[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.