Articles - Gospel Applied

Sacrificial service in a relationship is not just a product of being a ‘nice guy’. It’s not motivated by sentimental chivalry. It’s tied to the very fabric of our faith – Christ’s death for us.

(This article intended specifically for single guys but helpful to all.)

Dating. Courtship. Dateship.

Yes, the gospel applies even to the tough area of relationships. The gospel calls us to recognize our greatest need and calls us to a single pursuit.

(This article intended specifically for single girls, but helpful for all.)

How does the gospel apply to disagreement in the church? How can we strive for unity without compromise and avoid unnecessary division?

We’ve got to remember that the cross is the basis of Christian unity—we only fit together when our lives are shaped by it, and we only hold together when we’re all clinging to it.

On Sunday we’re pretty gospel centered. We sing about the gospel, we hear a message about the gospel, we discuss spiritual issues with a friend. But when we walk into the office Monday morning the gospel is shoved out of our minds by meetings and projects and tasks.

So what does the gospel have to say to us as we walk in the office doors on Monday morning?

Everyone has a religious worldview--even famous atheists like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. The only distinction between worldviews is whether the object of worship is God the Creator, or this world, the creation. The Bible makes the radical assertion that it is necessary to know and fear God before arriving at any true conclusions about yourself and the world.

We live in a world in which injustice is all around us. Injustice that can seem a far cry from the mercy of Jesus. Yet, the gospel has something to say to those that have suffered injustice, those that do injustice, and those that see injustice. Neither injustice nor the resulting wounds have the last word. There is healing available. There is reparation for the victim. But it can only be experienced by freshly appropriating the good news, clinging to the cross rather than to our injury.

Sometimes the most obvious truths are the easiest to forget. Pastor Rich Richardson shares how he seeks to apply the gospel to his work as a pastor. Along the way he suggests helpful questions to help both pastors and laymembers keep the gospel at the center of life and ministry. 

Sometimes becoming a Christian doesn’t make things easier with an unbelieving family, it makes them harder. How should we relate to an unbelieving family in light of the gospel? From his experience with his own unbelieving family Chris Daukas shares three sins to guard against and one hope to hold on to. 

What are practical ways you can work for God’s glory from 9 to 5? And how can you tell what your calling is in the first place? Justin Taylor continues his thoughts from part one of his article on a biblical perspective of work. 

Have you ever seen a TGIM (Thank God It’s Monday) bumper sticker? I haven’t.

As Americans—and Christians usually aren’t much different—we spend many years and thousands of dollars getting an education, all to prepare us to get a job. Then once we get a job, we spend many years and thousands of more dollars awaiting the soonest time that we can retire! In the meantime—we live…

I’ll never forget the feelings of discouragement.

As an intern on my church staff, I was responsible for an English as a Second Language (ESL) ministry that was flourishing in our local migrant Mexican community. As a result, we decided to offer a bible-based course exploring Christianity in Spanish, inviting our ESL students to come and hear the gospel in their native tongue. After the current ESL course…

I have a problem. I don’t expect you can relate since no one else does. But that’s the nature of it. See, my problem is this: no one feels sorry for me.

Strange, right? There are times in any given month, week or day when things just don’t work out the way I want. In fact, I find with distressing frequency that I don’t always get what I…

How many conversations do you have per day? Ten? Twenty? Fifty?

What are these different conversations about—what topics do you tend to talk about the most? As you go about your conversations does the gospel ever make an appearance? Or, to put it another way: does the gospel that you cherish during Sunday mornings services, during private Bible reading and prayer, during your small group meeting—does this gospel…

“He’s being moved from the hospital,” she said “People from the hospice are going over. So you know what that means.”

And I did. It meant that they were just trying to make him comfortable.

My mom’s Uncle Ross had been in hospital for something else when they discovered the bone cancer. It was already too far—they couldn’t stop it. So we were already making arrangements…

I remember the first time my oldest daughter tasted a lemon.  She must have been around a year old, and she kept begging for the alluring yellow fruit tantalizingly adorning the rim of mom’s iced tea. 

We thought we’d get a little chuckle and teach her not to beg by giving her a taste.  Her eyes brightened as we passed the lemon wedge to her.  She took it…

Our series on the gospel applied to real life begins with this article from Rich Richardson, senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Gilbert, AZ.
______

Last month while Christmas shopping, a middle-aged woman in our church died unexpectedly of a heart attack, and our church suddenly and painfully had to grapple with how the gospel functions in death. How were we supposed to help a family dealing with the lingering pain of life without their mother-wife-grandmother?

Without a thorough understanding and application of the gospel, our response to death can be reduced to a collection of well-meaning clichés rather than the sturdy, life-giving hope intended for those left behind.