Believing the gospel is harder than trying to obey the law.
The first requires a new heart, the second a vain heart
-- Scotty Smith
Showing posts with label Gospel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gospel. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
What the World Needs Now!
Men despise religion; they hate it and they fear it is true. (Blaise Pascal, French Christian who was also a physicist, 1670)
As far as it goes this is an interesting and thoughtful observation by Pascal. The kink is that religion is despicible! What matters is Jesus! It's a real relationship with Him that the world needs and that my heart needs! It is the Gospel of grace that reaches my heart and the hearts of the watching world because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life!
As far as it goes this is an interesting and thoughtful observation by Pascal. The kink is that religion is despicible! What matters is Jesus! It's a real relationship with Him that the world needs and that my heart needs! It is the Gospel of grace that reaches my heart and the hearts of the watching world because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life!
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Gospel Heart-Deep Hurt - A Good Thing?!!!
God's grace is not a desensitizing anesthetic. As the Gospel penetrates our hearts, we will hurt deeply but redemptively!
-- Scotty Smith
Is this what the world calls "masochistic" thinking? Maybe but the truth is NO WAY! NO HOW! Knowing God's grace, experiencing God's grace deeply into the crevices of my heart is a good kind of heart hurt. As the Gospel changes me, it also compels me to live out the Gospel to the watching world one life at a time and sometimes that brings unimaginable hurt. The key is that hurt is redemptive both for me and for the person I love with "Gospel love"! Only eternity will reveal all of what that means so - for now - it may prove painful to the max! BUT it's worth it to have the Gospel penetrate my heart!
-- Scotty Smith
Is this what the world calls "masochistic" thinking? Maybe but the truth is NO WAY! NO HOW! Knowing God's grace, experiencing God's grace deeply into the crevices of my heart is a good kind of heart hurt. As the Gospel changes me, it also compels me to live out the Gospel to the watching world one life at a time and sometimes that brings unimaginable hurt. The key is that hurt is redemptive both for me and for the person I love with "Gospel love"! Only eternity will reveal all of what that means so - for now - it may prove painful to the max! BUT it's worth it to have the Gospel penetrate my heart!
Monday, October 6, 2008
What is GOOD?
Lately I have been pondering - things like how to use my time well, how to love well, how to reach out to people with needs and reach out well. My ponderings need to take on hands and feet! I'm pondering how to do that well, too!
The ancient prophet Micah wrote: "He (God) has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8) Those words have to walk off the page and jump deeply into my heart before I can act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with my God!
At A Restoration Church we are gathering people from the South Hills of Pittsburgh who also want to act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with God. Our passion is for that acting and loving and walking to come from deep in our "being restored" hearts.
It is amazing to ride or walk down a street - any street - and think about the closed doors I pass wondering what goes on inside - wondering what pain that closed door hides! That's really the heart of church planting is to find ways to connect inside people's lives - behind those closed doors - to connect with people's hearts and build a bridge to Jesus!
Bridge building for Jesus is hard work getting down into the grime of life representing the Savior Who showed us the way! Take a read through the Gospel of Luke to see how Jesus went about building a bridge to God with the people He met. Sometimes He was so exhausted that He had to sneak away to recharge His batteries by spending time with His Father! It is interesting that Jesus didn't do His "sneak aways" in the day - they were always night journeys while others slept so He could be back "on the job" when the "multitudes" who followed Him woke up in the morning. That's pretty counter to our culture's idea of "time for self" if we follow the steps of our Master Jesus!
The world of 2008 is a scary place. It's filled with people who are far from the church and very far from the Good News of the Gospel! Most people didn't grow up in a church. If they go to church at all, they belong to the "holly and lilies crowd" (Easter and Christmas)! Yesterday I saw a park filled with people just hanging out, having as much fun as they could, listening to music, eating junk food and wandering around. Some - including me - even had their dogs with them. Yesterday was an example of "taking the church" where people are. It was an act of worship and work in church planting to go where people were gathering and be a presence there to do some initial surveying work toward bridge building.
