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  • (Go into all the world and) SHARE the Gospel – 2

    (Go into all the world and) SHARE the Gospel – 2

    The Great Commission

    Preach the gospel (KJV & others); proclaim the gospel (ESV & others); share the good news: kēryssō  euaggelion – publish good tidings to every creature.

    “You share everything else on social media, why not share the good news of Jesus Christ”

    Jesus, the Messiah of God died for our sins and is risen: therefore you may have eternal life in Him! Good News, a gospel we should long to share.

    Mark 16:14 Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. 15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

    What an amazing end to a Son of Man crucified on the cross! Jesus appears many times to many followers; He IS alive in body and spirit. Jesus tells not only the eleven to share the gospel, our Lord commands more followers who witnessed his resurrection and by His command those who will follow.

    20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

    More to Come

    You could say the the Gospel began in Genesis. It the the privilege and duty of Israel to share the truth of the One Lord with everyone. John’s gospel reveals to us that in spite of the fall of adam, the Word was present not only from before Abraham, as Jesus claims, but from before the beginning.

    John 1:1-5

    In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

    Jesus IS the Word and the Light. Even after a fallen Kingdom of David, Jesus claims the eternal Throne to which He anointed Kings and Prophets by the Authority of the LORD. And the Good News gets even better.

    The Resurrection of Christ

    1 Corinthians 15:1-6A

    Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

    For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time…

    20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

    Mystery and Victory

    Paul encourages believers with words oft’ repeated when mourning the death of a loved one.

    50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

    “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
    55 “O death, where is your victory?
    O death, where is your sting?”
    56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

    58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

    How do we share the Gospel now?

    Since Moses, after Abraham, in the Kingdom of David and for centuries witness of the Lord seemed local. It still is, for our neighbors see Christ in our daily lives better than anyone. (Or at least, they should.)

    Israel and the nations were built on the foundations of family, grown in the love of communities. Yet empires fall by the dividing hand of evil and conquered in disobedience to the Lord. I will repay, says the Lord, the God of Israel.

    Sharing good news was easy and local, just tell your family and friends who are so much like you. Now that the world is connected, yet disjointed, our families are broken. Our values are lost in a world of competing idolatries and waring followers of false prophets. These listen and look for light and hope, which is distant yet connected through social media.

  • How Do Children Respond to Grief?

    How Do Children Respond to Grief?

    By Rachel Harned, M.A. Counseling Ministries, Wheaton College

    Most people don’t know how to respond to other people’s grief.  Even fewer know how to respond to a child’s grief.

    My first introduction to grieving was when I was 6 years old and my mom died.  As a result, I wanted to post a follow up on interacting with grieving children.

    • First, it is important to look at what a child would consider a loss.

    When I was in 3rd grade, we moved from North Florida to Central Florida. That seemed like moving across the world to an 8 year old girl who had lived in the same house her whole life. I was losing my home, my friends, and my school in one fell blow. That was a major loss to me.

    A small toddler may even need to grieve the loss of a favorite stuffed animal.

    When I was 3 or 4, I cried for days when I lost my favorite doll. Almost every kid up until a certain age has a stuffed animal or blanket that they can’t go to sleep without.

    To a child, not all losses are equal but all losses are serious.

    A loss can be anything that affects how you live your life.

    I had to learn how to sleep without my doll and make friends in a new school and live without my mom.

    • You also have to be especially careful about your phrasing with children.

    You obviously don’t want to be too blunt but you can’t be vague about what’s happening or they won’t understand, particularly about death.

    I remember someone told me that my mom was asleep (or something like that) but she wasn’t waking up.

    For awhile, I did not want to go to sleep because I was afraid that I wouldn’t wake up either.

    Telling a child that someone passed away (probably one of the most common phrases) is better but young children will need to have it explained to them because they need to know what’s going on before they can process it.

    I use the word ‘processing,’ but I want to talk about that for a minute because different people will do it differently.

    • God created us with different personalities that are very distinct, even in children.

    Many (probably most) children will want to talk about it but others won’t. If they want to talk about it, it’s important for them to have a listening adult ear.

    Hopefully, that can be in the form of a parent or other family member, but sometimes that’s not possible. Especially in the case of death, family members can be so focused on their own grief that they emotionally can’t handle the child’s as well.  It’s OK to admit that, but there needs to be someone available for the grieving child to talk to.

    The most obvious choices would be a pastor or a counselor but it could also be a close family friend (with a Christian understanding of death and eternal life).

    I was able to talk to mentors and friends’ parents about my feelings and that had a significant impact on how I was able to deal with my mom’s death and some other things that were happening in my life shortly afterwards.

