{"id":1918,"date":"2015-10-26T22:39:03","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T04:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/?p=1918"},"modified":"2015-10-26T22:39:03","modified_gmt":"2015-10-27T04:39:03","slug":"good-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/?p=1918","title":{"rendered":"Good News?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As an evangelical Christian, I grew up hearing the Gospel and knowing about the Four Spiritual Laws. I knew about \u201casking Jesus into your heart\u201d to be saved. My perspective and thinking has shifted and I now have some issues with the traditional evangelical approach to preaching the \u201cGood News\u201d.<\/p>\n

If we go back to what I was writing about at the beginning of the month, the research on shame shows that everyone experiences shame and that shame drives us to hide. Yet when we tell people about becoming a Christian we focus on how they are sinful (as their identity) and how they\u2019re not good enough<\/u>.<\/p>\n

This is completely counterproductive and here\u2019s why: in telling people they\u2019re not good enough we\u2019re essentially heaping shame on them. And shame drives people to hide. At the same time, we tell people they need to come to God. Why would someone come to God when they\u2019re hiding in shame and have been told that HE doesn\u2019t think they\u2019re good enough? This is certainly not the Good News from my perspective.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I believe: people already know they \u201csin\u201d. People outside the church don\u2019t use the word \u201csin\u201d but they can certainly attest to hurting each other and themselves, of messing up, of making mistakes. They experience shame and so they know all too well the feeling of \u201cnot good enough\u201d. As Christians, we don\u2019t need to remind them of that and reinforce the message of shame (and with that, fear).<\/p>\n

Jesus did tell people to repent of their sins and turn to God. He saw how they were lost and broken but He focused on their actions (guilt) and not<\/em><\/strong> their identity (shame). He didn\u2019t want them to be afraid and hide. And actually, he said that \u201cGod did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.\u201d (John 3:17).<\/p>\n

Jesus talked about love and said that loving God and loving others were the most important things (Matthew 22:36-40, Mark 12:28-34). He talked about God\u2019s extravagant love for us in parables such as the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) and the Lost Coin (Luke 15:8). And He said people would know we are followers of God if we love one another (John 13:34-35). This isn\u2019t typically what evangelical Christians focus on when sharing the Gospel.<\/p>\n

While I believe that our \u201csin\u201d (and shame) separates us from each other and God \u2013 shame drives disconnection \u2013 our sin does NOT diminish our worth in God\u2019s eyes<\/strong>. We are of such value to God that He sent His Son to save us from our sin and shame (\u201cGod so loved the world\u2026\u201d John 3:16).<\/p>\n

Which brings me back to the \u201cImago Dei\u201d \u2013 the image of God. Why don\u2019t we start here when telling people about God? That they bear the image of God, that they are beautiful and precious to Him. That He loves them so very, very much. He longs to have connection and relationship with them. It\u2019s not about God controlling our lives \u2013 He gave us free will. It\u2019s about relationship. He wants to remove the things in our lives that drive disconnection, that come between us and God and between us and each other. This is for our benefit. This is for healing and wholeness. His grace says that \u201cwe are enough\u201d, we are accepted; we aren\u2019t condemned. Through God, we have a way out from under our shame. Jesus made a way for us through His death and resurrection to come back to God in relationship. I don\u2019t exactly understand how, but through this Jesus dealt with our separation from God (which included hiding in shame). Our part is simply to accept that this is true, to receive that love, and to be open to a relationship with the One whose image we bear.<\/p>\n

This is a much more compelling message in my eyes. Instead of a message which has shame and fear as the foundation, we have a message of love, acceptance, and belonging \u2013 those things all people are wired for \u2013 those things which are ultimately fulfilled in our relationship with God. A relationship which brings freedom and healing and life. Good things! Good News! That\u2019s what I want to focus on.<\/p>\n

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As an evangelical Christian, I grew up hearing the Gospel and knowing about the Four Spiritual Laws. I knew about \u201casking Jesus into your heart\u201d […] Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,4,5,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1918"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1925,"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions\/1925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}