The Hole in Our Gospel Richard Stearns Oct.

. 2011 This book is a great introduction to the issues of the world and the (lack of) response of Christians and the Church in America. The book reads as an autobiography of Stearns life sprinkled throughout the 320 pages. His authenticity was fresh, particularly coming from a baby-boomer who has experienced, and is still experiencing, great success. I would recommend this book. And would suggest a perfect follow-up to be When Helping Hurts which is a much more difficult, and yes, even more convicting book. Some personal takeaways: It was refreshing reading many passages throughout Scripture aimed at poverty and injustice. Without question the one that hit me the most was Luke 4:18-19 The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lords favor. An honest recap is that it makes me sick to read these Scriptures and fail to see them being lived out in my life or those of my church neighbors. It is as if we have grown comfortable ignoring Gods Word and therefore ignoring God. We are so blind. We ought to be very careful how critical we are toward the Pharisees of Jesus time. I dont see much difference with the American Church. So werather Imust address these issues. Aside from the Scripture, I am wrestling most with the Sins of Omission addressed late in the book. Stearns makes some great point, via Truth, on how we are Sins of Commission minded. Ive been playing this out in the past few days and have seen this as perhaps our greatest hindrance to being Radical. We base following Christ on limiting that which we are NOT supposed to do, vastly ignoring that following Christ means we also must DO right things. And yet I am comfortable doing an occasional good deed and thinking that suffices. Thanks to Stearns, I can no longer play ignorant to the worlds issues. To the injustice facing people near and far. To what God says in his 2000 verses on poor/poverty/injustice. To my lack of fruit. In closing, I acknowledge that these highlights do little justice to the whole book. There were large excerpts, even chapters, that I did not underline but were unbelievable. His testimony in the early chapters was affirming to my own desire for Gods calling on my life. Midway through the book Stearns addresses several of the greatest epidemics in the world. It was mind blowing. Therefore for anyone who reads, know that you are getting a much needed perspective on so many things we are blind to. For the hope of Christ, let us take of the blinders. Let us stop knowing the good we ought to do, and not do it! Introduction What does God expect of us? God asks us for everything. He requires a total life commitment from those who would be His followers.

The idea behind The Hole in Our Gospel is quite simple. Its basically the belief that being a Christian, or follower of Jesus Christ, requires much more than just having a personal and transforming relationship with God. It also entails a public and transforming relationship with the world. Problem with how we view the kingdom of God o A gospel with a gaping hole. First, focusing almost exclusively on the afterlife reduces the importance of what God expects of us in this life. o It was not meant to be a way to leave the world but rather the means to actually redeem it. Proclaiming the whole gospel, then, means much more than evangelism in the hopes that people will hear and respond to the good news of salvation by faith in Christ. It also encompasses tangible compassion for the sick and the poor, as well as biblical justice, efforts to right the wrongs that are so prevalent in our world. God is concerned about the spiritual, physical and social dimensions of our being. This whole gospel is truly good news for the poor, and it is the foundation for a social revolution that has the power to change the world. According to The Poverty and Justice Bible, there are almost two thousand verses in Scripture that deal with poverty and justice. Each one of us might as well take our Bibles, a pair of scissors, and begin cutting out all the scriptures we pay no attention to, all the biblical texts that we just ignore. To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice Confucius I had come to depend more on myself than on Him, confusing my success with His approval. When we say that we want to be His disciple, yet attach a list of conditions, Jesus refuses to accept our terms. His terms involve unconditional surrender. Help people understand that sometimes, in fact often, Gods blessings come through our sufferings, not through our bank accounts. 1 Peter 4-12-14 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. But you see, when things have become precious to us whether our possessions, our work, our status and positions, or even our friends and families we really dont want to let go of them. They can become idols that compete with God in our lives.

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Anything that becomes more precious to us than our relationship with the Lord becomes destructive. These are often things that seem beautiful and shiny: career advancement, a growing bank account, our spouses and children. Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Micah 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Isaiah 58 o Isaiahs book was addressed to a people in captivity, conquered by Assyria as Gods punishment for centuries of unfaithfulness and idolatry. They were a nation at the end of their rope, desperately trying to get right with God. Yet God judged their attempts at holiness to be shallow and insincere. They were just going through the motions of faithfulness. o God here acknowledged that the people appeared to be seeking His will and His presence. o On the surface, they may have looked godly, but they hadnt changed their underlying behavior. o They portray not just a personal ethic but also a community ethic. Breaking every yoke suggests that any system, law, or practice that is unjust must be broken. o John the Baptist sent us to you to ask Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else? (Luke 7:20) Jesus answered by listing the signs that heralded the coming of the good news: compassion, mercy, justice, and love demonstrated tangibly. Matthew 25 o But what is perhaps most surprising is that the criterion for dividing the two groups is not that the sheep confessed faith in Christ while the goats did not, but rather that the sheep had acted in tangible and loving ways toward the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, and the vulnerable, while the goats did not. o I dont want to also suggest that all true followers of Christ must forsake everything to bring comfort and justice to the poor. I only propose that a genuine concern for the least of these that finds tangible expression must be woven into the pattern of their lives and faith. o The question for you and for me is this: will Christ find evidence of our genuine concern for His beloved poor when He looks at the fruit of our lives on that day? Further, what might He be calling you to do today? What new steps of faith might you take to demonstrate your own concern for the least of these?