It is not true that people aren't interested in spiritual things. They are. They are seeking. They have a hole deep in their hearts that only God can fill. The "church" they know by experience or reputation has failed to do justice, show mercy and walk humbly with God. The people they meet who carry the name "Christian" for the most part don't do justice, show mercy and walk humbly with God either.
We are missing a huge opportunity! We have the BEST news there ever was! We have all the tools and materials to build that bridge to Jesus. BUT we have to get out of our comfort zones and walk into worlds where we may not be particularly comfortable because that's where people are who need to know Jesus. They are hungry for Him! They just don't know it! They need a bridge to Him! He calls us to be that bridge!
The ancient prophet Micah wrote: "He (God) has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8) Those words have to walk off the page and jump deeply into my heart before I can act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with my God!
At A Restoration Church we are gathering people from the South Hills of Pittsburgh who also want to act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with God. Our passion is for that acting and loving and walking to come from deep in our "being restored" hearts.
It is amazing to ride or walk down a street - any street - and think about the closed doors I pass wondering what goes on inside - wondering what pain that closed door hides! That's really the heart of church planting is to find ways to connect inside people's lives - behind those closed doors - to connect with people's hearts and build a bridge to Jesus!
Bridge building for Jesus is hard work getting down into the grime of life representing the Savior Who showed us the way! Take a read through the Gospel of Luke to see how Jesus went about building a bridge to God with the people He met. Sometimes He was so exhausted that He had to sneak away to recharge His batteries by spending time with His Father! It is interesting that Jesus didn't do His "sneak aways" in the day - they were always night journeys while others slept so He could be back "on the job" when the "multitudes" who followed Him woke up in the morning. That's pretty counter to our culture's idea of "time for self" if we follow the steps of our Master Jesus!
The world of 2008 is a scary place. It's filled with people who are far from the church and very far from the Good News of the Gospel! Most people didn't grow up in a church. If they go to church at all, they belong to the "holly and lilies crowd" (Easter and Christmas)! Yesterday I saw a park filled with people just hanging out, having as much fun as they could, listening to music, eating junk food and wandering around. Some - including me - even had their dogs with them. Yesterday was an example of "taking the church" where people are. It was an act of worship and work in church planting to go where people were gathering and be a presence there to do some initial surveying work toward bridge building.
It is not true that people aren't interested in spiritual things. They are. They are seeking. They have a hole deep in their hearts that only God can fill. The "church" they know by experience or reputation has failed to do justice, show mercy and walk humbly with God. The people they meet who carry the name "Christian" for the most part don't do justice, show mercy and walk humbly with God either.
We are missing a huge opportunity! We have the BEST news there ever was! We have all the tools and materials to build that bridge to Jesus. BUT we have to get out of our comfort zones and walk into worlds where we may not be particularly comfortable because that's where people are who need to know Jesus. They are hungry for Him! They just don't know it! They need a bridge to Him! He calls us to be that bridge!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Life Sentence - Deaf !
If you see, hear and speak - if you walk on or reach with your own limbs - if you move with reasonable motility, then you may never have thought what life would be like without any of these parts or others that might always be missing or might malfunction later in life.
I was reflecting on living all of life deaf or blind or with some other normal ability of human existence that is hampered in some way. I am frustrated because I don't hear as well as I used to hear. I don't see as well as I used to see. I don't chew as easily as I used to chew... and the list goes on! BUT I have NO IDEA what life without ever having heard a spoken word, without ever having heard the wind blow or the birds sing would be like.
The loss of never having heard one of three sweet little voices of my dearly loved grandchildren saying, "I want to sit with Grandmama." or "I love you, Grandmama." is a loss too colossal to imagine! If I had never heard a sound then the loss of what words really mean when put with sound is so huge!
