It is a personal journey that He is just beginning to taking my heart on. You see, before this, I saw the Gospel as words. Either spoken or written. Words that we can read in the Bible. Words that are spoken from a stage. Words that are sung. Words that are spoken to each other. Words. We are taught to go and share the Gospel. We bring people to church to hear the Gospel. We read books that tell the Gospel. Words. All words. Now don't hear me wrong. The words of the Gospel are right. To share the Gospel is right. To read and learn about the Gospel is right.
But there is more.
John 1:14 says "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
The Word became flesh. The Word was living and breathing and active among us.
Now you can see where my journey is going. The Word became flesh. Living, breathing, active, alive, relational. So why would we limit the Gospel to just words in a book we purchased, a speaker we listen to on a stage, or songs we sing? Why would we limit the Gospel to just words when we have the daily opportunity to live it too?
It seems almost too simple. The Word becoming flesh and the Gospel being words. Gospel.
James 1:17-18 says this "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created."
James says that every good and perfect gift is from God. In other words it all points back to Him.
A recent sermon series at our church had this video bumper at the beginning watch it for a minute. If you've seen it...watch it again. See it talking about the Gospel and how EVERYTHING points to it.
Now you see why I began to see everything pointing to the Gospel?
Here's an example:
I recently had a conversation about disciplining children. I was explain to one of my teenagers why it is so important for children to learn discipline and correction. It hit me as I was explaining the "why" and the conversation darted in a direction I was intending. It landed smack in the middle of the Gospel. The basics of that conversation were how we as parents must discipline our children so that they can understand the consequences of their actions. Without an understand that we will be punished for doing wrong then there is no understanding of why we are separated from God because of our sin. If we can grasp that there is a deserved punishment when we break the rules then how can we understand that our Jesus took what we deserved.
I have said many times "If you are a parent then you are a missionary". Our children see God because of how they see us. The good, the bad and the ugly us :-) That is the lens in which they learn to view our God which one day, God willing, becomes their God.
Our lives are and can be the action of the Gospel. And that isn't just parents. The way we love the world speaks or doesn't speak the Gospel. The way we live is the lens in which the world learns to view our God which one day, God willing, becomes their God.
We are so self centered that we think that our lives are just about us. We think that our joys and failures are only about our happiness and our heartache. In that video we can see that all of creation cries out to the world to make known who it's creator is. But we humans are the only ones that God gave a choice to. It is our choice about the Gospel. It is our choice to follow. It is our choice to have relationships. It is our choice to live it. It is our choice to make God known through our lives.
We live our lives out each day and each day we make the choice if the Gospel will be shared. Yes we can choose to use words and share the Gospel, because ultimately we must put lip service to it, but we must also choose to live it out. We must choose to live in such away that points people to Jesus. If we aren't pointing them intentionally in one direction then we are by default pointing them in another.
The Bible is clear...If we don't testify....they will.
Luke 19:39-40 says "Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
~LL