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Its not what you believe that counts, its what you believe enough to do. We have become detached and indifferent toward the constant and repeated images of poverty and adversity that bombard us. In fact, our apathy has even earned its own term: compassion fatigue. For the first time in the history of the human race, we have the awareness, the access, and the ability to reach out to our most desperate neighbors around the world. The programs, tools, and technologies to virtually eliminate the most extreme kinds of poverty and suffering in our world are now available. So why does the crash of a single plane dominate the front pages of newspapers across the world while the equivalent of one hundred planes filled with children crashing daily never reaches our ears? We must admit that we simply have less empathy for people of other cultures living in faraway countries than we do for Americans. Deuteronomy 15:11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land. If we are to see the poor as God sees them, we first have to repent of our judgmental attitudes and feelings of superiority.. Poverty in American is just as real as poverty in Africa, and it is just as damaging to the human spirit. At its root it has the same causes: a defacing of the human spirit and, effectively, a lack of real choices. It is not that the poor are lazier, less intelligent, or unwilling to make efforts to change their condition. Rather, it is that they are trapped by circumstances beyond their power to change. For most of the poorest people in the world, a person, no matter how gifted or determined, cannot escape the trap in which he finds himself. He has lost the one thing that every person needs to thrive: hope. The prophet Ezekiel wrote that Sodoms cardinal sin was wealthinduced arrogance and unconcern for the poor, not the sexual immorality that we more commonly associate with its violent destruction: Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy (Ezekiel 16:49) 2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he become poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. [reconstruct view of who is poor; after all Jesus was] 2 Corinthians 8:13-15 Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality.

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The Bible is clear from the Old Testament through the New that Gods people always had a responsibility to see that everyone in their society was cared for at a basic-needs level. 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 Giving things to the poor does much more to make the giver feel good than it does to fundamentally address and improve the condition of those in need. Another view is that the poor just need more knowledge, that if they had the right education and job skills, theyd no longer be poor. But while its true that often they do need skills and education, this view fails to take into account the impact of the systems within which the poor are embedded. In other words, if people lack food, health care, or education; are vulnerable to disease; and have no access to land or financial capital, it is frequently because they have been exploited or manipulated by unjust people and structures mans inhumanity to man. The age-old problem of the powerful exploiting the powerless is a virulent disease in our world today. Many communities suffer from a poverty of spirit as well. They have lost faith in themselves and given up after too many heartbreaks and disappointments. Perhaps the greatest mistake commonly made by those who strive to help the poor is the failure to see the assets and strengths that are always present in people and in their communities no matter how poor they are. Please hold tightly to three things as you continue to read: o Every one of these hurting people is created in Gods image and loved by Him o Every one of these challenges has a solution o Every one of us can make a difference In my opinion, the single most significant thing that can be done to cure extreme poverty is this: protect, educate, and nurture girls and women and provide them with equal rights and opportunities educationally, economically, and socially. We must not, as Christians, stick our heads in the sand and pretend that the world is doing just fine because we are. Proverbs 21:13 If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered. So we in the twenty-first century must ask why we have not done more to come to the aid of Christians (and those of other faiths) found in extreme poverty in our own time. One reason is surely lack of

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awareness. For most of my life, I gave little thought to the circumstances of Christians in faraway countries mostly out of ignorance about their plight. But I think the other reason is selfabsorption. We are so preoccupied with our own lives and the daily issues in our own churches that we overlook the challenges faced by churches in other lands. Our sin is not one of commission but rather of omission. If church leaders do not have an outward vision to become salt and light in our world, to promote social and spiritual transformation, pursue justice, and proclaim the whole gospel, then the church will fail to realize its potential as an agent of change. It will become inwardly focused on meeting the needs of its members, to the exclusion of its nonmembers. We need only to read our church bulletin to see where our priorities have been placed. [great exercise; we should test this] Isaiah 1:10-17 Once again it seems that sins of omission grieve Him even more than sins of commission, yet it is these on which we tend to be fixated. God seems to get angrier about those things that He has commanded us but we have failed to do James 4:17 Isaiah 58:6-7 Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter when you see the naked, to clothe him and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? The two greatest commandments of our faith to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves are also dos, not the donts. When we do the gospel the whole gospel the world takes notice and likes what it ses. Do you see whats important about this? The rich man did not abuse Lazarus, didnt beat him or mistreat him; he simply ignored him, passing by hi, day after day, with indifference. His sin was not one of commission but of omission. The plain conclusion is that the rich man went to hell because of his appalling apathy and failure to act in the face of the gross disparity between his wealth and Lazaruss poverty. He was aware of the beggars plight, had the power to relieve his suffering and yet chose to do nothing. Two main purposes for tithing: o It provided for the work of Gods kingdom by supporting the levitical temple worship system. The money was managed by the Levites (priests) and part of it was meant to take care of the needs of not only the temple but the priests as well. o Secondly, the tithe helped Gods people understand their utter dependence on Him.

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Money is not seen by God as a benign and neutral thing. Money is power, and power competes with God for supremacy in our lives. 1 Timothy 6:17-19 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. The commitment that American Christians, the wealthiest Christians in all history, are making to the world is just about 2 percent of 2 percent A very cool, yet long, exposition to the Church in America worth making copy