Stop Living for the Lord: and let the Lord live through you

By G. Duane Lawrence

This book is a far cry from the traditional Christian teaching. If you have been born again it is important to know that with your new birth came a new life, in other words a new identity. As a result, it is critically important to understand your new identity, a perfect child of the living God. Unfortunately, too many Christians are not clear about what happens to them at the point of salvation. Going to heaven and living a life that is pleasing to God is all they are typically taught. This teaching motivates Christians to perform to gain Gods acceptance through the observance of Christian traditions such as church attendance, tithing, bible reading and clean living that often results in disappointment, frustration, and burn out. In these pages you will discover two powerful facts revealed in the Bible:First, if you are a child of God you are no longer a sinner. You do not sin and in fact you cannot sin. Next, since you are not a sinner you are perfect and he is already pleased with you. The truth of God will be clarified concerning your freedom from sin, your perfect identity in Christ, resting in him and no longer performing to gain God's acceptance. Learn to put to rest any concern about whether or not you are right enough with God, close enough to God and what to expect on the day you stand before him. You will finally be able to stop living for the Lord and let the Lord live through you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781098081416

Book preview

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STOP 

LIVING

for the

Lord

and let the Lord live through you

G. Duane Lawrence

ISBN 978-1-0980-8140-9 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-0980-8141-6 (digital)

Copyright © 2021 by G. Duane Lawrence

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction

Trading Tradition for Truth

Are You a Christian?

What I Do Is Not Who I Am

Understanding Identity

Defining Identity

Identity in Christ Only Happens One Way

The Result of My New Identity

What God Believes about Me

The Responsibilities of My New Identity

How Should I Respond to God?

How Can I Please God?

Reexamining My Responsibilities as a Believer

The Last and Most Important Chapter

Acknowledgements

No book could have been written without the help, influence or inspiration of others and this book is no different. So, I would like to sincerely thank the following for their role in this project.

First, and foremost I would like to thank God, without him no book need be written for there would be nothing to write about. And had it not been for his love, grace and mercy in our lives we would have nothing to understand and work through in order to have a better experience in our relationship with him so there would be no need for this book in particular.

Next, I would like to thank my wife Linda for standing beside me and not letting me quit when I was frustrated and ready to scrap this project so many times. Linda has inspired and encouraged me to stick with it over the 15 plus years it took to shape and mold this book from a very dry technical manual style post graduate thesis into a readable easier to understand book for the average believer. Next to God, she is my constant in life when everything else is changing around me which keeps me focused.

Next, I would like to thank my father and mother for different reasons. My father, for choosing to go down a different path than his father did. Had my father not made the choices he made to seek something better for his family than his father did, he would not have influenced me the way he has and motivated me to love the Lord and become a seeker of truth. Not only did he teach me that I was free spiritually in Christ but he taught me how to obtain and maintain my mental and emotional freedom as well. My father truly has been, and continues to be, the greatest influence in my life. And my mother for being the ultimate encourager from a young age teaching me that God had given me unique gifts and strengths many through my personality. My father helped me understand who I am in Christ and my mother taught me how God made me. Understanding these two primary basic things has positioned me to be successful in life and served me well in my search for truth.

My brother Kevin for being a sounding board throughout the years. Whenever I had some crazy notion that God made it so we could be perfect and without sin he had no problem challenging me to make it difficult to believe in an effort to get me to prove my hypothesis or he would bring more evidence to the table to support my hypothesis. Regardless of the direction he chose, to pushback or support, he has always brought an element of humor to make it fun and a sarcastic wit to help keep me humble. As iron sharpens iron certainly applies here. I also want to express my gratitude to Kevin’s wife Laurie, my sister-in-law, who graciously made a small but powerful and anonymous contribution to this book. I am confident God will use your contribution to reach numerous readers to dramatically change their relationship with him for the better. These people will never know the positive impact you had in their life through this book. On behalf of those people Laurie, I thank you.

I am grateful to my children Ashley, Kayla, Taylor and Josh for being used by God to help me grow as a person, a father and as a teacher. They have been my practice audience helping me hone my craft figuring out the best way to present material in a concise and easy to understand way. They have pushed back and challenged me and God has used them to mature me in life in ways they will never know or understand. They have taught me how God sees us as his children and have given me the opportunity to practice loving them as God loves us. They can do nothing to make me love them more and they can do nothing to make me love them less. I love them for who they are, my children.

