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The Gospel: God's Rescue Story

Preamble

Our shared faith as members of the Lake Avenue Church family centers on God's evangel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through the power of this gospel, God accomplishes His salvation plan: rescuing His people from sin, making each one complete in Christ, and making all things in His creation new. Our most basic theological convictions are aspects of this gospel:

Objective

To learn about the gospel and its impact on our lives. [In each section start with the green question and do the others as time permits.]

Open in Prayer

Watch the Video [5–10 minutes]

Video Reflections [10 minutes]

• What do the words "gospel" and "evangel" mean?  Why are they important to the life of a follower of Jesus?
• What might be wrong with limiting the definition of the word "gospel" to just the plan of salvation or the way to be forgiven?
• What might be wrong with limiting the definition of the word "gospel" to just the notion of social justice (which means fighting for and advocating for what is right in the wider world)?

Read

Our shared faith as members of the Lake Avenue Church family centers on God's evangel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through the power of this gospel, God accomplishes His salvation plan: rescuing His people from sin, making each one complete in Christ, and making all things in His creation new. Our most basic theological convictions are aspects of this gospel.Lake Avenue Church Statement of Faith: Preamble – The Gospel)

Questions from the Statement of Faith [20 minutes]

  "Up" Questions (Worship)

• What role does God play in the story of the gospel?  How has God revealed his good news, his gospel, in your life?
• Read over the text from the Statement of Faith and underline all the words in it that reveal that God is worthy of worship. Which words did you underline? Which of them is most meaningful to you and why?
• Theology is really the story of God's efforts to bring salvation to everything and everyone he created. Does this change the way your think about theology?

 

"In" Questions (Community)

• What is significant about the phrase "shared faith"?  Talk about each of the words separately.
• How can the good news of Jesus Christ shape the way a community of followers of Jesus behaves and operates?  In other words, what should distinguish a Christian community from any other sort of community?
  

 

"Out" Questions (Service)

• Our Statement of Faith makes it clear that the gospel is focused on human beings: setting them free from sin, bringing them into Christ-likeness, and making them new at the end of time.  How should these realities affect how we view the people with whom we come into contact every day where we work, live, and play?
• How should we view our friends, family, and neighbors who need rescuing from their sin?  How can we treat them with love and respect, doing our best not to be judgmental?
  
• CHALLENGE: Each day this week think of two good things about the good news of Jesus Christ.  Come prepared to share some of these things at your next meeting.
  

 

Questions from Scripture [10 minutes]

• Read Isaiah 52:7. What does this passage say about the good news? What does it say about the one who brings the good news? What does it compare the good news to?
• Read Mark 1:14-15. Jesus' primary message was centered around the good news.  What does this say about what our primary message should be?  How can we imitate Jesus better in this regard?
  

 

Prayer 

Father, Thank you for your grand rescue plan!  We admit that without you we cannot save ourselves; we would be utterly lost apart from you.  Teach us how to speak your good news and how to live out your good news in our lives as individuals and as a community.  Give us boldness to proclaim your gospel with words and actions.  We ask you to bring people along our paths each day with whom we can shine the beautiful light of your evangel. In Jesus' holy name. Amen.

 

Share Prayer Requests and End in Prayer 

Pastor's Commentary

Preamble: Our shared faith as members of the Lake Avenue Church family centers on God's "evangel," the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through the power of this gospel, God accomplishes His salvation plan: rescuing His people from sin, making each one complete in Christ, and making all things in His creation new. Our most basic theological convictions are aspects of this gospel.

Preamble

Our shared faith as members of the Lake Avenue Church family centers on God's "evangel," the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through the power of this gospel, God accomplishes His salvation plan: rescuing His people from sin, making each one complete in Christ, and making all things in His creation new. Our most basic theological convictions are aspects of this gospel.

Commentary

This is the preamble to the Statement of Faith (SOF) that we, the LAC Ministry Council, are recommending to the congregation. This preamble states that we believe that the essential convictions of our Christian faith and practice are all aspects of “the gospel.” Therefore, we need to know what “the gospel” is.

