The Power of Right Believing: 7 Keys to Freedom from Fear, Guilt, and Addiction Read Free Page B

Him or seen about Him. Allow me, through this book, to introduce the real Jesus to you, for this is where it all begins. Not the religious Jesus you may have heard about growing up, but the real Jesus who walked along the dusty streets of Jerusalem and upon the raging waters of the Galilee.
    He was the one whom the sick, the poor, the sinful, the down-and-out, and the outcast instinctively gravitated to and felt at ease with. He was God in the flesh, and He manifested God’s tangible love. In His presence, those who were imperfect didn’t feel fearful of Him or sense judgment or condemnation from Him. A far cry from what many of us have been taught about God.
    Jesus kept His harshest words only for those who were perfect in their own estimation. If you look carefully at all the biblical accounts of Jesus, He really didn’t get along well with the religious folks of His day, who were known as Pharisees. They paraded around, their noses in the air with a holier-than-thou attitude. Although they would never admit it, they were extremely arrogant and cruelly judgmental.
    The Pharisees were critical, faultfinding, legalistic, pretentious, bigoted, and most of all, ignorant. They made loud claims about their piousness for God. Yet when they stood in the very presence of God Himself, they were too self-occupied to recognize Him. God was with them in the flesh, but they did not worship Him. Instead, they scorned Him and on many occasions even plotted to kill Him.
    Unfortunately, their “descendants” are still around today! Perhaps you’ve encountered them and have felt the heat of their scorn, condemnation, and judgment.
    But the God they speak of is not the God whom I personally know. You don’t have to be “religious” to have access to the God whom I know. In fact, the less “religious” you are, the better. So I am asking you to throw out every idea, concept, and picture that you may have of a “religious” Jesus. The real Jesus didn’t come to bring a new religion. He didn’t come to be served and waited upon. No, He came to serve, and serve He did.
    You don’t have to be “religious” to have access to God.
    The real Jesus created the universe with one command and orchestrated the paths of each planet so that none would collide. He had every right to demand service from those He created, yet He supplied service. He kneeled down and with His own hands washed the grime and filth from His disciples’ feet. Those same hands would later be pierced with coarse nails at the cross, and He would, with His own blood, wash us of the grime and filth of all our sins by taking them upon His own body. What a far cry from the condemning, judgmental, faultfinding God that many have portrayed Him to be!
    Believe in a God of Grace
    Many today believe in a “religious” God. They believe that God is against them when they fall short, that He is angry with them whenthey fail, that fellowship with Him is cut off when they make mistakes. They believe that God is perpetually unsatisfied with them, waiting impatiently to be appeased. They imagine a God who is constantly judging them for their weaknesses, shaking His head in abject disappointment at their mediocrity or never-ending failures. They believe that they are not good enough for God and will never be good enough for Him.
    It’s no wonder then that instead of running to the one true solution, they run in the opposite direction when they are hurting. So there is a great deception, a powerful, wrong belief about God that has trapped many in the vicious cycle of condemnation, guilt, fear, defeat, and addiction.
    My friend, the God I know is a God of infinite grace. He is repugnant to the “religious,” but gracious and irresistible to those who are hurting.
    No matter what you are going through today, whatever addictions may be binding you, right believing can and will set you free. Start with believing this powerful truth:
God is a God of grace and forgiveness. He loves you