“Still a Treasure”
from Dan Todd

Created in God’s image.
But sinful and rebellious.
We are broken but still a treasure.
God's love for us never stops Him from reaching out to us with His overwhelming goodness.
And that goodness is directly pointed at you and me. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is the reason we can know this to be true.
That goodness comes to us in different forms, two of which are mercy and forgiveness.
God longs to show us His mercy and forgive our sins.
He longs to remove the bondage of past selfishness.
His mercy is always available to humble hearts.

100 words

I’ve known Dan all his life, as he is my youngest brother. One experience we share is that we both met our wives while attending Asbury Seminary. Dan is currently the pastor of Hillside Wesleyan Church in Olean, New York, as well as a hospice chaplain. One of the great honors of my life was getting to offer a prayer for Dan and join in laying hands on him for his ordination in the Wesleyan Church.

Dan’s OMG oozes with good news. Each line could be the main idea for a gospel sermon. My favorite sentence is “We are broken but still a treasure.” What a beautiful way to convey God’s love, that we are his treasure!

But it’s hard for the gospel to sound like good news if we don’t realize we stand in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness. That’s why it takes a humble heart to hear and receive the gospel.

Next post: October 3, “Hope for Sinners” from Curt Dodd

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"The Good News of the Kingdom"
from Jaime Farias

The Kingdom of God is the Gospel message.

Jesus Christ announced the Kingdom of God was near and only through repentance could anyone enter into God’s dominion. Jesus started his ministry in Galilee preaching God’s kingdom as fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.

Jesus went teaching in the Jewish synagogues and throughout villages and towns. He proclaimed God’s kingdom through miracles of healing and deliverance. His spiritual authority was evidenced to establish God’s Kingdom.

He is the true light coming to destroy the spiritual darkness of evil powers and rulers.

88 words

Jaime Farias began his ministry in the Methodist Church of Mexico. Moving to the United States he served in the United Methodist Church. He is now a pastor of Living Faith Global Methodist Church in Omaha, Nebraska. Jaime and I are part of a small group of pastors that get together monthly and pray for revival and a great awakening.

While many OMGs focus on reconciliation, restoration, and atonement, this one takes us back to Jesus’s announcement in Mark 1:15, “ ‘The time has come,’ he said, ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’” This good news announces the arrival of the reign of the Messiah and his defeat of “evil powers and rulers.”

We tend to think of healing as a ministry option, but as Jaime reminds us, “miracles of healing and deliverance” were a pivotal part of Jesus’s kingdom proclamation. May it be so today! I just finished reading a new book, Follow the Healer by Stephen Seamands. I recommend it as a well-rounded, biblical understanding of Christian healing ministry.

Next post: Friday, September 29, "Still a Treasure" from Dan Todd

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"A Savior Sent"
from David Fowler

Darkness, Light, then night again
For sin brought darkness in.
And all of us joined in the game
And wandered into sin.

A savior sent, a humble birth
A life with wonders many
Who is this man? The question hangs
He calls the 12 plus any

Jerusalem, they welcomed him
But soon had changed their mind
And Pilate asked say, “what is truth”
And passed him on to die

He bore a cross, and climbed the hill
They nailed him, feet and hands
He gave his spirit up to God
As darkness filled the land.

Two nights three days within the tomb
Then glorious now he’s risen
And all who look to him will find
Salvation has been given.

118 words

David is the pastor at the United Methodist Church in Carthage, Missouri and is married to Tuesday's contributor, Alice Fowler. Dave and I got acquainted during college when I was a part-time intern at his home church in Milford, Nebraska. David is not only a preacher/pastor but also a poet/musician. I wouldn't be surprised if he picks up his guitar someday and comes up with a tune to accompany these lyrics.

I appreciate how visual David's depiction of the gospel is. Each line plants an image in the reader's mind, walking us through the Bible's gospel narrative.

I notice the word "all" in the first and last stanzas, like matching bookends. "And all of us joined in the game and wandered into sin" is paired with "And all who look to him will find salvation has been given." I love how the gospel can be poetically expressed.

