A Defintion of the Gospel

The Gospel is the Good News of the coming of the Kingdom of God (Matt 4:23; 9:35; 24:14; Mark 1:14), that God has broken definitively into history and the world (Luke 4:18) with power (1Th 1:5) and grace (Acts 20:24; Eph 1:13) in the person and work of Jesus the Christ (1Th 3:2; 2Th 1:8; Gal 1:7; 1Cor 9:12; 2Cor 2:12; Rom 1:9; Phl 1:27), who is the first fruits of the resurrection (1Cor 15:20, 23) bringing Justice (Rom 2:16), Peace (Eph 6:15), and Healing (Matt 4:23; 9:35) to the World and the offer of Salvation (Rom 1:16) for Repentance and Faith (Mark 1:14; Acts 15:7) to all peoples, fulfilling the God’s promise to Abraham (Rom 4:13; Acts 7:17; Gal 3:29) and inaugurating New Creation (Gal 6:15) and the summing up of all things in Christ (Eph 1:10).

July 4th, 2010: The Unthinkable Happened

July 4th, 2010: The Unthinkable Happened. During the second service at church, we ran out of Cheerios. Yes, you could actually see rising tension on the faces of those Toddlers. Soon they began to protest, they began to chant, they began to sing “We Shall Overcome” and “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider”. Eventually, the Infants walked out in sympathy. I ran out into the hall and yelled for the Children’s Director: “The Toddlers are Speaking Truth to Power!” What started out as a peaceful protest escalated into something resembling the 1968 Gerber Convention riots in Chicago. Little girls began to burn their diapers. Little boys were flipping strollers over. They stormed the Nursery and broke open all the cribs. If they hadn’t taken their nap I might not have gotten out alive.