The Awakening

I became a Christian at the age of 16, I didn't know much, but having essentially grown up in the church I was pretty versed on the language of christianese. We all know it, and we all have been prone to speaking it. Depending on the stream in which you learned, the language could have different varieties, but still the same language.

Early on it was exciting and fresh, I had amazing friends that helped to encourage me, and life was good. This is not going to be a blog where I begin by telling some sob story in the attempt to get hits on my website, or even listens on my podcast. Although both would be nice, that isn't my intention. My intention here is to share my heart, a heart that has been quickly changing these last few weeks, making me question stuff I had always taken for granted, and forcing me into the newness of my faith again. 

My faith had grown pretty stagnate in the last few years, and even though I was doing my podcast, I sang on the worship team at my church, I still struggled hard with issues of sin that would creep up. I would berate myself after I failed, and would continually remind myself of the disgust that God obviously had for me. Or so I thought. 

A few years ago a good friend of me introduced me to John Crowder, and in the beginning I just wasn't in the headspace to receive what he was teaching. Then about three months ago I was reintroduced to him, I decided to give him another shot. A new friend that I met on Facebook sent me his book "Mystical Union" in audio format, and it has totally wrecked me. The first chapter John constantly reminds us that as saints we are not bound to sin anymore, in fact we are dead to it, and alive to Christ.

Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:11 NAS

We are so dead to sin that we don't have to sin, we aren't bound to it. This is not about striving to do something that we are incapable of doing. If we were incapable of avoiding sin, then the letters of Paul would prove impossible. Paul constantly encouraged us (the Church) to avoid sin, to not present our bodies to sin. 

When I first heard John emphatically teach this in the first chapter of his book, I spoke to myself out loud and said, how do I do this? That's impossible to avoid sin, I was born in it and am incapable of resisting it. He issued a challenge, read Romans 6 everyday for a year. Not I will honestly say I have not done that, but the first day I listened and read Romans 6 at least 5 times, and since I have read it on several other occasions. 

Since I have been studying this, I have posted thought after thought on Facebook, stirring up many different discussions, some downright hostile. I have had a few that think I am not a believer anymore, some think I have lost my mind. I have had people saying that if I claim I am without sin than I must not have the love of God in me. Not that I have ever claimed to be without sin, only that I don't have to sin anymore. 

This has forced me to be more excited about my relationship with Daddy than ever before. I realize that He didn't just rend the heavens to save me, but to redeem me. He redeemed me and my experiences, He redeemed me and my identity. He took this dirty, broken guy, put His finest robe on my shoulders, and a ring of His Authority on my finger. 

I am under obligation, as Paul was in Romans 1, to share this, the Gospel, with everyone I come into contact with. So this is where I am at. I plan on writing more, but this is just a start.  If you like the blog please share it, share my podcast. Thanks for reading and listening!