One of the things that I enjoy doing is reading. It started out with the Bernstain Bears, then transitioned into the Hardy Boys series, then to Robert Ludlum, and has currently been set on mostly Christian authors. My favorite author is probably Jerry Bridges, but I'm pretty much down for anything Christian. Anyways as I've started preparing for the World Race, one of the things I'm most looking forward to is God breaking my heart for the world. I want my heart to be so in tune with God's that the things that break His heart will also break my own. I recently started this six-week study that goes along with the book "The Hole In Our Gospel" written by the president of World Vision, Richard Stearns. I've heard good things about it, so I figured I'd give it a read. It was a good decision. I've only read one chapter and I already feel God working on my heart that I needed to blog about it.
When I hear the word Gospel, I think of Jesus and His atoning death on the cross and His miraculous resurrection. As humans we are given a choice to either accept Jesus as our Savior and Lord or we can choose to deny Him. If we accept Him, then we've experienced the Gospel. We've received salvation and can look forward to an eternity with Him after this life. You can check that off the list and then on to the next thing. But is that the whole Gospel? Or is there a hole in my Gospel?
You see the Gospel isn't just about Christ's death and resurrection. Don't get me wrong that is a vital part to the Christian life. But I so often focus on Jesus's last days that I forget about the 3 years prior to those days: His ministry. At the start of His ministry, Jesus speaks out of Isaiah and says that He was sent to "preach good news to the poor" and "proclaim recovery of sight for the blind" and "release the oppressed." (Luke 4:14-21) Not only was Jesus's ministry about the spiritual dimensions of our being, but also the physical and social.
As I've reflected on my own life, I've seen how incomplete my Gospel has become. I've only focused on peoples' spiritual state (and even that to a degree that I'm asahmed of). How little I've dwelt on the tragic issues of today such as poverty and AIDs and sex trafficking and world hunger, just to name a few. This isn't the Gospel that Jesus had in mind. He wants a Gospel that takes people and uses them not only to preach salvation, but also uses them to meet the physical and social needs of people around the world. He wants the hole to be in my heart rather than His Gospel. And so that's my prayer as I prepare and go on the Race. I want a hole in my heart that can only be filled when the Gospel is transferred from my head into my heart and out to my hands and feet.
As Saint Francis of Assisi said, "Preach the Gospel always; when neccessary use words."
I pray that my life will reflect the Gospel: the whole Gospel.