I would also like to thank those who were directly involved in making this project happen.

Joan Feddern saw a need and took the initiative to assist in finding the publisher of this book. In doing so she opened up a door that seemed to be impossible to breech. Once we stepped through that door it was one more obstacle out of the way to make this project a reality. Thanks, so much Joan for getting involved.

Richard Harshaw, author, astronomer, amateur philosopher, teacher and someone who has deep insight into scripture and years of experience teaching it. His knowledge of mathematics, history, theology, and numerous other subjects reaching into many of the science’s but most of all his love for God and his desire to spread the gospel made him a more than formidable challenger during this process. Richard relentlessly fact checked this book against scripture for me and asked extremely difficult theological and philosophical questions to make sure I had vetted out any inconsistency’s in my presentation. He was responsible for the first editing of this book and paid close attention not just to grammar and sentence structure but to content as well. But I think I am most grateful to him for his friendship. He has been a great friend and colleague in this endeavor.

Tracy Mimoun, who has been so supportive and excited to see this book be published, volunteered time and materials to spearhead, organize and execute a focus group to get feedback on the manuscript. That information has been invaluable and the perfect most unbiased information an author can have. Because of that one group many necessary changes were made which contributed greatly to the overall improvement of the book.

And thanks for the outside support:

Georjann Rovenstien has been one of the faithful supporters not just of this manuscript but also of the necessity to get the word out that there is a better way to have relationship with God. Her desire to see people live in the freedom Christ gave them is stronger than anyone I have known outside of my family. She has been a close friend to my wife and I and has been a pit bull constantly after me to complete this project and see it through.

Roy (Koke) & Marliese Morris have been the biggest cheerleaders of this project and have been willing to make personal contributions to see it to fruition. I appreciate everything you both have been willing to do and to Marliese I appreciate your concern and forthrightness and Koke, your sober advice.Thank you both for your contribution.

Kirk Newberry is a friend and supporter of this project and has spent countless hours working behind the scenes creating a ministry webpage and process for people to know about this book and have access to it. During the course of the publishing process Kirk had a serious family tragedy that almost took him out of the game of life but he hung in and despite his personal tragedy he continued to stay involved with this project. Although we had to put some things on hold and his time was limited, he has shown a commitment level that is unprecedented. What a great friend.

Finally, thanks to all of those whose prayers and petitions have been heard and answered. Thanks to the countless numbers of people who have been anticipating the release of this book. Thanks to those who have placed their name on the waiting list for first release copies so we could raise the money to see this project through. Thanks to those who encouraged the writing of this book so that people like you will have this important teaching in their life.

Thanks again to everyone. God has used each one of you to help change the lives of others for his purpose and glory. I love you all.

Introduction

The purpose of this book is simple: to motivate growth and maturity among the body of Christ in their knowledge of God and their relationship with Him through their identity in Christ.

For us to truly grow and mature in God’s grace and in our relationship with him, the way that he intended, we must be willing to understand the relationship from God’s perspective. This is a strange perspective to us and it flies directly in the face of much of mainstream evangelical fundamental Christianity. Nevertheless, God’s perspective must be known and learned because it is part of the gospel, which means good news, and the good news does not stop at the salvation experience through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The good news only begins at salvation; the understanding of it continues to develop in us in the form of Almighty God himself. It only gets better as a believer; it never gets worse.

However, in a twenty-first century world (particularly in America), I believe there is a huge disconnect between the religions or denominations that we practice and the relationship that God wants to have with each and every one of us. Relationship, not religion, is the way God has chosen to interact with us through the new covenant, but because we have made it all about our religion and tradition, we have seriously gotten in the way and have disrupted that relationship with God. Let’s begin with this question.

How would you describe your relationship with God?

As a teacher, speaker, author and counselor in the Christian faith, I have asked this question to thousands of people over the years. Can you guess the answers I received? They are probably similar to the one you gave. The common answers I receive to this question are It could be better, It’s not as good as I would like it to be, I don’t feel I am as close to God as I should be, or I am not reading my Bible, praying, having quiet time, or attending church as often as I should. The answer is usually a description of performance failure on the part of the Christian, as though somehow they are not living up to their end of the bargain.