The term "gospel" quite simply means "good news."The gospel is God’s news given both to explain all of existence and to redeem all that God has created. It is not simply a minor part of the story of who God is, who we are, why our world is the way it is, and where everything is ultimately headed in the cosmos. It is THE story into which these and all other stories are subsumed. It is not simply the basic truths that we must believe in order to go to heaven. It is God’s news about Himself, about heaven and hell, and about our need to receive His offer to rescue us from our sins. In other words, it is the whole story! Through the lens of the gospel, we are to view everything in the world from God’s perspective. It is so all-embracing of reality that it affects how we perceive everything else.

The term evangel (usually translated “gospel”) is derived from Greek and also means “good news.” Of course, news is about something that has happened. The term is used in the Bible both for the announcement of good news from God as well as for the content of God’s good news. With that in mind, our goal in formulating a SOF for our local church family has been to set forth “sound doctrine that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God,” which He has now entrusted to us (1 Tim. 1:10-11). We believe that the essential biblical and theological convictions that hold God’s people together are vitally connected to God’s gospel. The gospel, therefore, is not one aspect of our faith but includes the complete story of our faith. It is not the A, B, or C of what we believe but embraces the totality of faith, i.e., the A to Z. It is the whole of what the Apostle Paul says we must understand, hold to, and then pass on to future generations until the work of God is completed in this world (2 Tim. 1:8-2:2).

 

The Gospel Is More Than What Many Think It Is

We know that others have used the term gospel in a much more limited sense than we do at LAC. Among the narrower uses of gospel are as follows:

1. The The way to forgiveness – In many evangelical churches, the gospel is only about asking Jesus to come into the heart to forgive sins. This is why some preachers say that if a church does not have a call to accept Jesus after a sermon, the gospel has not been preached. We believe that the opportunity to have sins forgiven and begin a new life with God is good news from God and is central to the gospel. But, the ways that the Bible speaks about the gospel indicate that the whole gospel is much bigger.
2. A call to social justice – Usually citing Luke 4:16-19, many mainline churches have said that the gospel is a mandate to work against poverty, oppression, and injustice. Jesus’ words in Luke 4 indicate that this kind of activity is surely an outworking or application of the gospel. To exclude this aspect of the gospel would mean that we have to ignore these words of Jesus – and perhaps much of the life of Jesus. However, the alleviating of injustice, though it is a part of God's good news, is surely not the entirety. The gospel helps us understand why these wrongs exist, what we should do in the light of their existence in our world, and how working against evil in our world in the short run is a part of a much larger and eternal task.
3. A synonym for love – The argument is sometimes made that if a church excludes anyone for any reason, it does not practice the gospel because the gospel, it is said, is love. Of course, this kind of definition would mean that love is the quality that tolerates anything—even the worst kind of abuse and evil. Certainly, the gospel flows from the love of God. And, God is a welcoming God loving us before we love him (1 Jn. 4:19), dying for us while we were sinners (Rom. 5:6-8), and declaring that he did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to rescue it (Jn. 3:17). Moreover, those who receive the gospel will make a commitment to 1) love God with their whole beings and 2) love all those God brings across their paths. However, love is not tolerance. And, tolerance is not the gospel. To the contrary, the gospel declares that evil will not go unpunished. There is no good news if evil is simply tolerated and allowed to proliferate.

What Does God’s Gospel Include?

There probably is no neat and concise description of all that is in God’s gospel short enough to be put on a coffee mug. Jesus himself may have given us the briefest possible description of the gospel in John 3:16-17: “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Of course, even those beautiful and clear verses call forth several huge questions about who this God is, why people need to be saved, and how to find this salvation… These are the kinds of questions that must be included if we will understand the whole of the gospel. Our proposed Statement of Faith (SOF) is an attempt to identify ten aspects of the gospel that have knit God’s people together historically and globally. Briefly put together, there are some basic truths we need to have news about if we will have a complete worldview. Among these are the following:

 

*Who God is – What God reveals about Himself is good news. The biblical report opens by telling us that God exists (always has and will), that He created all that is though He is not created, and that He is a relational God involved personally in this world. The rest of the news in Scripture is about God’s good character, works, and purposes. So, the gospel begins with news about what God is like, what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will do.

*What our world is like – God’s initial report about the created world is good because, when God was finished with each of the first 5½ days of creation in Genesis 1:1-26, he repeatedly announced that it was good. The gospel explains why Jesus-followers should be the people most positive about this world because God made it, God entered it on a rescue mission, God loves it, and God pledges to re-fashion it into something that reveals His glory.

