I would like to preface this post by saying that this particular blog may seem preachy to some of you. This is not my intent. I merely want to share what I have been listening to, and reading over the past couple of months, and what it has meant to me.
Having said that, let me tell you what this blog is mostly based on. I have been listening to a preacher named Timothy Keller who is the pastor of a Presbyterian church named Redeemer, and it is based out of New York. He has a podcast that can be downloaded for free on iTunes, if any of you have iTunes. I have also started reading some of his books, one being "Counterfeit Gods" and now I am reading "The Prodigal God". I was introduced to his podcast by a dear friend of mine, and I have been so touched by what Timothy Keller has to say, that I want to share it with you, the reader of this blog. I will not be quoting any of his sermons, seeing as there are too many quotes, it would take up the whole blog. Rather, I am just going to put in my own words the sense that I am getting by listening to Timothy Keller.
I have been a Christian since the young age of 4. I remember clearly my conversion experience. I was sitting at the island in our kitchen in my family's California home. My mom came to me and asked me if I wanted to accept Jesus into my heart, after a brief explanation by her of what that meant. Even at that young age, I still knew what it meant, and I said yes. My mom prayed with me the "sinner's prayer" and I was born again. From that time on, I always knew Jesus was, and is, with me. Even in my most rebellious state, I knew He had never left me, nor will He ever leave me.
So how does my conversion experience tie into Timothy Keller's sermons, you may ask. Let me tell you. Even though I have been a Christian for some 28 years now, and grew up in a Christian home, and a non-denominational Christian church, I have never quite heard the gospel of Jesus so powerfully explained to me as it has been by Timothy Keller. This profoundly means that any of us can go to church all our lives, and still be in the dark when it comes to the true meaning of Christianity. We may think we know, but do we really? Or is there more, as the title of this blog implies?
Let me be careful to say that Timothy Keller is just a man and that the true revelation of God comes from God's Word, the Bible. I do believe, though, that Timothy Keller has some great insight and is worth listening to, just to get our brains thinking about the tough issues. Timothy Keller is a place to start that thinking process, but he is not the end of that process.
So what am I learning? Mainly this: There is so much more to the gospel then just the state of being saved and going to heaven. This is a great thing in and of itself, to be sure. But as some of you may already know, Jesus IS heaven, and to be saved is to be with Jesus....even now. This I have accepted intellectually and (I hope) in my heart as well. But the more I hear about the gospel, the more I feel my head about to explode (not literally) with one simple idea. What's that idea? It is this: I do not know the gospel as much as I could, and if I did, my reaction would and should be continual celebration and weeping for joy. It is that amazing and that great!
Even Timothy Keller's sermons only touch the tip of the iceberg, as it were, on what the gospel truly means. I have been feeling more and more that I am standing at a precipice, looking down into the message of the gospel, and that if I take one more step towards understanding it, I will fall into the chasm of joy, and be so surrounded by it that it would almost be unbearable....almost. I say almost because to say that anything that Jesus offers us is unbearable, is in fact, a contradiction. Jesus never gives us more than we can handle. And so it stands at this: Jesus offers joy unspeakable and overwhelming, and yet we are not consumed by it. We remain intact. This is a beautiful pardox.
So what is so amazing about the gospel? Everything! We not only will have what we need in the future, when we go to heaven, but we have all we need now! My understanding of the gospel is very cloudy and shrouded in shadow, but even my mere glimpses of it are glorious! Jesus took every punishment and depravation we should have had upon Himself, and in return, gave us every blessing and treasure that was and is rightfully His. Why did He do this amazing thing? Because we are His treasure! He values us so much more then could ever be expressed. Like I have been trying to express in this blog, I do not even know the half of it. It is truly beyond understanding. But if we could just begin to wrap our minds around this simple idea, mainly this: Jesus has the highest regard for you and me. And He is the King of the UNIVERSE! He is the most powerful being ever, but He humbled Himself to show just how much He truly loves us. If we could truly comprehend this, we would be truly changed..
I pray every day that I will be more like Jesus. Not so that He can give me things or bless me. He has already blessed me more than I deserve. And I know He will continue to bless me. But Jesus is an end in Himself. Jesus is the ultimate goal. To have Jesus is to have everything. And if we really knew this, we would no longer have a gnawing emptiness inside. We wouldn't be searching for something else, because we would KNOW that we had already found it. This is my prayer for all of you and myself. That we would truly find Jesus, and in finding Him, we would know that we are now complete.
by Crystal
