This past week I picked the "Is Your Gospel Big Enough" plan from the Bible app. This devotional plan was very well put together and I got a lot out of it. It also had a decent amount of Scripture reading, which is always something that I like in a plan. I would recommend this one if you're looking for a plan to do.
Is Your Gospel Big Enough: Day 1
(1 John 4:9-10, Jeremiah 29:11, Jeremiah 1:5, Psalms 139:13-16)
So often we think of Jesus as nothing more than the guy who died for our sins so that we could have eternal life. While this is true, He is so much more than that. We tend to go about our lives as if nothing has changed. Sure, we search out what we’re supposed to act like when we’re Christians so that we can pattern ourselves after that, but how often do we treat Jesus as more than words on a page? We give lip service to saying that Jesus rose from the grave, but how often do we treat Him like he’s alive? Being a follower of Christ is supposed to be more than acting nice; being a follower of Christ should be acting like Him. Being a follower of Christ is supposed to be more than reading words on a page; being a follower of Christ is having a personal relationship with a very much alive Son of God.
By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God sent His one and only Son into the world in order that we may live through Him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
-1 John 4:9-10
Is Your Gospel Big Enough: Day 2
(Genesis 1-2)
This devotional plan is talking about something called “The Four Chapter Gospel”. Maybe I’m out of the loop here but I’ve never heard of this before. Apparently the 4 chapters are: 1. Creation 2. Fall 3. Redemption 4. Consummation. In day 2 of this devotional we looked into chapter 1 of the four chapters.
Why did God create us?
I think that too often we view creation with our 21st century eyes. Regardless of whether you believe in a literal 6-Day creation, or if you believe that 15 billion years ago there was nothing and then it exploded and led to everything that you see today, we’ve allowed “science” to take away the awe that we should have for our Creator God. God didn’t create us because of some cosmic accident. He chose to create us. He chose to speak the Words which brought forth light. He chose to say the things which brought plants and animals and me and you into existence. This isn’t all some happenstance occurrence. We’re here for a reason.
God doesn’t “need” anything, but He chose to need us. If God chose to need us – chose to open that vulnerability – how can we do anything less than choose to love Him and choose to know Him?
And God saw everything that He had made and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, a sixth day.
-Genesis 1:31
And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. And God blessed the seventh day, and He sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work of creating that there was to do.
-Genesis 2:2-3
Is Your Gospel Big Enough: Day 3
(Genesis 3)
On day three of this devotional we look into the 2nd chapter of the Four Chapter Gospel: The Fall. This chapter is not just a look at the events of the fall, but it is a look at why the events happened, and what we can learn from that in order to walk out our lives more in accordance with the desires of our God.
When broken down to its most basic definition, sin is disobeying God’s commandments. Adam and Eve had only one commandment: Do not eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. When we disobey God’s commandments we open ourselves to the diving retribution of God. The Satan doesn’t have the authority to just attack us, we must open ourselves up to these attacks by disobeying God. The Satan didn’t make Adam and Even eat the fruit, he convinced them to question their God, and this led them into disobedience.
In Revelation 2:14 Jesus warns the church of Pergamum to beware of the doctrine of Balaam. This is the same trick the devil pulled on day one (or day six, I guess…); make the people of Yahweh disobey their God and this will open them up to punishment. Balaam couldn’t curse the Israelites because God had blessed them. But Balaam advised Balak that if he could get the Israelites to sing against Yahweh that they would be opening themselves up to a curse.
Balaam couldn’t directly curse God’s children because they were set apart and blameless. Not even the Satan could come against God’s children until they came into disobedience. We must be vigilant in seeking the will of the Father, and doing everything in our power to stay in that will. If Jesus thought that it was important enough to warn the end times churches about the doctrine of Balaam, it’s probably something that we should still be concerned with today.
But the serpent said to the woman, “You shall not surely die. For God knows that on the day you both eat from it, then your eyes will be opened and you both shall be like gods, knowing good and evil.”
-Genesis 3:4-5
Is Your Gospel Big Enough: Day 4
(2 Corinthians 5)
Redemption opens up the creative process. In the beginning we were created in God’s image, to be creators. When man fell out of grace, the creative process was stifled. But now, that process has been redeemed. What can we create, for God?
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.
-2 Corinthians 5:17
Is Your Gospel Big Enough: Day 5
(Revelations 21)
Restoration
When Christ returns all things will be made new. We have been made new in Christ already but there will be a restoration of all things, in the end. We should seek to create new things for the kingdom. Not in place of Christ, but to show the world what is possible. Messiah will be the one who shows the world, in perfection, what restoration truly is. Jesus is the final answer, but we can show the world what the love of Jesus is like.
“And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any longer, and mourning or wailing or pain will not exit any longer. The former things have passed away.”
-Revelations 21:4
Is Your Gospel Big Enough: Day 6
(John 3:17, Ephesians 1:11)
In the common telling of the gospel story there are 2 chapters presented (Fall and Redemption), and this can lead to misunderstanding concerning a number of things: Our true destiny; why we were created in the first place; what we were created to do; the universal nature of salvation; it is bigger than sin; it allows us to view a difference between sacred and secular, when in our lives there should only be sacred; salvation is about more than just a free ride to heaven, we should seek to know and love God fully while here on earth.
Focusing on this “Four Chapter Gospel” doesn’t make a person more saved than anyone else, but it allows your faith to be something that can take over your life. I think there are many people who already look at their faith this way, even if they don’t think about it in this way. We just need to study the Scriptures and be willing to learn.
For God did not send His Son into the world in order that He should judge the world, but in order that the world should be saved through Him.
-John 3:17
Is Your Gospel Big Enough: Day 7
(Genesis 2:18, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Ephesians 4:2-3, John 15:16)
We put so much time into our relationships with those around us (well, most of us do – some of us try to stay away from people as much as possible…) but how much time do we put into our relationship with God? I’m not saying that there’s not a good reason to build that relationship with your coworkers, or your family, or your significant other. Relationships aren’t just a thing that we have to deal with; healthy relationships are what promote happiness, strength and growth. But, why don’t we invest our energies in promoting growth with God? Do we suppose that because He is God He’ll understand that we would really like to get to know Him better but we’re kinda busy right now? Is our excuse that God knows our heart and so He knows that we want to get to know Him better?
Well, first of all, don’t go pushing for God to judge your heart. After all, the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). And secondly, if your true wish (your heart’s desire) was to build a better relationship with God, you would be doing it.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and your fruit should remain, in order that whatever you ask the Father in my name He will give you.
-John 15:16
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