I understand that people who lose their hearing at some point in life - even very young - still have some understanding of sound and speech. Those who have never heard any sound live in a very silent and very different world from where you and I live. They have never heard sound. When they see words on a page, those symbols (words) are black marks on white but they don't translate into sounds for the person who has never heard. The concept of sound is meaningless to the one who has never heard!
Where is restoration for the one who is deaf? For the one who has lost hearing, where is the restoration of what is lost? For the one who has never heard, where is the restoration of what should have been but never was?
That restoration is found in the Gospel. Now don't think I've gone to preaching! I haven't! It's just the truth! Jesus came to earth, put on our skin and moved into our neighborhood to bring His Gospel of restoration to us. We flawed sinners could never bridge that gap between where we are and where God is. It is impossible! The only way was for Jesus to come and be the bridge.
Jesus brought the gift of restoration to our world! He makes a terrible trade for Him. He takes all our brokenness and gives us all His "never-been-brokenness"! (In theological terms we call it "justification" - making us "just as if" we had never sinned through the Gospel.) In plain words, Jesus exchanges His "never-been-brokenness" for all our broken pieces of life. He gives us the gift of restoration in His Gospel. That's what brought Him to earth and sent Him to die on the cross. He took what we deserved. He paid a debt He didn't owe because we owed a debt we couldn't pay!
So what's the deal for the one who has been sentenced to deafness for life? He or she can never bridge the gap to hear. It's impossible! You and I - the hearing able - must come into that silent world with our understanding, with our taking the time to learn to "sign" so we can "talk" to the one who cannot not hear. How could he or she ever "hear" the Gospel unless you or I take the time to "put on that silent skin" and be willing to live in that silent neighborhood? That's the bridge to bringing restoration to one silent soul at a time! It's God's way! It's the Gospel of restoration!
I was reflecting on living all of life deaf or blind or with some other normal ability of human existence that is hampered in some way. I am frustrated because I don't hear as well as I used to hear. I don't see as well as I used to see. I don't chew as easily as I used to chew... and the list goes on! BUT I have NO IDEA what life without ever having heard a spoken word, without ever having heard the wind blow or the birds sing would be like.
The loss of never having heard one of three sweet little voices of my dearly loved grandchildren saying, "I want to sit with Grandmama." or "I love you, Grandmama." is a loss too colossal to imagine! If I had never heard a sound then the loss of what words really mean when put with sound is so huge!
I understand that people who lose their hearing at some point in life - even very young - still have some understanding of sound and speech. Those who have never heard any sound live in a very silent and very different world from where you and I live. They have never heard sound. When they see words on a page, those symbols (words) are black marks on white but they don't translate into sounds for the person who has never heard. The concept of sound is meaningless to the one who has never heard!
Where is restoration for the one who is deaf? For the one who has lost hearing, where is the restoration of what is lost? For the one who has never heard, where is the restoration of what should have been but never was?
That restoration is found in the Gospel. Now don't think I've gone to preaching! I haven't! It's just the truth! Jesus came to earth, put on our skin and moved into our neighborhood to bring His Gospel of restoration to us. We flawed sinners could never bridge that gap between where we are and where God is. It is impossible! The only way was for Jesus to come and be the bridge.
Jesus brought the gift of restoration to our world! He makes a terrible trade for Him. He takes all our brokenness and gives us all His "never-been-brokenness"! (In theological terms we call it "justification" - making us "just as if" we had never sinned through the Gospel.) In plain words, Jesus exchanges His "never-been-brokenness" for all our broken pieces of life. He gives us the gift of restoration in His Gospel. That's what brought Him to earth and sent Him to die on the cross. He took what we deserved. He paid a debt He didn't owe because we owed a debt we couldn't pay!
