Comments on: Finding the Key to Real Transformation

By: Brian Karcher

Brian Karcher — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:37:46 +0000

Ditto. I think I said these exact words to Joe: "Joe, your thoughts and insights here EXACTLY reflect the journey that God has been leading me through." As I dialogue with more and more people around the world, I am finding a common theme: Christians who lived a fundamentalist-like cocoon for many years are suddenly coming alive like butterflies going through a transformation process. That's why I've been saying the new symbol of Christianity in our generation is the butterfly. Another virtual friend who has been on this same journey is Robb Ryerse. His book Fundamorphosis is highly recommended reading material for all ex-members of ubf.

By: Ben Toh

Ben Toh — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 07:31:04 +0000

Latest well written post of Koch on essentials (unity), non-essentials (liberty), all things (charity), sanctification, etc, that helps to promote love and unity among Christians: http://whatwebelieveandwhy2012.blogspot.com/2013/03/application.html

“We (Christians) often defend vigorously those things about which we are less certain, or worse, those things that may not really be important in God’s eyes, but that someone else has loudly insisted is essential.” George Byron Koch, What We Believe and Why

By: John Y

John Y — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 23:13:40 +0000

Nice article. I think George Koch (http://www.byronarts.com/what_we_believe_and_why) also brings out a similar point that this article also nicely articulates in his chapter on obedience and love.

thanks for sharing

By: Ben Toh

Ben Toh — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 22:33:21 +0000

Thanks, Joe, for sharing what many in “evangelical churches” need to hear. What Joshua shares is sadly often what churches, leaders and Bible teachers communicate: “You must repent. You must decide. You must overcome. You must obey. You must not date. You must wait before you can marry.” And this list can just go on and on and on. There is no Christ, righteousness or holiness in such skewed teachings. It simply produces either pride or despair, pride in those who think they are obeying and despair in those who cannot meet the expectation of their church/leader.

The other ill result of such teaching is spiritual abuse, where the leader/teacher is the one who has to make sure that the member is making progress, usually arbitrarily based on the leader’s own subjective bias and legalistic assessment.

By: joshua

joshua — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:52:15 +0000

Joe, your thoughts and insights here EXACTLY reflect the journey that God has been leading me through. For my whole Christian life, I have struggled with various life-dominating sins. I was so guilt-riddled and despairing because of these. I misunderstood verses like Gal 5:16 “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” to mean the more I refrain from fulfilling the lust of the flesh the more I’m walking in the Spirit. Of course, this is “flesh reformation” as you call it. The focus was on myself, whether I’m doing good or bad, whether I’m “struggling” enough, repenting enough, and in Scripture enough. Of course, it was never enough, I always fell short, and each time felt the sting of failure.

These days, God is leading me on an amazing journey of rediscovering the gospel of grace, holiness, and righteousness. I realized the error in my understanding of the gospel, that it was me-focused and works-based. I am uncovering the all-encompassing love of God and grace and power of the cross. I am learning that the more secure I am in the love of God, the more prone I am to act in ways that bring honour to Him. So the focus isn’t on me, but on God’s love and grace through Jesus’ cross, i.e., the gospel. And grace upon grace, the real power of the gospel is being manifested and God is winning victories in my demeanor and thought-world that I could never achieve before.

“Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that is greater than all my sin!”