The Salt & Light Snowblower

Several years ago, Ned bought a new snow blower, which is a necessity for the snowy winters of Minnesota.  Previously he had always shoveled his driveway and it took over an hour.  But now, with that beautiful machine, he could get it done in less than five minutes.  The ease of snow-blowing took away the all-too familiar dread of having to shovel.  He even enjoyed doing the drive.

The second winter he had the blower, two elderly neighbors from California moved in across the street.  The couple both had heart problems and Ned noticed them struggling to shovel the drive after the first snow fall.  When he saw them wrestling with the snow, he simply started his blower, pushed it across the street, and did their's too.  It just became a part of the routine; twelve minutes for both drives.  Ned then also remembered that his other neighbor, Mike, left for work at 4:30 in the morning, so he bagan doing his too.  Another four minutes.

A few years later, his next door neighbor, Larry, passed away.  Because his widowed wife, Pearl, was also elderly, Ned just started doing hers too.  Another five minutes.  Later that same year, the neighbors down the block had a baby, so Ned added their's to his routine too.  By the end of that year, Ned was snow blowing about a half hour and doing five driveways.

Ned was happy to be the neighborhood plowman, relishing in the joy of caring for and serving his community.  One night, though, he fell deathly ill and had to be taken to the hospital.  Over the course of a two day bed-ridden, hospital stay he recovered and was eventually released.  As his wife was driving him home, he felt so bad because there had been a huge snowfall the night before.

However, as they arrived back in the neighborhood, he was astonished to see that all of the driveways were done.  To his amazement, Ned's wife told him that in the morning she looked out the front window to see one of their other neighbors, whom they had never even met, doing the driveways.  Ned nearly broke into tears. He never realized the affect that he had made over the past few years.

The point is example.  If we are to be the salt and light of the world, the very hands and feet of Christ, then we need to look at the needs around us and step in to fill them.  Jesus calls us to love as He loves us.  Think of that: He gave His very life, dying upon the cross to serve and to love all humankind.  Laying down our preference and our comfort in order to care for others is what being a Christian is all about.  Therefore, let us seek out opportunities to serve and then seize them for Him!

Treating the Gospel like the Good News it is

A 17-year-old opens the mailbox everyday in hopes of finding that letter, that one letter that could change his very life.  Everyday he opens the box with eagerness and closes it with sorrow at another depressing day without the letter and without relief from his anticipation.  Then, one day, like the hundreds before, there it is.  He pulls the envelope out of the box and breaths it in, opening it with deliberation and exhaling a scream of jubilant release.  From the mailbox, he sprints to his home, almost falling through the threshold as he leaps into the kitchen to yell at his mother across the kitchen: "They accepted me! I'm going to Harvard!"

Good news, like finding out that you're going to Harvard, or going to have a baby, or you've finally been offered the dream job, or the reports are in that the cancer is gone.  This sort of news will always demand to be expressed.  Undoubtedly, the joy of genuine good news will cause us to tell everyone we know because truly good news is nto something to remain hidden, but something to be shared.

The Gospel, the Good News about our Lord Christ Jesus saving all of humanity from sin and restoring a broken relationship with God Almighty, is something that should prompt us to share with everyone.  This Good News is the best news because it means that by faith we can spend eternity in the presence of the Lord.  Therefore, we should be ever-compelled to think of the Gospel at least as amazing as any other possible good news, and should be treated accordingly with the same joyous vigor.

In new believers, those who have recently made a confession of faith in Jesus, this kind of joyful sharing of the Gospel comes naturally and with ease.  Unfortunately, because of stagnant comfortability, the Gospel seems to loose some of its luster and awesomeness in their hearts and they don't share it with as much joy and gladness as news of its kind demands.  Pray that we never cease to think of the Gospel as any less than it is because it is the very power of God.  May we never think of the Gospel as common for it is supernatural and amazing.  In this way, let us seek to praise God for the Good News of His Son to be quick and excited to share it with everyone we can!

