Ministy > Letters

A snippet of scripture can become so familiar that its true power and beauty, revealed in its full context, becomes obscured. I was reminded of this when we were asked to read Psalm 46:10 during a GMO all-staff prayer conference call. “Be still, and know that I am God!” Simple, compelling, and — for those of us with a short attention span — a great challenge.

A few weeks ago I saw a news story noting that the estimated world population is now over 7 billion. It’s an almost unfathomable number — it’s hard enough to wrap one’s mind around a million, let alone seven times a thousand times millions. And to think about it even further, 7 billion people with an average life span of 62.7 years are going to collectively live 434 billion years, or over 230 quadrillion minutes.

What do you and I really mean when we talk about “the gospel?” Perhaps we’re referring to good old John 3:16, or maybe the Roman Road or Four Spiritual Laws. We might use “gospel” as shorthand for believing the Jesus died and rose again so that we can be forgiven and go to heaven. None of these things are wrong, but none are really “the good news.”

  I’ve been trying to find some profound or at least sentimental thing to say about this point in time… but words are eluding me. The rush of activity this summer has kept me from reflecting on this as much [MORE]