    • If a child does not want to talk, that is OK too.

    Don’t push them into it. Sometimes they need to think about it on their own or just wait and see what changes occur before they talk about it.

    As I mentioned in my previous post, it is important to acknowledge that grieving is normal and OK with adults, but it is doubly important to tell this to children.

    In a society where it is a virtue to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps,” I have seen many children taught that crying is a sign of weakness and that only babies cry. This is especially common with boys.

    The problem with that is that some things are worth crying over. One of my parenting pet peeves is when parents tell their sobbing children “it’s OK” but clearly, something is not OK or they wouldn’t be crying.

    A better phrasing might be “I know it hurts right now but you WILL BE OK” or something along those lines.

    That applies to grief as well. When a child is caught in the middle of a divorce or has just lost a parent, sibling, pet, etc., they need to be told that it’s OK to cry about it now but, eventually, it won’t hurt as much.

    Also, if you don’t let out your feelings of sadness, they will inevitably manifest themselves in another way, usually in depression, anxiety, or anger. I have no research to back this up but I am convinced that the rise in teens that need anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medications is at least partially due to the increasing stigma against proper grieving in our culture.

    Feel free to comment below with any other questions, tips, or stories about your experiences with grief.

    And please SHARE our discussions on How to Respond to Grief with any who are grieving.

  • Growing into Christ

    Growing into Christ

    The Christian community is built with fellowship, the Christian heart with prayer.

    Let’s consider the community of believers we call ‘church’ for a moment. Paul addresses some of the ‘issues’ of worship style in his letter to the Corinthians [ch.14] and his first direction of guidance instructs: “Pursue love… agapē.” 

    1 Corinthians 14:20  Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.

    John writes to the churches in Asia a similar caution:

    1 John 1: 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

    Peter in his first letter addresses Christians of churches in an even larger area:

    1 Peter 3:8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

    The King James Version states: Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:

    • be of one mind
    • have compassion one of another – sympathēs 
    • love as brothers – philadelphos

    Do these words of the Apostles instruct any to be a lone chrisitian? Certainly not. The instruction to Christians is for fellowship.

    The Apostles teach the nurturing of a loving community, believers who spend time with one another, who worship together, and believers who truly love each other as Christ Jesus loves us.

    The Christian community is built with fellowship…

    How is it that most of our busy 21st century churches don’t get this?

    Does it take just a little more than an hour on a Sunday to build a relationship? to build a community? to establish a church in the love and fellowship of our Lord, Christ Jesus?

    “christians” we call ourselves. Is your relationship and community with your fellow brothers in the Lord (your fellow sisters in the Lord) a loving commitment such as this?

    The Christian community is built with fellowship, the Christian heart with prayer.

    So let us repent of the busyness of our public lives and sacrifice a little more Christ-like love to embrace His love through the relationships of our church.

    Which brings us now to our private lives:

    How is your prayer life?

    I must confess that I have never been one to think of prayer sufficiently. It was not until recently (by measure of years) that I finally engaged God in conversation through prayer every morning and throughout my day.

    Do you suppose the mention of “prayer” 114 times plus “pray” 96 times in the ESV suggests its importance? Of course.

    IF Jesus is our Lord and Master, we being His servants: certainly we must be obedient to His command:

    Mathew 6:6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

    Jesus said: “when you pray,” not ‘IF you pray.”

    Jesus said: “bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” – Luke 6:28  I have a hard time with that one.

    I remind myself: Pray without ceasing.

    Jesus encourages us in Luke 18:  And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

    Do you “loose heart” in your daily life? I do.  Consider that in losing heart you have likely neglected prayer.

    Our failing flesh is one thing, but our heart is quite another. Jesus points out that the flesh is weak, but for the heart He directs us to prayer. Our heart (Hebrew) is: the inner man, mind, will, heart, soul, understanding and much more – kardia in the Greek.

    How will our spirit dwell with the Holy Spirit if not through prayer?

    … the Christian heart is built with prayer.

    And oh, so tender, our torn-up hearts.

    How broken our Christian lives.  How broken our Christian families.  How broken our Christian homes.

    How broken our Christian husbands and how broken our Christian wives. How broken our Christian children and how broken our Christian youth.

    What, then, must Christians do? (For in fact, our brokenness looks no different than the brokenness of so many who do not even know the love of Christ Jesus.)

    The unturned pages of our Bibles tell an answer we claim as our ‘Good News.’ (Gospel.)

    Have you been too busy to get the answers from God through prayer?

    Have you been too busy to share your love with other Christians?

     The Christian community is built with fellowship,

    the Christian heart with prayer.