LISTEN NOW --new podcast - 'The Heart and the New Covenant'

Joel Brueseke, who hosts the Growing in Grace Together podcast, is a good friend and a guy who really gets the good and noble heart.  Joel interviewed me today for a two-part series.  Here is part one.

Listen in for some great conversation about why Christians tend to walk around in guilt and shame, and why there seems to be such a focus in the church on behavior management and sin management - and how living with a New Covenant mentality rather than an Old Covenant mentality, as well as a proper view of the new heart, will overcome all of that.

Update on Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 2:03PM by Jim Robbins

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All of my podcasts are also available on iTunes.  Here's the link:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=332568931

UPCOMING PODCASTS -- airing this week

Monday, Nov. 23, Jim will by the podcast guest on Joel Brueseke's "Growing in Grace Together" series. 

Wednesday, Nov. 25, Andrew Farley, author of The Naked Gospel, will join Jim for a second podcast.  They'll be discussing the misleading language and catch-phrases Christians often use that end up preventing them from embracing their true goodness and restored identity. 

Here's the episode link on Blogtalk Radio. 

LISTEN NOW: 'The Naked Gospel' interview with Andrew Farley

Andrew and I talked about his fantastic new book, The Naked Gospel - the truth you may never hear in church.  Find out what Andrew says about our new identity and freedom.  It really is a lot better than we've been told.

• Should Christians really obey the moral law in the Ten Commandments?
• Do we really have pure and good hearts - the very same that Jesus had?
• Can Christians trust their hearts?

The answers may surprise you!

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Click player below to listen.

As always, feel free to leave your comments below!

TODAY - interview with Andrew Farley ----'THE NAKED GOSPEL'

Listen 'live' today, 11:30 EST, as I talk with Andrew Farley, author of The Naked Gospel - the truth you may never hear in church. 

Go to the Blogtalk Radio page here to get show updates for this podcast. 

Airtime:  11:30 a.m. (EST)  Monday, Nov. 16th

Go to show page.

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As always, feel free to post your comments and thoughts below!

PODCAST - QUIZ - Recover Your Good Heart

Quiz - Recover Your Good Heart -- Take the quiz with Jim as he exposes the tragic assumptions we've made about our hearts as Christians.  You may be surprised at the answers.

You can also get Jim's free e-book, The Gospel of the Heart - exposing the false gospel that manages externals and sabotages the heart.

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As always, feel free to leave your comments below!

T.V. INTERVIEW - part one - 'The Naked Gospel' - with Andrew Farley

Click here to view the t.v. interview with Andrew Farley, author of The Naked Gospel - the truth you may never here in Church.

This is Part One of the T.V. interview.

'The Naked Gospel' quiz

Hear the provocative interview with Andrew Farley, author of The Naked Gospel - the truth you may never hear in church.   The author even has a quiz, and the answers will surprise many.  Here's the quiz, taken from www.thenakedgospel.com:

The Naked Gospel Quiz
Below are ten faith-related concepts that don't seem to be regularly discussed in many churches today. But our view on each of these concepts affects our relationship with God, our spiritual growth and our fulfillment in life. So for each of the ten concepts, decide whether you think each is true or false, and you'll be presented with the answers at the end of the quiz.

1. Christians should ask God to forgive and cleanse them when they sin.
True or False

2. Christians struggle with sin because of their old self within.
True or False

3. We should wait on God even before making everyday decisions.
True or False

4. When we sin against God, we're out of fellowship until we repent. *
True or False

5. Old Testament law is written on Christians' hearts so we want to obey it.
True or False

6. The Bible tells us that Christians can obtain many rewards in heaven.
True or False

7. Christians will give an account for their sins at the great white throne. 
True or False

8. Christians should tithe at least 10 percent of their income to the church.
True or False

9. God gets angry with us when we repeatedly sin against him. 
True or False

10. God looks at us as though we're righteous, even though we're really not.
True or False

(Andrew Farley says that the answer to each of the above is false.)  Decide for yourself.
Hear Steve Brown's interview with Andrew Farley, author of The Naked Gospel.

Death by assumptions

One of my greatest concerns is that we must challenge our assumptions about the Gospel -- or what we think we know about it.  It actually might be better than we think it is. 

