The Power of the Gospel {R2g: What is the Gospel?}

I absolutely love the way Greg Gilbert closes out his book What is the Gospel? with this chapter on the power of the gospel!  How appropriate.  And I feel like the suggestions he gives about what to do now are super practical (I like to call this the the "so what" part: "So now that I know _____, what am I going to do about/with it?")  I'll go ahead and list them out for you with a few bullets each in case those of you who haven't been able to read the whole book with us are curious.




1) Repent and Believe

• This is Gilbert's application for anyone who has read his book and is not yet a follower of Jesus.
• "What the gospel calls you to do is to turn your heart away from sin [repenting] and toward Jesus in faith -- that is, trust and reliance." (p. 116)

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.  For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.  For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  (Romans 10:9-13)

2) Rest and Rejoice

• Believers in Christ can rest and rejoice in knowing that their salvation has been eternally secured by Christ's work on the cross.  They don't have to worry about completing daily check lists of spiritually good things. 
• Resting and rejoicing in Christ's completed work glorifies God. 

As John Piper over at Desiring God always says, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."

3) Love Christ's People

• Realizing that Jesus' blood was shed just the same for other Christians as it was for you ought to humble you and deepen your love for your brothers/sisters in Christ.
• This ought to cause us to seek deep relationships with all other Christians {even those we are not drawn toward}, actively befriending them, forgiving them, and seeking to build them up in their relationship with the Lord.

Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.  (2 Corinthians 13:11)

4) Speak the Gospel to the World

• "It is through our proclaiming the gospel -- whether through preaching or teaching or conversations over meals with friends, family members, and coworkers -- that God has determined to save sinners."  (p. 119)
• I'm convinced that this is one of the most important things which we can devote ourselves to (aside from seeking to know the Lord more intimately).  And as Gilbert adeptly points out in this chapter:  "There are many good things that we can do as Christians, but the fact is that most of those things will happily be done also by people who are not Christians.  But if we Christians fail to proclaim the gospel of Jesus, who else is going to do that?  No one."  (p. 120)

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:18-20)

5) Long for Him

• Truly believing the gospel should cause us to long for Christ's presence and glory, which will be fully revealed when He returns.  
• Having this mindset {which I like to call an "eternal mindset"} helps us persevere through hard days.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,  and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”  And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,  saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”  (Revelation 7:9-12)

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I hope you've enjoyed reading through this great book as much as I have!  I'll have a post up soon with more details on our next one.    :)

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Sniffing Sounds

Enoch just learned how to scrunch his nose and sniff last week, and it is the cutest thing!  I can't help but crack up when he really starts getting into it.  haha!  I thought it'd be fun to try and record a video of it to share with you guys.  If you want to watch all of it, just be patient with him starting... it takes quite a few Mama sniffs before he will begin mimicking them.  :)  If you just want to skip ahead to the funny part, try starting the video around the 0:40 mark.



And yes, it is a GOOD thing that I wasn't caught on camera while sniffing, because I'm sure my faces are much funnier than his!  :-)

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FFF: Going to the Park

So although I have met lots of nice people in our new town, I would have to say that I haven't "clicked" with too many of them in the sense of us BOTH being in truly similar stages of life.  Don't get me wrong, I've met lots of nice people, and I DO consider many of them sweet friends!  But, I am loving one of my newest friends!!  Her name is Dina, and she has a little boy who is practically the same age as Enoch!  (which makes it SO easy for us to "click" and get along well together because we're both mothers to one year old boys who are full of energy and boy-ness!)

meet Dina & Adam!!

Last week, we ventured out to a small park with the boys, and it was very fun!  The boys did really well playing on the blankets, aside from the fact that my Little Man couldn't get enough of trying to eat the small rocks right beside us... yuck!!  It was cute to watch the boys play together, though we did have to referee some because they don't have great playing manners yet (if there is such a thing for soon-to-be one year olds...)  

Anyway, we had a great time talking and comparing current baby issues and developments.  :)  Here are a few more pics from our park trip:

just playing (and trying to obey Mama by not eating the rocks)

playing together

(isn't it cute how they're in the same sitting/reaching position?!?)

smiles

trying to help Mama with the camera..  haha!

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Keeping the Cross at the Center {R2g: What is the Gospel?}

Indeed I believe one of the greatest dangers the body of Christ faces today is the temptation to rethink and re-articulate the gospel in a way that makes its center something other than the death of Jesus on the cross in the place of sinners.  (p. 102)

The above paragraph, from Gilbert's What is the Gospel? pretty much summarizes chapter 7: Keeping the Cross at the Center.   A large bulk of the chapter is spent walking readers through three examples of false (or substitute) gospels.  While Gilbert points out that each of these "gospels" may have some truth to it and may sound Biblical, in reality they are all essentially empty of the true gospel of Christ.  In each example, he walks through what is good/true and then points out the shortfall of where the "bigger gospel" misses the target.  I love what Gilbert is getting at in this section -- when you remove the cross of Christ from the center of the gospel (in both proclamation and in action), the "gospel" you come up with is basically fluff... nothing truly salvific.   

