Seasoned Veracity

Book Recommendation: The King Jesus Gospel

The King Jesus Gospel by Scot McKnight

Scot McKnight  examines the gospel as preached by Jesus and presented by the apostles, and finds it different from the "plan of salvation" typically offered by evangelists today. 

Key Quotes:

"I believe the word gospel has been hijacked by what we believe about 'personal salvation,' and the gospel itself has been reshaped to facilitate making 'decisions.' The result of this hijacking is that the word gospel no longer means in our world what it originally meant to either Jesus or the apostles."  

"Evangelism that focuses on decisions short circuits and -- yes, the word is appropriate -- aborts the design of the gospel, while evangelism that aims at disciples slows down to offer the full gospel of Jesus and the apostles."

"Gospeling declares that Jesus is the rightful Lord, gospeling summons people to turn from their idols to worship and live under that Lord who saves, and gospeling actually puts us in the co-mediating and co-ruling tasks under our Lord Jesus. When we reduce the gospel to only personal salvation, we tear the fabric out of the Story of the Bible and we cease even neeeding the Bible. I don't know of any other way to put it."

"The apostolic gospel can't be reduced to a gospel of sin management because it was a gospel of Jesus-declaration (that included the defeat of sin and death)."

"The entire sweep of the Story of Israel and the Story of Jesus ushers us into a world where God's people rely on and trust in God, and such a trusting relationship generates a life of obedience, holiness, and love."

"The gospel is framed by Israel's Story: the narration of the saving Story of Jesus -- his life, his death, his resurrection, his exaltation, and his coming again -- as the completion of the Story of Israel."

"The gospeling of the apostles is bold delcaration that leads to a summons while much of evangelism today is crafty persuasion."

"The gospel propels us into mission, into the holistic mission of loving God, loving self, loving others, and loving the world." 

As presented by McKnight, the gospel does not issue in a plea to accept Jesus as Savior, but a summons to submit to Jesus as Lord.

Human Trafficking Awareness Day

January 11 is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the USA.

• An estimated 27 million people worldwide live and work in conditions of slavery

• 800,000 people are trafficked across national borders every year

• 50% of transnational victims are children

• 80% of transnational victims are female

• Human trafficking produces $32 billion in annual profits

• 161 countries have been identified as source, destination or transit countries

Please watch this: Not My Life Trailer

What Happens in Church?

Recent research by the Barna Group  examined what American church-goers experience in their congregations. Among the findings:

• Most people (66%) feel they have had “a real and personal connection” with God while attending church. However, that means one-third of those who have attended a church in the past have never felt God’s presence while in a congregational setting.
• Nearly half said their life had not changed at all as a result of churchgoing (46%).
• One-quarter (23%) of those with church experience selected the description that church feels “like a group sharing the same space in a public event but who were not connected in a real way.”
• Asked to think about their last church visit, three out of five church attenders (61%) said they could not remember a significant or important new insight or understanding related to faith.
  

God Came Down

We prefer to climb up to God through argument, experience, and activity. But God has climbed down to us, meeting us not in the "high places" we erect, but in the lowest places: in a barn, suffering our scorn, fellowshipping with sinners, and hanging on a cross. We don't ascend from particulars to universals. Rather, the source of all universal truth has descended to us in the concrete particulars of human history.

There is no passable route from us to God. We cannot climb the ladder of mysticism, speculation, or merit. In pride, we try to rise to heaven through reason, but God descends to us in humility and self-sacrificial generosity. We seek the truth within ourselves or in universal laws derived from our moral intuition, but God surprises us -- and his name is Jesus.

-- Michael Horton

Book Recommendation: Red Like Blood

Red Like Blood by Joe Coffey and Bob Bevington

Sub-titled Confrontations With Grace, this book features exchanges  by a pastor and self-confessed prodigal on the amazing ways in which God's grace has entered and transformed their lives, and the lives of people they know. These are stories of the good, the bad and the ugly, stories of real life and real grace. 

Selected quotes:

"Ultimately, our displays of sin reveal the fact that although we say we love God, we love ourselves more. Our default mode is self-centeredness. Our sins throw us out of tune, out of touch, and eventually out of joy and out of hope because we are not doing what we were created to do. Our happiness, pleasure, and contentment are either artificial or short-lived or both. And collectively we account for the brokenness of the world."

"You have felt deep down that longing to be loved and that fear of being known. If you really know me, will you love me? I doubt it because, put in your place, I wouldn't love me either. I long for the experience of really being loved and yet all I give is the image of myself I hope others will find most attractive. The love I feel is muted at best, simply because I know that the person they love is not the person I am. I merely pretend to be me so I can pretend to be loved, and I starve."

"Grace is not solid, it is liquid. It flows. But grace does need one thing. It needs cracks. The bigger the crack, the deeper grace will penetrate. It is our cracks that might be the most important thing about us. It is cracks that let grace in. It is cracks that eventually show forth glory. Grace in and glory out."

"Our brokenness forms the cracks through which grace flows in and joy pours out."

"You are made for nothing less that to partner with the God of the universe in sewing back together the pieces of the torn-up world we have. The torn part of the fabric is very close to you. Don't miss it."

"If you are going to ever experience the effect of the gospel, you must have a Savior with both power and love. Grace always flows red like blood. That is why there is a cross. But for grace to have the power to save we need a risen Savior. That is why the tomb is empty today."

Red Like Blood available here.

 

New Year Resolutions

New Year Resolutions for 2012 (courtesy of the Apostle Paul)

1) Rejoice always

2) Pray without ceasing

3) Give thanks in all circumstances