Good vs. Bad

I recently attended a church service, not at my home church, when a comment was made that really struck me. The pastor commented that he used to be a step all over your toes, yelling, beat the pulpit kind of guy. In fact, the lower people felt when they walked out of a sermon, the better he felt he had done. In recent years, he has adopted a new philosophy --- to encourage one another. My immediate thought was do we encourage one another to the point that we dilute the truth? Hmmmm…..Hebrews claims that we are to encourage one another daily, but does sharing what is seemingly bad truly contradict the statement of encouragement? or in hearing how messed up I am as a sinner can I find encouragement in the fact that the Lord has provided not only a way of salvation, but a comforter and teacher in the Holy Spirit to help me live out the Christian life? While having my toes stepped on hurts, can't I find encouragement in the fact that the Lord wants to conform me to the image of His son and sometimes that hurts?

As I thought back, I have heard other similar comments in Bible preaching churches (and I’m not talking about the name it claim it, God wants you to have it all, Jesus is only love churches either). Things such as I am not a bad news kind of person. Jesus wants to be your friend (without ever saying that first and foremost he wants to be your Lord and Savior). These comments bother me to the depths of my soul. While there is nothing wrong with them, there is something missing….and that is the bad news. For you see, we will never understand just how good the good news is until we understand how bad the bad news is. I was trying to explain this to Grayson this morning as I was reading him Ephesians 2:1-10. Jamison was sitting on the floor amused that I was explaining to Grayson that he is an object of wrath and that he is dead in his transgressions and sins but that God loved Him enough to send a Christ to save Him. Lofty I know for a 19 month old, but how true. Unless we understand as Ephesians spells out that we were objects of wrath, that we were dead, that we followed the ruler of this world, we will never understand how great what Christ did for us really was. How gloriously bright God’s love shines against the darkness that we lived in.

All of this brought to mind one of the things I learned in BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) years ago is that we should have a balanced view of God. I liked that. While God is love, God is also a jealous God. God is the righteous judge. God is a Warrior and a mighty King, not just our friend. There are so many aspects to the Lord our God and when we only present one aspect of Him, we are robbing people of knowing the full majesty and glory of who we serve. Not to mention that when we understand that He is Holy and He is a Judge, how much more will we be able to understand the love, mercy and grace He showed us. While His judgment and wrath is something to be feared, how grateful I am that it is balanced out by His great love and because of His great love I do not get exactly what I deserve, eternity separated from Him.

Now I am sure some of your are thinking that you never, ever want to hear me teach a Bible study lesson as I'll only tell you the bad news. That's not true. I love finding the encouragement as much as the next person. All I am trying to convey is that in teaching through the Bible that we have to present Scripture in it's entirety and all of it is not necessrily pleasant, but all of it is useful! So, when you hear the Bible taught and it seems like “bad” news, allow it to be the darkness that brings to life the greatness of the “good” news and allow it to be the Word of the Lord that transforms your life.

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:1-10