So what's the deal for the one who has been sentenced to deafness for life? He or she can never bridge the gap to hear. It's impossible! You and I - the hearing able - must come into that silent world with our understanding, with our taking the time to learn to "sign" so we can "talk" to the one who cannot not hear. How could he or she ever "hear" the Gospel unless you or I take the time to "put on that silent skin" and be willing to live in that silent neighborhood? That's the bridge to bringing restoration to one silent soul at a time! It's God's way! It's the Gospel of restoration!
Friday, January 11, 2008
Disaster, Disaster Everywhere! What Is One to Think?
The evening news has the story of a murdered pregnant Marine in North Carolina. It also has the developing story of O.J. Simpson and his legal troubles which seem to be mounting by the moment. Former Olympic star and five-time medal winner Marion Jones not only has lost her medals but is now facing 6 months in jail, 2 years probation and 800 hours of community service. At least she took it on the chin like an adult and stood before the cameras and said she respected the decision of the court and judge today and hoped that others would learn from her mistakes.
Earlier today I was in the grocery store and found sad pictures of Britney Spears splashed on the front page of various magazines with even sadder headlines.
This world is a terrible place. People lie and cheat and steal. People do all they can to get away with even murder. Do we hear and see so much that it becomes commonplace? Does it even shock us anymore?
Is there outrage that the murder of a pregnant Marine is only one count of murder rather than two even though she was over eight months pregnant? (I had one of my sons at six months pregnant, and he is certainly a living human being - and was then as well!) Will the laws of North Carolina (criminal code) change to include the charge of murder for killing an unborn child?
What a mess we and our world are in! Talk about restoration - God's loving, restoring grace has never been more needed than in our world on this cold January 2008 evening.
Restoration begins one heart at a time as God works! God's restoring Gospel is the only hope for our messed-up lives and world.
When those in my home and my sphere of influence see God bringing restoration to my heart and that restoration beginning to overflow in my actions toward both God and others, then that little light of God's restoration begins to push back the darkness. Then the process of restoration spreads one heart at a time!
Earlier today I was in the grocery store and found sad pictures of Britney Spears splashed on the front page of various magazines with even sadder headlines.
This world is a terrible place. People lie and cheat and steal. People do all they can to get away with even murder. Do we hear and see so much that it becomes commonplace? Does it even shock us anymore?
Is there outrage that the murder of a pregnant Marine is only one count of murder rather than two even though she was over eight months pregnant? (I had one of my sons at six months pregnant, and he is certainly a living human being - and was then as well!) Will the laws of North Carolina (criminal code) change to include the charge of murder for killing an unborn child?
What a mess we and our world are in! Talk about restoration - God's loving, restoring grace has never been more needed than in our world on this cold January 2008 evening.
Restoration begins one heart at a time as God works! God's restoring Gospel is the only hope for our messed-up lives and world.
When those in my home and my sphere of influence see God bringing restoration to my heart and that restoration beginning to overflow in my actions toward both God and others, then that little light of God's restoration begins to push back the darkness. Then the process of restoration spreads one heart at a time!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Lima Beans and the Gospel ?
I don't think I would have ever thought the Gospel and lima beans had anything to do with each other in any way. Mark Labberton's article - "The Lima Bean Gospel" (Christianity Today, January 2008 issue) correlates the two with challenging insights about the church and believers and how we live out (or fail to live out) the truths of the Gospel before the watching world. Mark Labberton's main thesis is that our ability to live God's amazing Gospel of grace is directly proportional to the size of that Gospel in our own hearts.
I also agree with Pastor Luke Camera (church planter in Paris, France). He writes on his blog that the correlation of lima beans to the Gospel may be a huge gap in the author's personal experience with lima beans.
At our house we had lima beans for Christmas dinner 2007. Lima beans are delicious cooked properly (long) and seasoned with salt, pepper and real butter. They are less than delicious undercooked and improperly seasoned which is how most people are acquainted with the lima bean.
But back to the Gospel (and lima beans)! It is a compelling and challenging concept Labberton raises. Is it true that our connection with the Gospel makes that wonderful Gospel look way small for all the world to see? Labberton says, "The good news is so much bigger than we make it out to be."
