Wednesday, April 2, 2014

The Power and Reality of the Gospel Truth



PENETRATING every area of life, this issue of the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, that Jesus is Lord, means that God’s truth breaks through into every situation of life. Notwithstanding the myriad times that evil has its way in this world, the power and reality of the gospel truth pervades, underpinning everything. And this is, perhaps, a difficult philosophy to understand, how good can triumph over a seemingly all pervasive evil.
These that follow are just a sample of some dimensions of the power and reality of the gospel truth.
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The gospel truth is real,
As we treat others like we’d like to be treated,
When we experience how others feel,
Much less do we feel defeated.
We encourage one another when we treat each other as we’d like to be treated. There is safety and blessing in that, and out of the basis of such relationships, and in the confidence they produce, we gain the courage to overcome. It is in relationship – when we can enjoy the acceptance of loving tolerance – that we have the very means for life, where God is made known in and through relationship.
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The gospel truth is real,
But many cannot see its power,
It’s God’s way to conceal,
His power until revelation’s hour.
We verily missed the truth until God chooses to reveal it, usually in and through our salvation. Yet salvation is not just a one-off concept; it is, however, a momentary concept. We may experience salvation any time God’s revelation punches through our understanding. In this we are saved afresh, not that such a saving is anything about going to heaven in the afterlife. God’s revelation is the antecedent for the moment’s salvation – the gospel truth seen in all its power within the terms of today’s reality.
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The gospel truth is real,
We are blessed to be a blessing,
In this God helps us to feel,
And His power we are confessing.
As soon as we connect we are blessed to be a blessing – as soon as we experience what that blessing is – we remain immediately convinced, and thereby convicted in the Spirit, and we confess his power.
At the gospel truth is real, and that we are blessed to be a blessing, means that God helps us to feel truthfully, and that truth becomes, in us, power; for good, and love, and the discernment of wisdom and understanding.
© 2014 S. J. Wickham.

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