I had a powerful vision one time. It was 1999. I was living in Waco, TX at the time. I was a new Christian and had moved down there to be with my crazy new Christian friends. We all had traded in our Guns n Roses and Nirvanna CD's for Keith Green and Jars of Clay. We were x-druggies and thugs that had all come to know Jesus in a powerful way that changed our lives. We all had a mission. #1 Know Jesus More and #2 Help others know him too. Why Waco? It had nothing to do with the nut job David Keresh that started the cult.
I was there for adventure. My buddies were going to Baylor, and attending an happening college ministry where students were trained and sent all around the world to plant churches. It was this time that I learned the necessity to rehears the gospel to myself.
I was struggling with the sins of my pasts, feeling the guilt and the shame of all the girls I had done wrong, the people I mistreated, the hateful and hurtful things I had done.
At that time I was attending a community college near by, working at Italian restaurant (which was a joke b/c I was a pathetic waiter and couldn't keep peoples orders straight) and I was very involved in our local church. The point is...I was busy. In the midst of all this I was struggling with my past and wondering what God was doing in me for the future.
During an afternoon of prayer and study time in Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology I asked the Lord if there was anything holding me back from growing spiritually and he told that there was! He showed me that I was holding back Christ's work on the cross for me. I was failing to trust and believe that Jesus payment for my sin was sufficient and effective (Rom 5:8, I Pet 3:18).
I had bought into a false Gospel. I believed that I had committed too many sins to be completely accepted and secure. I had not trusted the scriptures at the core of my being that Christ's work on the cross really did serve as a payment for my sins and made me right with God. (Romans 5)
The Gospel says that Jesus work on the cross satisfied the wrath of God, serving as a propitiation for our sins and because of this God has nothing but love for his children. It's Christ's sacrifice that makes us right and keeps us right! The Father loves you and me so much that he sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins I John 4:10. and make peace between God and man (Romans 5)
What's ironic is that we Christians forget that the gospel should be everyday. It should be part of our ongoing sanctification process not just a one time event at Salvation. The Gospel has got to penetrate the heart an ongoing basis or else we fall to dead religious practitioners. It's the message of grace. It's by grace we are saved and grace that keeps us saved. (Ephesians 2:8-9 and Titus 3:5)
-Pastor Ryan Rice
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