*What it means to be human – God’s good news tells us the beautiful truth that all human beings are made in God’s image. God’s report to us is that it was not until human beings were made on the sixth day that God declared that creation was “very good” (Gen. 1:31). In Genesis 2, we discover that we were made to live with God at the center of our lives. Our lives have meaning when we care for and manage the rest of creation in the way God has enabled us to do it. Reflecting God’s image, we are at peace when we live in right relationship to God, to one another, and to the rest of the created world.

*What has gone wrong – Human beings have broken relationship with God through disobeying Him. In Genesis 3, the first people did not want God to rule their lives and so disobeyed Him and tried to become their own “gods.” This was the beginning of what the Bible calls “enmity” between God and those made in His image. In our fallen condition, we are fighting with God for control of our lives. When the relationship to God was broken, every other relationship was broken—with people and with the rest of creation. Our world is filled with injustice, self-centeredness, ecological devastation, suffering, and death. We now live in a day after millennia of ongoing sin that affects everything in our universe. The world is not now what it was when God declared it “very good.”

*What God has done to change things – God came to the world personally. This is the heart of the gospel (1 Cor. 15:1-11). Jesus, who is fully God and fully man, entered the world on a rescue mission (“to seek and save that which was lost”), lived the life we should have lived but have not, and then died the death we should have died and now do not have to because he has done it in our place. And, in history, Jesus personally defeated sin and death through his resurrection from the dead. On the cross, Jesus the sinless one allowed his relationship with the Father to be shattered while he bore our sins so that our relationship to the Father might be made whole. The bad news is that people made in God’s image are evil—more so than we could ever imagine. But the good news is that God loves us—more than we could ever hope for. We are both utterly sinful and utterly loved. Out of his love, Jesus, the one through whom all was created, entered creation to rescue us and make all things new. The event that took place in history—from the birth of Jesus to his ascension into heaven and gift of the Holy Spirit—comprises thirty years that changed the world and form the heart of the gospel.

*What we must do with the news – We must receive the message and messenger by faith. We must pass the news on to others. And, we must live in the light of its truth. The Bible is primarily news about what God has done—not advice about how to live. Different from other religions, God’s gospel does not start with a philosophy or a set of teachings by which we must be guided. The gospel is first and foremost the report of what God has done. This fact is, in and of itself, good news. A religion that starts with advice for living means that we must follow the advice if we will live. But, imperfect people will always fail to keep advice perfectly. We need a rescue from our failure, and that’s what the gospel is about. As Romans 1:16 declares, the gospel is “the power of God for the salvation for everyone who believes.” The gospel is that God has done something in history that we must believe. It will change our lives because the gospel affects everything about us. But, following the teaching of Jesus does not save us. Jesus saves us. Living in the light of this news will draw us to love God, love people (and therefore seek to bring about justice, compassion, and reconciliation), and love the world as God loves the world.

*How God’s story will end – Our SOF preamble summarizes the news: “Through the power of this gospel, God accomplishes His salvation plan: rescuing His people from sin, making each one complete in Christ, and making all things in His creation new.”And Article 9 states that God will establish a world with “restored relationships to God, renewed creation, and one another in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace.”

Even more powerfully, Revelation 21:1-5a describes the promised end of God’s work in this way:

I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away… And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, 'I am making everything new!'” This is the culmination of the God’s gospel story. It is good news indeed.

Our SOF is centered in this gospel story. It is what our children’s ministry leaders are calling “the Big God Story.” Ten aspects of this gospel combine to form the heart of our convictions as followers of Jesus. They hold us together. They give us a worldview large enough to provide a framework for all of life’s experiences. As Paul declared in his last letter (or, at least, the last one we have) written to a young pastor named Timothy (speaking of the gospel),

“What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us… And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Tim. 1:13-14; 2:2).

Our prayer is that God will use our SOF and the commentary that will accompany it to enable us to understand this “good deposit” God has given us in the gospel, live in the light of its sound teaching, and then pass it on until the work of God is complete.

 

To God’s glory alone,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor

Devotionals

Print Preamble Devotionals PDF

Preamble: The Gospel - God's Rescue Story

Our shared faith as members of the Lake Avenue Church family centers on God's evangel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through the power of this gospel, God accomplishes His salvation plan: rescuing His people from sin, making each one complete in Christ, and making all things in His creation new. Our most basic theological convictions are aspects of this gospel.

