The Gospel We Forgot

iStock/artplus

The world needs formed, not just informed, believers.

 
07/21/26
John StonestreetandS. Michael Craven

In many churches, Christianity has been reduced, not necessarily to something false or heretical, but to something much smaller than it is.

Even our understanding of the church’s mission—to exalt Christ, edify believers, and evangelize the lost—are understood in ways that confine Christianity. Worship only happens on Sunday mornings. Discipleship is the acquisition of biblical knowledge or the process of becoming more moral. Evangelism is about securing decisions for Christ.

These are all good things but not the whole story. That’s why Christianity is often highly visible inside the church but largely absent from where people spend most of their lives. When faith is separated from work, worship is disconnected from vocation, discipleship unrelated to culture, and salvation irrelevant to the wider world, Christianity has been privatized.

This would have puzzled the earliest Christians. The New Testament authors constantly present Christ as not only the Savior of souls but as the Lord of heaven and earth. The Apostle Paul declared that all things were created through Him and for Him, and that in Him all things hold together. Christ’s reign extends over every square inch of reality.

If that’s true, then worship cannot be confined to a sanctuary. Worship is how we conduct our business, raise our children, care for our neighbors, create art, pursue justice, engage politics, and steward any part of creation. To exalt Christ is to live under His lordship wherever He has placed us. To disciple believers is about more than knowing Bible facts. It is about transformation.

Paul urged believers to not be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. That kind of formation reshapes not only what we think about the Bible but how we understand reality itself. It teaches us to see the world through the lens of God’s Kingdom, and to see God’s Kingdom as the reality about the world we live in.

This kind of formation is desperately needed today. After all, we’re all being discipled by something. Something is forming our loves, our habits, and our assumptions. If these things are not being shaped by the Holy Spirit through Scripture, it is being shaped by the surrounding culture. A Christian who understands justification but thinks about sexuality, identity, work, technology, politics, or human flourishing in essentially secular terms has not yet been fully formed. The Church’s task is to cultivate believers whose entire lives bear witness to the reality that Jesus Christ is Lord.

In the same way, evangelism is not a single transaction. Jesus did not command His followers to make converts. He commanded them to make disciples, teaching them to obey everything He had commanded.

Whose Servant, Whose Master Part 1 Pr Dennis Page

Bibles: Dangerous, Illegal, Covert

April 20, 2019 By lovepackages

Voice of the Martyrs recently published a world map that highlights the most difficult places to own or bring a bible. VOM is working hard to get bibles into these countries, and we are honored to be working toward the same goal.

There are many other ministries printing, shipping, smuggling, and carrying God’s word into these places as well. There are almost as many different strategies as there are ministries, and it’s breathtaking to consider how the Lord orchestrates his plans: One ministry prints, another uses cutting edge digital technology, another collects and recycles discarded material.

And you’re invited into the work as well. Pray for the work, learn how to collect material for us to ship, and/or donate toward the shipping costs.

VOM’s map is a stunning visual of the great need for truth.

Is the Bible Illegal in 52 Countries?

You may have heard that the bible is illegal in 52 countries. It gets printed on t-shirts and stitched on bible covers.

“Illegal” may not be strictly true, but it might as well be in most of these places. The Voice of the Martyrs map categorizes countries where bibles are (1) difficult/dangerous to obtain, (2) illegal or highly restricted, and (3) strictly illegal and only available through covert smuggling.

The map was in their last newsletter, but you can also see it on their website.

Christians are ignorant of Great Commission because churches aren't teaching it enough

Staff writer 

Fri 18 Jan 2019 16:15 GMT

A pastor and missiologist have weighed in on why so many Christians in the US are unaware of the Great Commission.

After Barna research found that 51 per cent of American Christians do not know what the Great Commission means, it called in the experts to find out why.

Allen Yeh, associate professor of intercultural studies and missiology at Biola University, said some of the ignorance could be explained by simple terminology - the fact that 'the Great Commission' is not a specific term that Jesus actually used.

By contrast, Jesus taught his followers the 'greatest commandment' in Matthew 22:37-40 and it's a passage many Christians know by heart.

(Photo: Barna)

But that can't explain all of confusion, Yeh told Barna, and in his view, there's another important reason - churches are failing to teach it from the pulpit.

'I think some of the ignorance of this term can be attributed to churches not teaching this concept enough any more,' he said.

'I certainly heard it a lot growing up, but perhaps it has been lost on this current generation of believers.'

David Daniels, lead pastor of Pantego Bible Church in Fort Worth, Texas, takes a similar view.

SDA - The Great Hope or The Great Deception - A Falling Away!

Posted by
TheClosingOfTime

Published on
November 10, 2014

Adventist Crime Scenes Part 1-6

1. The Great Hope Scam
2. A Corrupted Hymnal
3. The Antichrist - Gone!
4. Ted Wilson - Up Against Devils
5. The Duty of the Watchman
6. The Tithe -  A Weapon of Protest

.

