The Gospel Is Simple

Whew, what a week! Going here, going there. Mrs. Smith fell again but with nothing broken, unlike 7 years ago which put her needing a walker to get around, but i’d also like to add that she lives out an amazing story of life and simplicity in Christ. She grew up in very rural America quitting school in the 3rd grade because she had to work in the fields growing tomatoes and tobacco, not to mention helping with the general survival of her family of 13.

She grew up in poverty in the rural deep south. She said she caught the mumps when she was a child and the infection ruined her chances for having children. Her first husband died in the Korean war, her second husband died of tuberculosis, and, later in life she took an antibiotic for a sore throat but the drug ended up destroying part of her inner ear in both ears, so since her early 30’s  to her last days she has been completely deaf. After that, till she died, she never heard another bird sing, the wind blow, or person speak and couldn’t even hear herself speak…not another sound for the rest of her life.

Even at 86, she grew an ambitious garden and went to church twice per week, living her life with Jesus and her little dog. Every week she got her walker out and prayed and sang and worked out in the garden wearing a light cotton dress and a big straw hat … with a walker in one hand and a hoe in the other she tended what was hers as unto the Lord. She still kept her little house neat and clean, and was a diligent prayer warrior. Life was simple for Verda Smith…she told me once that the gospel of God was simple, easily accomplished, and the Lord was the core of her life. i like that and i think Mrs. Smith was right.

The gospel is, indeed, very simple, yet we have such a hard time with the Bible, accusing God of being a cruel task master, and all i can wonder is “Why do we think that?”

This is Outposts, a semi-live broadcast from the late night, cascading banks of the Ockluhwahha River, where the trees gently lean over the rivers edge, and every evening is pleasant. Stay with me for cool jazz and contemplative conversation. i shall return.

Living out the gospel of Jesus Christ is understandable, not-complex, but is quiet. It is straightforward, not hidden and God is plain with us. It is easily discernable by reading the Bible how we are supposed to conduct ourselves, how we should have our conversations, and the kind of character befitting the children of God –it is right character, the kind of character which is profitable for everyone, most especially ourselves.

Think about it. God is not asking us to do ridiculous things. He asks us to be honest and kind, people of good character, to be strong on behalf of the weak, do justice, possess high morals, and above all, to acknowledge Him as friend, lover, captain, and King alone. Romans 10:9 is not a stringent request, “confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved.”

God didn’t ask us to use a spoon and move a mountain one scoop at a time. He didn’t ask us to pave every driveway in America one shovel full at a time. He didn’t ask us to sacrifice our children in a fire, instead He asks us to simply love Him and our neighbor as ourselves, love our families, practice kindness and grace, and raise our children to know His love.

Matthew 11:28-30, which is a literal tipping point scripture when it comes to living under the iron manacles of the world or living life God’s way says, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” The verse implies the world’s burden is break your back heavy, and the yoke is so hard it will take your mind and life away, then sneer at you as you fall in the dirt and die.

Considering the rules and regulations governments and legislative bodies of men put on us, God’s rules are light, easily received, and peaceful. Man’s rules profit men, and even at that they tend to benefit only a select few, the few who make rules for the many. In fact, i’m convinced, the world never actually changes the rules unless there’s something to be profited. But God has more than just rules of conduct, character, and conversation … according to Jeremiah 29:11-13 God has a destiny for everyone who calls on His name, it says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” Now friend, here, right here, you can choose to believe that is meant for someone else, or for yourself. But let me assure you, God means that for you too, and i’d like you to start including yourself in all of God’s promises and stop finding a way to exclude yourself.

The scripture from Jeremiah29 doesn’t sound at all like a hard or bad thing. So why is it people think God and the Bible are antiquated and too “outdated” to take seriously, that God is stringent and living the Christian life is sssooo hard?? Could it be people who think that simply don’t really know what God says nor do they know what the Bible says? Or maybe people have only heard God’s idea of living as it was pulled out of context? Tough questions require brutal honesty, but think about this, truth is only brutal in the face of vague truth. A well defined picture always seems sharp when set next to fuzzy, undefined vision. Can it be that people just don’t want to hear God?

Verda Smith died happy and at rest. She loved Jesus and maintained to the end that the Gospel life was simple. She used to say to me like a mother to her child, “Tell the truth where ever you go, love Jesus with all your heart, He knows your name and He’ll never fail you.” Mrs. Smith used to say that if people couldn’t be honest with themselves they’d never be honest with anyone else, especially God. Hmmm, for someone who only went to the 3rd grade, she knew a LOT of stuff. i reckon school often doesn’t teach a great deal that we truly need to know.

i saw an incredible child likeness in her. She was like someone in a fire who just clings to the fireman, and trusts to him alone. She raised no question about the strength of God’s arms to carry her, or the zeal of His heart to rescue, she just gripped the Lord. The heat of the fire would be terrible, the smoke blinding, but she clings; and her deliverer quickly carries her to safety. In the same childlike confidence, Mrs. Smith did cling to Jesus, who could and did bear her out of danger from the flames of darkness. i took special note of her life. i can still see her standing in the heat of the day in her garden – walker in one hand a hoe in the other, deaf and living in a broken body, twisted hands, there with her big hat on, smiling and singing as a living testimony.

