I read from my favorite book every day. Why? Because it inspires me in many ways. Reading it produces hope, insight, courage, conviction, and creativity in me. Here’s what it produced in me just now.

Self-Righteousness is “Stoney” Ground (Mark 4:5)

Guilt confessed
And expressed
Unto God
Is addressed
By Christ’s blood.
Guilt repressed
And denied
Eats away
Deep inside
Of people
Until they
Are obsessed
And depressed.
Rely on
God’s mercy
Not on your
Righteousness.
(Luke 18:13)

Self-righteous people are active accusers, shame slingers, and guilt stoners. Only sinless people have the right to “stone” people, but the truth is there are no sinless people. (Romans 3:10) “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone . . .” (John 8:8)

True Christianity depends on Christ’s empowerment not on human effort. Jesus said: “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

Rather than trying harder, Christians need to surrender their opinions, feelings, and desires to Jesus. They need to depend and rely on Him instead of on their own ability.

Paul asks a key question to the Christians in Galatia. “After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you not trying to finish by means of the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3)

So, I ask you: When you go to church do you encounter the supernatural means of God’s Spirit at work within and around you? Or do you see human effort and religious programming? An honest answer to my questions will reveal why there is so little life-transforming power in contemporary Christianity.

Be a balanced Christian. Without daily absorbing the written Word we can be deceived by an evil spirit appearing as an angel of light. Without the direct, personal, and intimate leading of Christ the living Word abiding within us as our ever-present hope of glory we will drift into the mere religious formalism — that Paul tells us to avoid. (2 Timothy 3:5)