The Unending Good News of the Gospel

I was reminded yet again this week of the power of the Gospel, not just to save, but to keep ...

Reading through Jeremiah, I came across a likely familiar passage ...

Jeremiah 4:3–4

For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:

“Break up your fallow ground,

and sow not among thorns.

Circumcise yourselves to the LORD;

remove the foreskin of your hearts,

O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;

lest my wrath go forth like fire,

and burn with none to quench it,

because of the evil of your deeds.” (ESV)

Pause for a moment and let the Holy Spirit work in you as you read these words again.

Our church had their yearly missions conferenece, and we had the blessing and privledge to hear not only from several missionaries, but also a guest pastor each night as well. One thing that struck me hearing the Word of God preached daily from Sunday through Friday, was how much I needed to hear The Gospel again ... and again ...

We, like my daugther, may try and effort to dig, till, and turn up the fallow ground that so easily can create foreskin and calsouses around our hearts. We try to airate the soil of our heart with His Word, trying to remove weeds, and tend our garden well.

Yet - while repentence and obedience are aboslutely necessary, we too easily can live a life thinking that it is our efforts that get us 'back on track' with Him. Yet that is not how it works ... that is not the Gospel. We were dead - "but God" (Ephesians 2) ... in fact later on in Jeremiah (31:31-34) we are reminded that only God can circumcize our hearts.

We cannot break the fallow ground of our hearts in our strength.

As I listened to the missionary stories, as I listened to the messages, as I shed tears, I reflected on the beauty of the Gospel ... preached again, and again ...

Try as we might, we will never acheive worthiness before God.

But God ... through Jesus Christ ... not only did He take upon Him my sins, but he imputed to me His Righeteousness ... so that before a just and holy God, I can stand spotless. Not because I am, but because Jesus was in my place.

Oh how He loves us ... no darkness in the world today compares to the Son of God being nailed to a cross of shame, tortured, mocked, and murdered ... all so our sins can justly be paid, and we can be with our Creator.

Zephaniah 3:17

The LORD your God is in your midst,

a mighty one who will save;

he will rejoice over you with gladness;

he will quiet you by his love;

he will exult over you with loud singing. (ESV)

It was THIS message - not my note taking, challenges, my list of ways to apply the messages and step more out in faith (as good and needed as that is) ... but it was The Gospel, that yet again melted my heart that is so prone to wander, and so prone to becoming calloused and hard ...

Oh sweet Jesus! Thank you ...

Bathe in The Gospel Christian - not just for salvation and the wrath to come, but for our ongoing sanctification that can be done no other way but through the Grace of God working in us throught the Holy Spirit since we stand righteous before the Father through the blood of His Son ...

Amen and Amen

His,

~Matthew