"Created for Relationship”

from Andrew Moyer

What if you were created for relationship? Not just with other people but in everything?

• That our relationship with all of creation was intentional. 
• That you have an opportunity to engage in a truly unique way only designed for you.

That weight of having a one-in-a-hundred-billion purpose might feel incomprehensible. Getting that insurmountable role right relies solely on the closeness of one relationship, you and the creator.

This is why Jesus has paid it all for you. He died in all humility, God, for the debt of every life—for every second not lived in concert with created purpose. That you might lean into your one-in-infinity unique purpose.

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When I first met Andrew, we were pastors driving an hour together to a district meeting and an hour back. During our conversations, Andrew’s God-given passion and leadership came through strongly. Andrew is not currently serving a church, but he may return to that calling at some point. I hope he does.

Andrew’s OMG is a direct appeal to respond to the gospel. It would easily and effectively plug into an evangelistic sermon.

Everyone wonders, What is my purpose in life? What am I made for? If I do not recognize my moral debt to God and let Jesus’s death pay for my sins, I will not come to know the “truly unique way only designed for” me. But by restoring my relationship with God through Jesus I can “live in concert with [my] created purpose.”

Please leave your comments below.

Next post: Friday, November 3, “Now I’m Free” from Jeff Thurman

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“Saved, Renewed, Empowered”

from Dr. David A. deSilva

By God’s grace from start to finish, those who trust in Jesus Christ are saved from the guilt and penalty of their former sins, renewed in God’s image, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to love and serve God and neighbor in true holiness all the remaining days of their lives.

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(Adapted from John Wesley, Sermon 6.I.10 [Works of John Wesley I.208])

Today’s OMG comes from David A. DeSilva, Ph.D., Professor of New Testament and Greek at Ashland Theological Seminary in Ashland, Ohio. He is an elder in the Global Methodist Church and serves as director of traditional music at Port Charlotte Global Methodist Church. He has authored more than 25 books, including a 48-pager that has blessed me, Praying with John Wesley. His blog is called Apocryphal Writings.

I like that this is just a half-minute gospel in one sentence. One could easily commit it to memory. I challenge you to try!

I’m not sure which of John Wesley’s sermons David adapted for his OMG, but it sounds like Wesley. The opening phrase grabs our attention, “By God’s grace from start to finish.” Wesley believed humans have “free will” to accept or reject God’s grace, but we can only make this choice because God’s prevenient (preceding) grace gives us opportunity.

For the title I used the three principal verbs in David’s OMG: saved, renewed, empowered. In each one God is working miraculously in our lives. 

• To be “saved from the guilt and penalty…” points to God’s justifying grace. 
• To be “renewed in God’s imagine, and empowered by the Holy Spirit…” points to God’s sanctifying grace.

The result is a transformed life expressed in love and service to God and neighbor. This is “true holiness.” As we used to say in seminary, “That’ll preach!”

Please leave your comments below.

Next post: Tuesday, October 31, “Created for Relationship” from Andrew Moyer

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“Rescued, Redeemed, Reconciled, Renewed, Restored”

from Michael Park

Gospel is the undeniable story and true message about how we have been rescued, redeemed, reconciled, renewed and restored from the darkness by Jesus Christ. The very true meaning of the gospel is good news about a real life-changing event that has already happened in the history of the humanity.

The gospel is neither good advice nor religion. It is good news about the work of Christ on our behalf and also good news about the God’s redeeming and saving grace that has made the world upside down and changed the entire human history.

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Michael Park is pastor of the United Methodist Church in Chanute, Kansas. Michael was in a group of pastors I coached a few years ago, and that’s how we got acquainted. It soon became clear to me that Michael is an effective young leader with a bright future.

Michael opens his OMG by saying, “Gospel is the undeniable story….” Later he says it “already happened.” I appreciate that Michael grounds the gospel in history.

We needed to be “rescued, redeemed, reconciled, renewed and restored.” This is what Jesus came to do. Why? Because left to ourselves we are in darkness. Michael doesn’t explain what this darkness is, but based on his five “r”s, we can assume that it means being held captive, enslaved, estranged, fallen, and sinful.

