A Bit of Background
I care very little about football. My understanding of the game is very limited, so I lose interest quickly. I have been trying to learn more about it from my husband as we watch our youth group teens compete. However, in the cases when I do not know any of the football players personally (e.g. on TV), I am much happier to sit and crochet with my silky terrier, Nika, curled up next to me.
All that to say, this post really has nothing to do with football. Last weekend, Jonathan and I went to the Continuous Worship Conference at Maranatha Bible Camp. The main speaker quoted Vince Lombardi (the quote found in the title of this post) during several of his messages to illustrate how we needed to come back to the basics of our faith. At the time, I mentally assented to what he was saying (I had heard the same message many times before and will hear it many times in the future), but I didn't give it much more thought than that.
An Unexpected God-Appointment
Today, I found myself strangely motivated and energetic for a Sunday afternoon and began to sort through piles. You know, those piles of newsletters, partially used gift cards, coupons, magazines, random mail, and other odds and ends that tend to swallow up some poor, unsuspecting counter. My piles had been re-located to a bookshelf when we had some company over and were gradually pushed to the bottom of the priority list. For some reason, the piles are less offensive to my organization-obsessed personality when they are on the bookshelf than when they are scattered haphazardly on the counter. I've digressed.
While shuffling through said odds and ends, I came across a little booklet that my husband had given me several months ago. He was wanting to use it for the youth group and asked me to read it so that he could get my thoughts on it. "Life in 6 Words" was its title, and it was published by Dare 2 Share Ministries, Inc. as a companion for a short YouTube video titled "Life in 6 Words: The GOSPEL." I started reading it during a trip to see my parents, but I was interrupted; I am ashamed to say that after my return home, the booklet was added to my pile and slowly forgotten until today.
After I finished with my sorting project, I sat down on the couch, watched the video, and read the booklet (the WHOLE booklet this time). I had seen the video before, but it had been a while. Just as it did the first time I watched it, it brought me to tears. If you haven't seen it, go look it up. Seriously, you can go do it right now. It is a beautiful picture of the basics of the Christian faith to which the speaker at the conference pointed: the basics of the Gospel.
THE Truth: THE Gospel
I have heard the Gospel hundreds of times in my life. I say this not as a complaint but as a statement of fact. I am very thankful that I grew up in a home with God-fearing parents who took me to a Bible-believing and Bible-preaching church. My parents, Sunday School teachers, camp counselors, Vacation Bible School teachers, mentors, Bible college teachers, youth group leaders, and more wonderful people have all been very dedicated to teaching me the truth, and I acknowledge the incredible blessing that they have been to me. Nevertheless, it has been easy for me to let the Gospel become mundane: to lose grip on the reality of it.
I am a sinner. My sin separated me from a perfect God. God is the only One who could possibly pay the price for sin, so Jesus (God) paid the punishment for my sin through His death on the cross. His resurrection proves that the payment was acceptable and effective. All I have to do is believe in (trust in/rely upon) Jesus alone to save me, and I am forgiven and have eternal life forever. My relationship with God is restored.
The words can come so easily and thoughtlessly, but to get a glimpse of the reality of those words is something beyond compare. When I truly contemplate how utterly hopeless, enslaved, and doomed I was before Christ and how He...how God, completely undeserving, took every drop of the punishment I deserved. GOD Himself! The all-powerful, all-knowing, sovereign GOD died for me. Jesus died for me. He did that while I was still a sinner: while I had no desire for Him, no love for Him, no thought of Him....Him: the One who created me! It makes no logical sense, but God loved me. God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son. Jesus died to take the punishment for my sin against Himself. Now, He is alive! Death could not hold Him, and He wants to talk to me, to guide me, and to listen to me. He wants to show me how to live life for Him because, after all, how could I do anything else? All that He has done for me, He has done for you as well. The relationship He desires to have with me, He desires to have with you too. Does this stir up your soul as it does mine?
I thank God that He brought that little book to my attention today, not because the book itself had some sort of mystical power, but because it clearly, biblically, and effectively brought me back to the point of grasping the reality of the Gospel once more. This is not at all to say that I was saved again. I believe that once a person believes in Jesus once, that person is saved forever (eternally secure). Yet, today I was blessed to remember the essence of my faith and to experience the power of it all over again.
A Challenge
This is not the first time that I've been brought back to the basics of my faith since being saved, but times like this one have been too few and far between. I am curious to see how my heart and attitude would change if I were to make remembering the Gospel part of my regular routine...even more so than at Communion once a month. Because of this, I am embarking on an adventure, along with any who would join me, to intentionally meditate (spend serious time thinking deeply about) on the truth of the Gospel at least once a week for two months. The Gospel brings all the issues of life and various doctrinal beliefs back into perspective. It is the focus of Scripture as a whole, and it is seriously life-changing: not just in the single event of salvation, but in the gift of daily life on this earth. What would happen if it were consistently the center of our thoughts and actions?
Will you join me?
Even if you don't know Jesus or this "Gospel," will you give Him a chance? A REAL chance? If you don't know where to start, you can start with the video I mentioned earlier. You could also go to www.biblegateway.com and read the book of John.
Even if you have been burned by a local church or by believers in Jesus, I implore you to set aside all of your preconceptions and hangups and give Him a chance. Other people, including Christians, will change, disappoint, and fail. Jesus will not. Please, give HIM a chance.
Even if you are where I have often been and can recite the Gospel backwards and forwards, will you let the Gospel continue to work in your heart? Will you take time to remember what God has done?
I am going to start by reading the book of John with the intention of meditating on God's great salvation, and I can't wait to see what He does. In the signature phrase of my brother-in-law, "Hallelujah, Jesus!" Thank You for the gift of You.
