The Gospel : The Power Of The Gospel

A cultural value that is important and must be taken to account is Direct vs. Indirect. I say this because how you communicate with some will greatly affect how much they retain of listen to. In this matter, Drew has expressed that he feels Christians are aggressive and history has shown their moral compass lacks right vs wrong and good and bad. Knowing this I would want to work around being direct and indirect when communicating with him. I would never want to be to direct and push him away nor would I want to be so indirect that it seems as if I’m walking on egg shells. In the end, how I communicate to him will greatly impact if he listens or shuts me out.

Some people in our culture view the Christian gospel as a list of do’s and don't's that each person must fulfill to get into heaven. Others have no concept of what the good news is. Based on conservations I have had with people, many simply do not about the Christian gospel. Other think that the gospel is what we must do, good works to counteract the bad things we have done.

Individual Post: Insights from the readings and video – I think that Catechist must be a Gospel alive expression of righteousness. Our instruction have a duty to speak and communicate how to accept and love each other like Jesus did. Our mission as, instructor is to teach people to live their live according to the Gospel every day in their life, but we have to the role model for them in everything; where they can learn from us.

Today’s Gospel is the parable of the “talents.” In this story the master of the house is going on a fairly long journey and he wants to safeguard his money while he is away. He gave one servant five talents, the 2nd servant two talents and the 3rd one was given one talent. The master, however, had an unspoken expectation. The master expected these servants to increase the amount of his money while he was gone.

The law is divine (Rm. 7:4) and was intended for our good (Rm. 7:2). It reveals a perfect way to heaven (Rom 7:12), and requires that we abide by everything in the law (Gal.3:10). However, we are unable to keep the law (Rm 7:9) and do not receive justification from God under the law (Gal. 3:11). In addition, the law shows us our sins (Rm 3:20), and the punishment for sin is death (Rm 6:23a). In contrast, the Gospel gives salvation to those who believe (Rm 1:16). The Gospel reveals what Christ, the Son of God. (Mt 16:13-16) has done for us through His death and resurrection (Rm 1:4) by overcoming sin, death, and hell (Jn 16:33, Rm 13:11). Christ made a full atonement for our sins (Hebrew 9:12). It is by grace that we are saved (Eph 2:5), through

Norman Mailer begins The Gospel According to the Son by identifying Jesus as the narrator. He states that the truth of his story is going to follow, which challenges the information in the Gospels that readers are already so accustomed to. Due to the title of the book, upon starting to read, one may have already been expecting a certain relation to the Gospels of the New Testament. Mailer’s narration as Jesus intentionally sets him apart from the narrators of the Gospels, who he simply makes a choice to call by the Gospels’ names.

The message and story of the Gospels share similar main ideas and themes between the four, but some of them were written in an attempt to appeal their case to different audiences (Synoptic Gospels). At their core, the Gospels are submersive, imperial (Euagellion- Good News) and religious. They were not written to harm Judaism in any way. Even though there may be separations between the four Gospels (Synoptics vs. John), they share a key component within their texts which is the life and ministry of Jesus.

The excerpt from the assigned reading about “Reconciliation” in the Bible had many noteworthy ideas, including “The Cosmic Cross,” “Missional Mind-Sets” and “The Winning Offensive.” The first section is titled “The Epic work of Christ.” This section opens with a summary of Christ’s ministry in a single sentence, quoted from one of his messages: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10. I love how this simplifies the entire life and message of Christ into a simple phrase: Christ came to set up God’s kingdom on our earth, and this could only be done by sacrificing his life for us. This section also brings up the grim realization about our earth: everything in this universe is cursed because of our sin.Thankfully,

A very interesting and surprising is today’s Gospel about James and John who are looking for the first places in Jesus’ kingdom. They come to Jesus and ask him to sit at his right and left hands in his glory. One can say that at the first look, it seems that there is nothing wrong with their request; simply those two Apostles want to be close to Jesus now and in the future. It is not, however the case. They left everything behind, their families, probably their friends, and started to follow Jesus and now they want reassurance that they will have a proper place in Jesus’ kingdom. But it is not only about a place near to Jesus what they want, but they claim the power, the authority; those two Apostles are dreaming about government. Of course, we don 't read this story from the Gospel to condemn the Apostles but to see that sometimes we act the same way, whatever our position might be. In fact, everyone has different areas in our lives where we want to govern. When we think about that we have to acknowledge that this desire of having power concerns not only our work or job but touches almost all areas of our existence such as money, family, future, desires, sex, decisions, values, fears, wounds and frustrations. It is something within us that pushes us to demand authority.

