Liberating you from bad ideas about God
There is no greater threat to the unity of the church than legalism. To combat legalism, let us lives lives of outrageous, scandalous grace. The moment we set limits to God’s boundless grace is the moment we wrap ourselves in the dark bonds of legalism, but the moment grace is unleashed and unchained, legalism shrivels up and dies.
What is evangelism? What needs to be said in evangelism? Who do you say it to? How long does evangelism take? What Scriptures should you use? How do you know when someone has been evangelized?
Since there is so much confusion around evangelism, maybe we should start talking about gospelism instead.
While the Gospel of John shows that eternal life is the free gift of God to anyone who believes in Jesus for it, it also shows that the path of discipleship has numerous other conditions and requirements. The Gospel of John does a great job showing the different conditions and results between eternal life and discipleship.
It is critical to recognize that the Sermon on the Mount does not contain the offer of eternal life, because if we get confused on this fact, we will think that one gains eternal life by fulfilling the conditions and requirements Jesus talks about in this Sermon.
Here is a truth that will help you unpack many tricky and often-misunderstood Bible passages: Though all believers have eternal life, not all believers are disciples, and not all disciples are believers. Once you understand the difference between believing in Jesus for eternal life and becoming a disciple of Jesus during this life, many tricky Bible texts will make a lot more sense.
When you were baptized, what words were said? Do you remember? Some people look to Matthew 28:19-20 as the proper words for baptism, while others look to the practice of the Apostles in Acts. In this post, I dispel this entire baptism debate with one crazy suggestion. Read it and let me know what you think!
How do you evangelize? Do you use tracts? Invite people to church, or to an evangelism crusade? Do you use the Roman’s Road? Do you shout into a bullhorn that people are going to hell unless they repent?
In Jonah 3:4, we see how Jonah shared the message of God to the people of Nineveh. We’ll also see that his approach to evangelism left much to be desired.
What does God think of evil people? What does God think of people who disobey Him, and are opposed to Him and His ways? Well, according to Jonah 3:3, God thinks they are great. We’re going to see that the wicked and violent people of Nineveh are great to God.
Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, and so this is why I titled today’s podcast Making Assyria Great Again. Assyria was in modern day Iraq, so maybe I could have said Make Iraq Great Again. I know, that’s a challenging thought. But if God thinks they’re great, who are we to disagree? This is what we learn from Jonah 3:3.
Do you ever feel like you are stuck on a hamster wheel in the life of discipleship to Jesus? That you hear the same things over and over? You go through the same steps over and over? That you just keep going round and round and never seem to make any progress or do anything new?
If so, what you learn today from Jonah 3:2 will be helpful for you.
Lots of people wonder about the role of good works in the life of the believer. While I agree that good works are important, I do not believe that good works are the necessary result of faith, nor do I believe that good works are necessary to gain entrance into heaven.
What is your view and why?
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