Following Jesus is not about adding Him to your life like a new habit or a better philosophy. It’s about surrendering everything you are to become everything He calls you to be. And that starts… with death.The death of your old self.The death of your ego, your pride, your mask, your secret addictions, your self-justifications.Jesus doesn’t call you to improve — He calls you to die… so He can give you life. "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his c

In religion, people ask: “What do I need to do so God will like me?” But in real faith, the question is much more shocking, much more vulnerable: “How can God still love me… knowing who I really am?” This is not a minor difference. It’s the very heart of the Gospel versus the heart of human pride. A God of Transaction vs. A God of Transformation Religion is obsessed with the list: What to do, what not to do. What makes me acceptable, what makes me guilty. It tries to reduce t

The one who said, “ I will give you the kingdoms of the world if you bow down and worship me ,” wasn’t Jesus. It was Satan. And yet, how many of us today walk into a place of worship with that very expectation? We step into churches hoping that our prayers, our offerings, our ritualistic actions might buy us something. A job. A healing. A relationship. A financial breakthrough. But Jesus never made those deals. He never said, “ Bring me an offering and I’ll give you whatever

All the Gospel asks for is repentance and faith. That’s it. Nothing more. And yet, even such a simple truth often becomes twisted. Some people hear this and immediately say: “But what about obedience?” Let’s go deeper. What the Gospel Requires vs. What the Gospel Produces The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a barter. It is not a contract where we offer good works in exchange for salvation. It is a gift, rooted in grace. Ephesians 2:8-9 makes it abundantly clear: "For by grace y

It’s one of the greatest paradoxes of the Christian journey: how can something that claims to bring us closer to God be the very thing that distances us from Him? The answer lies in the subtle but dangerous power of religiosity  — not faith, not spirituality, but that empty, mechanical form of religion  that replaces relationship with ritual, mercy with merit, and truth with tradition. Jesus didn’t die on a cross so we could become better at following rules. He didn’t walk am

I’ve never quite understood the feeling that drives people to declare others are in hell just because they don’t belong to their religion or culture — or simply because they’ve never heard a supposedly salvation-bearing piece of information. And what about when you see a certain victorious joy on the face of the person making the condemnation? It’s likely the deepest expression of sadism, the most horrendous thirst for power, the most inhuman display of arrogance — and the mo

We humans have a natural tendency to drift toward evil. It’s part of our fallen nature — this inclination to stray from what we were created to be. Left to ourselves, we are naturally pulled away from goodness. What is truly difficult is to change, day by day, into our best selves — into the likeness of God; to grow in love, joy, peace, kindness, patience, gentleness, and self-control. But walking toward goodness is like climbing a hill. It’s like going through the narrow gat