The Gospel

I've been thinking lately about the Gospel. It's a good thing to think about really. And I've been realizing that lots of people don't understand it. I talk to people all the time who think that being a Christian is majorly about going to church. Christians should definitely take an active role in the Body of Christ, but going to church is not the main point of the Bible. The main point of the Bible is salvation. If we miss this, we miss everything. Yet, there is a lot of preaching and living going on in the world that does not involve the Gospel. For example, what does tithing in order to receive a blessing have to do with Jesus dying on the Cross in order to forgive us of our sins that we may live in intimate relationship with Him until the day we die? My answer: nothing. But the Gospel is so much bigger than anything that we can imagine and it is not meant only for the unbelieving heart. It is for both the unbelieving heart and the believing heart. For the unbelieving heart, it leads to salvation. For the believing heart, it is the very essence of who we are and it should dominate every aspect of our lives. The purpose of our lives is not to be Christians who live the same as the world, who sin the same as the pagans and who die leaving absolutely no legacy for future believers. The Gospel (the one described about seven sentences above in the longest sentence ever) should change every aspect of our lives. Once we accept the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ into our hearts, the Gospel should infiltrate our relationships. Our relationships are no longer about having fun with friends, though this is one of the benefits of relationships, but it is about bestowing the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ upon one another. Our relationships are about being open and honest with one another in order that we could be freed from our sins. Our money is not just for our fun and games. While we do get to spend some of it on things that we enjoy, our money should be about advancing the Gospel. Our jobs are not just for the sake of making money, but they are about loving people (even when it's hard) in order to advance the Gospel. You see, the Gospel is all about freedom. It's all about God's glory in our lives when we are free to love and enjoy Him. Every aspect of our lives should be dominated by this freedom and every opportunity that we have should be used in hopes that we could bring others into this freedom that we are so blessed to experience. The Gospel is Life. If we are not living the Gospel, we are not living. Shalom.