We must not turn the gospel into “good advice” or “religion.” It’s not a self-help lesson or tips on being a better person. It’s God turning the world upside down through the “work of Christ.” History is forever changed, and so is our future.

Next post: Friday, October 27, “Saved, Renewed, Empowered” from Dr. David A. deSilva

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“God Will Set Everything Right”

from Evan Offutt Boesiger

The Gospel is the good news that one day God will set everything right; we participate in that now. God will wipe away every tear, disease, and brokenness. Even death itself will die.

God desires to bring this wholeness and restoration into individual lives now, until it comes in its fullness to the whole world- "a new earth", the Bible says.

This is available to all who confess their sins and believe in Jesus Christ for salvation. We respond to God’s love and grace and choose to follow God and live in relationship with God, now and forevermore.

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Evan is one of my newer friends. In 2022 I got to conduct her wedding to my long-time friend Todd Boesiger. She is a licensed clergy in the Church of the Nazarene and expects to be ordained next year. Currently, she freelances at kid and teen camps, women’s retreats, and pulpit supply. Evan and Todd have recently relocated to Houston, Texas.

There is no greater hope than Evan’s statement, “God will set everything right.” When we see warring nations and political fighting, human trafficking and deadly diseases, our hearts ache for this hope.

You may have noticed her references to the present and future: “one day,” “now”; “now, until”; “now and forevermore.” The gospel is good news today and forever. Today we can live as God’s new creation, “until it comes in its fullness.”

How do “we participate in that now”? Neither Jesus nor the New Testament writers taught that all will be saved regardless of their faith. Instead, we are told that by confessing our sins and believing in Jesus we open ourselves to this new reality: now partially, then fully.

Next post: Tuesday, October 24, “Rescued, Redeemed, Reconciled, Renewed, Restored” from Michael Park

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“May Your Kingdom Come”

from Russ Tompkins

In the gospel of Luke chapter 10 Jesus instructs his disciples to go into several villages and proclaim the gospel message. He tells them to say that the kingdom of God is near.

This should be our same message today. We live in a sinful world, but a better kingdom is coming – the kingdom of God. As with any kingdom there is a king. God is a benevolent king who only wants the best for those who chose to live in his kingdom.

We pray for this kingdom every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer – Lord, may your kingdom come.

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My friend Russ Tompkins is a retired United Methodist pastor. I first met Russ 40 years ago when he was a high school speech teacher. Today he continues to teach speech classes in Omaha-area colleges.

My favorite phrase in Russ’s OMG is “there is a king.” The word gospel was used in the Roman Empire to announce the “good news” of the reign of a new Caesar. But Jesus’s followers were announcing the gospel—the good news—of a different king. A different kind of king. A king whose reign will never end.

God’s kingdom is here now, but it’s not yet fully here. Still, when we seek first that kingdom and earnestly pray for it to come, we find ourselves living more fully under Jesus’s gracious rule. As Russ says, “A better kingdom is coming.”

Next post: Friday, October 20, “God Will Set Everything Right” from Evan Offutt Boesiger

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 “I’m God’s Child”

from Bob Wynn

The Gospel touches me most when I think of the woman at the well from John 4. Like her, I have felt like an outsider much of my life. That has led to bouts of anger and depression at times.

But even though I feel like an outsider, through Christ's words to the Samaritan woman, I know that I am just as much a child of His as anyone. It is His grace and mercy and knowing that I am continuously loved that keeps me on the level.

The image of the flowing water of life keeps my thirst quenched.

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My friend Bob Wynn is pastor of the O’Neill and Atkinson Global Methodist Churches. In this OMG Bob gives us a personal testimony of what Christ has done in his life. I appreciate his transparency, saying that he has often “felt like an outsider.”

And while those outsider feelings remain, his experience of belonging comes from listening to Jesus. Bob knows he’s a child of God now. Remembering that he is “continuously loved” is a shield against negative emotions.

