How often do you imagine yourself to have known nothing of grace until you finally stumbled across a message that knocked you off your feet? However, what if the truth revealed that when you received new life, even if it was in a legalistic setting, you were automatically introduced into a life of grace and freedom only to have had the rug pulled out from under you sometime afterward? And that may have happened after only a few minutes or a few years. After all, our true introduction to life was not a matter of some intellectual or emotional manipulation, it came through the very presence of the living God through Jesus Christ.

I'm wondering how many of us realize that during our early excitement in this life of amazing grace and freedom we may have been the subject of concern amongst our leaders or mentors? Maybe you didn't know such things went on, but I found myself privy to numerous discussions where some real serious concern was expressed as what should be done regarding certain "immature" Christians. Oh yeah, someone very well may have targeted you in your early days of freedom so as to get you grounded in what they thought was your Christian responsibility. Maybe it was a New Believers class or a one-on-one pairing with a more mature believer ... which doesn't have to be a bad thing, but too often is.

My friend and co-host of the Shovel-Audio Program, Dominic Adam Harte, shares his own story about how sin-consciousness wedged its way into his life so as to disrupt the joy and peace he knew in Christ. This disruption came about through the attempts of some who were considered more mature as they took it upon themselves to impose a Biblical principle they thought he needed in his life. If you've listened to our recent audios, you probably won't be surprised to discover that the Biblical principle came from the book of Proverbs: Wake Up, Oh Sleeper!

Wake Up, Oh Sleeper! (Part 1)

Wake Up, Oh Sleeper! (Part 2)