Whiskey, Reggae, and the Gospel of Jesus

I travel in a van full time. It’s a great life that God has given me.  I minister as a chaplain to the nomadic community offering prayer and spiritual guidance.  And during these events I get to be a part of a wonderful community of people that are different and unique coming from different parts of the country and even the world.  

Here recently I went to an event called Whiskey and Reggae.  It was such a wonderful time. Good vibes and good times.  The music was great and so were the people. Being there got me thinking about the message. Many of the songs were about love and spirituality.  I did not realize how spiritual reggae and rastafarians were.  The songs they sang talk about having love for each other and the need for love in the world to make it a better place.  These messages are great and definitely need to be perpetuated in our communities.  But as the songs continued the message of them became even clearer.  They begin to talk about how you should love yourself in the state you are in.  We don’t need to change.  We are the greatest version of ourselves already.  Also things like love holds the planets in alignment and causes the moon to reflect the rays of the sun.  These things all seem like positive things with a message that should be heard, but they are not.  They are a lie and one that can destroy. Thinking logically they do not align either. How can you stress the importance of loving each other at one time (assuming this is something lacking in the world) then say you are already the best version of yourself. That doesn’t go together.

This is why the truth is so important.  The message of the gospel of Jesus tells us the truth about ourselves and how it can be dealt with.  The gospel deals with love, creation, sin, change, and value.  All to first bring glory to God but to create a world that is worth living in.  We find in our God a way to become better people because we aren’t even close to the best version of ourselves.  But through Holy Spirit, we become better, as images of Jesus, which results in greater love and respect for others created in the image of God.  And as we do that we do the very thing we were created to do, worship and glorify God.

The scriptures teach us that we have all done wrong.  We all sin and the result is that we deserve punishment.  This is not an easy truth.  No one wants to be told they’ve done wrong or that the result is bad for them.  But in order to be better we have to know the problem. We cannot turn a blind eye or remain ignorant to it.  But once we know that we have sinned against a Holy God we ask the question “what can we do to get right?”  The answer is Jesus.  He has given himself for us.  God the Father said if we place our trust in Jesus, believing that his death and resurrection has released us from the punishment of the offenses that we have done then we are freed from that punishment.  We no longer are considered guilty but are set free from the penalty of the wrongs we have done.  But this trust and belief that we place in him also requires that we understand our actions were an offense to God (which is the reason why we trust him to free us from our penalty) and that we desire to change them.  The “christian” word for this is repent.  We repent and give our allegiance to the one who has saved us.  We follow Jesus as King.  I know this is tough as well. Who wants to submit to authority.  But what is good is that understanding the cost Jesus paid to take away our penalty shows us how good he is and how much he cares for us.  And seeing that he is good and seeks our benefit because of his goodness and unimaginable love for us helps us to submit to his authority willingly.

I hope that if you haven’t done this already that you might. It is the only way that we can truly be the greatest version of ourselves.  This will only occur by the will of the Father through the sacrifice of Jesus and the power of Holy Spirit to make the change in us.  If you have done this may you ever increase in the knowledge of who Jesus is and his love for you.