Waking Up to God

Sometimes the warm cocoon of bedding is nearly impossible to leave.  When the alarm clock rings its obnoxious clatter in a concerted effort to either wake me up or just make me angry.  Often times it feels more like the latter, and I would rather just stay in bed, holed up against the world hidden behind a covering of blanketed bliss.  Unfortunately, as much as any of us would prefer to remain cuddled in a cocoon of covers, life persistently calls us to crawl out and meet the day.

This seems a most appropriate metaphor for belief.  Though we would rather hang around in the coma of comfort behind the veil of sinful slumber, God beckons the unbeliever to leave their state of eternal night and to step into the eternal light of His glory.  The fleshly, natural self is asleep (dead) to God because of sin.  But God calls for us to awaken.

Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, speaks to this regard.  He paraphrases Isaiah, "Awake, O Sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you (Eph. 5:14)."  This is fundamental.  God desires to light our lives, to illuminate us with the glory of His majesty.  However, unless we, by faith, crawl out of our comatose cocoons of sinful slumber, we will be ever-unable to receive Him.

In a sense, we have an advocating heavenly alarm clock in the Holy Spirit who is ringing in an effort to prompt us to awaken from our sin.  And, like being awoken in the morning, we have a choice to make: will we either hit the snooze and pull the covers of unbelief over our heads to sleep for all eternity in hell, or will we heed to the prompting of God and awake to meet His day and His light?  These are the two choices, and they have everlasting consequences.  We should be compelled to awaken so as to embrace the day that the Lord has made, which is belief in the Son, Christ Jesus.

A brief note is in order for those who have already chosen the latter.  For those of who have already made our choice to awake from our sinful slumbers and to leave the ignorant envelop of our walking death, there is a sincere and distinct task to wake up those who are still asleep.  It is our obligation to the world to, by the empowering of the Holy Spirit, announce that the day has come in Christ Jesus and that everyone should be made awake in order to leave the darkness of death and to live in the light of the Lord.  Let us then take seriously the call to awaken to the Lord and to wake others up too!

The Only Salvation

In an age of rampant religious pluralism and post-modern neo-gnosticism, claiming objective and absolute truth takes courage and confidence.  But the Gospel is just that, objective and absolute.  Moreover, the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is exclusive in that only through Christ may anyone receive salvation.

John's first epistle speaks directly to the necessity of personally claiming Christ Jesus in the reception of salvation (1 John 5:11-12).  The key to eternal life is only Christ Jesus.  There is no way to God but through the torn flesh of Christ.  In fact, only through Christ may anyone enter the presence of the Holy Lord (Heb. 10:19-22).  Only through Jesus and only by faith is salvation appropriated (Acts 4:12; Eph. 2:8-10).  Scripture is more than unified about how salvation is received and through whom it comes, it is concrete.  The real question is: do we agree? to what degree?

Are we willing to stake friendships, comfortability, status, or seeming close-minded for the sakes of the Gospel?  Really, this is important.  How far are we truly willing to go in defense of the Gospel?  Honestly, believers are outnumbered in this world.  There are a lot more unbelievers than believers.  And unbelievers will always despise and revile believers because we are not of the world, we are not like them (John 15:19).

The reality is that the Gospel is both exclusive and inclusive.  It is exclusive because only through  Christ Jesus is salvation possible and only by faith is it applied.  But the Gospel is also inclusive because it is for everyone who has faith.  We should not forget the Gospel's inclusivity in light of its exclusivity, as in, we should never cease spreading the Gospel for it is truly meant for everyone.  However, we should also not neglect the Gospel's exclusivity, as in, salvation is by no name other than Jesus.

In reality, the Gospel needs to be preached because it is true.  We, believers, are to be the ones who preach it.  We have a responsibility to present the Gospel, not only because it is true but, more importantly, people's lives depend on it.  If we do not preach it no one will hear it (Rom. 10:14)!  Let us then take this call seriously as we engage the world with the Gospel because only Christ Jesus saves!