An Outlandish Assignment
Oct 5, 2022.We have been placed in the same position as all of our gospel predecessors - offering a message about a risen Jesus that defies logic. Jesus himself was the first one to be placed in this odd position. When he was questioned by the High Priest in Mark 14: 62 Jesus simply stated that he was the son of God and would soon be sitting on the throne at the right hand of The Father. But those words seemed ludicrous to the religious leaders of the day, and they immediately voted to have him crucified for blasphemy. However, three days after he was executed, he rose again leaving an open empty tomb behind for all to see. So Jesus was telling the truth, however illogical it sounded at the time. Since then, every minister of the gospel has been tasked to offer an unearthly message to earthly people, and invite them to start praying to an invisible Jesus and expect him to answer back. And to their great surprise, person after person found that Jesus did answer back, and faith was born. This is exactly what Paul said would happen in Romans 10:17, "Faith comes from hearing the Good News about Christ." (NLT). When we tell the Jesus Stories of healing and water-walking and rising from the dead, however illogical they sound, he will show up to our hearers. Here is the timeless truth: we are in the business of birthing unearthly faith into the hearts of rational people. What an outlandish assignment!Do you have a team around you that needs to be reminded about the immense power of the Jesus Stories? Are any of them tempted to reduce the stories down to rational and logical explanations? None of us have been called to deliver a gospel narrative that is immediately believable; we have been called serve the outlandish stories about Jesus. The health and future of your dinner church rests upon your Jesus talk, and his self-revelations to follow.Blessings & Boldness,VerlonPS - Jon Davis has written a great update about the hurricane destruction of one of our Dinner Church neighborhoods in Fort Myers Florida. Please take a moment to read this...it's one of ours.https://freshexpressions.com/2022/10/05/hurricane-ian-support-for-dinner-churches-and-others
