<\/p>\n
At Covenant Family Church we have begun reading and preaching through the gospel of Mark. Line on line, word by word we have been taking our time with it, and it has been really eye-opening for me. I\u2019ve read through this gospel before, but never like this. \u00a0<\/span>It\u2019s a tense rendition with a lot of action that can catch you off guard, and I am seeing Jesus in a whole new light.<\/p>\n 1. The Gospel Gives You a Better Understanding of God<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n From the buildup to his birth (which really started back at creation), to John the Baptist with his edgy style, to Jesus now proving over and over again that He is God among us, this gospel is growing my understanding of who He is, how I see Him, and how I relate to Him. And it should. Especially when you consider what the gospel really is.<\/p>\n 2. The Gospel is a Life Saver<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n This gospel (really good news) is more than just picking up the Wall Street Journal and finding that your stocks are up. It is more than receiving a letter from a friend to hear that they have beaten the cancer scare in their life. It\u2019s even more than a scratch-off lottery ticket showing you\u2019ve just won fifty bucks. It\u2019s actually a life saver<\/span><\/strong><\/em>. John\u2019s recording of Jesus life says that He was the word (gospel) made flesh, and that in Him was life, and that life was the light of men. In the gospel we find Jesus, our life found in the word.<\/p>\n 3. The Gospel is Constantly Growing and Increasing in Your Life<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n God has also caused the gospel to have a very unique characteristic, unlike any news you\u2019ve ever heard before! Consider what Paul wrote about it in Colossians 1:5-6 \u201c\u2026the gospel \u00a0which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing<\/strong><\/em><\/span>, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth,\u201d (NASB). Constantly bearing fruit and increasing? This gospel keeps growing in my heart<\/span><\/strong><\/em> and bears fruit in my life. It\u2019s the very nature of this amazing report. It\u2019s a trait of something alive and active.<\/p>\n 4. The Gospel is Alive and Powerful<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Hebrews 4:12 reads, \u201cFor the word of God is living and active<\/i> <\/span><\/span><\/strong>and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart,\u201d (NASB). It is a powerful thing to really see yourself<\/span><\/strong><\/em>, to really get to the bottom of your motives and intentions in this life. Knowing that is often the first step to understand where to go.\u00a0 And seeing Jesus convinces me that I now know something. I know the love of God is concisely expressed in Jesus and I want that love in my life.<\/p>\n Conclusion<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Powerfully revealing the love of God, the gospel actively grows in my heart. That\u2019s why I can agree with Paul when he says in Romans 1:16, \u201cFor I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek,\u201d (NASB). The gospel is God\u2019s power to save my life<\/span><\/em><\/strong>. And yours.\u00a0 Maybe that is why we are going through it line on line, word by word.\u00a0 Letting it do its work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At Covenant Family Church we have begun reading and preaching through the gospel of Mark. Line on line, word by word we have been taking our time with it, and it has been really eye-opening for me. I\u2019ve read through this gospel before, but never like this. \u00a0It\u2019s a tense rendition with a lot of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[6,8,5,10,9,7],"class_list":["post-259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","tag-bearing-fruit","tag-good-news","tag-gospel","tag-life-saver","tag-living-and-active","tag-understanding-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions\/270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfcmankato.org\/minnesota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}