The purpose of this site is to explore and celebrate the role of action and art in living out my faith; it could be possible to not get what I mean by references to the Gospel, which is just an anglicized Greek word that means good news.  And while I don’t think explaining in context what that means would constitute the oft used “cramming it down my throat” violation, I felt it important to set aside a space to layout just what exactly is this good news.

The shortest answer is…the rest of the story. 

I believe that this world, your experience, your very existence, bears witness to the existence of great beauty and possibility and also great injustice and suffering.  Possibly at some point you have asked aloud, or to yourself, “Why?” 

Theologians often refer to that as general revelation, and though that term is not in any part of the Bible, there are many passages that explain that it is possible to conclude (actually impossible to deny) the existence of God from our experience in this world.  Our own brokenness, the suffering of this world, despite its capacity for beauty as well, is also conclusive.

 And that is it.  That is basically all we can expect to come to in our understanding.  I mean there are plenty of ways humans have sought to resolve, solve, make sense out of, these two huge ideas…the existence of divinity, unspecified, and the presence of suffering, of pain, of violence, of what the Bible calls sin.  But those are our attempts to reach outward and upward or inward to find answers.

The Good News is the rest of the story, God reached down to us, making the resolution apparent.  The rest of the story originated from the source, the author. 

And that is what theologians call specific revelation, what can’t be deduced or known, unless it is revealed, and that is what the Bible is, a record of God’s reach to us; He revealed Himself, His will and His plan, redemption.  He has chosen, He has acted and He has spoken.

The rest of the story is dramatic, and in many ways unexpected.  God chose to redeem His creation, and He sent His only Son, to reveal His love for us, and to die in our place for the sin that separates us from God, so we can draw near to God in response to His invitation. 

And that is what the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ is all about.  God redeeming us, by Jesus paying the price for our sin so we could have access to God as He originally intended for us, before sin entered the world.

The best I can do,

qwerty

I would love to help answer any questions you have or point you in the direction of someone who can.