My friend, Ben Blakey, posted an idea that I think is really cool. His small group invented an exercise call ‘Gospel Me’. The premise of it is this:

When you see another small group member in the hallway, in their room, in the bathroom, or around campus and you say, “Gospel Me,” they have ten seconds to give you the good news of Jesus Christ.

I really like the idea of quizzing other Christians on the basics of the gospel. We say that we know the gospel or that we know that we are saved, but when it comes to explaining it and declaring it, it comes out of minds in broken sentences and thoughts over the course of a half hour. We need to be ready “to make a defense to anyone who asks [us] for a reason for the hope that is in [us]” (1 Peter 3:15). I think this exercise does a great job at reminding us of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The church needs that. The world needs that. I need that.

Jesus has been putting a lot things in my path which have brought about marinating and meditation. So, I’m going to mention them in a list, even though there is probably enough in each to do a separate post.

The Excellencies of Jesus

1 Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

I was really convicted with this verse recently in regards to my motivation to share the good news. We can often get tripped up trying to remember some gospel outline or we end up stumbling over all the info that we dump on the person. But this verse seems to simplify things a lot. It says that I was chosen for salvation – why? – so that I would proclaim the excellencies of Jesus Christ! I am not communicating some dry, saltine cracker of truth, but rather a life-giving Savior who has done so much for me.

The interesting prerequisite to this motivation is that I see Jesus as excellent. If Jesus Christ is not all-beautiful, all-glorious, and the sweetest and greatest thing that my soul has ever tasted, then I have nothing to share. I think if I understand all the implications of the first part of that verse, then I my eyes will be opened more to the excellencies of Christ and I will be propelled to declare the gospel from something deeper than a mere guilt trip about failing to do so. I don’t necessarily need some program to train me in order to present the gospel, for I have been chosen by a sovereign God and redeemed by an excellent Savior, so what am I waiting for?

God’s great love for us

For some reason, I have acquired a view that God chose me unto salvation out of obligation; as if He had to save me because He had planned to do so. I have viewed God’s saving work in my life as a somewhat cold and impersonal doctrinal fact. Essentially, I’m saved because God chose me. I didn’t deserve it, but He willed for it to happen, so it did. Those are the facts of truth.

Although those facts about my salvation are true, I am missing a key element in understanding my salvation in all its elements, namely my justification, sanctification, and glorification. I have failed to factor in the love of God. I’m not referring to my love for God, but God’s love for me. I seem to have a good idea of living for the love of God but I am thoroughly deficient in my understanding of “the great love with which He loved us” (Ephesians 2:4).

I have a hard time understanding why and how God would devote so much love to something so sinful as myself. It’s as if I read the passages which speak of God’s love for the believer and think, “He can’t really love us that much. That must be superlative language, just a metaphor. That love is just an obligatory love.” I am ashamed to say that I have stripped God, who is love (1 John 4:8), of His amazing love. Why should I doubt that love? Is not His crucified Son a testimony enough? I still don’t understand the vastness of that love and I still don’t understand why He would love me.

Familiarity With The World

I find it interesting that the little maxim – “Familiarity breeds contempt” – doesn’t hold true when it comes to the world. The human soul will continue to run after the pleasures of sin because the more it interacts with them, the more it likes and the farther it will go. I guess there is a sense in which it does hold true, in that sin never satisfies. So, when someone indulges in one sin and becomes familiar with it, it doesn’t pack the same punch that it once had, so he has to move on to something different. Either way, it is the testimony of the Scriptures and history that if you give your heart and life to the world, you will grow increasingly cold to the things of God and increasingly in love with sin.

Passion in Life

On Sunday, Crossroads surprised Rick Holland by celebrating his 10 year anniversary as their pastor. Many great things were said, but one thing that stuck out to me was this: “Rick doesn’t take up hobbies, he takes up obsessions. He is passionate about everything he does.”

I pray that I am a man of passion – that I will always be affected in my heart to action. But with that comes a prayer that I would passionate about the right things. I want to look back at my life when I’m old and see that I directed my time, energy, and love to that which will last for eternity. My passions have to be directed. If the river of my passion runs free, it can be a raging torrent of water, helping some things and destroying some things. But if it is harnessed, channeled, and directed through the dam of Scripture, then it will produce ten times the benefits. (Sorry, that was a horribly cheezy analogy. I don’t think I shall ever put ‘dam’ and ‘Scripture’ in the same sentence.) Anyways, I want to be passionate for God things.

This morning, I heard the news of the 15 truck pile-up, which happened about one mile south of TMC. The details seem to be unknown as to how it happened, but essentially, 15 trucks were involved in this, five of which caught on fire in a tunnel. At first accounts, everyone walked away from the accident, but now it is confirmed that two people were killed and they aren’t sure if there are more.

It will only affect my commute to church tomorrow, which isn’t a big deal. But I do have to ask the question, why wasn’t I the one who died. Yes, I wasn’t driving on the freeway last night and I’m not a truck driver, but I think it is still a valid question. God controls all things that happen in this temporal life and nothing falls outside of his sovereignty. Why did He chose for those two guys to die in that tunnel last night and yet chose for me to sit comfortably in my room reading theology? Why did it please Him for this to happen? I’ll never know the specific answers to those questions, but I do know that because I am alive right now, the accident of last night serves as a reminder that I could pass from this life at any moment, that the short span of my vapor of life could wisp away soon. That vivid reminder sends me to Christ. He conquered death so that, in this moment, I might no longer live for myself, but for Him (2 Corinthians 5:15). My life is not my own, for I was bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). I belong to Christ and no tragedy or catastrophe could ever change that. O Lord, move my heart to greater love for You and a deeper appreciation of your sovereignty in moments like this.

In his book, Christ and the Student World, Robert P. Wilder gives us many reasons why Jesus Christ is unique and one of those reasons is that he is manly.

“When His personality is studied one is impressed by His manliness. There never lived a more manly man than Jesus. Much of medieval art, representing Jesus, leaves one cold, because in His face there is depicted very little physical or moral courage. This was not the Jesus of history. See Him make a scourge of cords and cast out of the temple those that sold and bought for selfish gain. See Him overthrow the tables of the money changers and the seats of them that sold the doves.”

All men desiring to be godly and manly must follow the example of the manliest man to ever live, Jesus Christ. I pray that the Lord would shape me into the image of this man.

The last couple weeks have flown by so fast. There has been lots of school and lots of extracurricular, but I have enjoyed it all, knowing that God has sovereignly ordained it all.

Two weeks ago, I attended the fall event here at TMC, which is creatively called Fall Thing. The girl that asked me to go with her was on the planning committee for the event and thus was busy most of the night, which gave me the opportunity to move through the crowd and take pictures of folks. To finish off the night, Sam, a fellow RA and friend, and I stepped in a picture with Jeff and Jackie, who came to the event as an old couple.

Sunday night, I arrived back on campus from five, full days in the small town of Fillmore, CA. I co-led a team to minister at First Baptist Church with Pastor Sherwood E. Haisty, Jr., who hails from Arkansas with his accent and all. Our experience was unforgettable and almost unbelievable. We were able to go to two old folks homes, hand out hundreds of tracts and brochures, hold two rallies and a beach night, and sing, yea verily, a cornucopia and plethora of hymns. I am thankful for the experience and have some great stories from it.