On July 4, 1776 a group of wealthy, aristocratic landowners who had mostly enjoyed the favor of King George did something rather rash. They declared themselves, and millions others, independent from the rule of their tyrant King. Why did they sacrifice their very way of life for an ideal that had no guarantee of benefitting them? They knew they had a war to fight with the world’s preeminent military complex for making such a bold statement. What was in it for them?

What was in it for them was being the patriarchs of a bold, new idea. An experiment. Could the governed actually govern themselves? To them, it was worth a try. It was worth a war. It was worth their very own blood. They knew their heads would roll if they failed and they signed that declaration anyway.

Almost 237 years later, our experiment continues. It continues because the wealthiest and most powerful among us decided to risk their station in life for the opportunity for the rest of us to have a say in how we are governed. What they did was quite possibly one of the most selfless acts in the history of human governments. But that was 237 years ago.

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Nowadays it seems like we’ve reduced the message of the gospel down to “Jesus loves you.” While that’s true, and it is good news, it’s not really the good news that saves people. Knowing that Jesus loves us apart from any other helpful information is not much more than “useful news.”

I’ve often found it very interesting that many of the times the gospel is shared in Scripture, it is shared in a lengthy process. Peter, Stephen and even Jesus Himself shared the Gospel in long form.

25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Luke 24:25-27 NIV

Peter, when he shared the gospel the first few times, as recorded in Acts, gave a lengthy testimony. Read it here in Acts 2:14-41.

Stephen also gave quite a history lesson when sharing the good news of Jesus to the religious rulers of his people. To see his account, read Acts 7 here.

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I’m so happy to announce that over 200 people have now had the chance to get their hands on The Year of the Lord’s Favor? 

And for a limited time, it’s only $0.99 on the Kindle store.

I know many of you who read this blog have had the chance to download the Kindle, and many more of you will be receiving complementary copies of the paperback version this coming week (if you signed up to be on the Street Team).

If you have already received your copy and have read it, I would like to ask you to do something for me. Nothing helps encourage people to buy books more than a good personal endorsement.

If you have read the book and liked it, I’d like to ask you to recommend it to a friend. And I’d love to get your feedback on the Amazon reviews for the book, good or bad. You can leave them here.

Off To A Good Start

The book is off to a good start and I’m thankful to each of you who have taken the time to download it and read it. I believe in the message the Lord gave me in this book so much that I want to dream big for this book. I want to see it in the hands of as many Christians as possible. Help me make that possible by taking this great start and letting everyone else know about it!