbors is to get upstream of the culture war—and to stay there. And practicing daily, ordinary, radical hospitality is the way to do that.

Real Friendships for Real Needs

In a culture of biblical hospitality, we develop real friendships.

We talk about our differences as grown-ups who can understand each other’s point of view even if we don’t share it. We understand why people who cannot have eternal peace are driven to accumulate rights and privileges to compensate. We know that the accumulation of rights and privileges causes great anxiety within the LGBTQ community, especially when you are winning.

The potential blow of losing that which you have is far greater than never having something. Without the gospel’s checks and balances on the things of this world, you are awash in anxiety in a nanosecond.

When we meet a neighbor who identifies within the spectrum of LGBTQ life and identity, we do not presume she is sexually active. She may be, but celibacy is high in the lesbian community. So we commit ourselves to listening, and to treating each person we meet as an individual.

We understand that sins of identity run deep and hard.

Christ Loves Best

How do we evangelize our LGBTQ neighbors? We remind our neighbors that only the love of Christ is seamless. Not so for our spouses or partners. Only Christ loves us best: he took on all our sin, died in our place bearing God’s wrath, and rose victorious from the dead.

And yes, Christ calls us to be citizens of a new world, under his lordship, under his protection, under his law. Original sin explains why some struggle with same-sex attraction and have from the day they remember being attracted to anything. We know that we were all born in original sin and that this imprints our deepest desires. As we grow in Christ, we gain victory over acting on our sin, but our sinful desires do not go away until glory.

And we stand in the risen Christ alone, in his righteousness, not in our own. But we are called—by the God who loves us enough to die for us and live for us—to carry a cross, repent of sin, and follow him. Christians know that crosses are not curses, not for the believer.

Crosses are not curses, not for the believer.

And Christ puts the lonely in families (Ps. 68:6)—and he calls us to live in a new family of choice: God’s family.

So we evangelize the LGBTQ family by living differently than others, by living without selfishness or guile. We tell each other the promise found in Mark 10:28–30—the hundredfold promise—and we bear out its truth in our homes:

Peter began to say to Jesus, “See, we have left everything and followed you.”

Jesus replied, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Receive a hundredfold.

About the Author: Rosaria Butterfield is a former tenured professor of English at Syracuse University and author of The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert (Crown & Covenant, 2012) and Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ (Crown & Covenant, 2015). Her new book is The Gospel Comes with a House Key (Crossway, 2018).

In All Circumstances?

Article by Nicholas Batzig

Often, the most basic of God’s commands are the hardest for us to obey. We may ask ourselves whether or not we would have the faith to offer up a child to God–as Abraham did when he was called to offer up Isaac–while never really stopping to ask ourselves whether or not we have the faith to obey the most basic New Covenant commands. Take, for instance, Paul’s statement in 1 Thess. 5:18: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you all.” When we consider such a command, we must ask ourselves the following questions: Am I thankful in all circumstances? What about when times are difficult? What about when I have experienced some particular trial. The Lord commands us to “count it all joy when we fall into various trials?” How can I be thankful and joyful in the midst of a painful trial? The answer, of course, is found in all that the Scriptures teach us about trials.

1. We can be thankful in trying circumstances because we deserve eternal judgment and whatever we are experiencing short of that is a mercy.

2. We can be thankful in trying circumstances precisely because we have already been redeemed by Christ, blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ and sealed with the Spirit until the possession of the eternal inheritance.

3. We can be thankful in trying circumstances because we know that our God doesn’t make mistakes. There is nothing that falls outside of His sovereign eternal decree. As the hymn writer put it, “What e’re my God ordains is right.”

4. We can be thankful in trying circumstances because all that God is doing in our lives is for His glory and our conformity to the image of His Son.

5. We can be thankful in trying circumstances because we can be confident that God will not waste any of the lessons that He is seeking to teach us in the difficult as well as enjoyable circumstances in which He places us in life.

6. We can be thankful in trying circumstances because know that we will be able to extend to others who experience similar difficult circumstances the same comfort that we receive from the God of all comfort.