As beings created in the image and likeness of God, mankind is born into relation and unity as exemplified by the Holy Trinity. Mankind is not a strictly necessary being, but rather a being God chose to create so as to share His goodness and love, making mankind a true manifestation of God’s glory. St. Bonaventure explains that God created all things "not to increase His glory, but to show it forth and to communicate it." However, following the original sin, mankind enters a fallen state characterized by death and a separation from God. In this sinful state, mankind is no longer living as our fullest selves and is failing to exemplify God’s true glory.

The good news is that God made a way for man to come back into a right relationship with Him through the atoning death, burial and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. How we can come into a right relationship with Christ is by realizing our condition of sin and recognizing that without Christ we will spend eternity in hell apart from God. Oversimplification doesn’t make the Gospel clearer instead it gives a muddy picture of who Christ is and what He did. The Gospel is not that God is here for you—take Him. The Gospel is we are here for God—serve Him. The only way we can serve Him is if we are in right relationship with Him.

Religion was a controversial topic during the era Jesus had came down from heaven and proclaimed that he was the messiah and king of the people, who wanted to teach his people the way to salvation. Jesus’s teachings were transcribed into 4 different gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, in the bible that was the basis for answering the question, “Who is Jesus?” all underlining major themes the believers were to intertwine into their daily lives to not only bring peace to oneself but to neighbors around them. When looking at sections within the gospels such as walking on water and feeding the multitudes of followers, the reader can see the theme depth of who Jesus was. Starting with the gospel of Matthew, the theme that was emphasized was to prove that Jesus was the messiah or the anointed one, meaning savior or leader. Within Matthew 14:13 the reader can view how Jesus carried out the role of being a savior by saving the followers that were in dire need of his grace, “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed the sick.” And in 14:30 when his disciples more specifically Peter asked to come onto the water only to be saved by Jesus himself, “…Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me! Immediately Jesus reached and caught him.”

Around the world and throughout all the different versions of Christianity, there are so many things that people call “the gospel”. Some say it is the only way to get to Heaven, or that it is a doctrine of damnation that God sent us to right our wrongs. Ravi Zacharias stated in a video sermon what he thinks that the gospel has become when he says, “It became I think cheapened and somehow diluted if not polluted and so an average person who view what is the gospel they say it is the same old thing, you’re a sinner and you’re heading to hell…” (Zacharias). Most individuals in today’s time do not know what God’s true love is or what the real meaning of the gospel is truly because of the situations they have been in during their lives and what society has made it out to be. According to Webster’s Dictionary the definition of the word “gospel” is, “The message concerning Christ, the kingdom of God, and salvation,” (Webstersdictionary.com). Though this is a technical definition, the Gospel of God is so much more than just teachings. The Gospel can help those who have never met God, since it is the good news that should be preached to everyone, it is how believers go and make more disciples throughout the world, and through it is a way for everyone to connect with God on a personal and spiritual level.

The statement that a lot of non-Christians claim is, the Gospel writers are bias. This is a topic that gets asked quite often. I have personally heard this statement from a co-worker, but did not know how to answer my co-worker because I was new to Christianity, and was still learning myself. The way I remember the question was, “The Bible is written by men, and cannot be trust because they had their own selfish agenda.” This is a valid question, and a topic worth knowing the answer too. The article that I am using for this paper is. “Critique of New Testament Reliability and ‘Bias’ in NT Development.” By James Still.

Culture is the behavior and beliefs as well as characteristics of a particular social, ethnic, or age group.(Dictionary.com) The gospel, in sum is the teachings of Christ and the record of his life found in the first four books of the new testament.An age long struggle, since the Gospel message began to spread has been the issue of evangelizing to various cultures and presenting the Gospel in a way relevant to the people. This is the struggle that many missionaries face who work in the fields amongst various indigenous and foreign cultures that carry practices that are strictly against the Gospel. “In proclaiming the Gospel, missionaries should respond to the individual elements of other cultures in various ways. Condemnation of Culture- Missionaries must require the local people to separate from practices which are prohibited in Scripture such as idolatry, cannibalism, and so forth. Toleration of Culture- Missionaries will also teach against certain practices which violate Christian ideals, although temporarily tolerate them while waiting for the development of a more sensitive conscience on the part of the local people, such as slavery or scarification of the body (when done for ornamentation).Conversion of Culture- Missionaries may retain certain local patterns and practices while giving them a new content, meaning or purpose--introducing functional substitutes in order to avoid creating a cultural vacuum in the lives of the believers and churches--for example, using