Tag Archives: grace revolution

A LETTER TO MY FORMER CHURCH


Dear Former Church:

I hope you are not shocked to be reading my letter. I know it’s been more than three years since we crossed on each others pathPhoto Credit: Google image

Let me go straight to the point. I was reminiscing through memory lane; the years we shared together at East Effort Avenue, until I found the joy of experiencing a personal friendship and intimacy with Christ, which is based on His effort at the cross of Calvary. Life has not been a smooth ride, but I am really enjoying a restful journey – no more guilt, shame, fear and the weight of trying to be wholly on my own terms. It’s a simple principle of simply embracing who I am in Christ, through faith.

I don’t mean to be ungrateful; I was saved at your Church on good Friday of 1979, when the late Reverend Ray Ray preached that fiery sermon on the reality of hell and heaven. I learnt a great deal of things through bible studies and summer vacation bible school, prophetic crusades, street outreach, baptism etc. in my early years as a believer. The joy and the passion were great in the beginning, when all I knew was Christ and His eternal plans for me. I have now realized the reason the honeymoon didn’t last longer…my joy was depleted when I had to try on my own to embark on the Christian pilgrimage with a load of strict traditions and rules to abide with. Honestly, I had to fake it at all times…it was hard to live this life without Christ.

Recently I met some of your sons and daughters at a grocery store and was completely overwhelmed with concern about their attitude. They were Photo Credit: Google imageactually not doing anything evil but they didn’t seem to be happier, joyful and peaceful in themselves just the way I have known them in the past. I figured it out perfectly, because I was in this same bondage years back. I didn’t know then that God has not given me the spirit of fear but of love and sound mind in my born again spirit to walk in liberty and freedom. What a flood-tide of joy that sweeps over your soul, for the sheer knowledge that you already have love, life and peace through the indwelling Spirit off God. Against this background, do you really care enough that you’ve put too much burden on the people of God and yet it has no bearings in the word of God?. I know you exalt man’s traditions, rules, and regulations more than embracing the free gift of grace. Performance oriented religion is a serious cancer in your skin, and it’s eating you of a life of victory. I know you’ve tried so hard through will power and self effort to please the Lord, and to also earn a mark on your score card, but your best day has never met the standard of God.

I feel very sorry for your frustration…I know, you sincerely want to do your best for God, but the truth is; extreme self denials and positive thinking techniques are allPhoto Credit: Google image carnal works of the flesh. God’s standard is too high and there is only one person who perfectly fulfilled the demands of God, so that you would not try but rather receive what He did on the cross on your behalf. He is called Jesus. I know He is like a theory to your dull heart and a doctrine encoded in your Church book for reading sake. He loves you with high-octane love, to personally display His life through you as you rest in His power, through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Does that sound too good to be true? Hear Paul, the Apostle of grace echoing this truth;

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

I am being blunt because it hurts when you’ve turn house of prayer into a prison where people worship you like God. I mean you are the center of your religion – many have come before you and walked in the same route you have chosen, but because wisdom was denied from them, their pride was their fall. I hope you will not tear this letter into pieces; you will never learn wisdom if you’re thinking, I am not a theologian to emphasize on doctrinal issues.

More importantly, I have so many things to ask you but let me leave you with this; you taught us to love our neighbor but we never loved our neighbors from different denominations. I thought the Church is a living organism; bigger than your little Chapel at the store front, which has been customized into an attacking arena, and a lambasting Club against other Churches you deemed as “unspiritual and not part of your assembly” instead of turning it into a greener pasture for hungry souls and a spiritual extension of all the local Churches which calls on the name of the Lord.

I hope you’ve stopped exalting yourself before vulnerable people who thinks Godliness is rooted in your platinum deals and the wealth you’ve surrounded yourself with, instead of Christ. Please don’t vex; I am not trying to tell you what to do or to be mean. Am just throwing light on things you’ve probably not paid too much attention. I am not in any way envious or jealous of your wealth and prosperity. It is truly the will of God that we prosper – I am very much concerned about your lack of desire to exalt Christ before the eyes of people who are so hungry for the truthPhoto Credit: Google image which sets free. I know too well that, it is through the preaching of the gospel, that one can experience the quality life of God.

Since I left you and your religion; many of your prisoners call me a heretic and disown me like their ancestors disown Jesus, because He ate with sinners and the ugliest in society. I would have falling into the ditch of your pettiness, had I not been aware of the good and favorable opinion of God towards me. I am loved, accepted and highly favored by my Father in heaven and His perfect love cast out all my fears…there is no time to waste being consumed by your rumor mongering tactics. I never woke up without praying for you…because His love compels me to do so, than to nurse bitterness and resentment.

