Friday: Further Thought ~ Living the Gospel
Further Thought: Read Ellen G. White, “God With Us”, pages 19-26, The Desire of Ages ; “Saved to Serve”, pages 95-107, in The Ministry of Healing.
“God claims the whole earth as His vineyard. Though now in the hands of the usurper, it belongs to God.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
By redemption no less than by creation it is His. For the world Christ’s sacrifice was made. ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son’. John 3:16. It is through that one gift that every other is imparted to men. Daily the whole world receives blessing from God. Every drop of rain, every ray of light shed on our unthankful race, every leaf and flower and fruit, testifies to God’s long forbearance and His great love”. – Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, pages 301, 302.
“‘In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free. All are brought nigh by His precious blood’. (Gal. 3:28; Eph. 2:13).
Whatever the difference in religious belief, a call from suffering humanity must be heard and answered …
All around us are poor, tried souls that need sympathizing words and helpful deeds. There are widows who need sympathy and assistance. There are orphans whom Christ has bidden His followers receive as a trust from God. Too often these are passed by with neglect. They may be ragged, uncouth, and seemingly in every way unattractive; yet they are God’s property. They have been bought with a price, and they are as precious in His sight as we are. They are members of God’s great household, and Christians as His stewards are responsible for them”. – Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, pages 386, 387.
Discussion Questions:
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Summary:
The love of God as expressed in the plan of salvation and enacted in the life and sacrifice of Jesus offers us forgiveness, life, and hope. As recipients of this grace, we seek to share this with others, not to earn salvation, but because it is what we have been created and re-created to do. As such, the gospel transforms relationships and moves us to serve, particularly those most in need.
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If I don’t live the gospel my preaching the gospel is hypocrisy. And Jesus reserved his most severe criticism for hypocrites.
Living the Gospel - We are created a new in Christ to do his good work.
For God So loved - It is the love of God that transforms us to love others. It is antagonistic for us to love others without the love of God transforming us.
Compassion and Repentance - Compassion is God's response to our human condition. Repentance is man's response to the compassionate God.
Grace and Good Works - Without the experience of God's grace in our lives it is impossible for us to produce good works.
Our Common Humanity - When we accept Our Common Humanity into our hearts, we would be joining together in uplifting each other.
The Everlasting Gospel - The everlasting gospel does not fade away like the earthly glory. It will stand forever because the gospel is Christ Jesus in humanity.
Friday - Acts 6 disunity raises in the early church caring for the widows. The church resolved it by appointing leaders who were godly and acceptable.
There was a sage who ran across a beautiful woman who was making a living selling herself as a prostitute. She asked the sage don't you find me attractive and the sage did not reply her. Years later, he found this lady who was diseased living as a beggar and he took her home and cared for her. When the world abandoned her, this sage took her in.
There are many forms of slavery in the world today.
As a believer, relieve those under oppression.
It is a God given mandate for us.
Today's lesson asks:
Could the problem be that we see (a) serving others and (b) reaching out to others with the truths of the gospel as two separate things that because they are separate, necessarily need to be balanced?
What if they are not in fact two separate things, but one in the same thing?
How we answer this question will depend on what we see/understand the gospel to be.
And what we see the gospel to be will depend on what we see salvation as.
And what we see salvation as will depend on what we see as the problem that has caused a need for salvation.
If I see the main problem as my need to avoid the death-penalty that God must impose upon me because a Holy God (allegedly) has to punish sin in order to be Just and Holy, then my primary focus is on my situation. A rather self-based view as I see it.
But if the main problem we have is that all of humanity has developed a terminal condition of self-centeredness originating in Genesis 3, then the focus is much broader. Salvation is then about participating in a process of actual (progressive) restoration back to the way things were prior to Genesis 3 where humans had hearts motivated by selflessness and consequentially developed characters that naturally focused on serving God and serving others. Under this paradigm, the gospel and serving others is a single, inseparable entity rather than two distinct things that must somehow be juggled in order to be 'balanced'.
Please read the inside story for this week. Story reflecting Living the Gospel.