An Introduction – Episode 1

Heya! I am so excited to be launching this podcast. It’s something I’ve been talking about doing for quite some time now and here we are. Episode 1!

Just so you know, I’m kind of figuring this stuff out as I go. Fortunately I’m pretty geeky, so when it comes to technological things I do a pretty good job working out how to do stuff.

But I’m new at this so I’m sure there will be plenty of room for improvement along the way. Hopefully you’ll be OK with that and slide a little grace in my direction on this one.
NewCREEations. What is this all about?

Well I’ve been a believer for a while now. And for most of that time – like more than 15 years of it at least – I made things way more complicated than they needed to be. Jesus said we should follow him and that his yoke was easy and his burden light.

I don’t know about you, but for all those years at the beginning following Jesus was pretty stinking hard. I mean the standard we see in scripture is perfection, right? I was prone to perfectionism before I became a believer so any time I didn’t measure up my natural tendency was to think I was a total failure.

I’m here to tell you, that’s not an easy way to go through life. But if you’re in that spot you know all about it. You don’t need me digging up your shortcomings, do you?

Well fortunately I’m discovering that it doesn’t have to be that way. Jesus really did mean it when he said following him could be easy and light.

I mean admit it. Even though you know Jesus is perfect deep down you wondered if he really meant what he said there, or if Matthew maybe heard him wrong on that one.

A great many of us have made being a Christian and following Jesus into something it was never intended to be. We’ve attached all these rules of what we can do and what we need to keep from doing. And every time we mess up we add another rule in an effort to keep ourselves on the straight and narrow path to holiness.

We’ll I’m going to stand in the middle of that path and shout, “Stop the madness!” Seriously. Stop it!

Jesus said this in John 10:10

The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

All that extra weight and complication of those rules we keep adding is not giving us a rich and satisfying life! So when we do all that we are doing something very wrong.
You may not be there , but that’s exactly where I was.

I took a look at my own life and I took a look at the lives of my believing friends and pretty much across the board our lives were heavy, weighted down, less than satisfying. There wasn’t much that was rich about our lives.

The way the Amplified Bible renders the second half of that verse is like this:

I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).

That’s what I want. I want to have and enjoy life. I want to have it in abundance – to the full –till it overflows!

Jesus said that is his purpose. To give us that abundant life.

If I’m not experiencing that abundant life then I am cheating Jesus from his stated purpose. I’m sorry. But that’s not something I want to have to one day face him and answer for.

So a big part of this podcast will be about simply actively embracing that abundant life.
We’ll be exploring principles, concepts, ideas, and promises found in the Bible that point us towards abundance in our lives. Our perspective will be from the place where grace and faith, spirit and truth all intersect as we explore the tension between those four and strive to keep them in balance with one another.

It promises to be interesting. Well I think it will anyway. It’s my prayer that you will be blessed along the way too.