Tag Archives: the gospel

You Need More Gospel!

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“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;
repent and believe in the gospel.”
(Mark 1:15)

It never ceases to amaze me what people will do to shed a few pounds.  Here’s a couple of novel approaches that I’ve seen recently.

There’s the “Nothing But Twinkies” Diet: The theory is, Twinkies are only 150 calories, so if you eat 10 a day, that’s only 1,500 calories.  I’m sorry, but what?!?  That’s what got me overweight in the first place.

Even I see how stupid that is!

Even I see how stupid that is!

It’s similar to another fad called the “Eat-All-Day” Diet: In this program, you graze all through the day on approved foods.  I know of others who graze all day, this is what they look like…

mmm... food...

mmm… food…

Then there is the “Sleeping Beauty Diet.”  I kid you not.  The theory is that lack of sleep can often lead to weight gain, so then the reverse is true.  Sleep a little more, close the eyes, fold the hands, and you’ll see the pounds just walk away.  Wait a minute, that was an episode of Doctor Who.

Yeah, that'll work.

Yeah, that’ll work.

While I’ll give props to creating a diet based on my two favorite past times – Doctor Who and Sleeping – I’ve got enough common sense to know it ain’t gonna work!

I know I need to lose weight myself, and trust me, if there was a tried and true way to do it without having to break a sweat or take a break from sweets, I’d be all over that.  But the simple truth of the matter is this: there is only one real way to lose weight and keep it off, Eat Less and Exercise More.  If you want to shed the extra pounds, it will probably take as long as it did to gain them in the first place.  But all the shakes, formulas, tricks and shortcuts are simply an avoidance of reality – you have to eat better, eat less, and move your body if you want to lose weight.  Remember this was once the recommended way to get skinny again:

Words fail me!

Words fail me!

For every fad and gimmick in the weight loss industry, there are just as many in the realm of Spiritual Disciplines.  We don’t like the sound of spiritual discipline, it’s too much like exercise, it’s too formal and complicated.  I just want to enjoy Jesus, and know His blessings, right?

I can’t tell you how many times I hear stuff like this.  “I just want to connect with Jesus.  I don’t need the church, or some preacher, or some ‘organized religion’.  I can just center myself, and listen for His voice.  That’s real spirituality.”

Those were my words once.  I faithfully attended Bedside Baptist, covered by the tutelage of Pastor Whitesheets – I had taken the “Sleep Your Way to Heaven” approach.  Is it any wonder, then, that my faith was stagnant, my life riddled with hypocrisy, my heart full of sin?

What shook me from that spiritual stupor?  What do we need as a healthy, sustainable spiritual diet?  It’s simple: You Need More of the Gospel!

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing that saves, and the only thing that will keep you saved.  It is the message that we are all desperately broken and headed for destruction, but that God, in His grace, delivers and forgives all who call on the name of Jesus Christ for their salvation.  You will never come to a point in your life where you have exhausted your need for, or the supply of, the grace of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Are you struggling with sin?  You need more Gospel!  Don’t come up with excuses to help cover it up or justify it, confess it, repent of it, turn from it, and call out to Jesus for your salvation.

Are you wrestling with doubt – can you be sure of God’s provision for you?  You need more Gospel!  Look there and see that God loves you, and sent His Son for you, so that He could bring you into eternal fellowship with Him.

Are you wondering what your purpose is in life?  You need more Gospel!  There you will find that God has forgiven you and given you His Spirit in Jesus Christ so that wherever you are, whatever you are doing, you may share the love of God in Jesus Christ with those around you.

Are you wanting to know God better, to live more like Jesus?  You need more Gospel!  Find Him where He has promised to be, in His Word, in His church, in the preaching, the sacraments, the fellowship of believers.  God has promised to pour out His grace upon those who seek Him there – why would you look anywhere else.

Leave the spiritual gimmicks, the devotional fads behind.  Turn to the Gospel again and again and again and again.  This was the call, is the call of Christ: “Repent and Believe in the Gospel.”

Look Up!

