THE GOSPEL JESUS PROCLAIMED

Here’s a question: What was the gospel Jesus preached?

We might answer: “Well, the gospel is: Jesus died on the cross to save us from sin and death and hell so we could go to heaven when we die…” and it’s all by GRACE; you can’t earn it or deserve it.

But wait: Jesus hadn’t died yet…the gospel he preached could not have been that he died to save us from sin and death. So what did he preach? Hint: His gospel is about life, not just sin.

Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 

And just so we don’t miss what Matthew is saying, here it is a few verses later: Matthew 4:23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom… 

What these words mean in the Greek:

“From that time”: means from that point, that pivotal divide, Jesus began to bring ONE MESSAGE: The KINGDOM OF GOD

“Repent”: to think differently afterwards, reconsider to feel compunction) TO RETHINK HOW YOU ARE: THINKING, FEELING, CHOOSING, SPEAKING, ACTING, RELATING…in light of this whole new luminous opportunity to walk right into God’s kingdom and join him in what he’s doing. Note: This is the opposite of the condemnatory “accusing finger in your face—repent!” which is not at all what Jesus was saying in Matthew 4:17.

 “the kingdom of heaven” That is: the BENEVOLENT GOVERNANCE OF GOD. “royalty, realm, rule, government, kingdom, reign.”

“is at hand”: here and now, come, arrive, draw near, present here and now (not almost here or on its way).

Jesus is saying, proclaiming, publishing, articulating,  this one brilliant reality: 

The good governance of God is now accessible, available, ready to be applied to the lives of anyone humble enough to receive it! 

And here and now in the 21st century, the message is still the same! So, the gospel Jesus preached was

The Gospel (“good news”) of THE KINGDOM:

The gospel Jesus PROCLAIMED and SPOKE was not about how to get rid of your sin and how to get into the good place when you die and avoid the bad place. It was about actually living your whole life, your real life, your right-now life in and under the good governance of the King of kings and his government—with your warts and all.

So, what IS the Kingdom of God? What’s a kingdom? A kingdom is essentially what a king does. It is where what the king wants done is done. Thus God’s kingdom is what God is now doing. It is where what he wants done is done. It is the range of his effective will. When you are and do God’s will you’re literally living in the kingdom of God. Cool.

Christ reigns through the heavens infinitely and eternally, yet currently in human hearts and everything we touch, he has made a sovereign decision not to rule unless he is personally invited. He waits patiently to reveal his glory in power until it covers the whole world as the waters cover the sea. Until that time all creation groans—and we groan with it! (Just watch the 24-hour news cycle—what you see and hear is creation groaning). 

Hebrews 2:8-9 In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.  9 But we see Jesus,… God’s kingdom is God acting. What God is actually now doing in time, space, matter, energy, eternity and especially in humanity. 

And what is God now doing? He is reconciling all things to himself in Christ 2 Cor 5:19

• The gospel is about living your life here and now AND forever in the total sufficiency of the Kingdom of God.

• The gospel is not about sin and death and hell. It’s about LIFE with God now in his kingdom come as his will is done on earth as it is in the heavens!!! 

• It’s not about getting you into heaven, it’s about getting heaven into you and everything your life touches.

• It’s not a “fire-insurance” loophole; but an invitation to a whole new life.

• The gospel is not just about living in the kingdom of heaven after I die. It’s about living in the kingdom of heaven before I die.

• The gospel is more about HOW PEOPLE CAN LIVE than why Jesus had to die.

• The gospel is about dying to my life my way so we can experience our life Christ’s way.

Paul understood all this: 

Romans 14:17  For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 

Righteousness Is the ability to know and do the right thing. Righteousness is a pure gift from Jesus. No one can earn it. You can be fully assured that in your inmost being you are truly good and right before God and men—because of this gift from Christ. Paul speaks of it as the gift of righteousness In Rom 15:17

Peace: Resting your will by trusting in God’s ability and willingness to help you. Peace is the assurance about how things will turn out.

Phil 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.Joy: 

A strong sense well-being based on knowledge of how things truly are. A  delightful sense of an ever-increasing good that is well-secured. John 16:24 …Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. 

Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Joy: Is actually relational. Joy is defined as someone who is glad to be with you. Many false joys abound in our addictive, hyper-sexualized, idol-ridden culture. We call these “BEEPS”, Behaviors, Experiences, Events, People and Substances. When you look to these for quick-fix joy, it evaporates before you can grasp it. Besides, joy is something you give away and graciously receive—not something you seize.

So, enjoy Jesus and his amazing kingdom today. It’s a beautiful day in the Lord. Don’t let it get away.

Jim Strysko

A Message Of Love And Appreciation To Healthcare Workers

Who would have thought that when we selected the name “MadeToBreathe.org domain in 2017 that all the events that we subsequently experienced over the past 5 years would have come to pass!

I don’t think that there is one of us who have not experienced a loss of some sort during these years of Covid.  We feel compelled to lift in prayer our co-workers and healthcare providers who have experienced, firsthand, the trauma of Covid and continue to press on.  Let us intercede on their behalf.

For the caregivers who are weary and living in a valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37), we call out the breath of life into your spirit and soul.  “The breath of the Almighty gives you life.”  Job 33:4

 “Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.”  (Ex. 15:27). May you find refreshment and restoration.

Please let us know how we can pray for you. Click the CONTACT US icon in the upper left of the HOME page.

