One common misconception among professing Christians in America is that Jesus makes your life better.
Like all good misconceptions, it's true to a certain degree. Jesus does make your life better, in the sense that he's the only way for humans to approach God, and living in constant communion with God is what humans were made for in the first place. Just as important is the fact that Jesus makes you death better; instead of facing the consequences of a lifetime of rebellion to God, his followers can enter into an eternity of blissful union with him because those consequences have already been dealt with.
But that's not what most people think of when they hear, "Jesus will make your life better". They -- and I speak from experience -- think it means, "Jesus will make it easier and more rewarding to do what I'm already doing." However, Jesus Christ didn't die and rise again just to polish your current life to a mirror sheen. He came to utterly wreck it and rebuild it in his own image.
I didn't learn this in a church. Sadly, few people do. God has blessed me immeasurably by sending people into my life who could direct me to his Word and challenge my comfortable beliefs. He's directed me to teaching and preaching that exposed my shallowness and lukewarm state. In doing so, he saved my soul.
If you're a professing Christian, these messages will likely make you uncomfortable. Let them, and I believe you'll benefit immeasurably.
Are You Really a Christian?, Todd Friel
Hell's Best Kept Secret, Ray Comfort
Ten Indictments Against the Modern Church, Paul Washer
Ten Shekels and a Shirt, Paris Reidhead
True and False Conversion, Ray Comfort
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