Christ's healing

When the Saviour said, "Go, . . . teach all nations," He said also, "These signs shall follow them that believe; In My name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." The promise is as far-reaching as the commission. Not that all the gifts are imparted to each believer. The Spirit divides "to every man severally as He will." 1 Cor. 12:11. But the gifts of the Spirit are promised to every believer according to his need for the Lord's work. The promise is just as strong and trustworthy now as in the days of the apostles. "These signs shall follow them that believe." This is the privilege of God's children, and faith should lay hold on all that it is possible to have as an indorsement of faith.

"They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." This world is a vast lazar house, but Christ came to heal the sick, to proclaim deliverance to the captives of Satan. He was in Himself health and strength. He imparted His life to the sick, the afflicted, those possessed of demons. He turned away none who came to receive His healing power. He knew that those who petitioned Him for help had brought disease upon themselves; yet He did not refuse to heal them. And when virtue from Christ entered into these poor souls, they were convicted of sin, and many were healed of their spiritual disease, as well as of their physical maladies. The gospel still possesses the same power, and why should we not today witness the same results?

Christ feels the woes of every sufferer. When evil spirits rend a human frame, Christ feels the curse. When fever is burning up the life current, He feels the agony. And He is just as willing to heal the sick now as when He was personally on earth. Christ's servants are His representatives, the channels for His working. He desires through them to exercise His healing power.

In the Saviour's manner of healing there were lessons for His disciples. On one occasion He anointed the eyes of a blind man with clay, and bade him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam. . . . He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing." John 9:7. The cure could be wrought only by the power of the Great Healer, yet Christ made use of the simple agencies of nature. While He did not give countenance to drug medication, He sanctioned the use of simple and natural remedies.

To many of the afflicted ones who received healing, Christ said, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." John 5:14. Thus He taught that disease is the result of violating God's laws, both natural and spiritual. The great misery in the world would not exist did men but live in harmony with the Creator's plan.

Christ had been the guide and teacher of ancient Israel, and He taught them that health is the reward of obedience to the laws of God. The Great Physician who healed the sick in Palestine had spoken to His people from the pillar of cloud, telling them what they must do, and what God would do for them. "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God," He said, "and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee." Ex. 15:26. Christ gave to Israel definite instruction in regard to their habits of life, and He assured them, "The Lord will take away from thee all sickness." Deut. 7:15. When they fulfilled the conditions, the promise was verified to them. "There was not one feeble person among their tribes." Ps. 105:37.

These lessons are for us. There are conditions to be observed by all who would preserve health. All should learn what these conditions are. The Lord is not pleased with ignorance in regard to His laws, either natural or spiritual. We are to be workers together with God for the restoration of health to the body as well as to the soul.

And we should teach others how to preserve and to recover health. For the sick we should use the remedies which God has provided in nature, and we should point them to Him who alone can restore. It is our work to present the sick and suffering to Christ in the arms of our faith. We should teach them to believe in the Great Healer. We should lay hold on His promise, and pray for the manifestation of His power. The very essence of the gospel is restoration, and the Saviour would have us bid the sick, the hopeless, and the afflicted take hold upon His strength.

The power of love was in all Christ's healing, and only by partaking of that love, through faith, can we be instruments for His work. If we neglect to link ourselves in divine connection with Christ, the current of life-giving energy cannot flow in rich streams from us to the people. There were places where the Saviour Himself could not do many mighty works because of their unbelief. So now unbelief separates the church from her divine Helper. Her hold upon eternal realities is weak. By her lack of faith, God is disappointed, and robbed of His glory.

It is in doing Christ's work that the church has the promise of His presence. Go teach all nations, He said; "and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." To take His yoke is one of the first conditions of receiving His power. The very life of the church depends upon her faithfulness in fulfilling the Lord's commission. To neglect this work is surely to invite spiritual feebleness and decay. Where there is no active labor for others, love wanes, and faith grows dim.

The Desire of Ages, pp.823-825.

.

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,"

Christ's words on the mountainside were the announcement that His sacrifice in behalf of man was full and complete. The conditions of the atonement had been fulfilled; the work for which He came to this world had been accomplished. He was on His way to the throne of God, to be honored by angels, principalities, and powers. He had entered upon His mediatorial work. Clothed with boundless authority, He gave His commission to the disciples: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations," "baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." Matt. 28:19, 20, R. V.

The Jewish people had been made the depositaries of sacred truth; but Pharisaism had made them the most exclusive, the most bigoted, of all the human race. Everything about the priests and rulers--their dress, customs, ceremonies, traditions--made them unfit to be the light of the world. They looked upon themselves, the Jewish nation, as the world. But Christ commissioned His disciples to proclaim a faith and worship that would have in it nothing of caste or country, a faith that would be adapted to all peoples, all nations, all classes of men.

The Desire of Ages, pp.819-820
.
.