The author (Chris) claims to be nothing special in his own right. I reside in Australia but notice that life is pretty much the same for most who do not live in third world countries.
I had been a born-again Christian for about 30 years. Similar to many I found myself busily trying to make a life and facing the challenges of raising 3 kids in world that seems to demand our full attention merely to survive.
My Christian walk was summed up in that I would spend about 5-10 minutes a day praying and/or reading the Word and attending church, although not always regularly.
BUT GOD, who is rich in mercy……(Eph 2:4) …..one day as I was driving along and exiting a freeway literally STOPPED ME in my tracks with a Word…
“WHAT PROFITS A MAN IF HE GAINS THE WHOLE WORLD AND LOSES HIS SOUL”
Now for the sceptics who don’t believe in God all I can say is that His existence doesn’t depend on your limited knowledge.
And to those who don’t believe God speaks audibly to people today, all I can say is that after He speaks to you, you most certainly will believe. Read your bible because Jesus says 'my sheep HEAR my voice'.
Let me describe what it felt like…..
It felt as though I had been stopped by the word which was like a huge rubber stamp which hit me right across my chest (though I heard the words clearly as well in a firm but loving voice)….frozen from doing about 60 km/hr ….to nothing! The word that spoke creation into existence is powerful…and will rock you world.
I felt pinned very firmly into my seat and my first concern was whether there was a vehicle coming up behind which would crash into me. I experienced what seemed to me to be a world outside of time.
I don’t know how long the whole incident took, it was perhaps only a matter of seconds, and when I came to the realisation that it was GOD who was speaking to me and that He was not going to take me home at that time… all I could manage was “OK God, I hear” though I don’t know if it was just a thought or if I said it aloud. The car then started moving again.
Some instantaneous realisations came from this experience…
1) God is not to be trifled with…He is God
2) God is loving but very firm
3) The very life we have comes from God …it is His breath within us and every breath we take is by his grace.
4) And ‘my’ money is not the most important thing to me….my relationship with God is!
(what I was thinking about when He so graciously ‘interrupted’ was how to make money and have enough to retire on!)
The new me is now needless to say very different…. God fills my thoughts almost every waking hour. I find myself with an insatiable appetite for His Word. I wake up thinking about what God wants….. hungry to spend time with Him in prayer, worshipping and reading his Word or listening to it on CD and listening to teachings. My every thought is consciously ‘before Him’ and the great blessing is that I have this sense of His presence with me whenever I turn my thoughts to Him.
I have had a very exciting walk with God since that day with Him doing much in my life but that is another story.
Two teachings in the church today (which are interconnected) burn within me as major errors that bring the church to the place where many people in it are ensnared by ‘the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches’.
1) Tithing 10% belongs to God which must be given to a church…and the rest is mine
2) Prosperity God promises us that we will all have riches in this world and we should therefore keep or hoard ‘OUR’ money
THESE ARE NOT NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS OF JESUS OR THE APOSTLES AND WERE NOT THE PRACTICE OF THE EARLY GENTILE CHURCH
But please, believe nothing that I say…be like the Bereans of Acts 17…..go and see what God says in the scriptures yourself!
(and if you can, tell me where I am wrong)