Apologies and Updates
By Wayne Harmon
It has been several weeks since I last posted anything. I apologize for that. My wife and I are the long distance caregivers for my 83 year old mother. Every few weeks we make a quick trip to visit her, take her to her doctor appointments and take care of routine business affairs.
While we were there my wife received a call from her mother that my brother-in-law had died that morning of a heart attack. He was 58 years old. So our planned four day 600 mile round trip became a twelve day 3000 mile marathon.
It has taken me a while to get back to my writing. I’m sorry.
During my brother-in-law’s funeral the preacher decided that with such a captive audience he had a perfect opportunity to preach a “salvation message”.
I was saddened and disgusted.
He began by rapidly reciting a string of KJV Bible verses carefully plucked to convince us that Hell was our future. He then rattled off another set of verses to convince us that he could show us the way out.
Most of the people there were “churched”, and were very pleased with what they were hearing. To them it was a clear presentation of the Gospel.
To me it was uncomfortable, embarrassing and tacky.
They just don’t realize that to someone not fluent in “Baptist” the preacher was just speaking gibberish. But as I thought about it, he wasn’t preaching to the “lost” to get them “saved”. He was preaching to the “saved” to make them feel good.
I left thinking about what is the true Gospel. The word “gospel” is derived from the Old English word “god-spel” (pronounced “good spell”). The word simply means “Good Story”.
So, what is the Good Story? It is the story, news, that Jesus has reconciled us to the Father. That’s it!
God isn’t mad at us. It’s safe to come home.
No need to confuse people with a litany of “scriptures” spouted in a 400 year old foreign language.
No need to threaten people with Hell.
No need to preach a “salvation message” every time people gather in groups for various reasons.
No screaming. No threats. No guilt.
Tell them God loves us so much that He made special arrangements for us to safely return to Him.
It’s over.
It’s safe.
Come home.
Dad’s waiting.
Copyright 2014: Wayne Harmon