Family Devotional for the Week
Isaiah 40:9 (Read as a Family)

Our 8-year-old son had a secret.

And it was almost too much for him to bear.

His older brother's birthday was very near, and we had already purchased A Grand Gift. Picture a time before iPods...back in the day of The Boombox. A Boombox was a radio with large built-in speakers, and it was packaged inside of a giant box. And our older son was to receive this wonder for his 13th birthday. Covered in wrapping paper, it loomed large, and smacked of dreams come true. The rest of us, including our 8-year-old, whispered excitedly about it for days leading up to The Big Day. When that day arrived, we had to wait through long hours of school and homework before finally, it was time for cake and presents. Our 8-year-old squirmed with anticipation. Now? Now?? "Yes, son—now. Would you like to go get that last present?" Would he ever! He shot out of the living room and returned in a flash, balancing the immense box on his outstretched arms.

The rest seemed to happen in slow motion: the birthday son turned to see the gift, he and his younger brother made eye contact. Valiantly trying to last until the handoff, but to no avail, unstoppable words gushed out of the little guy's mouth: "It's not a radio!" he shouted.

And there it was. Good news too good to keep inside.

The prophet Isaiah could hardly contain himself either. "Gospel" means "Good News!" And it's this Good News—of God's saving and redeeming his people through the gift of his Son—that must be shared; no, shouted! Look at Isaiah: he is like an 8-year-old, quivering with news that he knows will change his hearers' lives forever. He "pushes" the messenger up onto the mountain where he can be seen and heard by all. He urges, "Lift up your voice! SHOUT! C'mon—make it loud and clear! We can't hold it in any longer: Here is your God!"

Best of all, this Gift keeps giving. God offers His Son to us, today. Don't miss it. Don't dismiss it. This amazing, unearned and undeserved gift of new life in Christ is ours for the taking. Open it!

Talk about as a family:

• What's the best gift you've ever received? Given?
• What in the world was God thinking, to offer us such a Gift in Jesus?
• What did it cost Him?
• What is your response?

Craft option: Tell everyone to go to their rooms (or you can go to the Dollar Store) and find a gift that they could give away. Wrap up these gifts with whatever you have around the house—newspaper does just fine! And then exchange your gifts to one another. Another option might be to spend some time making brownies together as a family; then wrap your delicious bundle in a box and deliver your gift to a neighbor.

~Carol Kenyon and Annie Neufeld

 

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Monday
John 3:16-17

There is a book by Gary Chapman called The 5 Love Languages. It outlines five ways to express and experience love that Chapman calls "love languages": gifts, quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service, and physical touch. People in relationships often refer to this book to gain an understanding of how they need to be loved. Some people feel more connected and whole when they have quality time with someone. Others need a hug to feel comfort and love.

In the beginning married couples typically find that their spouse has been giving them a love language that doesn't connect with who they are. Or they didn't know themselves well enough to know what to ask for. Maybe their spouse was buying them gift after gift when all they wanted was an hour a day of face-to-face conversation.

In scripture humans at times skewed ideas of what God's cosmic love language should be. They had a specific idea of how they personally think God should love them, petitioning to God in times of need with what they think God should do.

And with God's love we do the same thing. We say to God naively, "All mighty maker. I know you created the heavens and the earth with ultimate cosmic power. And you created the world and it was good and you are good as well. But if you have a few minutes, I've got some pretty good ideas of how you should love me. " The disciples, Pharisees, and followers of Jesus had several ideas of how he should love the world.

Then Jesus performed the unexpected by giving His blameless self as a sacrifice for us in the name of God's love to save humanity. And his world-changing death and resurrection was the exact love the world needed since falling from our maker. It needed to happen. It had to happen in this manner for our sin to be washed clean. We can have long conversations of how we think God needed to love and rescue us. God's love and plan to save the world is bigger than our ideas. His love is so big and particular to save humanity that we could have never dreamed of a Savior better than Jesus. His love is so big that he decided not leave us to our own deserved demise. His love is so beautiful that he came for all of humanity.

