My life changed completely on August 08, 2000. On that day, in a bible study of the book called, The Rest of the Gospel, I began learning my true identity in Christ.
Since that day I have become an advocate for a broader perspective of Christ followers called the Exchanged Life. Simply stated Exchanged life means I have exchanged my old life, and my old ways of thinking, acting and looking at religion, Christianity and the world for my new life in Christ. I have given Christ permission to live in me, as me and through me, as God created me, to bring glory to God.
Over the years, God has taught me who I am now in Him. These things are true about me now and this is what I believe about myself now:
- God loves me with an everlasting, unconditional love that will never change
- God accepts me exactly as I am. It’s how He made me.
- I received everything I needed to be who God wants me to be the instant I accepted Jesus as my Savior
- Being an authentic follower of Jesus is not a subject I need to learn, it’s a life I want to live
- I won’t become a “better” follower the longer I’m saved
- I can’t learn to be a “better” follower by sitting in a classroom or sitting in a worship center or Bible study
- I can grow in grace only as I learn to love God more
- I serve Him because I love Him, not because I think I need to
- I am an authentic follower of Jesus
- I don’t have to do anything to gain God’s approval or acceptance
- I have an eternal inheritance and will spend eternity with God
- God only sees me through the blood of Jesus
- God sees me as holy and righteous
- Not for what I do or don’t do, but for what Christ did in me and for me
- God sees me as holy and righteous
- My identity does not depend on things I do, but on who I am in Jesus
- I have been crucified with Christ
- I am a totally new creation since Jesus came to make his home in me
- The Holy Spirit teaches me God’s truth and convicts me when I sin
- The Holy Spirit warns me when I am headed for disobedience before I get there
- I only have one nature. Jesus and Satan can not both dwell in the same body
- I still sin, but I know my sins are already forgiven
I can’t begin to explain how much my life has changed since I learned my true identity in Christ. If you don’t know your true identity in Christ, I’d like to know. I would love to encourage you and spend time sharing with you how blessed I feel and how much God is growing me since I learned my true identity. If you’d like to share, simply leave a comment for me and I’ll get back to you promptly.
For His Glory 
If I have to call myself anything it would be closest to the truth to say I am a “progressive” . I don’t believe Jesus was God. To me, there is only one God the creator of all. To understand more fully, you can check out this website which explains it far better than I. https://progressivechristianity.org/the-8-points/
I believe that by following the path and teachings of Jesus (and Buddha and Mohammad) I may become more fully aware of the oneness and unity of all life, and that it is sacred in and of itself. This makes all creeds, all faiths equal in my eyes and by following them as you believe you will become closer to God. Where mainstream Christianity emphasizes “right belief”, progressives emphasize ethical behaviors. It isn’t a “my way or the highway” attitude that I have found with so many of the mainstream Christians.
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Suze,
I am not condemning your belief, because we all have free will..
but what about eternal life? When I have studied diverse faiths..
only Jesus Christ and faith in Him alone, offer eternal life, living on a new earth.. free from sin and death.. Muslims, Hindus, Catholics, and the like.. have no hope for eternal life.. they must try to earn there way in to paradise.. or have others pray there way out of purgatory.. Johh 5:24 promises eternal life..
I try very hard to be good and love others.. but it will only get me a nice eulogy in the end.. So I don’t follow any “religion” I follow Jesus and His words He left for our benefit.. and rely on His righteousness to enter heaven 🙂
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