Early Christianity was a joyous, loving, holy, and supernatural lifestyle, not a religious affiliation. Christians are called to be body builders — to build up the body of Christ by ministering to one another. (See Ephesians 4:16.) Institutionalism has splintered Christ’s body into separate pieces controlled by organizations, programs, and men.

As God moved in people’s hearts, they wrote the Scriptures. As God moves in my heart, He confirms the Scriptures. If you pick and choose what Bible verses to believe based on how you feel, how can you be sure you made the right choices? No one wants to live in a society with no laws, yet some people claim they want God to have no laws and accept anything they do. Religion is rigid and locked into a pattern. Faith is fluid and continually open to God’s supernatural intervention.

Daily growing closer to Christ is an option in life. Unfortunately, it’s an option many Christians choose to opt out on. Rather than surrendering to the living God, people prefer to build a god of their choice. A Build-A-Bear sale created chaos in American shopping malls. A build-a-god attitude creates chaos in human hearts.

Change is hard. Sometimes it’s easier and more effective to change yourself before you try to change your circumstances. If you’re not growing through what you’re going through, you’re overlooking something important.

When someone blesses your life in ways beyond anything you could have imagined, it’s very easy to talk about them. That’s what Jesus has done for me.

The concept of self-identity ignores the real possibility of human self-deception. We all need accountability. Self-identifying as not guilty doesn’t relieve the burden of guilt. That takes Christ’s substitutionary death. There’s a good chance people who self-identify as heretics actually are. Jesus said “Beware of false prophets.”