Jesus invites all those who labor and are heavy laden to come to Him, and He will give them rest. He does not promise this to those who would merely dream about Him. They must come; and they must come to Him, and not simply to the Church, to baptism, or to the orthodox faith, or to anything short of His divine person. We can’t simply dream of better days but continue to lay on our sickbed. We must get up from there and bust a move, or as one guy put it, “i decided to implement a completely unexpected strategy and stop checking Facebook and TV show updates, start meeting with God on regular intervals, and go out and be in the world around me.”

Is it our personal agenda which complicates the gospel? Or is it our heart full of “don’t want to”? Or maybe both. Is it a fear that someone will know our secret thoughts, or the fear of being judged which prevents us? Maybe it’s just general rebellion which started in the garden at the provocation of the serpent, resisting the goodness of God for no good reason other than to resist with jaw jutting rebellion? Consider this…the gospel of Christ is far easier to believe and implement than the modern day idea that the universe and all of life’s incredibly complicated issues spun out of a swirling mass of unintelligent molecules whirling in space somewhere. The odds of that happening are astronomically higher than the probability of carrying, in the rough, the entire Sistine Chapel, with all it’s carved pews, cut stone and tinted glass, in an airplane at 15000 feet, dropping it over the present building sight, and having every last piece fall exactly into place of what we call, today, the Sistine Chapel in all of it’s glory. The odds are about 1 in 10 plus over 100 zeros it could happen, and for life in the universe to spring out of nothing is closer to 1 in 10 with 500 zeroes following. The gospel is much simpler, wouldn’t you agree? What IS our problem with something as simple as the Gospel of Christ? It isn’t hard, it is good for us in all manners and ways, it is eternally prosperous and profitable for ourselves and everyone around us. But yet in our darkest night, when our hearts are seemingly broken in unrepairable pieces, when our bodies are suffering and are nearly dead from self-inflicted diseases and self-loathing, in our final moments, we resist the Love of God, and for what?

It is completely to our advantage to yield our lives to Christ. You’d think for people who are generally incredibly self centered, self-seeking, and self-promoting we would take God up on His offer of help, redemption, and restoration. But nooooo. Many would prefer death on the installment plan as to be engaged with God and my only thought is the world doesn’t comprehend what Jesus is extending them.

As in John1:5, the darkness just doesn’t get it. I have a vision of two on a road, running, racing, but the Light keeps a pace that the arrogant darkness is sweating hard to keep up with, when suddenly the Light picks up the pace again, and then again . . . the darkness breathlessly wonders “How can this be?”

When there is no light in the hearts and eyes of mankind, the goodness of God is mysterious, vague, and hard to focus on, with the face of God obscured from the eyes of the world. The conscience of people is wounded and bruised and has become insensitive to God’s gentle kindness. Mankind has lost their relish of righteous things, and as a result God’s extended hands of hope are unrecognized for many people. They find it easy to say the Bible is outdated. Maybe it’s easier to claim the Bible is outdated than it is to be responsible for what we think, our actions being born out of our twisted thinking.

Ok, well, how outdated is too outdated?  It seems to me mankind spends an inordinate amount of time thinking of reasons why they should NOT listen to God. Even for those of us who are believers, we seem to spend an inordinate amount of time wishing God would do something OTHER than what He’s doing. We groan and moan and complain, find ways to resist Him, coming up with our “good reasons” why we just generally “can’t”. i believe the gospel message is simple and easily understood.

John6:28-29 “Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”  Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

That is so very NOT complicated, wouldn’t you agree?

There are many who have tried to take the moral teachings of Christianity and divorce them from the message of the cross. It doesn’t work. Such teachings are meaningless and powerless for there can be no Christianity without the cross and resurrection. The Bible is addressed to everyone, and sound doctrine applies to everyone, not just an elite group. When Jesus sent out the apostles in Mark16:15,  they were sent to take the gospel to every creature of every nation of the whole world. The invitation was extended to everyone. The book of John has a basic theme of “whosoever can come if they will”. Jesus emphasized that anyone who seeks to know the Lord’s will can find it and those who hunger and thirst after the Lord’s righteousness shall be filled with it.

Let’s go back to the Bible. Let’s take the gospel to those who are lost, the unfortunate ones, the bankrupt and blind, “not with eloquent speech but with wisdom, declaring the testimony of God”. Like Paul said in 1Cor2:2, Let us determine “not to know anything among ourselves, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified”. Men can comprehend that God sent His Son to die on Calvary’s cross for the remission of our sins. They can love Him enough to believe in Him and obey Him. Souls will be won to Jesus Christ, the church will grow, and God will be praised.

The gospel of Christ is simple. Let us not complicate what God has made peaceful and easily grasped. Think about it.

We’re at the end of our time here at Outposts. i hope i’ve left you with some things on their way to being resolved, some things to chew or contemplate, and a little music to brighten your path.

i’m Social Porter and this evening’s broadcast is brought to you fresh every morning by the Kingdom of God, Living In His Name Ministries, Area 22 Guitars, Kevin, Perry, and Tommy over at world headquarters for the Mebane Freedom League, and Trinity Bakers, where there’s always something good in the oven.

Music was by the Pete Minger Quartet, Jim Beard, Pepper Adams, Freddie Hubbard, Steve Morse, and Jeff Berlin. All music use is licensed by BMI.

This week, remember the gospel isn’t complicated and God is closer than your next breath. What God asks of us isn’t cruel or stringent, His rules and boundaries are for our own good, He even has a plan and destiny for each one of us.

Be strong and courageous! The Lord knows your name, and that’s a good thing.

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