Finding the Gospel

Yesterday I went to a discipleship training - I learned a lot. I've heard before many times that we should be preaching the gospel to ourselves everyday - but never before have I realized that there was such a practical and cool way to do that. The premise was that all passages in the bible can be related back to the gospel. The gospel tells us of a graceful substitution that is given to us so that we can be justified, righteous, free, etc. I thought it was quite the interesting concept - and Warren had been talking with me a while for quite some time about the centrality of the gospel. I got what he was saying conceptually, but it is totally different when you see it done practically. So we were given a passage and we were asked to find the gospel in the passage.

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.

2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.

4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

So when we were going through this they asked: What sermons would typically be preached on this passage? Someone said meditation on the word (v2). Someone else said not walking in the council of the wicked (v1). What you get out of the passage then, are basically "rules" or legalistic views on what to do and what not to do. However, if we look for the gospel within the text, we would be able to realize God's grace and our sinfulness - resulting in a deeper understanding of the gospel which leads to spiritual growth.

So in Psalm 1, the gospel is found throughout the psalm. In verses 1-3, it talks about a man who does not walk in the council of the wicked, does not stand in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of mockers (v1). It talks about a man who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night (v2), and a man like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, whose leaf does not whither, and whatever he does prospers (v3). That sounds like Jesus. In verses 4-5 it proceeds to contrast this man with the wicked - who are like chaff and the wind blows away (v4). Verse 5 says that the wicked will not stand in judgement before the rightous (v5). Verse 6 brings everything together.. the Lord watches over the way of the righteous - but the way of the wicked will perish. Because of God's sacrifice - we are made

countdown

Wow, I haven't blogged in a while...

Last week my family, Joyce and I went on a little trip to NY, Atlantic City, and Philly. It was a fun week and nice to have the whole family together like old times.

We were in NY for New Years Eve and we did the Times Square thing. We got onto 7th Ave around 5pm on Dec. 31st. We were able to find a restaurant to eat in. It was funny, because my dad wanted to stay there from 5-11:30 so we could minimize the standing around. Lo and behold, a lot of people in the restaurant were planning that too. Some more blatently than others, of course. We at least were ordering food every hour or so (we spaced out the ordering of our dishes.. hehe). There were people in the restaurant who just ordered a drink and was playing cards! Half of this small restaurant had people playing cards! Kind of funny. Anyways - the manager got mad at the people playing cards for 2 hours and decided to lecture them in mandarin. So the people playing cards ordered some food. We stayed in the restaurant until 8:30 because we couldn't eat any more and we didn't want to take up their space (even tho the police had blocked off the block anyways so no customers would likely eat there....) Anyways, so we get out and we realize that the police had blocked off the block and we had to walk back to a block that wasn't blocked off in order to see the ball drop. This was devestating because we thought we could just walk into the street and see the ball drop after dinner - but the police said we couldn't stay on the sidewalk for 3 hours. So my dad just acts "soh soh day" and walks into one of the blocked off blocks right in front of a policeman. And the policeman I guess thought that he belonged into that block cuz he walked in so confidently. So we all walked into the block and stayed there until the ball fell down. Its hard to explain in words, but it was kinda funny :P

Anyhoo, here are some pictures of our time standing in Times Square...

my family

my family and joycie

awe my parents are so happy
our view: the ball we were watching is that blue speck of light that you see on top of the column of TVs
note the clock to the right - it was the clock we were watching to determine the time left until the ball dropped
also note the billboard on the left (google this) - the finger was actually pointing to people (we thought that was pretty funny)
joycie and me

It was an experience - but I dont think I'll ever do it again. Standing there waiting for a ball to drop was kind of boring - especially since we couldn't hear any of the performances (we could see them on the TV but we couldn't hear the sounds)

And to end this post, here are some other pics from our trip:

central park - with the plaza hotel in the background (the hotel that home alone 2 featured!)
my dad airbrushed in the last pic (just keeding)
the coolest Apple store ever
atlantic city along the boardwalk
sharing a malt at Johnny Rockets
my dad pretending to be Rocky (aie)
Penns landing on a crazy warm day in January
Joyce's foot vs. My foot

It was a great week - I wish there were more weeks like this :)