Live the Gospel?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Amanda on September 6, 2013 at 8:30am

I think as you do, Carla. We read this:

Romans 10:16-17
New King James Version (NKJV)
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”[a] 17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

In context, the word obeyed here appears to mean something like welcomed or accepted and received. But I could be mistaken.

I can't see how the gospel message is lived. Hebrews 4 also talks about disobedience. There it looks like the disobedience involves a failure to rest. God rested the seventh day and gave that commandment to rest. It sounds ironic that a command is to not work instead of work and everyone looks at obedience as works. So, my understanding is that rest is a work that can be disobeyed. Lol

Stop working to be saved and to stay saved! Jesus is our rest. Does that sound right?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Carla on September 6, 2013 at 10:09am

Sounds right to me Amanda.. We rest in what Jesus has already done. 

Romans 10:16,17... great reference.

 

The NASB says "However they did not all heed the good news...."

 

NIV says "But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. ..."

 

The CEV says "¹⁶ Yet not everyone has believed the message. ..."

 

The NLT says "But not everyone welcomes the Good News,..."

 

I see this to mean 'obey' as the NKJV which you have already referenced above. :-)

 

It seems to be a command to repent and believe.... Romans 10:21 says ²¹ But as for Israel He says, “All the day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”

 

Anyway, I agree we just rest in our Lord.... and than includes obedience to His Word ----Repent and
Believe the gospel.  Our lives change because we love Him, and we shine our light to open up the possibility for them to want to hear why we're different, and we can tell them about Jesus.

 

I really like this that LT below  "we are to look different than the world, act different than the world. This difference that they see in us may draw them to ask us questions or it may repel them, but it is the difference (which should be the Holy Spirit living in us and the manifestation of the Fruit of the Spirit beginning to flow from us) that they see. But, like creation, our difference can demonstrate the reality of God as others witness our transformed lives, and our transformed lives may draw their interest ... it will not save them"

 

Blessings, Carla

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Amanda on September 6, 2013 at 1:25pm

Today, my devotion was about the message of the cross and based on Mark 15:33-39. 

Charles F. Stanley asked, "What other religion offers its believers the ability to be set free from sin with no penance to pay? We can count ourselves among the most fortunate in the world. When we pledge our lives to God and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, we are guaranteed forgiveness and eternal life. Though none of us is exempt from the storms and trials of life, we can live with inner joy and peace. We will never pay the penalty of eternal death for our sins. That price was paid for us at the cross by a loving God who is merciful and longsuffering."

I have accepted Christ and I pledge my life to God, and I want to love God and others and do good works out of that love. 

My problem is that my whole life I have worried that every time I sin by doing something or not doing something then there was so much guilt and fear that it meant I was not under God's grace anymore and was not being steadfast in the faith and verses like 2 Peter 3:17 would come to mind, and I'd feel I was one of the wicked and I was always falling in and out of grace. 

The terrible guilt still bothers me. I messed up big time yesterday. I had panic attack last night and, thankfully, my husband was very helpful and understanding and let me talk and helped me gain a little perspective. What I did was I cashed a check that my younger sister gave me to repay me for a loan. Even as I cashed the check, I felt really guilty. The thoughts were that I didn't need the money and she is a single parent of two children. I could let her keep it as a gift. I cashed it and then I spent the money on nothing more than sheer vanity. I am on the substitute list for a public school district, and I thought that I want to look nice if I get called for jobs and I thought it would build my confidence up if I thought I looked nice and maybe I'd accept a day of work now and then. So I spent the money on nothing more than vanity. I really regret it, too. 

Everytime I mess up, I feel so devastated. The guilt itself could be a form of selfishness and I do have guilt. I don't know what the solution is for it. I want to learn to rest in Jesus so badly. I want to get my eyes off of me and on Him so much. I just keep failing. I'm so self centered. I've always worried my whole life about my looks and have always felt that if I feel good about myself, then I have confidence to do things, to work, to go to church. But when I feel bad about myself, this bad like I've felt for three years, and it's only getting worse as I age, then I just want to hide. Pray for me. This is all so wrong. And now the thoughts are coming that I'm just wanting sympathy and just feeling sorry for myself and am very selfish. I know I'm selfish. I ask Jesus to forgive me. But this isn't much of a life pledged to God, is it? How can I make it alright?I wish I knew.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Carla on September 9, 2013 at 9:15am

Hi Amanda,

What you wrote is so much attuned to how so many 'feel' and struggle.  These things you pinpointed plague all of us at some point... and sometimes stronger than others.