Our God is NOT too small. His Gospel is NOT small at all! His Son, the Lord of all creation, is NOT small either.
The smallness comes in our hearts. Our mission is to be salt and light in a dark and rotten world. When we diminish the Gospel in any way, we show a false gospel to the world. If the watching world sees butterbeans rather than the glorious Gospel, then it is because our hearts are hard and shriveled (like some butterbeans).
Mark Labberton observes: "The love of Jesus Christ, through whom God is reconciling the whole world to himself, is no lima bean. ... The primary evidence that the gospel is no lima bean is meant to be the compelling, sacrificial love and justice vividly lived and humbly witnessed to by Christ's body." (Hmmm! That's you and me, baby! We are Christ's body here on earth for now. We are as good as it gets, and sadly that's mostly not so good!)
Jesus said that all men will know we have the living Gospel in our hearts by one evidence alone: how well we love one another! (John 13:35) We are called to restored hearts that are filled with over-flowing love demonstrated in how we live and relate to others.
Love isn't some abstract concept. Nor is love a cliche for books, novels or songs. The love we find in the Gospel has hands and feet that reach out and go and give even when it's difficult or unpopular or misunderstood! This Gospel isn't small at all! To our shame, we make the Gospel appear small because our own hearts are small, shriveled and hard. We need God's restoring grace for this day and every other day! We need restored hearts so we can live God's Gospel before the watching world in terms they see and understand and find compelling.
Labberton concludes, "The church cannot afford to give the impression that the particularity of the gospel only shines on us. If we love as we have been loved, the immensity and scope of God's intimate and cosmic gospel in Jesus Christ will be more evidently the salt and light of the world. We will be far more like Jesus described us - tangy and tangible Good News. And that is no lima bean gospel." (from Christianity Today, 1/08)
Lima beans are delicious on my plate and in my mouth (when properly prepared). But lima beans are not heart healthy food in any spiritual sense. Lima beans are food. The Gospel belongs to you and me and needs to live everyday in new and fresh ways in our hearts! Only the Gospel can restore brokenness in our hearts! Only the Gospel living in my heart (and yours) can shine in darkness to push back that darkness. Only the Gospel living in my heart can provide preservation in cultures bent to rot and decay!
I also agree with Pastor Luke Camera (church planter in Paris, France). He writes on his blog that the correlation of lima beans to the Gospel may be a huge gap in the author's personal experience with lima beans.
At our house we had lima beans for Christmas dinner 2007. Lima beans are delicious cooked properly (long) and seasoned with salt, pepper and real butter. They are less than delicious undercooked and improperly seasoned which is how most people are acquainted with the lima bean.
But back to the Gospel (and lima beans)! It is a compelling and challenging concept Labberton raises. Is it true that our connection with the Gospel makes that wonderful Gospel look way small for all the world to see? Labberton says, "The good news is so much bigger than we make it out to be."
Our God is NOT too small. His Gospel is NOT small at all! His Son, the Lord of all creation, is NOT small either.
The smallness comes in our hearts. Our mission is to be salt and light in a dark and rotten world. When we diminish the Gospel in any way, we show a false gospel to the world. If the watching world sees butterbeans rather than the glorious Gospel, then it is because our hearts are hard and shriveled (like some butterbeans).
Mark Labberton observes: "The love of Jesus Christ, through whom God is reconciling the whole world to himself, is no lima bean. ... The primary evidence that the gospel is no lima bean is meant to be the compelling, sacrificial love and justice vividly lived and humbly witnessed to by Christ's body." (Hmmm! That's you and me, baby! We are Christ's body here on earth for now. We are as good as it gets, and sadly that's mostly not so good!)
Jesus said that all men will know we have the living Gospel in our hearts by one evidence alone: how well we love one another! (John 13:35) We are called to restored hearts that are filled with over-flowing love demonstrated in how we live and relate to others.