I don't mean that we should challenge the core doctrines of Christianity, or question the supremacy of Christ.  In my mind, that's been settled.

I do mean that the version of the Gospel we've been given may not, in fact, be the Gospel; or at best, a gross distortion of it.  For example:

Much of the Church has the impression that the Gospel is either about getting your sins forgiven by accepting God's gracious pardon and receiving the promise of heaven;  or, that the Gospel is all about evangelism, outreach, and new programs for reaching the lost.  There's truth in each of these, but not enough truth.

The Gospel is the offer of a good and noble heart.  Jesus comes to restore the person -- not simply let them off the hook.  His work is deeper, more glorious, and far more supernatural than the anemic "gospel" we've settled for. 

When you said 'yes' to him, your nature, your identity, underwent a remarkable transformation.  You no longer possess a sin nature.  You're still free to sin, but it's no longer who you are or what you want.  (I know, it doesn't often seem that way, but if you judge your heart by the failures of your former self - even the ongoing ones - you will end up in despair.)

People who don't question their assumptions about the offer of Jesus scare me, frankly.  Damage has been done by those who refuse to let new information form their opinions, who muzzle any perspective that does not align with their preconceived assumptions -- even if that new perspective is firmly rooted in Scripture!

If we don't get the Gospel (the offer of Jesus) right, then Lazarus is still in his grave clothes.

Podcast:  "A better way to relate to God" challenges these false assumptions about the offer of Jesus.    Click here to listen.

Staying with the message of the new heart

Quite frankly, it's difficult to believe I have a good heart sometimes. The evidence against it seems too strong.

Lately, there's been almost an unseen pull downwards, a drain-circling suck towards hopeless futility.  That dark undertow almost got me to draw some fatal conclusions about my own heart.  That pull is towards shame:

I've blown it with my kids a lot lately;  not given myself to my wife as she needs.  I'm actually craving the goodness of Jesus and his choices, begging him to give me his own maturity.  (If you think holiness is hard, try out your favorite addiction or uncontrolled craving for a while.  That's harder to live with.)

In these moments, we have two choices:  fatalism or freedom:

• Fatalism says:  I am the sum of my failures.  My heart cannot be good -- just look at the evidence against it.
• Freedom says:  My heart is my hope.  I am a new creation (my heart is now supernaturally restored by Christ.)  Despite the external evidence, there is a new internal reality.  My failures are no longer the truest me.  (Even the apostle Paul says this - Romans 7:20)

• You can't go by your failures.
• You can't go by what others think of you.
  
  
• You may not even be able to go by what you've been told by church leaders in the past.

Stay with the truth:  your heart is good now.  Jesus made it so.
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To understand your new heart more, Recover Your Good Heart -- Living free from religious guilt and the shame of not good-enough unpacks what Scripture says about your new heart.

Or you can start with the FREE e-book I wrote:  click here.

A better way to read the Old Testament - without shame

For decades, the manner in which I read the Old Testament only furthered my shame.
 
I had forgotten to make the critical shift from the Old Way to the New Way--  the old heart to the new heart.  For example, if you read an Old Testament passage like the one below, and forget that something has changed inside you as a result of Christ's work, what would you feel?

"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."  - Psalm 51:10

My reaction would be:  "Wow, maybe I should be feeling what David is here; I guess I'm supposed to be confessing my sin, examining my selfish heart and repenting about something.  It sounds pretty spiritual and pretty important.  What, exactly, am I supposed to be feeling bad about?  I'm not sure, but I'd better get to work on this repenting thing and ask God to fix my heart."

The problem with that sort of reaction is that it is out of date.  It is an Old Covenant response to a problem that was solved for you in the New Covenant.  Meaning....David's cry for a clean heart has already been answered in the work on Jesus for you.  You've been given a new and pure heart already because you said 'yes' to him.  (Ezekiel 36:26 -- "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you...") 

As we read the Old Covenant, we must now read it from a new heart perspective (you now have a clean heart that does want what God wants).  We make the shift from guilt and shame...to restoration and freedom of heart.

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For more on this, my book Recover Your Good Heart goes into more detail on what Scripture says about our new hearts.