Monthly Archives: August 2010

Should my life be centered around the gospel?

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“So what do you mean by gospel?”

My friend was taken aback by my question. She had just been talking about the importance of living a gospel-centered life, based on the transforming power of the gospel.

But I had been feeling some concern that gospel is becoming more and more of a buzzword in the church, and as such is beginning to lose its meaning, which is beautiful, and take on a meaning it was never intended to have.

Am I really supposed to be living a gospel-centered life? Does the gospel really have transforming power?

Gospel means “good news.”   All Christians know the basics there: because of Christ’s death on the cross, my sins are forgiven. Yes, good news indeed.

But the Good News of Jesus Christ goes much higher and wider and deeper than that. Jesus Christ’s perfect life fulfilled all the law for me. His atoning death procured forgiveness for me. His powerful resurrection provided for me new freedom from sin. His glorious ascension provided gifts for me, primarily the Holy Spirit to empower me to be able to pour out a sweet fragrance before God. His victorious seating provided a seat for me, where I am now. Immeasurable riches of grace. Incomparable kindness through Christ Jesus.

All this is incredibly good news. Astounding news. Forgiveness and more, much more. But still, it has no more power to transform my life than wonderful news written up in a newspaper, like the end of World War II or something. A young wife whose husband has been away at war can’t continue to center her life around that news, or be truly transformed by it over the many long days to come.

The centering is around a Person. The transforming comes through the Person. Is it important to say that I live a Christ-centered life rather than a gospel-centered life? Is it a crucial distinction to urge people to remember that they are transformed by Jesus Christ Himself rather than His gospel?

Maybe we can ask the young war bride who holds a newspaper in one hand and her husband in the other.

But beyond all comparison with an earthly husband, when my life is centered around Jesus Christ, He transforms me—from the inside out—providing a sustaining joy. I find my life in Him and He lives His life in me.

This is the Good News. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We live it. We proclaim it. And we hold it in its rightful place.

So where’s the fruit? Thoughts on John 15 and the sower and seed

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“I want more fruit, Lord. I want much fruit.” My prayer ran more or less along the lines of that vague reference to John 15. It was summer, and my parents’ blueberry bushes groaned with fruit. I was jealous. In the Love of Christ, my roots ran as deep as those. Of the Water of Life I drank long and often. Yes, I have fruit, but I’m hungry for more. Where is it?

As is commonly the case with these Hard Questions, I prayed and pondered for a while before receiving an answer. Then somewhere I heard a brief reference to the sower and the seed, my favorite of Christ’s parables.

Some seed fell on hard ground, where it couldn’t take root at all. That’s not me. Some fell on good ground, where it brought forth much fruit. That’s the one I want to be.

The seed is the Word of God. The beautiful Word that I meditate on. The Word that gives me joy.

Some fell among rocks, which kept the roots from going deep. No, I knew my roots went deep.

But there was one other. The one in the thorny ground. One afternoon while I was resting and meditating on the vast ocean of my Savior’s goodness, it came to my mind. Honestly, I had never fully distinguished the rocky soil from the thorny soil, because well, they were just both bad. But now, for the first time, I thought about how the rocks affected the plant at the root. But the thorns, what did they do? They affected the plant at the neck. The thorns choked the Word of God that it would . . . become unfruitful.

As soon as those Words came to me, my eyes flew open. The Lord had shown me something hugely important.

I knew the parable well enough to know the reasons. The cares of this world . . . and the deceitfulness of riches . . . and wasn’t there another one? My fingers ran to read it for myself in Matthew 13. No other words there. . . . over to the parallel account in Mark 4. The lusts of other things. These are what choke the Word of God and cause it to become unfruitful.

My immediate heart reaction to these accusations was self-justification. “I don’t think I’m guilty of this one or that one, Lord.” But the Spirit gently communed with my spirit to lovingly rebuke me. “Yes, I want to allow You to show me the thorns, wherever they may be.” Cares of this world . . . even the seemingly good and important things that pull my eyes away from Christ . . . deceitfulness of riches . . . not just money, but the stuff I feel like I need . . . lusts of other things . . . other things besides material things, which covers just about any possibility of any sin in the book.

And so the Lord worked, bringing me to repentance in a variety of ways, bringing me His sweet forgiveness and restoration and even the Lifting Above that He refers to in both the Old and New Testaments.

One evening I rested in His arms before going to sleep, and the riches, the lusts, the cares swirled around me. Especially the cares. But I somehow felt lifted above, and filled with joy in the love of my Savior.

An incident in Hudson Taylor’s life came to mind, when missionaries with his China Inland Mission were having many troubles . . . and there were problems with the Chinese government . . . and he held a huge stack of letters he needed to answer . . . when the cares of this world pulled at him like hundreds of Lilliputians.

And Hudson Taylor laid his hand on the stack of letters and leaned back and closed his eyes and began . . . singing. His favorite hymn.

Jesus I am resting, resting in the joy of what Thou art. I am finding out the secret of Thy loving heart.

John 15. What did Jesus say was the secret of Much Fruit? If you abide in Me and I abide in you. That’s when you’ll bring forth much fruit. That’s when your fruit will last. That’s when you’ll see amazing answers to prayer. That’s when your joy will be full.

What a mysterious and ineffably beautiful thing it is to abide in Him. Jesus, continue to teach me this glorious truth.


Passing the torch from one missionary to another, part 2

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A few days ago I received an email from Papua New Guinea, sections of which I’ve abbreviated and included here:

For years now we’ve been wondering how to contact Dick McLellan. I was personally challenged into mission work through Dick’s testimony back in 1978 when I was 22 years old and a student at Word of Life Bible Institute in Australia. I remember thinking that if God could use a “red-headed, freckled, middle-aged Aussie” in the harsh Ethiopian sun, then He might be able to use me as well. I knew without a doubt that God wanted me to go into missions.

Then Dick spoke to us from Rom 10:13-15 … “How can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent?”

How will they hear unless someone is sent! As a young believer I had always expected some kind of a “call”… but I never got one. I learned later that the call is for salvation (v14 above), once we are called, God is able to “send” His people. I saw the need and God sent me.

After Dick challenged us through his experiences with the Bodi people and the Word of God, we entered training in 1979. In 1986 we came to PNG and have been here for 24 years.

We’ve never had the opportunity to see or chat with Dick since that day and would love to contact him again and encourage him in how the Lord has worked in our lives. It would mean so much to us to encourage this elderly Christian statesman and let him know how his ministry in the 1970’s has had an impact on the lives of Papua New Guineans for the last 24 years.

I was doing a search for him on the internet and your web page popped up. I did read the sample chapter from “With Two Hands” and was encouraged again, after all these years, to hear about how the Gospel is going out in Ethiopia.

It was my joy to pass along contact information for Dick McLellan, but even greater joy to ponder how our lives and words—all of us—may be used in ways we never even realize in the furthering of the kingdom of God.