FROM SECONDHAND RELIGION TO FIRSTHAND FAITH

For too long many of us have embraced a secondhand religion that is based on believing certain doctrines and defending traditions of our faith.

This secondhand religion is based on what we have heard from others - our parents, our family, our church - about who God is what God is like. It defines Christianity, and the Christian life, as nothing more than believing what the Bible says [or what our denomination or church tells us it says].

But the time is ripe for us to shed this dead religion in favor of a more vibrant and living relationship with a person - not a book or a creed or a statement of faith - but a God "in whom we live and move and have our being."

This is firsthand faith. In contrast to secondhand religion, firsthand faith is about an actual relationship with the person that the Bible points to. It's about knowing God and His Son in an intimate way.

All through the Gospels Jesus urges us to abandon the perceived safety of religious information gathering to the truly abundant life found only by abiding in Him.

We are called into an intimacy with God that is scandalous and breath-taking. [Matt. 6:9]

He is our "Papa" and we are His children. [1 John 3:1]

He invites us to draw near. [James 4:8]

He wants to make His home in us. [John 14:23]

He wants us to experience an intimacy with Him that compares to the union of a husband and wife. [Eph. 5:32]

He wants us to experience a "knowing" of Himself that conceives something within us. [John 17:3]

What this intimacy conceives in us is a new life that comes only from our close connection with Himself. [2 Cor. 5:17; Rev. 21:5]

The sad thing is, too many of those who profess themselves to be Christians are not experiencing Christ in this way. They have not yet moved from secondhand religion into a firsthand knowledge of God where His voice is heard, His mind is known, and His heartbeat becomes synced with their own.

Secondhand religion leads to a life of anxiety, fear and stress.

Firsthand faith leads to a life of joy, hope, peace and confidence based on our connection to God.

If you're still stuck in a secondhand religion, I invite you to begin moving into a firsthand experience of God through the Spirit of Christ.

It can be as simple as taking some time to sit quietly alone with the Lord and whispering a prayer to Him, asking for a deeper experience of His presence; being still to know that He is God.

It won't happen all at once, but if you are serious about abandoning your secondhand religion in order to enter into firsthand knowledge of God, you will be rewarded.

"...they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after Him and find Him, although He is not far from each one of us." [Acts 17:27]

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after God, for they shall be filled....Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." [Matt. 5:6;8]

"...and they shall call him 'Immanuel', which means 'God with us'" [Matt. 1:23]

Are you ready to move from secondhand religion to firsthand faith?

He is waiting to show you more of Himself.

The time is now.

-kg

Worm-Free Christianity

There are no worms in the Body of Christ.

Everyone who abides in Christ is a brand new creature. We are no longer “worms” or “wretches” who are in need of God’s constant pity.

Our favorite hymns might suggest otherwise, but once we come to Jesus we cease to be worms and begin to become new creatures who are partakers of the Divine nature.

Yes, before the cross we were most pitiful and dead in our sins.

Before we knew Jesus we were broken and worthless and hopeless and blind.

But praise God we are no longer in this condition!

Those who are in Christ are no longer regarded as worms, but as sons of God.

We who are members of the Body of Christ are loved and treasured, not miserable wretches covered in our filthy sins.

Maybe there were some Christians in our church experience who poured shame over us.

Maybe there were pastors and teachers who preached messages of condemnation to keep us under control.

Maybe there were some worship leaders who planted melodies in our hearts that emphasized our former identity as worms and wretches.

But that’s not who Jesus says we are.

We are sons and daughters.

We are filled with the fullness of Christ.

We are new creatures with a new nature.

We are holy.

We are spotless.

We are dearly loved.

If you don’t believe me, look it up. The New Testament is chock full of truth about our new identity in Christ.

Jesus affirms our worth.

Jesus declares our freedom.

Jesus proclaims that we are friends, not slaves.

Jesus reminds us that we are God’s children who cry out “Abba!” to our Heavenly Father who loves us dearly.

Jesus says that He and the Father will come and make their home with those who love and obey Him.

Are you in Christ? Then there is no condemnation for you. None at all.

Are you in Christ? Then there is nothing in the entire Universe with the power to separate you from the love of God.

Are you in Christ? Then you are forever knitted together with Jesus for the rest of eternity.

Repeat after me: “I am not a worm. I am a dearly loved child of God. Jesus lives and breathes in me right now. He will never leave me. He will never forsake me. His love for me will never die.”

Now, set your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. Place your hope in Him, the One who loves you beyond measure.

Start living every day, moment by moment, in the new reality of your identity in Christ.

If you can, try helping others to see that they are not worms, either.

We all need a lot more worm-free Christianity.

-kg

**

See also:

Erasing Shame

Shameless
Everything We Need

Unbroken.

A dear friend shared this song with me recently.

The bridge of the song says: “Here I am at your feet, in my brokenness complete”

I started to wonder, "Is that true?"

Actually, no. We are complete in Christ, not in our brokenness. 

Our brokenness is what Jesus removes from us. He makes us whole and perfect and qualified and partakers of the Divine Nature, and new creations.

We are not "complete in our brokenness", we are hidden with Christ in God, we are without blemish, and without blame, we are free from condemnation, we are redeemed, righteous, holy, chosen, accepted and beloved…but not broken – not anymore.

Everyone needs to realize the amazing reality of our true identity in Christ! Let's not reinforce the notion that we are "unworthy" and "broken". That is not who we are!

Yes, this is how we came to Christ, in the beginning, but we do not remain as we were in the beginning, do we?

No. Not at all. 

We must move on.

We need to "forget the past and press on to the High calling of Jesus Christ!" and that means we do not continually remain in this place of blame and guilt.

Let's meditate on these verses for a while and see what the Lord says about who we really are in Christ:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." - 2 Cor. 5:17

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” – Romans 8:1-5

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:37-39

Halleluiah!

I'm sure we can all share many other verses from Jesus and the New Testament that boldly reveal who we are in Christ today!

We are made complete in Him, not in our brokenness.

Let's continue to spur one another on and to remind one another of the awesome new life - and new nature - we now have in Christ.

-kg