7. We can be thankful in trying circumstances because we know that God’s purpose is to make us whole and complete lacking nothing.

8. We can be thankful in trying circumstances because it is better for us to be in a place of weakness that shows us our need for God than to be in a place of plenty and prosperity and forget about Him.

9. We can be thankful in trying circumstances because we are being pruned to bear more fruit. The Lord is removing the dross and refining the gold.

10. We can be thankful in trying circumstances because they serve as a stage on which the deliverance and provision of God’s grace in Christ may be displayed in our lives.The Lord brought Shadrach, Meshach and Adeb-nego into the fiery furnace in order to teach them that he would stand with them in the furnace and bring them out unharmed. Jesus brought the disciples into the storm to teach them about his power to still the wind and the waves with a word.

So, this Thanksgiving, if you find yourself in a place where you are having a hard time being thankful, meditate on these ten biblical truths that will strengthen you in faith to give God glory and to give thanks in all circumstances–no matter how difficult they may be.

Posted at: http://feedingonchrist.com/in-all-circumstances/

Psalm 119: The Life-Giving Power of the Word

Article by Jason Meyer

Psalm 119:25,

My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!

Have you ever felt something of a schizophrenic relationship to the Bible? At times our hearts are alive to the word of God, while at other times our hearts feel dull and almost dead. This is not merely a frustrating dynamic; it is a fearful condition.

But we find a kindred spirit in a surprising place: Psalm 119.

I say “surprising” because Psalm 119 is a poem of love for the word of God. Going here with our problem seems like a person struggling with singleness going to a wedding celebration! Help, however, comes in the stanza devoted to the Hebrew letter daleth (Psalm 119:25–32).

The Struggle of Dust

The psalmist cries out in anguish that his “soul melts away for sorrow” (Psalm 119:28). His struggle, however, is not simply sorrow. The psalmist confesses that his soul “clings to the dust” (Psalm 119:25). “Dust” here is not a generic metaphorical way of saying that he is struggling. It is a pointed theological reminder of the brokenness that comes from humanity’s fallen state. This word for dust appears as part of God’s pronouncement of curse upon the human race: “till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). The psalmist, like us, finds himself struggling with the effects that flow from his own fallen, broken state.

But the fall is not the final word. We can find hope to delight in God again, even in a fallen world. This stanza opens with the psalmist “clinging to the dust,” but it ends with the psalmist running in the way of God’s commandments because God has enlarged his heart (Psalm 119:32).

From Clinging to Dust to Running to God

So how can we move from clinging to running?

The answer lies in the life-giving power of God’s word. The opening verse (verse 25) consists of both a confession and a prayer: “my soul clings to the dust” (confession), “give me life according to your word” (prayer). The same structure is seen in verse 28: “My soul melts away for sorrow” (confession); “strengthen me according to your word” (prayer).

Understanding this answer requires us to move both backwards and forwards in the Bible.

First, overhearing the psalmist pray for God to give life to dust takes us back to Genesis 2:7. “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a livingcreature.”

Second, God’s breath of life shows up again in 2 Timothy 3:16 in connection with the word of God because “all Scripture is breathed-out by God.”

When We Read the Bible

These connections help us see that now God breathes his breath of life into a book, not directly into us. We breathe in that breath of life when we read the Bible.

It seems almost counterintuitive, but when we wrestle with a brokenness that causes us not even to desire the Bible, the solution is to turn to the Bible. This solution is not a vote of confidence in ourselves (as if our reading skills could ever overcome our fallen state); but in the word itself as God’s life-giving breath.

May God move you from clinging to dust to delighting in his Word. May his breath fill up your lungs to run the race of faith.

Jason Meyer is the Assistant Professor of New Testament at Bethlehem College and Seminary. He's the author of The End of the Law (B&H Academic, 2009) and Preaching: A Biblical Theology (forthcoming).

posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/psalm-119-the-life-giving-power-of-the-word