Planting Grace

Off-Brand Gospel Truth

2008-05-18T07:36:00.000-07:00

Have you ever purchased some "off-brand cologne"? Since I had no job in high school to support my climb to popularity via clothes and cologne, I took full advantage of the samples of good smelling stuff at the counter of my local retail stores in the mall (you know those little samples that look like they could be shots of booze); however, the mall wasn't just around the corner for me to be date ready and worthy, and seeing that my wallet was full of air instead of dollars, I welcomed any form of Christmas "off brand holy water" to advance my social agenda of being someone special at school, dances, or dates.

It wasn't until I met my wife, then girlfriend, in 12th grade that I realized there was a significant difference in the quality of cologne I was using and the expensive brands on the counter in the mall. I totally didn't buy into the phrase "You get what you pay for" back then until my eyes were opened to see that pragmatism is not always the best option as a rule of life. She kept asking me regularly if I had been drinking before and after our dates, and jokingly, I would reply, "Yeah, Preferred Stock." Apparently, there was an obvious odor of drunkenness on my neck that was present long after the good smelling stuff wore off. Sadly, I was oblivious to the filth and really believed the cheap stuff was advancing my cause with the ladies. (No wonder I went out on so many "one daters"!) I'm sure they thought to themselves, "This guy is using Preferred Livestock!")

Usually we look at the past as either really great or really horrible, but I'm sure my memory of it was really somewhere between the two. Nevertheless, you get the point. Sometimes we become so inoculated with something that we can't really distinguish between the genuine article and the fake, the off-brand. Did you know that's precisely the case with the state of the church on many levels today, especially with the hub of the wheel called the Gospel.

The apostle Paul scolded the Galatian churches with these words in Galatians 1:6-7 (ESV), "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to DISTORT the gospel of Christ." [caps and bold added] That's what off brand cologne is, a distortion of the original/genuine article. Where authentic colognes use original vanilla for example, the fake brands use extracts. The sad and devastating aspect of "buying into" a "different gospel" is that it begins to smell like the authentic and look like the authentic but eventually gives off a terrible after-smell that is "a gospel contrary to the one preached to you" in Christ.

So if the goal of Christianity is to bring the authentic Gospel to bear on all of life for the glory of God in Jesus Christ, then we must quickly discern between the "off-brand" and the genuine thing. Once we make this desperate change to the real thing, then we might not only "smell good" to others, we might actually draw more people to us than repel them. May "grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen." Galatians 1:3-5

Soccer, Theology, & Salvation

2008-04-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

There's nothing better in this world than playing soccer, trying to get your mind ready before the game to put your body through serious pain (long after your college playing days), and then one of your fellow players breaks out the question, "What brought you here to Baton Rouge?" You didn't ask for it; there's no getting past it, and you know a theology discussion is about to break out right before the whistle blows. Great timing!!!!! "God, what are you up to right now?"

So, I tell him and the discussion is on. "I came down after Hurricane Katrina to start a new church. I'm a pastor." [There's no lying or 'being wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove,' because that's really what I do. I can't tell him like foreign missionaries in hostile areas that I'm an undercover English teacher or something else. Literally, I'm boxed into a corner, and the Lord wants me to be bold.] Immediately, the jokes are on and your teammates begin confessing their sins to you as if you're God or something, because they really don't get the Gospel. I don't mind the sarcasm or jokes, and I really love these guys; so you tend to expect it after a while of being in the ministry. It just wasn't the best timing, of course.

Nevertheless, the theology discussion begins and even one of the wives gets involved confessing her sins to me and making jokes about priests and pastors. It was all fun and games until one of the gang explained their "church situation" and how they might be different than our church. I knew what dreaded end was coming, and this is how it went down. The discussion turned toward church and how boring it was and how "communion" was placed at the end of their service so no one would "leave." I thought to myself, "How disappointing!" Not only do they think church is boring and unimportant according to their sarcasm, they viewed the Lord's Supper as essential to salvation given the fact that they "had to stay in the service so as to take Communion." Jokingly serious, they told me they preferred it to be up front in the order of things so they could "get it over," leave, and carry on about their day.

Do you see what's going on here? My friends have been sold a false bill of goods. This kind of understanding of salvation is not abnormal in our culture, though. Here we are in the deep South with hundreds of churches of all denominations around us. I'm playing the game of soccer in which I receive great pleasure; my friends break out in a theology discussion about salvation, and they end up being dead wrong. Hey, it's normal down here. Bad tradition trumps good theology, and according to Scripture, the results are catastrophic for them. What shall we say to these things as pastors, Christians, friends, colleagues, fellow teammates, etc?

The apostle Paul declared in 2nd Corinthians 4:6, "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." Even in a world where Christians and non-Christians can enjoy the pleasures of life such as soccer, friendship, and great discussion, there is a great darkness in which the world lives, the darkness of personal sin that clouds out the knowledge of God in the face of Christ. If there is going to be a new dawn for our friends where they enjoy the pleasure of knowing God and real satisfaction and salvation in Him, then it must come from "the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." [italics added]

What this means for us who are out of shape, overweight, and timid is that WE MUST determine to live our lives in such a way and declare with our lips that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and that once we have understood this truth rightly according to God's grace, our friends and families will experience the greatest pleasure of knowing the glory of God in the face of Christ. Please pray for boldness in this declaration, continue to be friends, play soccer with them or whatever, and see to it that your conversation is "salted" with the centrality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Planting Grace Goes Blogosphere

2008-04-11T13:48:00.000-07:00

For the "thousands in attendance and the millions watching around the world, let's get ready to rumble!!!" We're now joining this April 11th, 2008 the blog world for the curious minds interested in seeing how the Gospel of Jesus Christ affects all of life: work, home, and at play. We exist for the sole purpose of glorifying God in Christ, and we hope the rest of you become passionate about that belief and desire to learn what that looks like on a day by day basis. So please keep up with us, follow this wonderful journey we're on, and pray that in all things we would be good stewards and "guard the good deposit" of the gospel "that has been entrusted to us."