Love isn't some abstract concept. Nor is love a cliche for books, novels or songs. The love we find in the Gospel has hands and feet that reach out and go and give even when it's difficult or unpopular or misunderstood! This Gospel isn't small at all! To our shame, we make the Gospel appear small because our own hearts are small, shriveled and hard. We need God's restoring grace for this day and every other day! We need restored hearts so we can live God's Gospel before the watching world in terms they see and understand and find compelling.
Labberton concludes, "The church cannot afford to give the impression that the particularity of the gospel only shines on us. If we love as we have been loved, the immensity and scope of God's intimate and cosmic gospel in Jesus Christ will be more evidently the salt and light of the world. We will be far more like Jesus described us - tangy and tangible Good News. And that is no lima bean gospel." (from Christianity Today, 1/08)
Lima beans are delicious on my plate and in my mouth (when properly prepared). But lima beans are not heart healthy food in any spiritual sense. Lima beans are food. The Gospel belongs to you and me and needs to live everyday in new and fresh ways in our hearts! Only the Gospel can restore brokenness in our hearts! Only the Gospel living in my heart (and yours) can shine in darkness to push back that darkness. Only the Gospel living in my heart can provide preservation in cultures bent to rot and decay!
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
How or Wow??? !!!
I'm thinking about this new year 2008. I'm thinking that it's time for new starts, new attitudes, new ways of connecting with God and others. I'm thinking that there needs to be more focus on the "wow" than on the "how" of living and loving both God and others.
I'm thinking my heart needs the "wow" much more than the "how"!
It may be a personality thing! It may be how your or my brain is wired to some extent. But I'm wondering if we stay living in the "how" because the "wow" is so much scarier. The "how" can be an escape from risk. To live in the "how" of life just requires the facts. It means we can live by rules and plans, set goals (Nothing wrong with that!) and not deal with what drives the "how" living we are more comfortable with.
Facts and the "how" are good and necessary. Blowing off the "how" and living totally in the "wow" brought the bohemic lifestyles of the 1970's. Blowing off the "how" and living totally in the "wow" brings the hedonism of this new 21st century. Walking across the news on a regular basis are outstanding examples of living only in the "wow" - Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and most recently Pamela Anderson. Pamela Anderson decided to party New Year's Eve and left her two sons (ages 10 and 11) alone in a hotel room in Los Vegas.
We need the "how" to balance the "wow" but without any "wow" the "how" becomes pretty mundane. Hopefully this isn't sounding too much like a Dr. Seuss book!
We need "how living." BUT we also need "WOW living"! It's living beyond the "how" into the "wow" that pushes my heart to live and love even when it's hard, even when I don't really want to think more of someone else's needs than my own. The "wow" takes a lot more work than the "how."
Hiding in the "how" of living is ever so much easier and feels safer. There is none of the hard work of relationships, of conflict resolution or of loving and serving others. The "how" feels like order and control. Living in the "how" allows me to set rigid boxes for life. It is a whole lot easier and much less messy to stick to "how-living." There's just one small problem: that's not the way of the restored heart!
God restores my heart (and yours) so we can live in the balance of both the "how" and the "wow"! He sets our hearts free to live and love in ways that include the "how" but "pop" with the "wow"!
For 2008 I want God to push my being-restored-heart beyond "how-living" to "wow-living"! The first step on that path is finding the Gospel and its truths new and fresh every day for my heart. I need God's forgiving grace for my own heart every day. Then and only then can I live in God's gripping grace to love and serve others in "wow-living"!
I'm thinking my heart needs the "wow" much more than the "how"!
It may be a personality thing! It may be how your or my brain is wired to some extent. But I'm wondering if we stay living in the "how" because the "wow" is so much scarier. The "how" can be an escape from risk. To live in the "how" of life just requires the facts. It means we can live by rules and plans, set goals (Nothing wrong with that!) and not deal with what drives the "how" living we are more comfortable with.
