The Gospel is better than you think!

Lesslie Newbigin, a missionary to India and theologian, once said this, How is it possible that the gospel should be credible, that people should come to believe that the power which has the last word in human affairs is represented by a man hanging on a cross (Foolishness to the Greeks)? I think about that question a lot. The reason I think about it is that I have committed my life to trying to persuade my family, people in Collierville, and everyone I meet that the center piece of all of life is found, not in self betterment, but in resting in the fact that the creator of the universe entered space-time history and in his death is the only thing that will heal individual people and will ultimately heal all the brokenness of the world.The distilled essence of the Bible comes down to this - why is Jesus hanging on the cross and what will I do about it? The Bible says that to know God, to be reconciled to God, to know anything of human happiness now or in eternity is to receive and rest in what Jesus did on the cross. Is this really for real? Does it even make sense to modern ears? Is it rational to really believe that the most important thing in my life comes down to this: “What will I do with the message of the cross?”I confess, I still look at the cross and it seems like a fairy tale, or a tale that is too good to be true. The claims are outrageous, the rewards are vast, the implications are staggering, and yet nothing less than life itself is at stake. We’ll talk about it this Sunday, hope to see you there!Blessings,Jim