Monday Reflections...time away but master class lingers on

It has been almost a year since we have seen Anna and Phil, Joshua and Evelyn.  It is a long way from Maine to Texas and especially from the eastern most part of Maine.  This is our connecting flight in New York and greeting for all travelers at LaGuardia.  It makes a long day but worth it to see those that we love so much.

I have been trying to share some of what I have learned each week from my master's class that I am taking online.  I am thankful for the interaction with the professor through the ZOOM sessions.  I fear I would not be doing as well without this face to face contact and also being able to hear his explanations.  I take so many more notes when I listen to someone rather than just read the words on the page.

When the word "gospel" was used during Jesus' time, it was a victory chant that the king had come or that a new kingdom was being put into place.  Another definition of this word is "good news."  The "good news" is that King Jesus has come and with Him is His kingdom of an eventual new heaven and earth with a paradise for all who repent and believe.  We usually focus on the elements of the gospel at this point.  We speak of the prophecies of a coming Jesus, His actual coming, life, death, resurrection, ascension and His proclamation that He will come again.  The gospel becomes very "personal" as we have received our salvation because of a saving belief in this coming King.

"But why did I get saved?"

Jesus came to save sinners and I am one of them and therefore I qualify but why did I get saved?  What is the purpose of my salvation?  Is it just for me?  Is it only that I would escape the wrath of God and dwell with Jesus forever?  Is the victory chant too much pointed at me and my deliverance?

If I don't answer this question of why then I will continue to focus on what salvation has done for me and not see the real reason for this grace of God that has been made known to me.  I got saved to bring glory to God.  I got saved to be one of His workers to go out into His harvest field.  I got saved with the expressed purpose to follow Jesus, to be more and more like Jesus, and to be salt and light of Him to this world.  When I got saved, as personal as it was, I should have switched from looking at myself and what I would get out of it and what He has for me to an unselfish sharing of the victory chant to others that the King has come!

How do I convey this in a gospel presentation?  How do I speak to others not only of a faith response to Jesus as their Redeemer because they now see that they are a sinner in need of the only Savior to a fuller picture of the purpose for which they were saved?  

We are to pray for workers.  Are these workers saved?  I would say "yes."  These saved workers were saved so that they could not sit in the barn drinking lemonade but to be out in the field bringing in the King's harvest.  

We are to go out and collect the lost sheep.  These sheep are the Shepherd's who are not yet in the fold.  We are saved to join the effort of speaking Jesus' name so that when His sheep hear His voice, they will come.  

We are to let our light shine and not put it under a bushel basket or a bed.  We don't bask in the glow of our own experience with Jesus but allow that experience to be used by God to attract others to Himself.

Have I been focusing on the "personal" side of the gospel presentation and not giving the "purpose" side of this great transaction?

Sometimes when I approach the communion table, I speak of the two "p's," God's plan and God's purpose.  It was God's plan to send His Son, Jesus Christ, physically to this earth and it was His purpose to shed His precious blood so that we, sinners, could be saved.  Maybe I could apply this to the good news.  

For each of us saved there is a plan and purpose.  The plan was for us to respond in faith to our eyes opened by God to see our state as a sinner and Jesus as the Savior.  Our response is that of repentance and belief.  The purpose of this personal salvation is to be an ambassador of the King.  We go out as an official representative of Him to speak of Him and to do good works in His name that point to Him and not ourselves.  The salvation plan has been completed but the searching purpose is ongoing for us.  

The "why" of my personal salvation keeps my focus on Jesus and what is ultimately to come, the fulfillment of His kingdom.  "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done."  The focus of my personal salvation should switch very quickly from what I have received to what I can give to others as commanded by Jesus who gave the ultimate to me.  

I need to think more on this.  How do I weave this needed element when speaking of not only coming to Jesus, His plan and purpose, and to us following Him, our purpose of pointing others to Him, as to why one gets saved.  We don't get saved by Christ without a purpose that is beyond ourselves.

Adam