Start putting the Gospel in the gospel

Just recently I was speaking with the Duchess of Putrescence on the phone and she brought up something that seems to be a trend in our day...putting ME in the gospel.  Apparently the school that her children are attending does not understand that the gospel isn't about us.  I wasn't surprised and chalked it up to the sad state of theological unawareness.  

Then came...

Coffee with some ladies...we were really enjoying ourselves!  Conversation was flowing as steadily as the coffee, and it was wonderful to be getting to know them better.  (by the way, that's me in blue)  One of the ladies brought up 1 Peter 3:15, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have.  But do this with gentleness and respect..." And then she said we should share our testimonies with each other because we need to share the hope that is in us.

Do you see the problem here?  Sadly, she thought my sharing my testimony, my experience, was sharing the gospel.  In one sense she was right, I am the sinner in the gospel message.  That's it.  But there is so much more to the gospel and Paul gives it to us in 1 Corinthians 15.  He says,

"Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you -- unless you believed in vain.  For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received:  that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve..."

I think something that gets lost in the "gospel" is the focus on the One who IS the gospel.  We focus so much on how horrible we were before and how when we were saved things changed!  And we go into the changes and how much better life is now, and we tell about ourselves!  Yes those things happened, but they are a BENEFIT of the gospel.  Those things are not the gospel.  (I'm not going into the fact that we are still sinners and all of that)

I'm not saying to stop sharing your testimony.  Of course not.  But make it less about you and more about Him and what He did so many years ago on the cross.