Next post: "The Good News of the Kingdom" from Jaime Farias

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"Back to the Garden"
from Alice Fowler

We got just a taste of the way God wanted us to live: eternally free, joyfully unashamed, holy, loved people. And we blew it because we didn’t trust him, didn’t trust that he knew best, didn’t trust him with our lives. So God started a reclamation project to lead us back to the way he wants us to live. The apex of that project was Jesus: his life, death, and resurrection. All who trust Jesus with their lives are, in essence, following him back to the garden and learning to live as eternally free, joyfully unashamed, holy, wholly loved people.

100 words

I have known Alice and her husband David since our college days. Her parents, Bob and Eileen Frescoln, were important mentors for me in my 20s. Alice spent much of her adult life as a lay person and a pastor's spouse. Then her hunger to learn led her to begin and complete seminary. That soon led to her first appointment as a pastor. Alice retired this year as a district superintendent in the Missouri Conference of the United Methodist Church.

When I read Alice's phrase, "back to the garden," it sparked a "Back to the Future" connection in my mind. Our salvation--present and future--is tied to humanity's original state, as Alice says, "eternally free, joyfully unashamed, holy, loved." This was lost because of our/humanity's/Adam&Eve's refusal to trust.The gospel is God's "reclamation project." Through trusting in Jesus, what was lost becomes found.

Next post: Friday, September 22, "A Savior Sent" from David Fowler

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"Trust, Confess, Receive"
from Alex Ehly

The Good News, which is the gospel, proclaims that through Jesus Christ sin-bound and alienated mankind may receive salvation and eternal life. God sent His Son to live a sinless life, die on the cross as atonement for our transgressions, and rise again to conquer death out of love and mercy. We are made right with God through trusting in Jesus, confessing our rebellion against Him, and receiving His forgiveness. We experience God’s grace through the gospel, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and are given the ability to live transformed lives that show others His love and hope.

100 words

More than a decade ago I brought Alex on my staff to lead ministry with middle and high school students. A few years later the Lord called him to Christ Community Church in Omaha, one of the flagship churches in the city. He is now the director of online ministry and a teaching minister there. He has done some awesome work leading CCC's podcast, unCOMFORTABLE:Conversations About Culture & Christianity.

I appreciate the boldness of the first sentence in Alex's OMG. We are "sin-bound and alienated" but through Jesus we receive "salvation and eternal life." I do not edit the OMGs, but I do give them their titles, and I took the title from Alex's sentence that begins, "We are made right with God through . . . ."

Because we are sin-bound and alienated, we need to be made right, and we cannot do it for ourselves. The good news also includes "transformed lives" in the Holy Spirit and being a witness for Jesus, to "show others his love and hope." I see all of this in Alex!

Next post: Tuesday, September 19, "Following Him Back to the Garden" from Alice Fowler

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"Who You Are"
from Bob Jordan

Voices around us and inside us try to tell us who we are. Some are encouraging, many are toxic. There is a Voice, however, which spoke before you were born, even before the foundations of the world, and proclaimed your eternal identity to be Beloved. This identity is not contingent on your abilities or efforts; it is instead available to you through a friendship with Jesus. God so loved you that he sent his Son to bring life to you through Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection to new life. Through Jesus you are the Beloved of God.

100 words

Bob and I became friends when I joined a pastors prayer group he was in at Omaha. Bob is now the senior pastor at Northminster Presbyterian Church in Peoria, Illinois. I have admired his long-term, strategic approach to maturing disciples under his care.

Bob's is the first OMG I've published in which the writer appeals directly to the reader. I was hoping there would be some. The first sentence talks about "us." After that the words "you" and "your" are collectively found seven times. Bob is preaching to us! And it's a message we all need to be ready to share.

Identity is a buzzword these days. So many people want to be the creator of their identity. But who is up to such a task? The best identity is one that is received, not achieved. It is given to you by Jesus. I can accept this kind of predesination. You are predestined to be loved by God!