I know change is coming your way; which will blow your socks off. For the first time you will know how God loves you unconditionally, independent of your performance and Church traditions. This joy will set you in motion for the deeper life; in and out. I know how we faked up righteousness, holiness, peace, joy, sanctification for others to appreciate us of living the life, but the struggle on the inside was very hurting. I know how you feel because we were in it together. Swallow your pride and let Jesus takes the wheel for an effortless journey of resting on His ability through the highways and byways. If that sound too good you want to hear more of the sound of amazing grace in your ears, please let’s meet at ihop and have some conversation. Lots of love to you!

Yours sincerely

Former Member

Copyright 2014GOG|McDaniels Gyamfi

YOU ARE NOT A SINNER BECAUSE YOU SIN


“Almost all unbelievers believe that, if they can change their behavior, they will be in good shape with God”

Jesus, Our Savior, passionately and tenderly, declared His heartbeat, in the gospel, written by John:

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me – I have other sheep that do not come from this sheepfold. I must bring them too, and they will listen to my voice, so that there will be one flock and one shepherd. (John 10:14, 16 NET

Jesus had a different attitude towards the unsaved, and the despicable in society. Jesus called the unsaved “other sheep”…I don’t have to delve too much into this. Wow! He is a shepherd to a detached sheep, wandering in the wilderness. This is so good to be true…it changes my perception towards the unsaved, and rekindles my passion to reach out beyond “his own” to tell the other sheep; “come home, God is not angry with you as you’ve been made to believe” “Come home, come home”Shepherd1

OTHER SHEEP…There are millions of our brothers and sisters, who are outside of the Church. They have never felt comfortable to come and be a part of the sheepfold, as God’s family. I can only describe them as; “being on the run, with a belly full of guilt and emptiness”. They think; first – they have to put their acts together, in their own power and ability, then they will come to Christ. They have not heard about the good news of their freedom from God’s anger, legalism and the gift of righteousness, on the basis of grace. They have only heard partial gospel of their sins, condemnation, and how bad they are; heading to perdition.

ONE IS NOT A SINNER BECAUSE HE SIN, ONE IS A SINNER BECAUSE…Please, tell them they are not “sinners” because of their sinful deeds. They are sinners because they have not believed in God’s one and only son….they have also refused to accept the undeserved payment of their innocence, and the goodness of God, which is the power unto salvation for all who will believe. Almost all unbelievers believe that, if they can change their behavior, they will be in good shape with God. In our depraved state, without Christ in us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can never be in good shape, on our own. This understanding will change the way we approach evangelism and sets captives free from the cave of their inability to surrender to God. The salvation deal is not a behavioral goal, but a transformation of the heart.

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him John 3:16-18 MSG

WHEN THE GOODNESS OF GOD IS SHARED…how God thinks about humanity through what He has done through Christ Jesus is shared with the world of sin… the Holy Spirit, immediately goes to work in the heart, to shine the light of the glory of Christ, for healing and transformation.powerpoint-background-8

Romans 2:4 NKJV…”Or Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? What brings repentance? It is in the goodness of God. Paul was not ashamed to talk about the goodness of God to the undeserved; he knew that, righteousness by faith could only be revealed to the unsaved through the gospel. He writes… Romans 1:16, 17 NKJV “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

TELL THE WORLD…Please, tell them, God himself will perfect that which concerns them…the drugs, addiction, witchcraft, voodoo, hate, adultery, lesbianism, gambling, pornography and all derivatives of the fallen nature. Paul put it this way… “Because God is working in you to help you want to do and be able to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13 NCV) It is the Spirit which works in us both to will and to do of God’s good pleasure; this working of grace in our hearts, puts us in alignment with God, as one progressively walk with Him.original

To focus all our energies on one’s behavior change, as a yardstick to set up a relationship with God, is not the gospel. The gospel takes the burden from your shoulders as you place your faith in Christ, to appropriate God’s mercy and goodness. To try to save oneself through discipline and self denials will only do the outer work of change, not the transformation from the inside out. This form of righteousness is what Paul call it; “my own righteousness”.

Philippians 3:9 NKJV… and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness, which is from God by faith. The gospel is what God has wrought for humanity, through the finished work of Christ, on the cross of Calvary, independent of our efforts and performance; it hinges on faith alone” – 2 Corinthians 5:21(NIV)  God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God

A PRAYER TO PRAY… You can be free from the guilt of the death sentence, already paid on your behalf by Christ if and only you will believe in His person as God’s son,936750_473999902670979_334376063_n and His gracious work for your freedom. I entreat you to come home, my friend…Pray with me and come home to the open arms of your gracious Father;

“Dear God, I know I’m a sinner, I know I am not where I want to be, and I want forgiveness! I believe Jesus died on the cross, to pay the price for my sins. Come into my life Jesus to be my Lord and Savior! Thank you for the gift of life eternal and rest, flooding my soul” Amen!

  Share the joy of Christian fellowship with other believers & Share your Christ experience with the world. Shalom

– McDaniels Gyamfi