Do you have one short, compelling Gospel message?

December 9, 2023

Maria Gospel, Jeremiah 31, John 4, Uncategorized , , , 2 Comments

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore, I have drawn you with lovingkindness.” Jeremiah 31:3 NASB 1995

I listened to a podcast conversation the other day about how to communicate more effectively. The interviewee’s top suggestion was to narrow your talk, your writing, your class lesson to one main point.  This should be a pre-determined ‘takeaway’ you want your audience to retain. Of course, you would build up and out from there.  But knowing the compelling ‘what or action step’ should be your first step.

Too often, having listened to a speaker or read an essay or a book, I find I can’t adequately share its impact. I default to telling a friend, ‘I can’t really put it into words, but it was really good, what she said/wrote. And I think you’ll enjoy it.’

This public speaking coach gave an example of the point she wanted an audience to recall after a talk she delivered on managing one’s fears at a corporate emotional wellness conference.  Her takeaway was something like, ‘With fear, do it anyway.’

So, what was MY takeaway from listening to this podcast conversation on how to become a better communicator?  That I need to come up with a simple takeaway that I can use over and over each time I share the gospel.

As we encounter people in our day-to-day life, God gives us occasions to offer something good, true and life-giving about him. For example, when I volunteer at our city’s pregnancy resource center, my role as a counselor is both to share the gospel and help and support a woman or a couple with their decisions about the life of their baby.  I always pray beforehand, that the Lord would lead me to say, to communicate just what that woman or couple need to hear.  I don’t use a ‘canned’ gospel question or presentation.  I actually think they can be a turn off to people.

But reflecting on what is the one takeaway I want everyone I meet to know about God is this. That,

  • God knows you through and through (since he formed you) and that
  • (from the verse above) He has loved you with an everlasting love and is drawing you to himself with lovingkindness.

Don’t we all long to have someone in our life who knows all about us, the absolute worst? AND still loves us?  Is that not the desperate cry of the human heart?  If you doubt this, consider the Samaritan woman at the well. Read her engaging and bold message proclaimed enthusiastically to her entire village. Without shame:

“Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is He?” John 4:29 NASB

So, what is YOUR simple gospel message you can easily share.  It has to be something that YOU, yourself, won’t forget. 

Mine is: God knows you through and through and has loved you forever.

What’s this ‘joy’ we’re supposed to feel?

September 14, 2023

Maria 1 Thessalonians 5, Hebrews 12, John 4, John 8, Joy, Nehemiah 8, Rejoicing 1 Comment

Rejoice always, 1 Thessalonians 5:16 NIV

….the joy of the LORD is your strength!  Nehemiah 8:10 NIV

The Bible commands us in multiple places to rejoice in God’s goodness. Wait a minute….isn’t joy a feeling?  How can someone command a feeling?  And what about Nehemiah’s flat-out declaration about the source of our joy? What do we make of that? For instance, what does ‘of’ mean?  Does it refer to joy FROM God or God’s OWN joy?

I found one clue in Hebrews 12:2:  Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. (NLT)

What do you think that future joy refers to?  Numerous possibilities likely exist about what would have made Jesus glad and supremely happy. I’ve selected two quotes from our Lord where he mentions what motivates him, that of finding pleasure in doing his father’s will.

I always do what pleases Him. John 8:29 BSB

My food (what satisfies me) is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work. John 4:34 BSB

Therefore, since we recognize that by carrying out his father’s will Jesus would bring him pleasure, we can picture our Lord anticipating his future experience of his Father’s beaming joy.  A huge celebration waited to kick off his return to the center of divine and happy glory within the trinity.

Another understanding of our Savior’s joy could be his happy and sure reality of one day very soon having us, his brothers and sisters, with him for all of time.

Keeping in mind those two possibilities of the source of the Christ’s future joy, I take Nehemiah’s words to mean the following.  In knowing that by completing the Father’s mission to redeem a people to be with him forever, Jesus endured the suffering because the end result would bring him ‘joy’.

He knew that in completing the law’s requirements to satisfy the Father’s justice (our sin being paid for plus perfect completion of the law for us) our successful journey to that other world would be guaranteed. We, the ones for whom Jesus lived and died, receive the privilege of living with the divine family forever.

So, how do I connect Jesus’ purpose-driven life and death with ‘the joy of the Lord is our strength’?

Let’s go back to Hebrews 12:1 and the first part of verse 2, right before the author talks about Jesus’ joy motivation.

Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let’s rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (NASB)

I reason like this:  If enduring that hell of an experience for me brought Jesus joy, given his and his father’s goals and plans for us, then recalling his joy gives me enough confidence-building strength.  What do I need this strength for? Each day you and I bear suffering, our own and that of others we care for.  We need a lot of power to remain uncomplaining and cheerful in the daily trials assigned to us. Jesus’ perspective and goals and how he viewed the purpose of his own ‘staying put’ on the cross can fill us with energy we need to continue on.

How do we fill up or receive this power?  By directing our thoughts to Jesus on the cross.  This is what ‘looking only at Jesus’ means.

I find this explanation for ‘the joy of the Lord’ and ‘rejoice always’ a relief.  Because if I were to depend on my ability to rejoice, I’d feel dismayed most of the time. I don’t have it within me to FEEL joy. But remembering Jesus’ joy gives me hope, a thankful gladness and the lightness I need to carry on.