Near the end of this chapter, I appreciated the way Gilbert turned to the Word.  He looked at Paul's example of keeping the cross at the center of the gospel as he ministered to the Corinthian church:

But even the face of sure rejection he said, "We preach Christ crucified" (1 Cor. 1:23).  In fact, he resolved to "know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2).  That's because, as he put it at the end of the book, the fact that "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures" was not just important, and not even just very important.  It was of "first importance" (1 Cor. 15:3).  (p. 110)

May we all do likewise.  

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For those of you reading along, we'll tackle the last chapter of this book next week!!  :)  For now, here are a few questions from this chapter to chew on:

• Which of the three false gospels did you find most interesting?  Which one hit closest to home and why?  
• How can we work toward keeping the cross of Christ truly at the center of our gospel (in both proclamation and action)?
• Are there any other verses from the Bible that come to your mind when you think about keeping the cross at the center?

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Purity in Dating + Engagement

Hugh and I sought to be physically pure before marriage.  We certainly weren't perfect in our pre-marriage relationship, but God did bless us in our attempts, and I believe our marriage has benefitted as a result {a result of our efforts in part, but most importantly because of God's grace}.

Anyway, before we started "dating", we knew we wanted to date with the intent of getting married.  Casual dating {in my opinion AND in my experience} only gets people into trouble because there's a far, far away end in sight, and lots of time in between to fall into temptation traps.

To help us keep from falling to such traps, we decided to set physical boundaries in addition to dating with the purpose of marriage {as a couple older and wiser than us recommended}.   Looking back, I believe these were the main guidelines we tried to stay within:

• always be in public places and/or with friends when together  (NEVER hang out with no one else around or with a person who doesn't care about your physical purity)
• treat one another like a true brother/sister (because we are brother and sister in Christ, and we are to help each other as such)
• with that in mind, we did not kiss before our wedding day... not even little, teensy pecks on the cheek
• we did not hold hands until we were engaged 
• there were NO long hugs between us

For us, each of the above guidelines was significantly helpful in remaining pure regarding the other guidelines.  As a couple, you simply can't be general and say "we're just not going to make out...  but simple kisses are okay...."  When you walk down that path, you quickly enter into trouble.

We also had a mature {married} couple leading us through pre-marital sessions {even before engagement}.  Another thing that really helped us was maintaining some spiritual/emotional distance.  Although we were certainly close relationally, we avoided treating each other like husband/wife as well as trying to fill the role of best friends.  I certainly can't speak for men, but as a woman, this was a HUGE help for me in maintaining emotional purity before marriage.

Although we wouldn't prescribe the exact same guidelines to other couples in general {though we might if we knew them well and felt like they'd be benefitted by such guidelines}, we would ere on the side of caution for many of the reasons Kevin DeYoung mentions below in this short {4 min} video, in which he answers the question "How far is too far??"   I hope it helps you understand the biblical worldview regarding dating a little more and maybe even question where you fall with regard to this hard topic.
Even if you are married and this doesn't seem to apply to you, it's still good to have a godly perspective regarding dating and engagement because all of us "old" married couples will invariable influence younger couples aspiring toward marriage.

The book Kevin mentions in the video is Sex, Dating, and Relationships: A fresh approach  by Gerald Hiestand.  I haven't read it yet, but you can easily "look inside" the book on Amazon... chapter titles seemed good to me at first glance.  :)


The video above is from Tony Reinke via Desiring God.  You can read the entire post AND find links to other videos about DeYoung's new book {The Hole in our Holiness: filling the gap between gospel passion and the pursuit of holiness} on Tony's blog post: How Far Is Too Far Before Marriage?

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FFF: Enoch's 11th Month

Can I please just say that I can NOT believe that my little boy {my baby} is turning one next week????  How did this happen?  I was talking with a friend yesterday about this {her baby is a few weeks younger than Enoch}, and we both agreed that 9 mos of pregnancy ticked by so slowly and yet this whole year after birth has simply zoomed by...  crazy!!!

For Little Man, this month has been full of changes and exciting accomplishments.  I'm going to try to list them out, but I'm certain that I will miss a few of them...

• crawling {he's not very fast yet, but he's getting better everyday!}
• understanding more of what "come here" means {this used to mean I was going to pick him up, but now he's starting to understand that I want him to crawl to me, and 70% of the time he obeys this command easily}
• pulling up {hasn't mastered it completely yet, but he is constantly trying, and if he gets the perfect grab, he can do it on his own... with a little bit of hard work}
• putting toys "in" and taking them "out" of a larger object {sometimes on command}
• sharing toys or whatever he picks up off the ground {he is very reliable about this command, and it helps me keep unwanted objects out of his mouth}
• sitting up in his crib when we come to get him after a nap  {this is SO cute!!}
• tickling and rough-housing with Daddy  {Enoch LOVES this... as does Hugh!!!}
• making big splashes in the bath tub
• mimicking sounds
• teething...  He now has 4 on top & 4 on bottom!!!