Facts and the "how" are good and necessary. Blowing off the "how" and living totally in the "wow" brought the bohemic lifestyles of the 1970's. Blowing off the "how" and living totally in the "wow" brings the hedonism of this new 21st century. Walking across the news on a regular basis are outstanding examples of living only in the "wow" - Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and most recently Pamela Anderson. Pamela Anderson decided to party New Year's Eve and left her two sons (ages 10 and 11) alone in a hotel room in Los Vegas.
We need the "how" to balance the "wow" but without any "wow" the "how" becomes pretty mundane. Hopefully this isn't sounding too much like a Dr. Seuss book!
We need "how living." BUT we also need "WOW living"! It's living beyond the "how" into the "wow" that pushes my heart to live and love even when it's hard, even when I don't really want to think more of someone else's needs than my own. The "wow" takes a lot more work than the "how."
Hiding in the "how" of living is ever so much easier and feels safer. There is none of the hard work of relationships, of conflict resolution or of loving and serving others. The "how" feels like order and control. Living in the "how" allows me to set rigid boxes for life. It is a whole lot easier and much less messy to stick to "how-living." There's just one small problem: that's not the way of the restored heart!
God restores my heart (and yours) so we can live in the balance of both the "how" and the "wow"! He sets our hearts free to live and love in ways that include the "how" but "pop" with the "wow"!
For 2008 I want God to push my being-restored-heart beyond "how-living" to "wow-living"! The first step on that path is finding the Gospel and its truths new and fresh every day for my heart. I need God's forgiving grace for my own heart every day. Then and only then can I live in God's gripping grace to love and serve others in "wow-living"!
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
"Person of Value" Needs Fixed
Here I was driving down a major road in Pittsburgh yesterday when I glanced at a building and saw a sign for a business - www.personofvalue.com or something similar. I had to check on my way back home to be sure I had read the sign correctly. The office was supposedly on the second floor, and it did appear that no one was home. Is it possible that someone actually makes money convincing people that they have value?
It does say something pretty significant about the search of hearts belonging to sons of Adam and daughters of Eve to find value and significance in life. It says something about why we who know where real value is should be "gossiping the Gospel" everywhere we go! That's the essence of the Gospel: The bad news is that we are all far worse than we can possibly imagine as sinners. The GOOD news is that the only One who could do something about our terrible plight took on our skin and moved into our neighborhood! He came as a baby in a small Judean town over 2,000 years ago. He stuck around for 33 years so He could live the perfect life - be the only Person of Value Who has ever lived - and die next to a well-traveled footpath outside Jerusalem. That's the best news of all: Jesus gave His righteous life in my place to give me value as an adopted daughter into God's own family! That's where real value is!
Somehow I doubt that's what is being touted in the storefront in the South Hills.
People everywhere know they are broken and "need fixed" ! The search is on for a restored heart - for fixing! Jesus came to do that very thing - to restore broken hearts in need of fixing and to give value that lasts forever!
It does say something pretty significant about the search of hearts belonging to sons of Adam and daughters of Eve to find value and significance in life. It says something about why we who know where real value is should be "gossiping the Gospel" everywhere we go! That's the essence of the Gospel: The bad news is that we are all far worse than we can possibly imagine as sinners. The GOOD news is that the only One who could do something about our terrible plight took on our skin and moved into our neighborhood! He came as a baby in a small Judean town over 2,000 years ago. He stuck around for 33 years so He could live the perfect life - be the only Person of Value Who has ever lived - and die next to a well-traveled footpath outside Jerusalem. That's the best news of all: Jesus gave His righteous life in my place to give me value as an adopted daughter into God's own family! That's where real value is!
Somehow I doubt that's what is being touted in the storefront in the South Hills.
People everywhere know they are broken and "need fixed" ! The search is on for a restored heart - for fixing! Jesus came to do that very thing - to restore broken hearts in need of fixing and to give value that lasts forever!
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