Tell the Truth

The Radical series is off to a great start. Pat‘s week one message was strong. I was encouraged by his clarity and description of the Gospel and how in America we have filtered the Gospel to make it more comfortable, less convicting and more about us.

Over the years, I have read many books on the topic of salvation and the Gospel; from evangelism training course books to thorough theological treatments of salvation from a survey of the Bible. Some I passed by quickly while there have been a few that have risen to the top. As we have prepared for the Radical series and having gotten the chance to be in many discussions with Pat and our team about the content of Radical, I kept coming back to a book by Will Metzger called Tell the Truth: The Whole Gospel to the Whole Person by Whole People.

I first read it in seminary and it has become a reference book for me for many years now. Our view of salvation from the words of Scripture are paramount. The principles and nuances have been debated for years. In my own journey, I have found all theological frameworks must work there way back to salvation. From there, it seems everything is defined by how we hold God’s plans and ways for redemption in our mind and soul. I love Tell the Truth because it challenges how many of us were taught to believe and communicate the gospel (many times insufficiently). I am grateful for the book because it gives me handles on how to share the Gospel and not sale “easy believing”. I have benefited because it gives real markers on assurance of salvation and it helps us that “we may know”. I am thankful for the Radical Series at LifePoint, the Radical book and Pat’s teaching to clearly examine a Biblical Gospel.

So, if you want to dig deeper, obviously I recommend a purchase and reading of this book. I am giving away a free copy of Tell the Truth to encourage people to read it. Here is how you can enter: post a tweet to your twitter account with this url included: http://bit.ly/tellthetruth (please follow me on twitter so I can direct message you if you win); post a comment below with a link to your twitter or blog and answer one of the questions; or share the link in your Facebook status (let me know you did with a comment below, also send a friend request). All entries need to be in by Wednesday, August 25 at midnight CST. Announcement on Thursday, woopie!

Also, I am curious, what are your biggest questions or struggles about the topic of salvation? And/or, what has been your biggest learning about salvation recently?