Hey there, Beloved…
I think many (most?) people misunderstand the entire nature of Christianity. Perhaps you grew up in Granny Smith’s Sunday School class where she taught you how displeased God was with your misbehavior. Or maybe you attended Catholic high school where Sister Athena of the Holy Order smacked your wrist every time you teased your brother. Based on these experiences—reinforced by Hollywood’s rendition of the First Self-Righteous Church of the Superior Ones—most Americans visualize cleaning up our behavior as the chief aim of our religion. To most, Christianity is simply one big shame-laden behavioral modification program. But is that true? Is this really what God wants for you and me? Let’s explore this in Deeper Thoughts below… But first… five super-simple reminders… · Experience “The Steps to Freedom in Christ” – THIS Saturday, April 27, 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. – a time tested, empirically proven tool that activates the believer’s authority and power in Christ to break free from the sin and thoughts that repeatedly entangle us. This special encounter will involve collective instruction, individual guidance, corporate worship, and a collaborative wrap up. This is so much more than a workshop or class. This is your time to biblically press into God’s presence and actualize your healing, freedom, and identity in Jesus Christ. Free continental breakfast and lunch included! Please click here to RSVP today! · Women: It’s not too late to join us for our seven-week women’s study on Thursday nights called “Knowing Rediscovered.” Learn how to hear God’s voice, discover our identity in Christ, and nurture the relationships we have. Click here for more info and to RSVP! o Also mark your calendars for breakfast and a prayer walk, Saturday, May 25. Click here for more details! · Men: Saturday, May 4, 8:00 – 9:00 a.m. a quick and focused men’s challenge morning. We’ll do a simple continental breakfast (coffee, donuts, snacks) and dive right into our discussion, prayer, and challenge time. Click here to RSVP! · Young Adults: TOMORROW—Friday evening, April 26, 20-somethings hang out and spiritual discussions. Click here to email Sherri Eads for details! OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who already have spotless behavior. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… Tell me if I’m right. Most Americans visualize their spiritual lives going something like this: We try real hard to be good kids. Our Sunday School teacher says God is watching everything we do (oh, and Santa is keeping a careful record as well!). But by the third grade, we’ve already messed it all up. By high school, girls [boys], music, and beer are starting to take centerstage. Church is just plain boring. We launch off into college or a trade, get married, have kids, try our best to be a good father [mother], and work tirelessly to earn that next promotion at work. God occupies a 60-minute time slot on Christmas Eve and Easter and the occasional special church service our mom begs us to attend. As we get into our fifties and sixties, we start burying our parents, and then our friends, and *then* start thinking our own eternity might be important. By now we’re pretty sure Saint Peter has polished up his gold-plated measuring scale, and the good deeds and bad deeds we’ve done are getting stacked on either side. We cross our fingers that we’ve done enough good things, or donated enough to charity, or cleaned up our language well enough to outweigh all that teenage rebellion Peter stacked on his scale. Pretty soon the Pearly Gates will greet us; we’ll nervously stand in line to see what Peter has to say… Sound familiar? What is perhaps worst about this image of religion is how profoundly hopeless and helpless it is. It’s like we are just biding our time to learn our predetermined fate. We sincerely hope we’ve stacked up enough good credits, but deep down inside we have no idea. Oh, and then because it feels so helpless, we start getting cranky about the unfairness of heaven and hell. God’s expectations are wildly unrealistic. We feel defeated to improve our standing with God, so we just give up and decide it’s best to enjoy what little life we have left and ignore this unrealistic, punitive, judgmental God that Granny Smith or Sister Athena created in our mind. Born again Christians understand that real Christianity is nothing at all like what I have just described. We who have found authentic faith in Jesus Christ--rooted not in Granny Smith’s angry image of God, but rather in the clear and joyful revelation of the Bible—have discovered firsthand that God is abundantly merciful, outrageously gracious, unconditionally loving, and unstoppably present. His grace washes over our sinfulness in wave upon wave of merciful forgiveness. His lavish affection pursues us through every failure, every mistake, every doubt, and every broken corner of our lives. We who are truly born again in Jesus are truly free. We are not haunted by the fear of Saint Peter’s gold-plated scales. We simply trust the finished work of Jesus’ grace for us. And this changes us. We become entirely free. (BTW…we also know Peter has no involvement whatsoever with our eternal entrance exam. That job belongs solely to Jesus. And Jesus has already rigged the test by filling in all the answers for us… oh, this is so good!!) So… does my behavior matter? Of course, it does. But not in the way most people think Jesus sees it. In Jesus Christ, our behavior is the outcome of freedom, not the gateway to it. In Jesus, we do not behave our way into spiritual victory. To the contrary, spiritual freedom and spiritual victory lead us to a new behavior. Romans 1 reveals to us that ignoring God will lead us to humanism and hedonism. So, in that sense, the behavior of ignoring God and putting our affections solely on created beings becomes a gateway to isolation and spiritual destruction. But the story doesn’t end with Romans 1. After Romans 1 comes Romans 3 and Romans 6. Jesus meets our unrighteousness with his own righteousness, and he exercises a fair trade. He lays down his life to swap places with us. We have known crippling bondage created by our humanistic hedonism; he takes the jail cell for himself and releases us into unfettered liberty. We must believe this supernatural prisoner exchange has taken place. When we receive this gift by faith, we move into Romans 8 where a brand-new life, free of condemnation and free of sin begins to emerge. And then… only then… can we experience Romans 12 and Romans 13 where our behavior towards others and our behavior towards God will actually, substantively, and measurably change. Oh, beloved… Do you want to step into this so fully? Do you want to become entirely free? Let’s do three things: 1) Read it again. Cycle through Romans 1, 3, 6, 8, and 12. Sneak around Romans 13 and notice what thorough freedom and a transformed life in Jesus Christ might look like for you. 2) Come out Saturday to specifically walk seven steps into that freedom. This will not be another behavior modification lecture, I promise. It will be a life-changing discovery of the freedom already given to you with a guided pathway to realize it. More info and RSVP right here. 3) Come back out Sunday morning where we will continue into “Uncharted Territory: Taking Life Where You’ve Never Been” and explore the outcomes promised in Romans 13. This is real Christianity. You in?? Here we go! Much love to all… just like Jesus has for you… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend
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