From Dan McClain…

There are three truths that were on my mind today.  First, a man wearing only one sock, has more than likely stepped in something.  Second, if there is music playing at the McClain’s house, there will be children dancing.  Third, the Gospel does not need anything added to it.  The missing sock is self explanatory.  The dancing children are a given.  But allow me to expound upon that third truth.

Here’s the deal.  This week in the Saturday Men’s group we are continuing our journey through a little orange book called Multiply.  Each day we have daily Bible reading and each week we have a corresponding chapter to read from Multiply.   This weeks topic is The Great Commission.  The passage from this weeks reading that I want to share is, “…the church has one mission.  It is the mission that characterized Jesus’s ministry on earth, and it is the mission that He left to the church when He returned to His Father.  We are called to spread Christ’s rule on earth through making disciples.” If you take that statement and combine it with, “discipleship is a lifelong process where we are continuously made more like Jesus.” then the conclusion is that the Gospel is IT.

Acts 4:12 (ESV):  And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Don’t get me wrong.  This understanding isn’t new, but it is awesome how God uses life and it’s circumstances to talk to us and teach us things. Things He might have shared with us countless times before.  But that last time, the hundredth time we go through it, allows it to hit us with renewed understanding.

Acts 16:31 (ESV):  And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

As we age and go through different stages of our life and grow in our walk with Jesus, the Gospel keeps hitting us anew at all these different points.  When I heard the Gospel as a child and understood it as truth and accepted it.  When I heard the Gospel as a teenager and started to work out what a life following Jesus might look like to me.  When I heard the Gospel as an adult, embraced it as truth and I followed it so that my life would look like Jesus.  When the times come that I fail and fall and feel lost, I’m only renewed by returning to the truth of the Gospel.   Now when we look at our families, friends, co-workers and anyone else God puts in our paths, the mission is to share the Gospel.

The Gospel has meant something big to me, each time in my life I’ve accepted it, as much as I could grasp at the time.  And I continue to learn new things from it each and every day.  I can only imagine what God will tell me through His word one week from now, one year from now, one decade from now.  What He’s waiting to teach me as He waits for my brain to catch up to His Word.  I can only imagine.  I might dance funny, and I might only have one sock on some of the time, but I yearn to spread the love and message of the Gospel with every breath.

As always, I look forward to the discussion with the men on Saturday.  If you would like to join us stop in at Crosspoint, Saturday’s at 6:30 am.