the gospel on computers
Some of you know that on Wednesday Nights at 7:00PM in October we will have Mid-Week Sessions at Ridge Point. These are times that are more like a classroom than a sermon style Sunday service. It is a time to ask questions, interrput with your own thoughts, and discuss things with friends.
I have been doing some writing to go along with the teachings and wanted to give out some samples to you. Each blog is a small part of a larger chapter ... the completed chapters will be part of a series called Derasha. They will be available soon. There will be three more blogs relating specifically to Mid-Weeks in October. I will be sure to label each blog ...
This is the first, and is a preview of what we will discuss on Ocotober 4 at 7:00PM:
Just the other day, I was speaking with someone about the internet. I remarked that when I was in college it was not until I was a junior before we really knew what the internet was (for some of you this comment makes you feel very young, for others it makes you feel old). We were in fact so ignorant to the internet in many ways we were like Homer Simpson who once said, “Wow, they have the internet on computers now!”
I remember when we took classes to learn about what this thing was. We asked questions like, “Where is the internet exactly?” We were told things like, “Right now the internet is being called the information super-highway, however it is a virtual dirt road compared to what it will be in ten years.” We were utterly amazed that we could contact someone in Japan in milliseconds for free. We could not get over the convenience of email (at this point Instant Messenger did not exist).
Indeed the internet has brought a new reality to us. With the advent of things like Myspace.com, eBay, blogs, and the ability to contact anyone anywhere at anytime our culture has changed. The internet brought to us a new reality.
The Gospel is like this, it brings to us a new reality. It is not something that we can say, “Where is it?” The Gospel is not just ideas, thoughts and beliefs. The Gospel is the good news. It is something to proclaim, to perform, and something that calls us to a radical reorientation of living.
Our culture does well with formulas. Formulas are static, and they do not change. If the world comes crashing down around us, we will always know that two plus two still equals four. Formulas are safe, they can be measured, and have clear definitions of right and wrong.
Formulas once communicated well to our culture. We could understand things if they were laid out end-to-end in logical order. For years we did this with the Gospel. It became something simple, and easy to grasp. Men and women could walk a person through the good news of the Kingdom in a few steps. The downside to this is that a large part of the story was left out.
The formula, which is known by some as The Four Spiritual Laws, focused on two things. The first was our sin, which kept us from communion with God in heaven. The second part of the formula focused on our getting to heaven through the death of Jesus.
We would agree that these two issues are certainly part of the Gospel; however it is not the Gospel in total. We do ourselves an injustice when we make the individual getting into heaven the primary focus of the story. While each man and woman is called to repentance, Jesus died for the world. His plan was about more than getting a person into heaven. Jesus showed us that God’s interest is to bring heaven to everyone on this earth.
His Gospel is for everyone.