I started my Saturday evening with some relaxing basketball on X-box live (I got whooped). Then I decided it might be time for some deeper thought (to get me tired and ready for bed). I picked up A Testament to Freedom which is a collection of writings by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (an amazing theologian). I flipped to a sermon entitled Learning to Die and found this little gem of truth.

“And I saw an angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting [tag]gospel[/tag] to preach…”[Rev 14:6]…The angel flies in the midst of heaven with the everlasting gospel. In other words, it belongs in the middle of heaven as it does in the middle of earth – the everlasting gospel. That is great comfort to all the faithful: the everlasting gospel does remain – it is an everlasting gospel; our gospel, as we hear it and preach it Sunday after Sunday; the gospel, which we have with us in our Bibles, reading it morning and evening, which gave a new turn to our lives once, when we understood it correctly for the first time; the gospel, here ridiculed and attacked and dragged through the mud – and yet, covertly and secretly believed; the gospel, openly confessed by martyrs of all times – the gospel remains forever.

A couple of thoughts:

This helps me to realize that the gospel really is my story; a story of life, a story of death, and ultimately a story of redemption. It’s the story of my salvation, filled with details of a sinful past proving my need of a savior, a glorious spiritual rebirth when I understood God’s gift, and ending when I say goodbye to this world and open my eyes in a better one.

I also realize that in sharing the gospel of [tag]Jesus Christ[/tag] I am basically delivering a message directly from [tag]Heaven[/tag]. Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection, his defeat of death, is the good news of Heaven and therefore the good news of earth. It is the gospel that glorifies and delights God in Heaven, and magnifies His glory across the earth.

There is much more that could be said here, but rather than me blathering on, please share your thoughts…