The best part of the Christian journey is the relationship I am able to have with the living God. It took many years to learn I didn’t really have a relationship with God, but was, in fact socialized into Christianity. I knew all the clichés and gestures like the back of my hand. I was a master at imitating the Christian culture. I looked and acted like the real thing, but I wasn’t. I worshipped God with my lips, but my heart was far from him. That reality was a real eye opener. I didn’t realize I wasn’t the real thing until I met someone who really was Christ-like.
I was doing Christianity, but I wasn’t really becoming Christ-like. I knew about God, but I didn’t KNOW God. Being raised in the church made me think learning about God and Jesus, for years and years, made me an expert Christian. Actually, I was a typical religious person. I was more moral and ethical than holy or righteous. But when I met someone who was allowing the Christian faith to authentically transform his life I knew I hadn’t truly committed to the relationship with God. However, I wanted to have an authentic relationship with God too.
After so many years of doing Christianity where do I start in order to have a genuine relationship with God? This is why I wrote TRANSFORMING LOVE to help others have a genuine YADA relationship with God too and NOT spend years experiencing Christianity as just another religious system. I will explain YADA later, but for now it simply means “KNOW” and “COVENANT-ONENESS.”
Genre: RELIGION / GeneralI DON'T KNOW
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
DO YOU WANT TO BE TRANSFORMED?
"…Do you want to get well...?" (John 5:6 MSG).
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Before you start reading this book, I wanted to say I believe EVERY child of God can be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ by the renewing of their mind (Romans 12:1).
So the question to you is “Do you want to be transformed?” It may seem like a ridiculous question, when without transformation, you would remain blind, crippled and paralyzed to sin, its affects and its consequences.
However, if Jesus thought to ask the man at Bethesda did he wish to get well, when it seemed obvious he needed healing, the question had a purpose.
“Soon another Feast came around and Jesus was back in Jerusalem. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. Hundreds of sick people—blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:1-6 MSG)
The purpose of the question was not for Jesus, but for the man at the pool of Bethesda, a 38 year resident. The question is also for you and I: “Do you want to get well [or do you want to transform]?”
You can get so accustomed and complacent about the sinful lifestyle; you may become doubtful of the possibility of change or full of excuses about your current condition, or maybe you don’t really want to change.
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Portuguese
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Already translated.
Translated by Larissa Meneses
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Spanish
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Translation in progress.
Translated by Carlos Soria
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