The Simple Truth of God’s Word

What if we’re overcomplicating it? What if God’s Word is really a simple truth? 

I Can Remember It Like It Was Yesterday… 

though it was long ago. I was alone on a literal mountain top and I was crushed. I was looking out over a valley in which some of the great spiritual moments of my life had happened, but as I looked down, I was weeping. I felt like my ministry was completely misunderstood by the church I was serving as a volunteer. At the same time, I was attending another church’s special programs from time to time. I was really starting to wonder if my gifts would be a better fit at that church, but I lacked a gift at the time that they felt was pretty important.

If You Give Me the Gift, I’ll Go…

Truth be known, I didn’t want to leave. I was happy in my ministry and I deeply loved the students to whom I was ministering. As I sat there on the mountain, I prayed. “If you will give me that gift, I will leave, go there and start over trying to find my fit.” I saw this gift I was seeking as “advanced,” something that seemed to be for a select few, and if I want to admit it, I was begging. It was one of the few times where I really believe I heard the audible voice of God. He said, “No…”

The Simple Truth

The next thing He said was, “I want you to communicate my Word in a way that everyone understands.” In that moment, I had a peace that passes understanding and I felt a direction I am not sure I ever knew before. I don’t have to impress the brilliant. I just have to do my best, and use all my gifts to help everyone to understand. It was liberating and it brought forth a question. Are we overcomplicating this?

I Know What You’re Thinking

To be clear, I’m not anti-intellectual. I even went to get a doctorate, but sometimes it feels like we spend too much time trying to figure out what God meant by what He said. But did you ever stop to think, what if God said what He meant and meant what He said? Are we really just overcomplicating a simple truth? And I can hear the chorus of people lodging the same old complaints about the English translations, but to me that just begs another question. Isn’t God big enough to protect His Word? What if it really is a simple truth?

Clay Crosse Saving the World

Years ago, a Christian musician named Clay Crosse did a song called Saving the World. The lyrics touched me then and they still do. Maybe it’s an oversimplification, but see if these lyrics ring true to you. 

So many preachers 

So many churches and denominations 

Got their opinions and their documents 

And statements and beliefs and sometimes 

There’s a miscommunication

And we complicate the truth 

And convolute the story 

But as far as I recall I do believe it all

Comes down to a man dying on a cross 

Saving the world Rising from the dead 

Doing what He said He would do 

Loving everyone He saw

When it’s said and done it all

Comes down to a man dying on a cross 

Saving the world

Could it be that simple?

The Simple Truth Vacation Bible School Edition

I’ve often joked that many of the great Spiritual things that have happened in my life happened at Vacation Bible School. One year, I got to teach the adult class. I was prepared for a lot of complex questions, but I wasn’t prepared for what happened. One of the people in the class was new to the church. Not long after we started, this woman did something really brave. She stopped me and said, “This is all new to me and I have no idea what any of this means.” Her question made me see teaching differently. The purpose of teaching is to be understood. Thankfully the rest of the class appreciated her “tapping of the brakes” and it didn’t just bless her. It made us all take a closer look at what we believe and how we communicate it. 

The Really Simple Truth

One of the great joys of my life are the weeks every year when I get to minister at a camp for adults with developmental difficulties. It’s a fantastic experience for a multitude of reasons, most of which revolve around the amazing people, but there is another reason. It has made me really look at how I teach, and it makes me break things down to the simple truth. Again, the purpose in the teaching is to be understood. If I talk over their heads, I’m not only not teaching them. I’m not loving them. I am bringing them the truth that sets people free. They need that truth just like anyone else, and for that week, at least God has entrusted me with sharing His truth with them. I am convinced they are precious in His sight and He wants them to know Him.

The Book Without Words

Years ago, in preparing for this camp, I learned about the book without words. It breaks the Gospel down into five colors. Gold representing God in His perfection. Black representing the darkness of the sin that separates us from God. Red represents the blood of Christ that washes away our sin. White represents life in Christ with our sins washed away, and green representing new life. That, my friends, is the simple truth, the Gospel broken down conceptually. Is it everything people need to know about the Lord? I don’t know how to answer that question. Those of us who love Him should be in His Word, getting to know Him better each day, but those truths are the doorway to a saving faith, and they are the one thing I wish everyone knew. 

At the End of the Day…

I really believe the Word of God is the most amazing book ever created. It holds within it concepts that even the most ingenious people could study until the day they die, and yet its basic principles are so simple a child could understand them. I just can’t help but wonder if when we endlessly debate theology, especially before the world, if people can really see we belong to Jesus by the way we love one another. Is anybody asking the questions we seem to delight in answering? At times it feels like people debate theology and overcomplicate things because maybe, just maybe, we don’t like what God said and so we try to explain it away. At the end of the day, I would rather communicate a simplistic faith in my loving Savior, than overcomplicating things leaving people mystified and lost.  

The Simple Truth

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God loves you. Jesus died for you and rose again. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Him, Trust in Jesus and be saved for all eternity. And if you already know all of that, Go and make disciples. That’s the simple truth.