[Transformed by the experience of Jesus]- The Gospel.

  What produces change? I've always wondered that.
  I hear preacher say all the time 'it's all about the change' or 'to be a Christian, you have to change.' CHANGE, CHANGE, CHANGE! That's all I heard. Every hear that?
   Well, there were lots of ways to change. Pastors say, 'you have to stop drinking' 'you have to come back to church' 'you have to apologize to whomever you hurt' 'you have to stop sinning' 'you have to pray so hard that you don't sleep till you change.'
    Wow, that's really tiring. Oh, wait, when we're tired of Churchy stuff, that means somethings wrong. However not the wrong you might think. All those statements above, well, you should be tired of hearing something. When your tired of hearing something, that means you haven't been getting fed the right information. All those statement are like good food being thrown into the trash. Once you see them in the trash, their immediately tained.
    But wait? Aren't those things semi-good? NOT WITHOUT JESUS. A lot of the time, if you go to church, the pastor will assume that you know he's talking about everything in the context of Jesus right? You'd hope so. But half of the time, we come to them saying, 'hey I'm not a good person now, I pray and everything, WHY do I feel empty?' And then they say you took a misstep. Somewhere on the road you did something wrong. You didn't mean it when you repented, you sinned all week. IT GOES ON AND ON.
     Well, guys, here in this wonderful book I found the answer. You are not changed by the command of Jesus, but by the experience of Jesus. It may seem simple, but look at it. NOW, let's first straigten one thing. 'Experience with Jesus' has to be properly defined. I got to reading an article about the Passion Conference in 2011. I've never been to it, I frankly didn't know it existed, but thats just me. Anyways, I watched this video of Kim Walker-Smith, a woman who spoke there, and the commenter on the page he said, "Kim Walker-Smith claims that she spoke with Jesus, that He cuddled her, and that she saw God the Father. And while she acknowledges that such visions are not regular occurrences, she nevertheless indicates that she’s had multiple encounters with Him.One wonders how many people sitting amongst that large crowd left disappointed that night that they had not “encountered”. <----- THIS IS NOT EXPERIENCING JESUS. I don't know what she encountered but it wasn't The Maker of Heaven and Earth. The two times in the Bible that man encountered God the Father, they were struck down, terrified to speak, and stunned. They were not cuddling with God. Again, as the commenter says, we all walk away wishing we had that experience.
   This is the answer folks, and listen to it carefully. Gospel Change is the Spirit of God using the STORY of God to make the BEAUTY of God come alive in our heart. THIS is experiencing God. The Spriti of God making Jesus' Story SO BEAUTIFUL, that God comes alive in our heart. This is so important. Now it is essential to obey the commands of God, Greear says, but the power of transformation doesn't come from them.
    So I encourage you to experience God BY appreciating his wonderful story and sacrifice. Not by bumping into him on the side of the street. Wouldn't it be so wonderful to have no fear or disstisfaction or pride? Don't you want to feel the true change? Let's pray to God the Father that he would reveal his TRUE grace and mercy, and we will be changed.

[embracing your new identity] -The Gospel

  When we have a change of heart, we begin to become someone else. We become a new identity. We were once villians, and now we are creating a new identity for ourselves in Christ.
   What is our new identity? Who are we? We are Christ's Children whom he approves.
   Preach the gospel to yourself. You must tell youself that because of Jesus you have the absolute approval of the One whose opinion really matters.
   Now, a new identity is not something that just comes naturally. It's like Avatar, having a whole new body to deal with. We are not perfect when we have our new identity. It takes breaking in. That's growing in Christ. It's a process. The Author says, spiritual progress is: "To grow in awareness of the depths of sin God has saved you from is growth in the gospel." When we grow in awareness of the the depths of sin, we are embracing the new identity. We have to stick with it!
   This process is so hard these days. There are trillions of distractions. The world doesn't agree with our change of identity. You are fighting just to keep your head up, and it get's tiring. That's why the Author says that we have to daily feed ourselves the gospel. You see, to all of these emotions--fear, insecurity, false-confidence, despair, worry---we must preach the gospel. The gospel takes care of all our problems, it will help push the distractions away!
 
   So, we simply must abide in Jesus, and we will become our new identity in Christ. I love this: "You must dwell on this great truth daily. Sometimes hourly. Sometimes every minute. It is the only way to drive out fear, unbelief, and temptation. Why so often? Because again, you are hardwired for works-righteousness. When you're not deliberately thinking gospel, you've probably slipped back into self-justification mode.......The moment we take our eyes off of the gospel, those rodents of self-righteousness and self-condemnation spring back up.
    Do you see how easy that is? We just naturally want differently than what we've been given. We need to daily embrace the truth of the gospel. It is hard, but our King wants nothing less. We must try our best to please him.
    How do we stop this temptation?
    We must embrace the truth: God's acceptance is given to us, in its entirety, as a gift we receive by faith, to the praise and glory of God. Make you home in that awareness. As you do, you will aboud in fruitfulness.

