the gospel I needed at 8:32 this morning

Summer is quickly approaching. This is the time of the year my desk and counter tops are filled with lists. I have lists of the books I want to read with my children, books I want them to read, checklists of daily responsibilities, and even lists in my calendar in the form of our daily activities. I make my own lists, too, both mentally and on paper, of ways I want to grow and change, ways I want to organize the house--this spawns lists of its own as I try to organize myself for a garage sale, list the furniture I'd like to purge, the little tasks and items necessary to clean and organize...the list is endless! I need a master list just to keep track of all the sublists.

The time I have with my children still at home is ticking by too quickly. With my oldest entering junior high next year, I am especially aware that though these years seem as though they will last forever, our time together is for a season and far too short. I think my lists are an attempt to make the most of this time together. But I have been crying out to God for His vision for our summer. What does He want to accomplish in our family for such a time as this? Surely He has more in mind for us than simply what I have on my list.

This is one of those times He may as well have a megaphone, for His voice has become increasingly loud and clear. "Teach them the gospel, starting with yourself." Never mind the lists, the activities. God doesn't want our "doings," He wants our hearts.

The gospel...don't we know it? "Jesus died on the cross to take the punishment for our sins and give us eternal life." I've known this truth from my preschool days, and it is powerful. It gives me hope for the life to come, hope that I am saved from an eternal hell--total separation from the presence of God. Instead, I will spend eternity in heaven, never to be separated from the presence of God.

Too often the gospel is put in a category of something that will help us for eternity...but isn't much help in the here and now. What has completely turned my world upside down the past few years is to begin to understand that Jesus saves me not only from the penalty of sin, but also the power. Eternal life is not for "someday" but begins here and now. Jesus Himself said in John 17:3, "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."

This is a very different definition that the Sunday School understanding I had of eternal life. It is knowing God and His Son, Jesus. How does that help me live today? In every way. Jesus came to save me from sin that threatens to wreck and ruin every part of my life and keep me from knowing Him.

That means...

When my preschooler is being stubborn and I'm at the end of my rope, I don't have to give in to screaming at him as a last desperate attempt to make him behave.

When my children are fighting, I don't have to just say "stop it!" and hope that band-aid phrase will help solve all their past, present, and future relational problems. This also assumes they will stop, of course.

When something happens in our lives that is out of my control, I don't have to lay awake at night with my stomach in knots, worried that I have to come up with the solution.

(Just an honest note that I have tried each of these, probably in the past 24 hours. But little by little the gospel is setting me free from my continual propensity toward such sin.)

The gospel teaches:

-There is meaning and purpose to life, because I have been created to glorify God and have been redeemed that I may serve my Creator instead of myself and creation.

-That I can say "no" to sin because the power was broken at the cross by a Savior who has now taken up residence within me.

-That I don't have to be in control because I know the God who controls it all.

-I can love others because I have been set free from self-centeredness to embrace a servant's heart for someone besides myself. (Praise God!)

-My only hope is a Savior, and that hope is more than enough because I have one!! There is no need so great He cannot fill it, nothing broken He cannot make it whole, no desire so great He cannot satisfy. And the very worst problem that I could ever have--sin--has been completely met in His sacrificial work on my behalf.

-My eyes must be constantly fixed on the work of Christ, because without Him life just does not "work." He IS life.

He paid the penalty, yes, with a perfect sacrifice.

He overcame the power of sin through His perfect obedience.

He will completely eradicate sin one day, so that we will no longer even experience its presence.

In his book Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands, Paul David Tripp expresses it this way:

We can take..."the gospel out of the realm of abstract theology to where we live every day. The fact is that although I experience powerful emotions and desires, I can say "no" and go in another direction because of the resources that are mine in Christ. I am indwelt by the Warrior Spirit (Gal. 5:16-18) who battles with my flesh. He lives with power and glory in my heart. I can choose to go where he leads rather than where my passions and desires of the flesh would lead me. I have also been crucified with Christ (v. 24). When Christ died, I died. When Christ arose, I rose to a new life. Because I am united with Christ in his death and resurrection, the mastery of sin over me has been broken. I no longer have to submit the members of my body to its rule. In the face of difficulty, I can do and say what is right."

I don't know if I'll get to everything on my lists for this summer, but if I can learn for myself and pass on more of the message and power of this gospel to my children, more will be accomplished by the Spirit than I could ever dream.

It's an eternal hope for here and now that will last long after summer is over and my lists are in the trash.