We humans love to perform to gain our acceptance with each other in life and we are no different when it comes to our relationship with God.

Of course, I realize that there are a few Christians who say they understand that it’s all about the relationship and they believe they have a good relationship with God. However, the criteria used to make that determination usually has little, if anything, to do with God’s criteria. In other words, the people who claim to have a good relationship with God are also giving me answers that revolve around their performance with God, only this time they describe it as succeeding instead of failing. Besides, when it comes to people who claim to have good relationship with God, there is a little-known secret about Christianity, which is that many Christians present themselves as having a good relationship with God yet secretly feel very out of touch with him and are too embarrassed or ashamed to reveal that about themselves.

This book is a biblical study focused on the born-again believer’s identity in Christ, which is all about relationship. It is comprised of two primary aspects. The first aspect will deal with what identity is in relation to who God the Father, his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are; while the second aspect will deal with what the believer’s responsibilities are in the relationship he or she shares with God. At no point will this book focus on what a person should be doing for God. Instead we will challenge what mainstream Christianity has promoted for centuries concerning this relationship and these responsibilities in light of the scripture God gave to us and what it says.

What you will discover inside these pages is similar to finding hidden treasure on some remote Pacific island or finally uncovering famous mysteries like the Titanic from its watery grave. It will be exciting to find out what God is really telling us in the pages of the Bible. It will be fantastic to expose the truth of who God is and who we are without the clutter of religion in the way. It will be amazing to finally clearly understand (or understand for the first time) what it can be like having a relationship with God that is free of fear, guilt, or anxiety and instead experience a friendship that is intimate and personal with no demand that you perform for him.

As a matter of fact, the relationship that God desires with us is a pretty relaxed one with no demand. Jesus described the relationship we have with him as one of friendship, not one of service (John 15:15).

This was, and still is, an amazing reality for me that caused me to wonder why Christianity makes such a big deal out of serving God and living for the Lord when Jesus, the founder of the faith, said, Hey, you guys are my friends.

Note:

Before we go any further and look at what friendship is about, I want to be clear that I believe we have been called to a life of service to God. Jesus was clear that he came to serve and not to be served, and we are to follow that example. So when I talk about our relationship not being one of service, I am referring to Christianity’s list of the services they claim God requires of us, which is usually enforced through fear and guilt. This message also communicates, directly and indirectly, that if we don’t perform (serve) in these traditional denominational ways then God will be angry and disappointed and that we will have fallen out of his good graces because we are out of his will. This is dangerous teaching and is usually far from the truth. Our call to service is to love one another. More on this later.

Now, my understanding of friendship is casual in nature—two or more people just hanging out together enjoying each other’s company and sharing things with each other. Friends are also those who support each other when the going gets tough and are compassionate, understanding, and never quit the relationship when the other is wrong or has failed…even if it was deliberate!

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews quotes Deuteronomy 3:16 when he reminds us that God said that he would never leave us or abandon us (Hebrews 15:13).

It sounds to me like God is a pretty good friend.

Friends go the extra mile and give their time and energy for the good of the relationship and for the good of their friend (there’s your service). But most of all, a friend is willing to give the ultimate gift—his life, as Jesus described to his disciples (John 15:13).

Since friendship is the context for the relationship that God has established with us, we must learn and understand what that includes and what that looks like from God’s perspective instead of continuing to look at it from our perspective. However, our Christian culture promotes more performance and less resting. We promote more condemnation and less acceptance. We promote more fear and less confidence. We promote more focus on what we do and less focus on who we are.

I believe that God makes things simple, and we humans are the ones who complicate matters and make messes out of life and relationships, including the one we have with God. This book will also help clean up whatever messes you have made and uncomplicate matters so you can have a simple, enjoyable experience in your relationship with God.

Relationship with God is not a complicated matter. I believe that God has revealed himself to us as much as he wants us to know and that God has also given us the ability to understand what he has revealed about himself. Jesus said that, as his friends, he has told us everything he knows about the Father. But this does not mean that everything he has told us is everything there is to know. There remains some mystery about God, and I will not pretend to understand all the mysteries of God. However, I do believe strongly that man’s creation and purpose, God’s interaction with man, and what God wants for man and with man is not at all a mystery. In fact, I believe that God has been straightforward and crystal clear with it.

So why, then, do we have more religions and versions of religions (denominations) than we can keep track of? Why