In Need

Hello everybody!! It has been a very long while since I have last updated anything on this blog. I apologize to those who actually read anything on here. I plan to try and update at least once a week. Before hand it was try everyday, but as usual, I didn’t succeed in that goal. I really would like it if you guys stopped in and commented and started encouraging discussion about the topics I post, Christians and non-Christians alike. I’m going to try and give a glimpse of what I’m being challenged with spiritually, or thoughts about topics of the world and Christianity in general. So let’s get this party started.

The other day I was standing at the bus stop. As a matter of fact, I stand there pretty much everyday. I usually arrive 15 minutes before the bus arrives, as I do not do well being late for anything. While standing at these bus stops, I usually think about the day ahead, or whatever else comes floating into my feeble mind. This particular day, I had one thought and one thought only. It was all I could think about the whole day.

“The deepest desire of the human race is to have a Saviour. Our deepest desire should be to show them that Saviour”

That was the singular thought that was running through my head. That was the thought that changed how that day would end. Instead of ending on a selfish note, me thinking how tired I was and how I should really go to bed, I ended up thinking about the disparity and depravity of this world we live in.

So many people are lost, and so many people have the wrong idea of Christianity, so much so, that being a Christian means absolutely nothing anymore. I thought, how best to reach these people? How best to make the revolutionary message of the gospel relevant to a culture in need? I had no clue. I had read, just before bed, a chapter in the book Blue Like Jazz about confession. This wasn’t a confession of the sin of others to you, but rather the confession of our failures as examples of Christ to those that don’t know Him. How powerful, how moving this would be if followers of Christ admitted our inadequacies, our failures to those in need. They would see the revolutionary love of Christ at work in our lives at that very moment of weakness. This thought troubled me. It disturbed me to a certain extent. Do I really want to be that open? Aren’t we as Christians supposed to be above reproach? Aren’t we supposed to attain to Holiness? Yes we are, but above reproach doesn’t mean we aren’t sinners. Above reproach doesn’t mean we are better than those in need. We are in just as much need as them, what separates us from them is, we have found the fulfillment of that need in Christ. That is what the world needs to see. They don’t need to see perfection. They don’t need to see that we have our act together. They don’t need any of those facades, they need reality. Reality hurts, but also touches lives. I don’t have the answer to making the gospel relevant, and I don’t know that I ever will have an answer to that. But do I really need to? I mean, is it my job to make the Gospel relevant? Or does Jesus make the Gospel relevant? Jesus crosses cultures today that humans can’t dream of crossing. That is the only relevancy we need. I think the better question to ask is not how do we make the Gospel relevant or attractive, Jesus already has that handled, but rather how evident is the Gospel in our own lives? If we live the Gospel, then Christ has made it relevant.

In closing, to illustrate the desire for a Saviour, I want to quote one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Surprisingly, this passages finds its home in the book of Job

“For He is not a man, as I am, That I may answer Him. And that we should go to court together. Nor is there any mediator between us, who may lay his hand on us both. Let Him take His rod away from me, and do not let dread of Him terrify me. Then I would speak and not fear Him, but it is not so with me” – Job 9:32-35

Grace and Peace

Mark Halvorson