I love that Jesus' love for creation transcends our ideas and becomes exactly what we've needed since the beginning of time. His love language is perfect and is the exact love that awakens and enlivens our souls. Everlasting life! May we respond back to God with a humbled heart saying to our maker:

"What is your love language? How can I live a life of gratitude and freedom for all that you've done?"

~Perry Hawkins

 

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Tuesday
Galatians 3: 26-29

Paul is telling us in this passage to "put on Christ". What does this really mean and how does it change the way we relate to one another in the body of Christ? When we bring Christ into our lives changes should occur, resulting in unity within the church body.

An example of what it means to "put on Christ" is occurring within our Lake Orchestra. The members of this ensemble are being cared for by a long-time Lake member who has become a care-giver for this group. (She is not a member of this ensemble). The ongoing needs of the orchestra are sent to her, and she prays for every musician, both personally and for their professional lives. She sends birthday cards to every member, reminding them that they are thought of and appreciated. Several times a year a meal is prepared and served to the members on special days, allowing a unique community to develop among the members. This "care-giver" has "put on Christ" by using her gifts and talents to reach out to this group of instrumentalists.

What does this look like for you? Everyone has their own strengths and gifts that can be used to show Christ to others as we live life with those in our church and in our surrounding communities.

To consider:
What do we gain when we take action in our lives to follow Christ's example? Is there anything we lose when we "put on Christ"?

Action Steps
What can I do to more effectively to "put on Christ" within my life and my church family? As you may think of ways to do this, write down your ideas and share them with one of our pastors or group leaders at Lake and explore ways you can follow the scripture you read today.

~Duane Funderburk

 

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Wednesday
Isaiah 61:1-3

Isaiah writes of the coming of the One, who would be, among other things, The Great Evangelist. His news would be the Good News. In today's world, news is everywhere. We need only turn on the TV, open up our internet browser, or look at a notification on our smart phone to find lots of news, only it's not often good. In contrast, the News that the Messiah would bring would be Good.

A hard-working, loving single mother raised me, but I remember longing for a dad. Father's Day was tough for me. I went through the motions of creating that Tie-Card in school that said "Best Dad Ever" on the front – but on Father's Day morning I faced the pain of having no one to give it to.

But then one day I heard some Good News. As I attended a VBS in my neighborhood, one of my favorite summer pastimes (mostly because of the crafts and free Big Sticks) I heard that there was a Man, who was also God, who was my Father...and that He loved me! That was Good News to me! For some reason I believed it and I can't recall a happier feeling in my life! You see God knew exactly what Good News was to this little girl.

I once heard someone say that news that was not good news to the poor was not Good News at all. Well, I would agree with that. For news, that was not good news to a literally poor little fatherless girl in East L.A. would not have been good news to me. The Great Evangelist knows just what each of us needs. What a great thing to be able to rely on as we set out to bring the Good News to others.

I think about this as I talk with people who clearly need some Good News in their life. I pray that I am able to share Christ with them and that they are able to receive Him, whatever their life circumstances are. For me, it was that I had a Heavenly Father – and He was the Best Dad Ever! For someone else, it could be that God is the Great Provider, in a time when they don't have what they need. I am thankful that God is everything – no one is excluded from the Good News.

Best Dad Ever, bless us with the assurance that as we share the Good News of the Gospel, you have come before us and begun to prepare the hearer in ways we may not imagine. Give us boldness and courage to proclaim Good News to all, that your Kingdom may be expanded and all you have created will worship you. Amen.

~Mayra Macedo-Nolan

 

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Thursday
Isaiah 40:9

Our 8-year-old son had a secret.

And it was almost too much for him to bear.

His older brother's birthday was very near, and we had already purchased A Grand Gift. Picture a time before iPods...back in the day of The Boombox. A boombox was a radio with large built-in speakers, and it was packaged inside of a giant box. And our older son was to receive this wonder for his 13th birthday. Covered in wrapping paper, it loomed large, and smacked of dreams come true. The rest of us, including our 8-year-old, whispered excitedly about it for days leading up to The Big Day. When that day arrived, we had to wait through long hours of school and homework before finally, it was time for cake and presents. Our 8-year-old squirmed with anticipation. Now? Now?? "Yes, son—now. Would you like to go get that last present?" Would he ever! He shot out of the living room and returned in a flash, balancing the immense box on his outstretched arms.

