My goal in this series is our greater joy in Jesus, even in complex struggles intellectually, emotionally, relationally, etc.  So, each time I will offer a buffet on 8 ‘P’s of good news.  Chew and savor whatever helps your joy in Jesus.  “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” (Isaiah 55:1) 

Joy comes by Life from God, through God, and for God as revealed in the Bible. (Romans 11:33-36) And the Places of Christ are the venues for His good Purpose. As the previous article noted, wherever we repeatedly choose to go reflects our true love(s).  Below, Lauren and I talk about going where Jesus went and still goes: difficult places of undeserving people, for that reflects His love.

The places of Christ bless God’s people with many specific, sure hopes. This entire series on the 8 “P”s of the gospel is based on the fact that all of Scripture points to Jesus. (Luke 24:24 & 44-45, John 5:18, 2 Timothy 3:14-17, 2 Peter 1:16-21, etc.) By God’s grace He has shown me much of Christ from cover to cover in His Word by His Holy Spirit opening my heart by His Holy Spirit and by others Christians training my mind. But, as I mentioned in an earlier video, it was initially hard for me to see the gospel in the fifth day of creation. All the other days of that week made a lot of sense to me, even the second day of separation which God did not declare as “good”. But, in retrospect, I later saw why I didn’t catch the fifth day’s connection to Christ. I was looking for a gospel that got easier here. The fifth day foreshadows the sixth “P”, and it’s not a picture of ease. It anticipates a world of “man-eaters” that would one day surround His people. Yet, He sends us. So, we need encouragement. Check it out.

The practicality of Christ’s places reminds of specific helps associated with those places. In the video immediately above, I offered several points to encourage believers to continue going where Christ went. In the video below, I offer specific points of good news for us to share with those we meet there. Think about our analogies of the gospel being a paradigm like a basketball court, highway, or a musical score. Just being in any of those places would give the average person practical clues as to others’ struggles there: e.g., having more fans that true friends, daily fighting to keep their status, being either one of the few somebodies or one of the relatively unknowns, etc. So, no matter where we go to meet and serve the needs of unbelievers or struggling Christians, they need to hear Jesus’ good news: He goes looking for people just like them to forgive them, change them, and lead them in relationships of love. For when they follow Jesus by faith in Him, they will experience the wonder of God’s love and go out to “recruit” others to walk with Him in love, too.  In the follow video I discuss many practical ways we can be helpful in the places to which Jesus sends us.

In fact, going into the world is so central to the gospel that the Bible says “Follow Me”, “Go”, “I am sending you…”, etc. more times than I can count. That’s because resting here is death, and we’re to call others to Life. (1 Peter 2:9)  Now, can you imagine the creation week without the fifth day?

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