Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in your HomeSample

Don’t Smurf the Gospel What is the significance of raising children? How important is the food we eat or the jobs we work? People have always talked about spiritual things and how it connects to their everyday life. This isn’t a new concept. All religions have different ideas on how to connect God to the mundane and the mundane to God. How can we possibly sort through all of them and discern what is pleasing to the Lord? We need Scripture to inform the way we think, and of primary importance to a Christian’s worldview is the gospel. When we say that word—the gospel—we need to be clear. We do not want to be “smurfy” about that word, in the manner of the blue cartoon creatures who use the term “smurf” as an adjective, noun, and verb! Clarifying and defining the term “gospel” is of the utmost importance. The gospel is the news of what God has done in Jesus—particularly and supremely in Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. If we aren’t clear on what the Christian gospel is then what is at stake is not merely a harmless misunderstanding, but eternal life and death. So, what difference does the truth of this gospel make in our everyday lives? How do we live in such a way that is in line with the fact that Jesus was crucified for our sins, raised from the dead, is ruling from heaven, and will return again? Seeing the “glimpses of grace” in our everyday lives is about learning to live in light of the reality that the gospel is utterly true and powerful.