Next up: Friday, September 15 from Alex Ehly, "Trust, Confess, Receive"

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“Changing the End of the Story”

by Dr. Susan Murithi

The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ; that even though creation deserves to die due to its sinful rebellion to God, they have a chance to live. When sin entered the world, creation was doomed to suffer the consequence which is eternal death and separation from God. But Jesus came to change the ending to that story. By having faith in his life, death and resurrection, our relationship with God is restored. We are enabled to embrace the love of God and live eternally with him. To live free of sin, judgement, and death. That is the good news of the gospel.

104 words

I have not met Susan in person, though we belonged to the same Great Plains UM conference. She currently serves as pastor of the Unied Methodist Church in St. Paul, Nebraska. Susan and I had a mutually encouraging zoom conversation earlier this year, so I contacted her and asked her for an OMG. She is a scholar, as well as a pastor, having earned a Ph.D. in intercultural studies.

I like the contrasting words Susan uses: rebellion and relationship, live and die, separation and restored, eternal death and live eternally. The pivotal person in each of these is Jesus, who "came to change the ending to that story." To me the best line in her OMG is "to live free of sin, judgment, and death." Yes, that is good news!

Next post: Tuesday, September 12 from Bob Jordan, "Who You Are."

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“Jesus Came and Will Come Again”

by Dr. Ben Witherington III

Jesus Christ, his person and his work, is the heart of the good news.
• There would be no atonement for all sins—past, present, and future—if Christ was not both human and divine.
• There would be no salvation if the only God-man had not come in flesh, died, rose again, appeared to friend and foe, and sent us the Holy Spirit.
• There would be no kingdom come on earth as in heaven, no positive human future, no everlasting life, no new heaven and new earth if he had not come.
And he will come again to complete the plan.

100 words

I'm honored to have Dr. Ben contribute to my blog. He is the Jean R. Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. I met him once, when I hosted him to preach at my then-church in Lincoln--maybe 15 years ago. We've exchanged emails on rare occasion. He's written socio-rhetorical commentaries on all the books of the New Testament, and I own most of them and consult with them in my study. I also recommend his "Bible and Culture" blog.

Dr. Ben oiriginally sent me 157 words and invited me to edit it. So I did with some trepidation. I replied with a 100-word version, and he graciously accepted it. I was surprised that his approach to an OMG would be stated negatively, on what there would not be if it weren't for Jesus. But I quickly came to appreciate it. This approach says, "There is no other." As Simon Peter preached, "Salvation is found in no one else" (Acts 4:12).

Next post: Friday, September 8, 2023, "Changing the End of the Story" by Susan Murithi

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"All Things New"

from Steve Todd

With love for his lost creation, God kept his promise to Israel by sending Jesus, the Father’s eternal Son in human flesh. Through his victorious life, death, and resurrection, Jesus defeated God’s enemies and reigns as Lord of all. By his atoning sacrifice on the cross, sinners who repent and receive Jesus by faith are continually freed from idolatry, forgiven of their sins, filled with the Holy Spirit, and given transformed hearts. Today his church follows him, loving everyone, pursuing holiness, discipling the nations, awaiting his return on the Day of Judgment and Resurrection when Jesus makes all things new.

100 words

In April I challenged myself to express the gospel in exactly 100 words. My goal was to convey the heart of the Bible’s good news in one minute, making every word count. After a few days I was done—or so I thought. Many times over the next few weeks I kept thinking of ways to improve it.

I want to give credit to my wife, Tricia Todd, who thought the third sentence needed something more. From that conversation the word “continually” was added. Stephen Rankin, a colleague of mine, made a suggestion that yielded the addition “given transformed hearts.”

I spent 42 years as United Methodist pastor in Nebraska and am now a retired elder in the Global Methodist Church. I plan to post a submitted OMG on this blog every Tuesday and Friday. Other OMGs you will read on this blog will be more personal or poetic than mine. Or they will focus on a unifying theme. I appreciate the variety of approaches I’ve received thus far.

Tuesday, September 5: "Jesus Came and Will Come Again" by Dr. Ben Witherington III

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