~The Gospel~

    Hello!

  Merry Christmas :) I know its already to late and I am quite aware that its after Christmas BUT I just figured better late than never.
  Anyways, I've realized I haven't been blogging a lot. MAYBE I'm not blogging to anyone and the only people looking at it is my family. HA! What a possibility. But So many times, I remind myself that this is partly my journal. About God and about life. I've been very busy, but I've found that I always come back to journaling, even after months. :) Hopefully I'll have time in the next coming year...probably not. xD

   NOW. "
  I want to get to my major topic. As you can see my title is 'The Gospel'. Lately, I've been reading a book called 'The Gospel' (who would have thought) and so I decided to share my discoveries. There are times in everyones spiritual life that they hit these horrible mind-boggaling questions. That happened to me, BUT thanks to the grace of God. I found some answers in this book. I would recommend this book to everyone, because it essentially outlines the gospel. I haven't read it all yet, but just the first four chapters have opened my mind. So I encourage you to purchase the book AND read (:)) the book 'The Gospel' by JD Greear.
   I'll start with a few quotes and then talk about them. More posts should follow this one (hopefully) :D
  
   The first thing I stumbled upon in this book was The missing Gospel. That is the first chapter. Truthfully at that point I was ready to assume this was like all other books I've read. I am usually wrong about that type of thing though.
   The first thing that I highlighted in that chapter was the phrase "having the truth captivate your soul is quite another thing." In the book he was talking about being able to articulate the gospel vs. the phrase above. Why did I outline this? Why did it catch my eye? Because of this: having the truth captivate your soul is probably what is preached EVERYWHERE. Preachers will say this in 100 different forms. I think the problem is, is that when Christians hear that they get thirsty for the Word. They WANT the truth of the gospel to captivate their soul. That was what I felt. I thought to myself "Thats such a beautiful phrase. I don't feel like that, I don't know whether I ever have.  How can I feel like that?" Ever felt that way? I did. In past experiences I would just walk away saying, "great. Lovely message. but I didn't understand HOW to get that. He never outlined that." Yet, as I went on the truth was yet to come. :)
    The next quote that I highlighted was "The goal of the gospel is to produce a type of people consumed with a passion for God and love for others." Wow. Another beautiful quote. I believe this statement truly and I'm glad the writer outlined that for me. How might this connect to the previous statement thought? Well, how can we 'feel' that our soul has been captivated by the gospel? BY having a passion for God! and a love for others. THATS THE ANSWER! The way that the gospel can captivate the soul is by having a passion for God. BECAUSE by having that passion for God, the gospel will have succeeded in captivating your soul. Wonderful!
     Although the answer was an excellent one, it took my hyped-up self right back to another road-block. That road block was another question. Great.
     How do we get a passion for God and a love of others? Hard question. I'll tell you now, I've been bothered with this question for a LONG time. Half the time I ignored it, half the time I toiled in vain to try and get it. Remember my post about how we can't love humanly love God? It was once of my first spiritual posts. You should read it again and perhaps come back to this one. It basically outlined that because we are human we CAN'T love God. You'll hear that forever. We are SO sinfully we can possibly love God. God doesn't need us. God chose us. It's all out of our hands. Well then, how do we love God? How do we get a burning passion for him?
     I'll tell you how-not-to. This came out of my own experience. As a human, we are naturally by-works-oriented. Stating that we think that what we do can earn us exactly what we need. It wasn't intentional, my doing this. And till now, I didn't even know I was doing it. Well I believed that if I read my bible and prayed I'd magically get a passion for God. Isn't that the right way? I do believe that ultimately spending time with God IS the way to get a passion for God. But not the way I was doing it. Why? Because I was doing it without a loving heart or a desire. I'm TELLING you, its SOOOO EASY to think your doing your spiritual disciplines for the right reasons. But OUR HEARTS or DECEIVING. You may learn something from your bible, you may talk to God, but without A TRUE DESIRE, it's all in vain. So, for a long time I thought I was fine. But I figured it out. And the moment I did. BAM! EUREKA! I KNEEEEEWWWWWWWW NOW! My heart wasn't in it. Why? Because I didn't LOVE GOD. So I couldn't get a burning passion for Him! DUH!
    It's hard to realize that you don't love God. Most people should feel that all the time. Because every time we sin we are declaring our hatred for God. SO, we repent.
     So. Now we know how-not-to get a burning passion for God. NOT by spiritual disciplines. Thats the easiest to fall into. "works" usually is put in the bad light. But spiritual discplines? Reading your Bible? Praying? Are these works? YES. Who would have thought. The devil is very clever.
     How though? How do we love God? Because if we love God we will have a passion for him? This question has put me in despair a lot of times. I just don't understand. I can't love God humanly. Nothing that I do will ever get me there. So...I waited for God to show up. Just waited... continued with my life. He has to give me an answer if I keep praying and doing bible reading? I was praying for an answer? HOW CAN I LOVE GOD?
     Then I stumbled right to this book. And who would have thought it would have a section called "How do we learn to love God." .....
      The first Eureka moment I found was not even talking about God. It was the man talking about it wife. Human example, for a human mind. God works in such wonderful ways. Ways we can understand. The quote was this "Being commanded to love someone you have no natural affection for becomes wearisome. True love grows as a response to lovliness. The first time I saw my wife, I felt the beginnings of love for her. The more I've gotten to know her over the years, and the more I've seen of her beauty, the more I've grown to love her."
      What a wonderful story! When I read this I almost screamed! I FOUND IT! I FOUND IT! 2 points stuck out to me. 1. that when I was commanded to love God it became wearisome. My routine was wearisome. That was the old me. 2. TRUE LOVE GROWS AT A RESPONSE TO LOVLIENESS. I never thought of it that way! That example opened my mind a good bit so I could see clearer. I wasn't aprreciating the love of God and focusing on his lovileness. I was focusing on the fact that God wants me to repent or else damnation. BUT NO! Its his loviness I need to focus on.
    "...the command can only truly be fulfilled as our eyes are opened to see God's beauty revealed in the Gospel. The Spirit of God uses the beauty of the gospel to awaken in our hears a desire for God."
    Wow. It stunned me. I hope it stunned you to. THIS, my friends, IS TRUTH. Everyone should hear it. Everyone should know. THIS IS LOVE. GOD'S LOVE FOR US IS OUR LOVE FOR HIM.
   
    I hope today you will thank God for loving you, and honestly appreciate his lovliness. Then Repent, be forgiven and live as his child.
 
  
    "In Christ, there is nothing I can do that would make You love me more, and nothing I have done that makes me love you less." 
     ~hannah