I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. Galations 1:6-7

My wife and I were returning home from church a few weeks ago and I couldn’t get away from the gnawing sensation inside my soul.

It had been a typical service, one that is mimicked thousands of times a week across America. You know how they go; you could probably print the church bulletin. People slowly wander in, with a rush just before the service starts, drop their children off in the “children’s church”, give a courteous smile and a “God bless you” to several people who’s names they can not recall, as they find their regular seat in a certain section of the “sanctuary.”

Soon the “praise team” led by the “minister of worship” begins to play as the words to the songs are flashed on the screen in front. After a few songs (usually about being a friend of God…or wanting to see Jesus), the worship leader encourages folks to mingle about and say good morning to others, an offering is received as a soloist does a “special” song, followed by “a time of prayer” where “unspoken requests” are remembered, a “message” from the pastor, concluded by a “time at the altar.”

“Has Coach, been to our church?” You may be asking yourself right now?

Probably not, but I have been to hundreds just like yours. That is why I had that gnawing feeling as Michele and I left the church that morning. I know I am a little different than most, but that is what makes me, me.

For the life of me I can’t figure out why the feel good messages that we hear from the pulpit make me feel so sick. Spiritual Diabetes is the disease I suffer from. Too much of the sugary sweet gospel makes me ill; especially with so much poison in our midst.

As Michele and I were cruising home that day I asked her a question hoping to keep the buzz-saw in my stomach from churning full bore.

“What is the Gospel sweetheart?”

“Well, I guess it is the Good News of God reconciling man to himself through Jesus.” She answered. “The Kingdom of God has arrived.”

“What does that mean?” I prodded for an answer that would make the rumbling stop.

“What are you getting at, Honey?” She knew that the questions I was asking were not for her to answer, but rather a self-probing of my own heart.

“Let me ask it another way.” I regrouped. “Does the Gospel of the Kingdom apply to all people in all places? Should the gospel preached from any pulpit, regardless of where you live, be applicable to any other Christian regardless of where he/she lives? Does God have one gospel for America and another gospel for the underground church in China? Would the sermon we just heard bring life to the Christians in the Sudan?”

We drove the next several miles in silence as we both considered the obvious answer to the hypothetical that had just been proposed.

The American gospel is a “perverted gospel”…..and is “no gospel at all.”