Jesus told the woman at the well, “. . . whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14, NIV). It means that in belonging to Jesus we find what we need most. And we are satisfied.

Next post: Tuesday, October 17, “May Your Kingdom Come” from Russ Tompkins

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“All About Grace”

from Juan Carlos Veloso

The gospel is good news about repentance, forgiveness, redemption and eternal joy and peace. The gospel is also about being lost, and then being found, in other words, it is about grace.

Why grace? Because grace isn’t earned by any human; regardless of how wonderful a person could be. Grace is a gift. It is something that it was born in God’s heart, even before the creation of any creature, here in our world, or in the entire universe.

The only source of grace is love. The essence of God is love. We have been found because GOD IS LOVE.

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My friend Juan Carlos Veloso is pastor of two Omaha United Methodist congregations meeting in the same building, Grace United Methodist and Iglesia Comunitaria, the latter being a church he has planted.

The only way the lost are found is by grace. Not many OMGs so far have asked a question, but I’m glad Juan Carlos asked, “Why grace?” It’s because we cannot save ourselves. We need the gift of grace. And any understanding of grace that does not begin with God’s love would be sorely inadequate.

John Newton’s famous hymn “Amazing Grace” has been adopted by our culture, even by many who don’t share his faith. I pray that everyone would come to know this God of grace, made known to us in Jesus.

Next post: Friday, October 13, “I’m God’s Child” from Bob Wynn

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“In Christ”

from Brad Kirk

The Good News of Jesus Christ is that we can be IN CHRIST!

• Jesus came to earth so we can know him. 
• He died so we can have salvation and be forgiven. 
• He rose so we can have new life. 
• He made a way where there is no way. 
• He sent the Spirit so we can find him. 

 The Gospel is we can be in Christ, abiding in the presence of God without division.  This is the hope of heaven—no separation, sin, pain, or death any longer.  To be found in Christ is to find love and joy!

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My friend Brad Kirk serves as pastor of the Global Methodist Church in Kingman, Kansas. He says the inspiration for his OMG came from E. Stanley Jones’s book, In Christ. Jones (1884 – 1973) was a Methodist missionary in India, renewal movement leader, and prolific author. I have also been inspired by his writing.

To be “in Christ” encapsulates the gospel of salvation as a relationship with Jesus, through whom our relationship with God is restored. Brad uses the word “abide” which many translations use in John 15. Jesus talks about himself as the vine and his disciples as the branches who abide in him and he in them. To abide means to remain in life-giving relationship with.

Brad’s line, “He made a way where there is no way,” reminds me of a lyric in Anne Wilson’s song, “Let Me Tell You ‘Bout My Jesus.” You might like it.

Next post: “All About Grace” from Juan Carlos Veloso

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“Hope for Sinners”

from Curt Dodd

There is hope for forgiveness and eternal life for all sinful men through believing in Jesus, who being very God of very God, and very man of very man, shed His blood on the cross and then rose from the dead.

Repenting of your sin and placing your faith in Christ produces a changed life, complete forgiveness and guarantees one is heaven bound, and while on the earth, a witness to the love of God!

That’s the good news of the gospel!

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Curt Dodd is the senior pastor of Westside Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in west Omaha. I met Curt about 15 years ago through a mutual friend. His bio on the church website says Curt has been in ministry for 50 years! During that time he has also authored four books. 

Notice that it didn’t take Curt 100 words to summarize the gospel. He knows exactly how he wants to communicate the gospel—in two sentences if you don’t count the final declaration. Each of those two sentences could stand alone as an expression of the gospel.

There’s a reference to the Nicene Creed when Curt says Jesus is “very God of very God.” I appreciate that nod to historic Christianity. And I like the four benefits of repentance and faith: changed life, forgiveness, guarantee of heaven, and being a witness to God’s love.

I wonder how many thousands of people have received salvation through Curt’s preaching of the gospel these last 50 years!

Next post: Friday, October 6, “In Christ” from Brad Kirk

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