What's the Difference?

This past Sunday, I talked about how the gospel answers all the main questions that people ask. Here are some:

• What's the point of life?
• What's wrong with the world?
• Where will I spend eternity?

As I got done with my teaching, I sat down and had a discussion with a couple of teens. One of the girls said something very interesting. She goes to a Christian school, and there are several foreign exchange students there. One of the students recently said something like this to her: "As I have heard people in church talk about God, I think it is the same spirit we talk about in Buddhism." This teen said to me that she didn't know how to respond to this student.

What was my response, you ask?

I first explained that in every false religion, there are elements of truth in them. Secondly, I explained again that what sets Christianity apart is Christ and the good news of Him living, dying and rising in our place!

Living by faith is the point of life (because it's impossible to please God apart from faith), our sin is what's wrong with the world, and Heaven and Hell are eternal realities that are addressed in the cross and resurrection.

In reality, good works don't set us apart from other religions. All other religions promote "good" works. What really sets us apart is CHRIST and the GOSPEL of forgiveness and real hope in Jesus. My works may not look so different from my neighbor (although I hope it is), but now I have confidence, by faith, that my works glorify God and He will use them as He sees fit.

What are your thoughts?

What should we know?

This morning I was reading in Ephesians and I was writing a list of the blessings God has given to me in Christ. As I continued in chapter one, I came across Paul's prayer, and there are three things he says he prays that the Ephesians would know:

1. The hope that God has called us to,
   
2. The riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and
   
3. The immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe.

It's the second one that I want to highlight. In my study Bible, these notes were given:

The "inheritance" here is not the Christian's inheritance but his (God's). This indicates how precious his people are to God. They are, so to speak, what he looks forward to enjoying forever.

Trials

The following is taken from "The Gospel Primer for Christians" by Milton Vincent.

Perspective in Trials

More than anything else I could ever do, the gospel enables me to embrace my tribulations and thereby position myself to gain full benefit from them. For the gospel is the one great permanent circumstance in which I live and move; and every hardship in my life is allowed by God only because it serves His gospel purposes in me. When I view my circumstances in this light, I realize that the gospel is not just one piece of good news that fits into my life somewhere among all the bad. I realize instead that the gospel makes genuinely good news out of every other aspect of my life, including my severest trials. The good news about my trials is that God is forcing them to bow to His gospel purposes and do good unto me by improving my character and making me more conformed to the image of Christ.
Preaching the gospel to myself each day provides a lens through which I can view my trials in this way and see the true cause for rejoicing that exists in them. I can then embrace trials as friends and allow them to do God's good work in me (pp. 31-32, emphasis mine).
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After a couple of points, the writer puts footnotes where he emphasizes passages of Scripture that go along with his statements. For the bolded statement above, the author highlights Romans 8:28-29, James 1:2-4 and 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. The passage emphasized in the sentence preceding the bolded statement is Romans 5:1-5.

I've seen this particular skit multiple times now and it still brings me to tears. I hope that it points you to Christ also!

Sermon - YIKES!

Okay, well, I'm taking a break from working on my sermon for this Sunday (March 5th). I feel like I might have taken on too big of a topic, but I think once I start practicing it, I will feel better.

Anyway, I'm talking about the Law and the Gospel. So, please be praying for me that I'll communicate in such a way as to cause comfort to the despairing and truth for the "pharisees" so that both will walk away with a greater view of the Gospel!

Also, pray for me that I'll be gripped by the Gospel through this study.

~ PT2