Comments on: While We’re Talking About the Gospel….I Have a Story

By: Greg Mills

Greg Mills — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 23:04:43 +0000

I read this post with many tears coming to my eyes. I say that with all sincerity. Why is it that we think we need Jesus and …fill in the blank?

It all begins and ends with the cross. As Piper says “The Blazing Center of God’s Glory.”

Thank you so much for sharing this. A letter was sent to our senior pastor of our church here in CA encouraging him to keep preaching the Gospel and not to “assume” the Gospel if you know what I mean.

Thanks!

By: treebeard

treebeard — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:39:37 +0000

Rob, no offense taken. And I fully understand where you are coming from.

By: Rob Lofland

Rob Lofland — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:48:42 +0000

BTW, treebeard, I hope You know that I took your comment as it was meant and meant no offense in return.
I disagree.
I believe that the cross was in every discourse of Paul, Christ, Peter, Moses, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and throughout the Word but your point is well taken my friend.
And to Joe M As long as I’m here you have no claim to Miss Hypocritical.

By: Joe M

Joe M — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:54:02 +0000

Oh, and to be honest – maybe someday I’ll start doing some of these things myself.

By: treebeard

treebeard — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:32:23 +0000

Thanks, Joe M. Very insightful and encouraging.

By: Joe M

Joe M — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 03:17:58 +0000

To Treebear, you asked:
“if you don’t mind, what does it mean to “carry the cross” today? What is the “great price” we must pay? I’m not asking facetiously. ”

I think that “carrying the cross” today is cooperating with Grace to make us more into an image of Christ by having self-sacrificing love. I think that phrases such as “deny your very self” and “carrying your cross” imply some real action or interaction. In the modern world this may be seemingly great or small acts ranging from: giving money to charities (and doing without that big screen tv), giving time to a cause or person who needs help or support, helping out at work when people need help, writing letters or visiting a prisoner, praying instead of surfing the net, fasting, helping out your local school when your kids are no longer students, not having an abortion and raising a handicap kid, caring for a sick person or parent that is ungrateful. Anything that is a purposeful or even accidental act of self sacrificing love. If any of this makes a person feel entitled, or better than others, or more “saved”, then maybe it wasn’t self sacrifice or Christ-like.

By: Bror Erickson

Bror Erickson — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:57:29 +0000

When I talk of answering for our sins on the last day. I do not mean to imply they will not be forgiven by the blood of Christ on the cross. They most certainly will be forgiven even as they are already forgiven. But we will hear of them as our accuser accuses us before the judgment seat. Thankfully our advocate, Jesus Christ, gets the last word, you are forgiven.

By: Bror Erickson

Bror Erickson — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:23:58 +0000

Michael,
Thank you for that post. I want to print it out, and use it.
I have a bit of the opposite story. Growing up in a Lutheran Pastors house I grew up with the Gospel. Oh, my dad could be a strict disciplinarian, but when we went to church on Sunday it was the gospel we heard, the cross drummed in week after week, the forgiveness of sins proclaimed. Failing to preach the Gospel will probably not be one of the sins my dad has to answer for on the last day. And he will have many, as will I.
I used to ask my dad about other churches, churches I’m not sure he ever entered, churches he read about and studied at seminary. He would always say well their Christian, we disagree about this or that, but they are Christian. True enough. But it gave me the impression that the Gospel and the forgiveness of sins was something everyone knew.
Wasn’t until I was forced by lack of a Lutheran Church to go to those other churches where I realized my mistake. Sermon after sermon was devoid of Gospel, undermined the gospel. I learned fundamentalists and liberals often have a lot in common, refusal to actually preach the Gospel. I think they are afraid if they preach the cross, their sanctuary is going to break out into a drunken orgy. It wasn’t until I had experienced that and saw the brokenness of so many people that I decided I needed to become a pastor, and preach the gospel for a living. Too many pastors aren’t doing that. I used to think that market was saturated. Many of the life long Lutherans are under that impression, which is maybe why we aren’t always good at talking to others about it. We often think they know it already. Slow on the uptake, us Lutherans.

By: Christopher Lake

Christopher Lake — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:38:13 +0000

I am feeling incredibly blessed that fairly early in my Christian life, I came to a church where Jesus’s finished work on the Cross was the center of *everything.* I’m feeling incredibly blessed, because I *have* been incredibly blessed. I am humbled to hear about your father, Michael… and thankful that he did at least get to experience some Cross-centered joy while on this earth.

By: tanegeel

tanegeel — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 04:30:41 +0000

Please forgive me for my presumption, Michael, but it seems like your father was earnest all those years, seeking a God he misunderstood, and in His mercy, God responded with a chance to hear the Good News.
Kind of like how Simeon waited his whole life for the Redemption of Israel and then one day, there He was.