Like many Christians, I’m very grateful to grace preachers such as Joseph Prince for helping to bring Christianity out of the dark ages, from stifling religion to enlightenment and spiritual freedom. But I notice that there’s often a significant disparity between the beliefs of even self-proclaimed grace believers. It indicates to me that this is a journey in which a person’s beliefs evolve and, hopefully, mature. The first major obstacle to overcome is the concept of faith by righteousness alone – I see this as the linchpin when it comes to grace. It is little wonder that many believers, who come into this message, feel the need to avidly share and discuss this revelation with others.
But this journey goes even beyond faith-righteousness. As a believer begins to experience freedom, they begin to question more and more the things they once held as sacred and unquestionable – things like the tithe and church attendance. It’s refreshing to see that whilst some grace preachers, such as Joseph Prince, still believe in tithing; others such as Bertie Brits, are against it.
I find that as you progress along this path of freedom, you begin to engage the heart more, as the tough questions you always wanted to ask, think for yourself and engage with others in a meaningful, heart-felt manner. Gone are the days when you needed someone else to teach you the very things that ought to come natural to you – such as loving others. As you engage the heart, you find that you no longer study the Bible as an intellectual pursuit. In fact, you find that you use the Bible less and less as the Christian life shifts from an intellectual study, something theoretical, towards a genuine experience.
As you shift towards living according to your heart, rather than your head, you find that you no longer need to listen to the faith-righteousness message of Joseph Prince and the like. I mean you get it – you really get it. It’s at this point that your interest is no longer on studying and quoting Bible verses but living the journey. It’s at this point that you’re more inclined to listening to The God Journey and The Free Believers Network – Into the Wild podcasts. These are not preachers who are teaching you something, but discussions between like-minded grace believers who are out of the system of organised religion (church) and are now living from their hearts. If you’re not used to these podcasts you might find them pushing the boundaries of what you find acceptable – you might even find them a little shocking. But I’m grateful to these podcasts because they had the effect of “sandblasting” the last vestiges of religion off me. Although I no longer need to listen to these podcasts, as I believe I’ve fully absorbed this message, I still listen every week because I love their rawness, honesty and humour.
It surprises me just how religious some so-called grace believers can be. It seems that many Christians still hold onto certain concepts that they deem sacred and taboo and are willing to guard with their life. For some its repentance for others the tithe, another might still hold to church attendance or whatever. You can tell what belief a person is clinging onto when you see rather animated discussions on forums and social networking media such as Facebook. I used to go on Facebook a lot when I came into the grace message – it helped establish me in my beliefs. But I think you reach a point whereby you no longer feel the need to do discuss and argue with others about your beliefs. I suppose this is because you’re a lot more confident and mature in your beliefs. There are some people who feel the need to convince others of what they believe. This could emanate from a genuine desire to help others. But it’s just as likely to come from a need for significance, as they try to establish themselves as a grace-guru. I just see some of the discussions on Facebook between mature and immature Christians – and I can already predict the futile circles it will go. I see the Bible quotes and the big blocks of text and it just makes me wince!
For me what marks-out a religious Christian is the way they feel the need to quote a Bible verse for every little thing they say or do. It’s as if they have to speak in Bible verses. I believe the integrity of the Bible and that it’s inspired of God, but there is a need to get on and live your own life according to your own God-given destiny. Otherwise, you simply read about, and quote, the lives of godly men and women from the ancient middle-east
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