    In Christ, there is nothing I can do that would make you love me more, and nothing I have done that makes you love me less- JD Greear.

~Hannah

[Satan's A-game (conviction part 2)] -The Gospel

  So, now we know that there are two kinds of convictions. Maybe we've realized that sometimes we have the wrong convictions. The ones that lead us to despair and sorrow. Or maybe the ones that lead us to pride.
  So how do we distinguish them?

  ....both Satan and the Holy Spirit will point our your sin. But they do so in entirely different ways and for entirely different purposes. I've heard it said like this:

   Satan starts with what you did, and tears down who you are. The Holy Spirit starts with what Christ has declared over you, and helps you rebuild what you did.

   Satan beats us down with our failures. Jesus calls us up into our identity. Jesus starts with the perfect state He has purchased for us by His death and usesd the power of His ressurrection to bring us into conformity with it.

  I know I've been convicted by Satan. Because I have been sorrowful over my failures. What happened right after that? I went to pity myself and despair. I mean what could I do? I'm this dirty rotten filth who every time they are cleaned goes and lays in the mud again. I was focusing on that part. Not the part that I was being continually cleaned and I could learn to become cleaner. Maybe that's what your feeling today. So overwhelmed with your sin and the sin around you, that you despair. But I encourage you, to hope in Christ. Pray in Christ. Live in Christ. You will find peace that will lift every burden no matter how heavy they are. It's a promise to us, if we live in him.
   Another point I wanted to iron out, that really encouraged me, was when he started talking about the differences in speech that we should hear. For example, Satan says, "Look at you. Look at the conditions of your circumstances. Look at how poorly you're living." Ever heard that voice? I have. After the 'poor living' part, I proceed to mentally name all the bad things I did in the past week. How can God love me? The greatest mystery of all.
   And then there was what God said, "You are My beloved child. I am well pleased in you. Now live that way." I cried at that part actually. You know why? Because I have never, in conviction, looked in the mirror and seen God's beloved child. It was so sweet and new to me, just out of this world. Then he says 'I am well pleased with you' ?? I just...I never thought that in my sins and living, God could be pleased with me. I always thought I had to prove something. Like, I'm sinning but look at me, I'm trying. But those words...'I am well pleased with you, my child.' I mean...wow. The God of the universe is pleased with me and my imperfections, and He's still willing to be my Father.
   We should be shaking at the Grace we have received, because its undeserved but it's the one of the most beautiful senses we have. Knowing His Grace.

   In Christ, there is nothing I can do that would make you love me more, and nothing I have done that makes you love me less. -JD Greear

~Hannah

[Satans A-game (conviction part 1)] -The Gospel

 When I think of satan tempting us, I think of him having all these sins and idols at his disposal. Day to day he throws one of the other at us, and we catch them, like dogs playing fetch. Well, in this section of the book, we get to look at this a whole new way. He does tempt us with idols and bad lifestyles, but he has something more subtle that he uses.
  Do you know who loves to push us to evaluate ourselves according to how well we've done? Our enemy, Satan. Satan, believe it or not, loves to convict us of our sins. That;s one of his names--"accuser of our brethren" (Rev. 12:10 nkjv). One of Sata's most effective weapons, I believe is making us forget the identity the Father has declared over us in Christ and basing our sense of approval on how well we've done.
  I didn't expect that coming. Immediately I did a self scan and thought of all the times that I had been convicted and tried to judge which ones were God grace and which one's were satans triumph. I think we all should do a self-scan, because we don't realize what we do. It's like being a major in evolution and you switch over to God's side of science because of something you found. Although you know that God's way is now right, whenever someone mentions something your brain immediately goes to evolution. That's just a small peak at what are brains are actually hard-wired to do. Most likely, we've never even thought of conviction any other way than being about God. But no, Satan can convict. And when he does, it's harsh.
   .....Satan's favorites sins: pride and despair. Pride leads to hardness of heart toward God and hatred of others. Despair leads us to depression, fear, and indulgence in the lusts of the flesh. This is a cycle he loves to have us in. Both start with unbelief of the gospel.
    I encourage you to pray today about what you have heard. Let's examine ourselves for pride and despair. I know I was the guilty party in both of those sins. It's just the way we are. But there is always hope in Christ. Pray today to the Maker of Heaven and Earth. Spend time walking with him. When we do, it will start to produce in us a longing for God, and a seed of belief in what he has done for us.

   In Christ there is nothing I can do that would make you love me more, and nothing I have done that makes you love me less. -JD Greear
 
   ~Hannah