And here are a few of the more challenging changes.  With crawling and simply getting bigger in general, has come more discipline issues:

• learning what "NO" means {usually when he's crawling toward a forbidden object, and I say "no", he will stop crawling and turn around to look at me.  then he will sometimes crawl to me when prompted.}
• screaming and yelling to *try* and get his way {and no, we do not allow this, but teaching him to control his emotions has proven harder than other self control issues (like not touching)}
• yelling when he wants "more" food while we are eating.  Since we are still cutting up his food into small pieces, he's dependent on us for a continuous flow of food, but sometimes (or usually?) we don't go fast enough {hard to believe, huh??}, and that's when he yells to prompt us.  {and again, we do not allow this, but I feel like this is another one of the harder areas to control for various reasons, so we are constantly working on this.}  

rocking the rocking chair

teething!!!

And, I feel like I should also give a weight update for Enoch because I don't think I've officially put one up on the blog in a while.  So, we've gone in for a few more doc visits since the last post, and at each one Enoch has been gaining weight!  {He was 19 lbs, 14 oz at 11 mos, and I'm guessing he's over 20 lbs now.}  Our next appointment will be his well-baby check-up at around 12 mos {which is incredibly soon!!}.   The bloodwork tests they did on him came back pretty normal {there were a few numbers that could've been pursued with further testing IF the increased volume didn't do the trick, but the volume seemed to have been the problem.}..   So we've continued with the increased volume of food, and it seems to be working great!  Enoch nurses 5x per day still, and in the mid afternoon he also gets a bottle of either thawed breastmilk or formula {my stash of frozen breastmilk is running quite low these days though}.  After his 1 year birthday, we'll transitition him over to whole milk for the extra daily supplement *hopefully he likes it*.  Right now we plan to continue nursing him after his first birthday, but we're really not sure when we plan to stop yet, so I guess we should decide that...  Honestly though, nursing is the easiest, cheapest, healthiest way to feed him, so there are certainly plenty of reasons for us to keep on going strong.  :)

learning how to use his walker.  :)

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The Kingdom {R2g: What is the Gospel?}

This week we covered Chapter 6 of Greg Gilbert's What is the Gospel?  I thought he did a great job explaining what God's kingdom is like in a few particular ways:

First, I appreciated his brief definition of God's kingdom as: "God's redemptive rule, reign, and authority over those redeemed by Jesus" (p. 88).  Just listen to what these verses have to say about the salvation leading Christians into the kingdom of God:

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.   (Colossians 1:13-14)

Second, Gilbert's statement about inclusion in the kingdom of God is piercing:

Therefore, being a citizen of Christ's kingdom is not a matter of just "living a kingdom life" or "following Jesus' example" or "living like Jesus lived."  The fact is, a person can be a self-professed "Jesus-follower" or "kingdom-life liver" and still be outside the kingdom.  You can live like Jesus lived all you want, but unless you've come to the crucified King in repentance and faith, relying on him alone as the perfect sacrifice for your sin and your only hope for salvation, you're neither a Christian nor a citizen of his kingdom.   (p. 95-96)

And last, I also thought he did a good job explaining the "already but not yet" aspect of the kingdom.  This is a phrase that I hadn't heard of until a few years ago.  It refers to the fact that as believers, we have been given some tastes of the completed kingdom of God {already} but we are not yet able to fully savor it.  For instance, we've already been given the Holy Spirit to guide and comfort us, and we have already been perfectly reconciled to the Father.  BUT we still live in a fallen world, and as a result, sin is still a constant battle for us, and it will continue to be until the kingdom is ushered in {not yet}.

So then, how ought we to live?  I'll let the Word speak for itself...

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.  Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.  (Romans 6:12-13)

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.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.  (1 Peter 2:9-11)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guardedthrough faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  (1 Peter 1:3-5)

With promises like these, we push through the here and now with the grace that has already been given to us as we long for what has not yet been revealed.  Gilbert sums it up like this:

"It's not at all that living the life of the kingdom brings us into the kingdom.  It's that once we have been brought into the kingdom through faith in the King, we find ourselves with a new master, a new law, a new charter, a new life -- and therefore we begin to want to live the life of the kingdom."  (p. 97)

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Believe it or not, we only have two more chapters left in this book!!  Chapter 7 (Keeping the Cross at the Center) will be next week and then Chapter 8 (The Power of the Gospel) will follow it up a week later.  {I realize that I haven't been great at doing these posts every week.  I have good intentions though to follow through with these last two chapters by having them done on time.}

I think that after we finish this book, we'll take a week or two break before starting the next one.  And, speaking of the next book I plan to blog through, I think I've settled on a good one...  I'm going to keep it a secret for a few more days til I have time to write up a post about it, but for now I'll tell you that it has a great {female} author, and it's a compilation of a few excellent biographies of stellar women of the faith.   Intrigued yet, ladies?   I hope so!  I'll announce it soon...  :)

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