For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.
This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.
Colossians 1:4-6 NLT
Has the Good News changed your life? Has becoming aware of the love and grace of God changed how you live?
It took me awhile to finally get it. I got saved in a radical encounter with God all by myself one day when I was thinking about killing myself. No one preached at me, encouraging me to invite Jesus into my heart. But He found His way there.
That was over 25 years ago.
Then I started “going to church.”
I strongly recommend people quit thinking about going to church. That creates a religious mindset that separates the sacred and the secular.
We don’t go to church. We are the Church. We go and make disciples.
I know of no better way to rid ourselves of a performance based religious mindset than entering into continuous dialogue with Christ. After all, Christ is in you, might as well have a conversation.
Religion is the devil. Okay, not really, but it’s what he uses to trick people into serving a system of rules and regulations instead of listening to God and walking in agreement with God’s will.
What is a performance based mindset? Output determines your value. That’s how the world ascribes worth. Can you perform? Then you’re valuable.
A performance mentality deceives us into thinking that doing things for God makes us special. You’re not special and neither am I. We’re simply human beings.
What God wants is continuous fellowship with us. That’s why He created us. He wanted to share His joy with some good company.
When you come to God, you exchange one life for another. Christ took all of our sin upon Himself so that He could put all of Himself into us collectively as one holy, united Church. He is filling the entire universe with Himself.
Walking with God is a 24/7/365 thing, not an hour a week of observing religious rituals and traditions being performed before a passive and mostly silent audience.
It’s time to get real.
How well do you really know God? Is He your Lord? Or just an idea in your head?
Get to know Me, says the Lord. I am better than you can ever imagine.
Lord, we repent of religious traditions created by men who thought they had the authority to override what Scripture teaches. Forgive us, O God, for being deceived into living lives of error. We submit to Your correction today. Holy Spirit teach the Church to obey Your voice. Amen
I have been crucified with Christ [that is, in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith [by adhering to, relying on, and completely trusting] in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not ignore or nullify the [gracious gift of the] grace of God [His amazing, unmerited favor], for if righteousness comes through [observing] the Law, then Christ died needlessly. [His suffering and death would have had no purpose whatsoever.]”
Galatians 2:20-21 AMP
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