The rest seemed to happen in slow motion: the birthday son turned to see the gift, he and his younger brother made eye contact. Valiantly trying to last until the handoff, but to no avail, unstoppable words gushed out of the little guy's mouth: "It's not a radio!" he shouted.

And there it was. Good news too good to keep inside.

The prophet Isaiah could hardly contain himself either. "Gospel" means "good news!" And it's this Good News—of God's saving and redeeming his people through the gift of his Son—that must be shared; no, shouted! Look at Isaiah: he is like an 8-year-old , quivering with news that he knows will change his hearers' lives forever. He "pushes" the messenger up onto the mountain where he can be seen and heard by all. He urges, "Lift up your voice! SHOUT! C'mon—make it loud and clear! We can't hold it in any longer: Here is your God!"

Best of all, this Gift keeps giving. God offers His Son to us, today. Don't miss it. Don't dismiss it. This lavish, unearned and undeserved gift of new life in Christ is ours for the taking. Open it!

Think about:
What's the best gift you've ever received? Given?
What in the world was God thinking, to offer us such a Gift?
What did it cost Him?
What is your response?

~Carol Kenyon

 

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Friday
Matthew 4:23-24

Facebook, twitter, and texting are all ways to spread the news and make things known. All day long we are bombarded by advertisement and sound bites giving us information. But let's face it; much of that information is unneeded, not useful, not edifying, nor inspiring. However, as Christians, we have news and information that is trustworthy, edifying, encouraging and life changing.

Read Matthew 4:23-24 aloud.

Imagine for a moment, if the news stories of today captured and regularly spoke about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Remember how you responded as you heard the Gospel Story - the redemptive story of Jesus and the fact that we join a new family, the Family of Christ. Remember what it felt like to have the weight of sin lifted from your shoulders, as you understood that Jesus had already paid the price and taken that sin from us when he was nailed o the cross in Calvary. As we remember the power of God in the Gospel message, we have the privilege of following Him as He transforms, heals and conforms us to our Savior's image for His glory.

In closing, I want you to remember your salvation experience and encourage you to share the Gospel story with others.

Action: Write down your story of how God revealed the Gospel to you. Try to limit your story to a few paragraphs that would take no more than 3 minutes to read.

~Bill Mead

 

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Saturday
Luke 7:18-23

I can think of a number of songs that are deeply stirring to my soul, but only a handful have moved me so powerfully that I have sat in my car listening over and over again while tears welled up in my eyes. Inevitably those few deeply moving songs have been on the subject of my brokenness and need for healing. One such song is called "Worlds Apart" by Jars of Clay. The writer wrestles with those things in his life that are not as they should be and ends with this litany of requests:

"So steal my heart and take the pain, wash my feet and cleanse my pride,
Take the selfish, take the weak, and all the things I cannot hide.
Take the beauty, take my tears, the sin-soaked heart and make it yours.
Take my world all apart, take it now, take it now.
Serve the ones that I despise, speak the words I can't deny,
Watch the world I used to love fall to dust and thrown away.
Take my world apart, take my world apart, I pray."

As followers of Christ we don't have to look too deeply into our own lives, the ways we fall, or into the ways of this world to see brokenness and the need for healing. We feel what Paul wrote in Romans 8, that all creation groans "as in the pains of childbirth" longing for redemption.

In this passage we find John the Baptist and his disciples in a time of doubt and honest questioning. No one during his lifetime knew how Jesus' life, ministry, and reconciling work would unfold. It's a reconciling work that he is doing to this day in his followers. Yet even to this day, followers of Christ face times of doubt and questioning. If you find yourself searching for where Christ is in your life, you are not an anomaly and you are not a failure. Our very flesh and this world we live in works against us.

So where will you find him? He can be found in the things that bring healing and wholeness. He came to make wrong things right and to make old things new. He says to John's disciples, "It's me, because I am doing the things I set out to do... the very things the prophets said I would do." Jesus had just announced the start of his ministry by reading from the book of Isaiah:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
and that the time of the Lord's favor has come."
(Luke 4:18-19 NLT)

Lord, help us to see your work of healing and wholeness. Also, let us be a part of that work in our world. In times of doubt, turn the attention of our hearts and minds to you.

~Jeremy Rose