Every time I feel that way, I am reminded of my frailty and how I am so broken and sinful.  I'm a sinner in desperate need of a Saviour!  Praise God that Jesus Christ came just for that purpose.

 

I'm learning to pray in such a way that when I feel dragged down or anxious or guilt.... I pinpoint my prayers according to that.

 

For example... My youngest son has a peanut allergy... He's now 10 years old, and we learned about his allergy about 9 years ago.  Over the years I developed a fear for having ALL kinds of nuts around the house.  It was irrational, unreasonable and inconsolable.  Finally 2 1/2 years ago I prayed specifically for freedom from that.  I just said, "Father, I don't want to live in chains over this anymore.  I need You to lift me out.  I want to be free.  Please help me." ....Over several days I felt the anxiety over eating other nuts lift.  We slowly introduced Joshua to different kinds of nuts (still no peanuts), and now we all enjoy many other kinds of nuts.  It sounds like such a small thing, but it was big to me because it was keeping me in chains. 

 

Amanda, we all fail in many ways all the time.  In regards to your sister, I'll present to you another perspective.  Perhaps it is good for her to have to pay off debts.  Now she knows that she is accountable.  It also gives her a sense of accomplishment to be able to pay off the debt, and gives her independence.  If she was not able to pay it off, than she wouldn't not have done so.  I have a sister  who is always asking for money.  She has never paid any of it back, and she just believes that money will come to her.  She has a hard time staying in a marriage (divorced twice) and holding a job.  Presently she has just begun another work contract.  It's hard to say 'no', but at what point do we continue to enable and 'help', and at what cost?  When is she going to learn?  My husband has said he won't help her anymore....but I know that if I told him it was urgent he would help again and again just because I asked him to.  It depends on the context of the situation also.  :-)

 

I'm happy for you that you are on the substitute list for public schools... That's amazing.  And YES, it's okay to have a few nice outfits to wear... clearly you don't take advantage of that, and it's not your top priority over the Lord.  There is nothing wrong with you buying a few nice outfits.

 

It's hard to overcome the condemnation that people and the enemy put on us....  That's not what God has to say.  There's no guilt or condemnation for those who are In Christ.  It would be a different story completely if you were going out and overspending on outfits neglecting family responsibilities and dishonoring your husband----That's not what happened.  All that happened is you bought some outfits for a new job.

 

Love you girl... I'm hoping to spend a lot more time here on AAG.

Carla

 

 

 

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Amanda on September 9, 2013 at 11:50am

Thank you, Carla, for identifying with me and for being understanding, especially regarding the feelings part. I think the peanut allergy would be a very difficult thing to have to become acclimated to and deal with. Peanuts are really legumes, not nuts, but I'm sure you've already learned this. Is he able to eat peas or other legumes (beans)?
I know that I would feel guilty for eating anything made from peanuts in front of my son, if he was allergic to them. Bless your heart. I wonder why guilt, for me, is the normal response ... But it always is.

In 2002, I lost dad to Alzhiemer's. 

One of my good memories of him that year was in the spring. He was still living with mom at home but the disease had already destroyed most of his memory and he needed a lot of care for bathing and dressing and using the bathroom and most of the responsibility for that care was on my mother to provide but one of my older brothers was going through a divorce and was staying with them at the time, and he was a lot of help but Dad was getting combative, too, at times. 

On this day, when I visited, I brought him a big chocolate cake with chocolate icing, one of his favorite desserts. I sat with him at the table and we ate cake and drank coffee. He did great that day. Then gradually, during the six months that followed, he forgot how to chew food and how to swallow and how to eat. His doctors recommended a feeding tube. Mom said no. She said it would only prolong the inevitable. She said his mind was gone and he would never know the difference anyway. 

When I visited, I would have so much guilt because dad was literally wasting away. 

He lost from 230 down to 90 pounds in six months. When I would visit him I wouldn't eat and when I would leave to go home I'd have so much guilt for eating. This is survivors' guilt or is alot like it. It's heavy to carry.

He died that fall, on a Friday in October and was buried on a Monday and the next day, Tuesday, was his 73rd birthday, and I wept bitter tears over that ... Over the feeding tube. 

Maybe she was right and it would have only prolonged his pain and suffering because I think one of the hardest things I've had to do in my life was watching Dad die from Alzheimer's. His health quickly deteriorated from that Spring until that Autumn, especially in the last several weeks of his life, and it was a difficult death. 

