I must be real. It’s what I am all about. Ministry is hard this month, from my point of view at least. We are working on a website ergo, we do not have much human contact which makes me crazy. Every time I go crazy I know the Lord is about to blow me up. He blew me up with a simple question.
…..What the “Gospel” is to me.
The Gospel.
Has been watered down.
To the point where it seems lame to speak about.
We become fearful.
Fear of rejection.
Fear that it may be awkward.
Fear we will forget the “correct words”…
and ultimate fear that we will lose a friend to eternal damnation by our lack of convincing words.
We justify keeping our mouths shut.
We see sins on a scale.
There are those “terrible” sins such as….
Sex. Drugs. Alcohol. Homosexuality. Pornography.
Then there are those “not so bad” sins that people don’t see….
Lying. Greed. Idolatry. Pride. Lust. Hatred. Anger. Rage. Laziness. Gluttony. Fear. Control.
They are all the same.
They are merely the symptoms of deeper issues.
Diseases.
The disease is rooted by our hearts knowing we are made for much more.
Much much more.
We attempt to fill this void.
When it’s not filled we run to the next.
Ultimately finding ourselves miserable.
In immense agony.
On our faces begging for something more.
We can attempt to stop these things but without a heart transplant.. it is merely self righteousness.
Direct translation- attempting to make yourself righteous.
Not needing the Lord’s grace.
It is impossible to escape these toxic cycles.
Actually that is false.
It is absolutely possible.
The Lord has drawn a beautiful picture of redemption with my own life.
I was drowning in every sin imaginable.
I have heard the gospel since I came out of the womb…
but not until recently have I accepted grace in my own life.
I could talk anyone through the “Gospel”…
but I failed to let the Lord change me.
I had no actions or passion to back it up.
Let’s face it-
we are ruined, self-centered, ridiculous people.
We have no hope.
The Lord knows…
It grieves Him.
Absolutely breaks His heart.
He hated that his children made in His image would be seperated from him for life.
but since He is brilliant…
He made a way, naturally.
Sent Jesus in human form to go through every single temptation we face daily…
and He overcame.
He knows what we go through.
We think of him as someone who was here just to get the job done easily.
No.
He was tempted and tried and he literally hated what he went through.
It was so hard for him.
He knows.
He knows what we face… and he hurts for us because he knows.
We in no way deserve to be able to be in the Lord’s presence.
We are sick.
But since Jesus died…
We are able to enter the Lords presence whenever we want.
We are able to spend eternity in his presence because of this.
If we surrender.
Surrender isn’t an ABC process.
Surrender is throwing up your hands.
Saying you are nothing.
That you can’t win.
Imagine a war…. and realizing you don’t have the ammunition necessary to win.
So you give up.
That’s what we must do to the Lord.
Admit we are not able to do this on our own.
As soon as we do that…
We are on his side.
It’s a free ticket to join the winning side.
All it takes is surrender.
After surrender we must choose daily to fight for his team.
What’s cool is that the Lord doesn’t invite us to his side and leave us.
Yeah he’s not tangible…
but he blows us up with His Holy Spirit to be in us.
To fight in and through us.
Everyday I have to wake up and admit I am nothing.
Satan thoroughly enjoys telling us that we aren’t capable of fighting for the Lord.
Which intensifies the war.
He tells us to give up.
I do at times.
But the Lord is sovereign.
And never stops fighting for us.
Life is a battle. Just surrender.
There it is.
The gospel in a not so lame way.
The most brilliant thing is that if people deny us for speaking up about Him…
They do not deny us… they are denying the one who spoke us into being.
They will have to stand before Him and be held accountable.
All we are called to do is tell them the raw truth… and our job is done.