Pause, Breathe, Heal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Weqs6IuIa0&list=PLTrRujjZscqmM4BRgJSs3aNYoy0Re-Kf9  Romans  - Nothing Can Separate Me. Roman 8:38-39

Immanuel

For those of us

Broken by

Life

Loss

Dreams, Treasures

Futures, Cherished

Now Fleeting memories

Tainted sweetness

Acrid

Laced with myrrh

Adorned with pain

Regret

Void

To be with us. Immanuel. Through the sorrow. Agony. Abandonment. The presence. Hope. With us. Immanuel.

—Brenda Strysko December 25, 2018

What "Made To Breathe" Means

Just as a baby in the womb of its mother is perfectly designed to thrive in a whole new environment, so people living in this world are designed to live in a whole new eternal environment.

Just as a baby in the womb of its mother is made to breathe the air its mother is breathing, so every person living in this world is made to breathe the “oxygen of heaven”. 

Just as a baby’s body in the womb is already assimilating the oxygen from the whole new world it will soon enter, just outside it’s mother’s body, so human beings assimilate the life-giving resources of heaven. We are made to depend on power and resources outside of us.

For the baby to thrive once it is born into the whole new world of its mother, something is required of it: the baby must take its first breath and keep on taking in (now, breathing-in) the oxygen in the whole new world all around it. 

Though that first gasping breath is an involuntary response, it is required of every individual for survival in the new world.

Just as the ability to breathe is developed and required of the baby if it is to thrive in the new world into which it is born, so a vital capacity must be developed in every human in this world if we are going to thrive in the next world: 

We must engage our will to choose Christ and his kingdom—to “inhale” the grace of heaven.  We can be here and now assimilating heaven’s resources. We are equipped to do this. It is part of our “Imago Dei genome”. This is what Jesus means when he says: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 

The term repent here is the Greek word, metanoia which means beyond: (meta) thinking: (noieo), or “thinking beyond”; to let your thinking beyond this point be different than your thinking before this point. In other words, change your thinking, change your mind. 

To engage one’s will to “breathe in the grace of God” is to be open to new thinking about God. A. W. Tozer wrote, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” 

God designed into us a will as part of his image. We are to engage our will to open our hearts, minds, bodies, relationships, emotions and soul to the authority and governance of a very good God.  (Matthew 6:33). 

The first thing a baby does that it never did before is breathe. From that moment on the first thing it always does is breathe. Every moment of every day of its life, first comes breathing.

In a newborn, it is an involuntary response unique to that individual baby. The baby must begin to do this whole new endeavor it has never done before; it must breathe. Every healthy newborn “knows” it must breathe. The midwife or the doctor or the mother cannot breathe for it. 

So it is with us. We consent to God and his presence, his lordship over our whole being. Only you can do this. And even though you have never done it before, you can do this. Just breathe. Just go with your innate knowledge that God is and God is good. It is not coincidental that of all leaders of world religions the only person who ever declared, “You must be born again”, is Jesus Christ. 

Jesus is the only one who said, “Don’t worry about your life…Seek first my kingdom (benevolent governance) and my righteousness (total gracious right-standing with God {a sheer gift from Jesus to us]} and all these things (the stuff we all tend to want or worry about) will be given to you”. 

Just as a baby must be able to breathe to be born and thrive in its new world so we can be born into and thrive in Christ’s gracious love and his awesome kingdom. We can here and now choose the God we know is real. 

It is also no coincidence that the Apostle Paul wrote:
19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,… Galatians 4:19 (NIV). New parents eagerly anticipate the birth of their child. This life is to be spent eagerly anticipating the moment when Jesus stands before us and looks right at you…. We are like the wise servants who kept their lamps full of oil and wicks trimmed and lit, always anticipating that moment when the owners of the house would return.

From the moment the egg in your mother met the sperm of your father you became an unceasing spiritual being with an eternal destiny in God’s full world. (That’s a mouthful. Stop and just take that in. This truth can transform your life.)

Every human being is an unceasing spiritual being with an eternal destiny in God’s full world. Every. Single. One of us. Whether we know it or not.

It is clear from the Bible that God’s intention is for you to live forever with him and in fellowship with others, all of us collaborating with God himself to rule over his cosmic creation forever. So this entire life is “training for reigning,” God is a willing creator and he made us in his image, so we are also willing creators. 

Think of it; from the time we are infants we are always doing things; interacting with our physical and social environment. What the God of the Bible is proposing in Jesus his Son is this: That we willingly create with him. That we willingly consent to his governance here and now so he can form us into the kind of persons he can empower to do what we want now and forever (because what we want is what God wants).

Right now your “wanter” is probably broken. It’s been used to seek and find all the wrong things in the wrong places. Even very “good” people can find themselves in this conundrum. God understands. This is everybody. No one is unique in this. Don’t worry about it, just turn to (the invisible but real) Christ right now, and tell him that you want to start out with him right here and now where you are. You want to be born into his world, breathe in the atmosphere of his heaven and be with him relating, working with him, resting with him, living with him and his people forever. 

Start to take in the “oxygen of heaven” Jesus offers you right now. Just as a baby is designed to assimilate the oxygen from a world it knows nothing about—the world of its mother—so you are made to breathe the oxygen of heaven—a place you don’t know but will begin to discover as the most amazing experience you were created for.