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“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
(Hebrews 12:2 NIV)

I’ve started running again.  After a brief hiatus (weather, schedule, laziness – whatever), I’ve gone back to the streets for my early morning run.  I’ve forgotten how much I love that time.

Sure, I know it sounds crazy, and maybe it is.  It’s early.  It’s cold.  It’s dark.  Still, there is something beautiful about the morning run.  Sometimes it’s easy to overlook.  Sometimes you can get so preoccupied with watching your steps, figuring the pace per mile, avoiding skunks, calculating how much time you’ve got before you have to turn around and get back home to get the kids going for school – you can sometimes forget to even look up.

This morning I looked up, and what a blessing.  I came to the top of the hill, to a clearing of trees, and there, sitting on the horizon of the lightening sky was the moon, golden and full.  If my arm were just a little longer, I swear I could have reached out and touched it.  Was I watching it, or was it watching me, as I ran my course this morning, I couldn’t tell.  Then, in the light of the moon, five deer ran in front of me, gracefully clearing the snow drifts and tall grass as they made their way to the frozen creek.

Something like that doesn’t happen on every run, but I can tuck that picture away for quite a while.  All I had to do was drag these sorry old bones out of bed, hit the trail, and look up.

I think this is why the letter to the Hebrews tells us that we are to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.”  We can get so caught up in all the “busyness” of the Christian life, i.e. small groups, reading programs, mission trips, worship services, Bible studies, all of which are good and valuable practices, but sometimes we can miss the forest for all the trees.

As we read through the Bible, we can get so preoccupied with just getting the reading done that we fail to actually hear what the word says.  We plan and prepare for the program, find the right verses to support the lesson, and pretty soon the Bible becomes nothing more than a book of fragmented quotations to help defend a position.  We come to the Holy Days in the life of the Church (Christmas, Holy Week, Easter), and adding church into the “holiday” just seems like one more thing we have to do.  The church gets so busy doing, serving, caring; we forget the main purpose of the church is to proclaim the gospel, to call the world before the cross and the empty tomb.

Hear the word again: “fix your eyes on Jesus.”  Fix your eyes on Him, regardless of where you might be.  Are you preparing a Sunday school lesson or sermon?  Fix your eyes on Jesus.  How does that passage you are reading today show you your need for a Savior, point you to Christ, establish your hopes in Him?  Are you swamped by the busyness of work, family, and everything else you’ve got to do – you feel like you are sinking and cannot swim?  Fix your eyes on Him, cry out to Him, and He will save!  Are you overwhelmed by the weight of the world, wondering how we came to such a time and place as this – where if someone pulled the right string the whole thing would simply fall apart?  Fix your eyes on Him.  Jesus has overcome the world!  The grave could not hold Him, the kingdoms of this world rise and fall for His glory, and one day all things will be placed under His sovereign reign.

Calvin had an adaptation of the Sursum Corda, the prayer that is offered before the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.  Not wanting the congregation to be preoccupied with the elements of bread and wine, as though they had been transformed into the actual body and blood of Christ, Calvin urged believers to look up, where Christ is now interceding for us before the throne of God, and where the true communion of Christ exists.  He writes:

With this in mind, let us raise our hearts and minds on high, where Jesus Christ is, in the glory of his Father, and from whence we look for him at our redemption. Let us not be bemused by these earthly and corruptible elements which we see with the eye, and touch with the hand, in order to seek him there, as if he were enclosed in the bread or wine. Our souls will only then be disposed to be nourished and vivified by his substance, when they are thus raised above all earthly things, and carried as high as heaven, to enter the kingdom of God where he dwells. Let us therefore be content to have the bread and the wine as signs and evidences, spiritually seeking the reality where the word of God promises that we shall find it.

Today, whatever you are doing, look up.  Find yourself at the foot of the cross, the cross that was meant for you, the cross that symbolizes your sin, your guilt, your offence before God.  Look up to the cross and find that it has been carried for you, it has been occupied for you, it has been emptied for you.  Don’t get so caught up in everything else that you miss this one thing.  Christ has died for your sins, and was raised for your justification.

Look up!  There is more to see than just the trees.  Look up!  There is glory all around you.  Look up!  Fix your eyes on Christ.  Look up!

SDG