by Trent - originally posted October 2005 (and the concrete has only gotten harder since then.)
The concrete is starting to become pretty hard. I don't want to pretend. I have to admit it. I am not going to move from my gospel, and I am not asking you to move into mine.
There is only one Gospel. But to as many have allowed it to transform them, there are just as many different ways that Gospel is worked out of them. Your gospel is the way that The Gospel has worked out of you, and it is not the exact same as my gospel.
I don't want you to try to preach my gospel, nor should we preach anyone else's gospel. We will never be able to give a good defense for someone else's gospel. God has worked in you in a unique way, and those unique ways never compete against each other, they complete each other.
Here is my gospel:
- God cannot love me more and He will not love me less.
- God's love is pure, and not a bargaining chip to get something from me nor a reaction to my loveliness.
- Surrender is all nor nothing. We don't amputate areas of our life progressively, but willingly give it entirely this moment.
- Faith doesn't produce anything; faith receives with gratefulness.
- "Thank you," is the language of faith. "Please" is the language of mistrust.
- To be filled, all I can do is show up - empty. ... and that is where our work ends and His begins.
- Whenever I work for something, then I prove by my efforts that I don't think that I have what I am working for.
- I can never need more then God's grace, and I've never been forced to get by with less.
- I don't have what you need, but I can show you to Jesus and He has all that you need.
- Truth is unavoidable. I can either accept it or ultimately prove it.
- If I set out to break the law, it is a matter of time before I break myself against it.
- God does not consider me by my deeds, but by my heart.
- Behavior does not equal motive, and temptation does not equal desire.
- God's discipline is never satisfied with a change of behavior, rather His discipline is designed to deal with inner wickedness that led to the behavior.
- What wickedness I can see in me (and despise,) I am able to see in others (without disdain.)
- I am under-qualified to be my own Holy Spirit, much less anybody else's Holy Spirit.
- The Christian life is simple: It is Someone living in someone.
- Jesus is not the answer; He is the Way - and every other way is not the way.
- The deepest spiritual life is for the poorest person - the person that says, "I can't."
- God's commands are powerless apart from the command giver.
- Christ has become my life and what is true about Him is true about me.
- Legalism states that obedience equals acceptance, but acceptance is only found in Christ's life, which springs forth in perfect obedience.
- The only way to depart from Jesus is sadly.
- We loose our self-life to gain life for ourselves and others.
- I don't loose abundance when we move from a teaching, but we loose an abundant life when I move away from Jesus.
- The greatest struggle is to struggle not to struggle.
- No matter what anyone does to me, I have no excuse to be offended.
- Sin sends nobody to hell; pride does.
- Faith says rest.
- There is no one-time fix, but a moment by moment walk.
- God will never prepare me to overcome the worst, but Jesus has already seen the worst and overcame it ... and His overcoming life is my only preparation.
- To be in Christ is normal (and fit for eternity,) and to be otherwise is to only remain natural (and decaying.)
- God does not send situations to me so that I can fix them, but He permits pressure for me so that I'll be fixed when I dependently find Him bigger then the problem.
- Salvation is not a clean and dirty issue. It is a Life and death issue.
- Nobody in hell has eternal anything.
What has the Gospel meant to you? What is your gospel?
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