The Big Room

I have a friend who is always reminding me that believers need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day because it's not only has the power to save us but the power to transform our lives.

This got me thinking about the house I grew up in. It was a big old farm house with a wood burning stove in the basement and in the winter the heat only reached the main floor. The second floor where we slept was frigid cold so every evening the only place to be was in the warm “big room” on the main floor. I remember the rest of the house being dark in the evenings because everyone was in that big room. The room held enough chairs for everyone and since we didn’t have a TV, we were entertained by reading, games, music, listening to my mom read to us or wrestling around on the big rug in the center of the room. There was a sameness about each evening spent there but the warmth, fellowship and light played a part in shaping who I am. It was necessary for me to be in that big room each night but it was also very good for me.

I’m beginning to learn the necessity and goodness that comes from spending some time with the gospel every day. As I go through the practice of “preaching” it to myself each day I'm always surprised with what I come away with. No matter what it's wrapped in, the result is always more freedom! I need more of that and it's so good for me! As I walk up to that empty cross today I remember that it brought about my spiritual birth and it will continue to raise me up into the person God’s created me to be. So today I preach it to myself….

I need to remember that before Christ, I was on the throne of my life, serving myself and celebrating my freedom from God’s authority in my life but unaware that sin was my only choice.

I need to remember that I was unable to do anything about the ocean of sin, guilt and wrath that separated me from God.

I need to remember how God came to me in my rebellion and blindness with his unconditional, eternal love by sending his Son, Jesus Christ, to this world to live the sinless life I couldn’t live.

I need to remember that God asked Jesus to go to the cross and drink up that ocean of my sin, my guilt and eternal wrath and that Jesus responded and went willingly to the cross for me.

I need to remember that God accepted Jesus suffering and death in place of my own and he raised Jesus from that eternal death to his rightful place in heaven.

I need to remember that Jesus’ death and resurrection has made a way for me to be in fellowship with God as I believe in Jesus Christ and his work on the cross that ransoms me.

I need to remember that I am now free to worship God who is on the throne and glorify him, for I am his for all eternity, bought with the greatest price.

This is how I “preached” the gospel to myself today. It’s a little different every day as I meditate on it and ask God to help me understand and express it.

So, start preaching it to yourself! Just like the big room, go there every day and let the gospel transform your life!

Thank you!

Dear Friends,

As 2010 comes to a close I want to take a moment to thank all of you who have supported me this past year with your prayers and finances. I have been so blessed to share in this work with you all.

As I look back and see how faithfully God has cared for me each month, I am truly amazed at his provision. I am growing in my understanding of God’s desire to have us look to him to meet our simple needs each day and be content with what he provides. He wants to protect us from the powerful lie in this culture that says “our piles of wants are actually needs”. God calls us to live simple lives knowing that it will keep us from the abject poverty that comes as the enemy robs us of the life we were meant to live, convincing us to chase the elusive security that is promised if we have everything we “need”. The economy we’re called to live in as followers of Christ is upside down as it calls us to be servants to all and give our lives away. It’s a life that offers great wealth in the midst of our simple lives as we experience a growing, intimate and dependent relationship with the Creator of the Universe and find the lives of purpose and freedom as we were created to live.

O God, I beg two favors from you;
let me have them before I die.
First, help me never to tell a lie.
Second, give me neither poverty nor riches!
Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.
For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?”
And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.

Proverbs 30:7-9

I continue to experience God’s Spirit at work in the lives of the women I meet with as they are drawn into deeper fellowship with Him, allowing His truth to reveal an eternal perspective for their lives. I have the privilege of watching the Lord call many of these women into exciting and powerful ministry in their own lives as they spend their treasures of time and love caring for others. Clearly, God is at work in the lives of his people!

This year God has also blessed me with a new “daughter”. Yeseul is a 16 year old girl from South Korea who has come to the States for high school. She has filled my life with laughter and shares a deep spiritual wisdom that is rare in someone so young. I am praying that God will use us both to pour His love into the lives of those around us.

As I begin this new year I ask you to pray that God will continue to use me in the lives of women and that I will trust him fully for all that I need for this life. Pray too that God will continue to pour his Spirit into the hearts of all his people as he equips us to build up the body of Christ and share God’s amazing story of redemption with those who don’t know it yet.

Thank you all for your love and support.

Set free to serve,

Jill Van Gordon

jvangordon@thetable.com

Support for this ministry can be sent to:

The Table

23215 SW Newland Road

Wilsonville, OR 97070