He was in so much pain and became bedfast, and a sore developed on his foot and the infection from it spread to the bone and they performed surgery to remove the half of his foot that was affected by the infection, just as a measure to relieve the pain, because turning him in bed and just moving it caused him to scream, and pain meds weren't helping at all, and then he finally died in October, and, at the funeral, my heart was so heavy as I sat there listening to the eulogy and staring at him. I was thinking how skeletal he looked and wondering, did he know that he was loved? I was tormenting myself with guilt. 

Then I went to work for hospice, and I saw other families going through the same situations, having to make the same decisions, and struggling with fear and guilt and so much pain. 

You are so right. How we need Jesus. How we need a Savior to save us from this horrible world.

PS Regarding the money my sister re-paid me, I did buy some outfits but I used the money cosmetically, too. My husband has really been a great help to me the last few days, and we decided to use some of the money that we would normally give in church (we joined a new church recently but I haven't been going regularly) and give it to my sister because we are supposed to help widows and the fatherless. 

My sister is a widow, and she and her husband had only one child, but in 2009 she became involved in a new relationship and had another child. The father and she didn't marry and the relationship ended. Her youngest son will be four in December and he has been diagnosed with autism. 

Two good things have happened in the last few days. I feel so much closer to my husband and, yesterday, I was texting my sister and, I didn't tell her about all this guilt I was feeling over her repayment and what I did with the money, but I was encouraging her as she was confiding to me some of her struggles with trying to get help for her son's autism, and I texted her Psalm 103:6-14 and Psalm 62:5-8, and told her we were going to send her part of the money that we give at church, and her reply was "That is such a nice gesture. It seems God is helping me where my son's dad doesn't so my son doesn't suffer from his dad's uncaring attitude. It is nice when people are encouraging and helpful. God is our refuge. Thank you!"
  
I want God to teach me how to love God and how to love others better.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Carla on September 9, 2013 at 1:22pm

Hi Amanda,

Bless you... you went through such a hard time with your Dad.  As surely as you knew he loved you, I'm certain he also knew he was loved.  The small gestures of making his favourite dessert and sitting with him to eat it are what matters in that context.  Your mom had some difficult heart wrenching decisions to make... how hard that must have been.

 

I believe that God puts us into certain circumstances for different reasons...ultimately He wants us to learn to live how we were intended to.  Colby gives us some great reminders in this thread. 

In regards to your sister, now that you have given some more information, it helps me to understand where you are coming from a bit better.  It also must be such a huge blessing that you and your sister share a faith in the Lord... You have the ability and freedom to send her encouraging scriptures and reminders that God is our refuge... I don't have that with my sister.

 

I'm happy to hear about the good things in your life..... When we remember the good things, it helps us to be grateful.  When we're ungrateful we kind of start to 'horde' things---we want to hold on to them because we feel like we don't have enough....like love, sharing, listening, encouragement etc...   However, when we are grateful for what we already have we are more likely to be generous to others by loving them, listening to them, sharing with them etc....  We know it's okay because we realize that we are not actually lacking anything.  When we give away encouragement, we are encouraged also.  When we listen, we gain trust and people know they are valued and feel understood.  When we share, we can fill a need and know that we have done a good thing.  When we love, people feel accepted just as they are.  Living these ways are contrary to what the world has to offer.  Living these ways has nothing to do with 'the gospel' or good news of coarse, but they are just some small ways we can show God's Love.  It seems to me you are already doing these things. :-)

 

In sending your sister the encouraging texts, and also being a listener for her struggles, you are showing her God's Love.  Those types of relationships in this world can be seriously lacking.  God meets us right where we are, Loves us right where we are and always encourages us to move beyond right where we are.

 

Blessings, Carla

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Amanda on September 9, 2013 at 2:18pm

Carla,

My devotion today was about gratitude. It's funny that you have said these things. I've been listening to the Bible on audio. Today I listened to Psalm 136. The devotion said that a thankful spirit is learned behavior. It asked the question, "Don't you hate it when you do things for people and they don't bother to say thank you? Can you imagine the hurt in God's heart when the giver of everything good is ignored?" 

The greatest gifts from God are forgiveness and love through Jesus, our Savior. He is our greatest gift.

I hope you will be spending more time on AAG. You are loved here and your wisdom is greatly needed and treasured. 

PS I do bake cakes and cookies and make candy and so forth, but the cake I took Dad that day was store bought and had been given to me actually by the wife of a man who was a patient of the home health agency where I was working at that time. I was providing respite care for the agency and her husband had Alzheimer's. 

She was 77 and he was 80. I stayed with her husband so that she could go to appointments or shopping, and so forth. Respite care is when you stay with someone short periods of time, such as four to eight hours, to provide temporary relief to those who are caring for family members to give them a short break. I provided respite care for several years to those caring for family members with poor health, intellectual disabilities, or chronic conditions like cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis, of all ages, children and adults. 

