A complete gospel
Faustino de Jesús Zamora Vargas
SUMMARY: As we enter the new year, we should focus on areas where we feel the Holy Spirit is at work and join in God's mission to redeem humanity. This means standing in the gap before God and doing good works founded on faith. Faith without works is dead. We must not only preach the gospel, but also live it by helping those in need. We need a new social doctrine of the church that is turned towards the community and helps those who are suffering. Let us strive to be like Christ and do good works for His glory.
The echoes of the Christmas symphony have not yet died down and we are already meditating on the things we would like to do for the Lord in this new year. Although we entrust the final result of every plan to God and to his perfect will, it is not idle to focus on those areas where we know - or intuit - that the Holy Spirit is at work and then join the epic that our Savior stars day after day. in his fight to redeem humanity. Our life in Christ has meaning and purposes and that is why new ideas and visions are valid if we understand that they come from Him. It is the New Year and it is happy those who belong to Christ and understand that their purpose in life is to glorify Him.
The Lord continues to seek men and women who will stand in the gap before Him and do good works founded on faith. Standing in the gap is, among other things, looking at the world with His eyes, raising the banner of human solidarity, suffering together with the hungry, the poor and the sick; it is emptying the shelves of conformity and egotism to fill them with a sense of "we". The one who does good works is the one who, experiencing the life of God, works by virtue of what Christ has done in his life and glorifies him in this way; it is a logical consequence of walking with Christ. Someone wisely said that faith is the only foundation of Christianity but not the building. The building is the works done in Christ ... if you have faith, and not works, you have no building, when it rains, you get wet. It is an accurate illustration. James 2:17 says: "... faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself."
I have suffered great disappointments and more than one little sign of "pious Christian" has fallen when I see the contempt and indifference with which some brothers in Christ who visit us turn their faces to the beggars of my land. The saddest thing is that hours before my whole being had been moved to tears listening to an ultra-theological sermon on the Sermon on the Mount and the beatitudes. So sad!
As God was with Jesus… He did good, and healed, restored, forgave and washed the wounds… of all those oppressed by the devil. We do not take souls from the devil, but people. Christ is interested not only in souls, but also in the spirit and body of people. The gospel is total and must be shared evenly. He wants everything and is interested in the wholeness of the human being. It may seem exaggerated, but to be a Christian is to be another Christ! ... and that is why we affirm that Christ lives in us. (Gal. 2:20). We need to raise up and put into practice a new social doctrine of the church of the living God, a church turned towards community with Christians who daily wash the skin of today's lepers. We need prophets who speak to men of God, to family, to friends, with a message not only of words but of life. We need anointing of the Spirit and fence so that the evil one does not pass through the gaps that are still open in our daily walk following Christ.
If we do not preach a complete gospel - in word and witness - we will cause collateral damage to those whom we have invited to receive Christ and then leave them abandoned in the middle of the road. If the faith that we profess does not move us to act in favor of those who need the Bread of Life (and the daily bread), the world will not believe us. It is the new year and the Lord wants to find you in the gap before Him. Doing good works is not optional. It is a way of living the gospel, it is a lifestyle inspired and subject to Christ. God bless you!
The Lord continues to seek men and women who will stand in the gap before Him and do good works founded on faith. Standing in the gap is, among other things, looking at the world with His eyes, raising the banner of human solidarity, suffering together with the hungry, the poor and the sick; it is emptying the shelves of conformity and egotism to fill them with a sense of "we". The one who does good works is the one who, experiencing the life of God, works by virtue of what Christ has done in his life and glorifies him in this way; it is a logical consequence of walking with Christ. Someone wisely said that faith is the only foundation of Christianity but not the building. The building is the works done in Christ ... if you have faith, and not works, you have no building, when it rains, you get wet. It is an accurate illustration. James 2:17 says: "... faith, if it does not have works, is dead in itself."
I have suffered great disappointments and more than one little sign of "pious Christian" has fallen when I see the contempt and indifference with which some brothers in Christ who visit us turn their faces to the beggars of my land. The saddest thing is that hours before my whole being had been moved to tears listening to an ultra-theological sermon on the Sermon on the Mount and the beatitudes. So sad!
As God was with Jesus… He did good, and healed, restored, forgave and washed the wounds… of all those oppressed by the devil. We do not take souls from the devil, but people. Christ is interested not only in souls, but also in the spirit and body of people. The gospel is total and must be shared evenly. He wants everything and is interested in the wholeness of the human being. It may seem exaggerated, but to be a Christian is to be another Christ! ... and that is why we affirm that Christ lives in us. (Gal. 2:20). We need to raise up and put into practice a new social doctrine of the church of the living God, a church turned towards community with Christians who daily wash the skin of today's lepers. We need prophets who speak to men of God, to family, to friends, with a message not only of words but of life. We need anointing of the Spirit and fence so that the evil one does not pass through the gaps that are still open in our daily walk following Christ.
If we do not preach a complete gospel - in word and witness - we will cause collateral damage to those whom we have invited to receive Christ and then leave them abandoned in the middle of the road. If the faith that we profess does not move us to act in favor of those who need the Bread of Life (and the daily bread), the world will not believe us. It is the new year and the Lord wants to find you in the gap before Him. Doing good works is not optional. It is a way of living the gospel, it is a lifestyle inspired and subject to Christ. God bless you!
