the Cross

By Pastor Eric

After listening to the very powerful message that Pastor R gave this past Sunday on the cross I’ve had several thoughts … allow me to share.

1. The gospel in its truest form is very simple to understand. We are all sinners. Our sin separates us from God. The penalty for our sin is death. God sent His Son, Jesus, as a sacrifice for us and for our sin. We then have a choice to make. We can accept the sacrifice that Christ made for us and because He conquered death, be an obedient follower of Him or we can live our lives for ourselves and pay the penalty for our own sins. It’s crazy how complicated we can make this sometimes. I think that’s part of Satan’s plan, to make the message of the cross confusing and complicated so that we either won’t try to understand it fully ourselves or we won’t share it with others.

2. Which brings me to my second thought. I don’t share the gospel with others like I know I should. I’ve had many conversations with people that I probably could have presented the gospel, but I didn’t. I’ve also had many conversations where I’ve started to talk about spiritual things but never truly talked about the cross and the good news that it brings us. Maybe you can relate to me in this area. Maybe you’ve invited someone to come to church or told them what church you go to (you know, the one by Trout Liquors!) but you’ve never taken the opportunity yourself to talk about Jesus and invite them to be an obedient follower of His also. Sure it’s easier to just invite people to come to church and let Pastor R share the gospel, but it’s our job as well. We’re all ambassadors of Christ and we all share in the Great Commandment. So I’m deciding to stop being the great chicken and start being bolder.

3. The gospel IS confrontational. No one likes hearing that they’re a “sinner” or that they are “broken.” But let’s be honest, we’re ALL sinful and we’re ALL broken. Whether we like it or not and whether we want to admit it or not and no matter how hard we try to make people think we’re not … we are! So if we’re all sinful and we’re all broken, why don’t we tell others about the good news?? I can’t really think of a good answer to that question … can you?

So I’ve decided to make a plan. I’m going to start praying for opportunities to share my faith. I’m going to start looking for opportunities to present the gospel. I’m going to encourage other people to do this with me (hence this blog entry and the student leadership focus this month is sharing your faith). And I’m going to be bold. So who’s with me?