I shared the cake with Dad and some of my other family members that day that I visited Dad -- a few days after the cake had been given to me. This sister was there that day, too, (I have three sisters) and she and I had a wonderful visit with Dad, and it's a memory I treasure. I have a few good memories of dad's last months that I count as precious gifts and this is one. Thank you for your kindness, Carla, and for listening to me. It makes me happy that you found freedom from the anxiety for eating other nuts and for the other good things God is doing in and through you. I love chocolate cake and I can eat it OK now. I'm finding freedom, too, slowly but surely :)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Carla on September 9, 2013 at 3:43pm

Thank you for the warm and loving welcome Amanda.. I really love being here, and am looking forward to being around more often. :-)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Leonard T on September 6, 2013 at 9:01am

Carla,

 

I would tend to believe that most of those who use the term in this way are well meaning, but some times we make things more confusing. The gospel is the Good News as you pointed out. The gospel is critical to salvation as stated by Paul in Romans 1:16 for it is the power of God, and in this we recognize that the truth in conjunction with the work of the Holy Spirit will bring about a transformed life. This is seen in 2 Corinthians 5:17 where the old is gone and the new has come and that we are a new creation. People who knew us before salvation should begin to see a radical difference ... we are not the same as we were and this is more evident over time as we grow. Those who meet us for the first time, or barely knew us before, will recognize that we a different. The Bible calls us a peculiar people. As much as many dislike this next statement it is true none-the-less ... we are to look different than the world, act different than the world. This difference that they see in us may draw them to ask us questions or it may repel them, but it is the difference (which should be the Holy Spirit living in us and the manifestation of the Fruit of the Spirit beginning to flow from us) that they see. But, like creation, our difference can demonstrate the reality of God as others witness our transformed lives, and our transformed lives may draw their interest ... it will not save them. As Amanda has referenced Romans 10:14-17 is very clear that it is the message of Christ, the Good News, that God ultimately uses to bring people to repentance and salvation ... the transformed life that we call being born again. 

 

Food for thought:
Let's say someone notices the difference and they ask what makes us different. The dialogue could go something like this:

Me: Jesus made the difference.

Them: Wow, that is really cool.

Me: Yeah, I'll never be the same.

Them: Can that happen to me?

Me: Sure.

Them: How?

Me: Over the next few years just watch how I live my life and seek to emulate me.

Them: Really? That's all?

Me: Yep, watching me live the Good News will set you free by you trying to emulate me. Gotta go ....

(end)

 

Now, I know that is an exaggeration, but it is to make a point. People need to hear the truth about Jesus and come to realize that they are sinners in need of a Savior. That without Jesus they are destined to hell (Lake of Fire) for eternity. The message is God's mechanism (no disrespect intended in that) that He uses in conjunction with the work of the Holy Spirit. Me living a sanctified life will not do that for them. It may draw them, stir their interest.

 

Lastly, for clarity on what I am saying. A transformed life may draw people to seek and ask. Creation may draw people to seek and ask. God may use dreams and visions to get people to seek and ask. He may even send an angel as he did for Cornelius. But, he still needed Peter to bring the gospel. Peter recognized that it was the gospel message that made the difference (with the Holy Spirit) as seen in Acts 15:6-11.

 

I will go to my grave, or be raptured, believing, trusting and teaching the Gospel Message, the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.

 

BTW: It is great to see you here!!! You are missed :-)

 

Lord Bless,

LT

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Carla on September 6, 2013 at 9:46am

Thanks for this LT.. There is Grace, understanding and clarity in your message as always.  :-)

 

Summers are busy here at the Butler household.  :-)

I'm going to make a concerted effort to be here more often....there are some bible studies to get going on. :-)

 

Blessings, Carla

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Colby on September 6, 2013 at 2:18pm

We are called to be Christ’s disciples--to live a life that is based on the principles of Jesus’ teachings and to daily renew our faith and to breath new life into our discipleship.  Jesus said to his disciples and followers: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."  To follow Jesus is not an easy task-- it is a difficult road to travel--but Jesus will walk with us.  Jesus will light our path with his love.  Every time we love the unlovable; every time we feed the hungry; every time we care for the lonely and the hurting; every time we stand up for the poor; every time we share the Good News of Jesus Christ, we are bearers of the light of Christ. 

 

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Carla on September 9, 2013 at 10:03am

Excellent reminders Colby.. Thank you. :-)

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page