Resting in Christ Jesus – by Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter from October 2024:
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest – Matthew 11: 28
These monthly letters are normally a way of providing some Christ-centered nourishment, one of the most important parts of our ministry. When we pray about, ponder and prepare these letters (primarily Ed Dunn and myself as writers, but the team who ensures these letters arrive in the mail and are posted digitally includes all editors and proofreaders) we take each letter seriously, often spending many hours before completing one.
We don’t just dash these letters out, but we carefully and prayerfully ask God for direction in order that we, by his grace, may give you Christ-centered morsels to chew on and digest. This month’s letter will be no exception as we point you toward Jesus, but I do want to do something a bit different this month. So, as the old Monty Python iconic comic introductory statement proclaimed, “and now for something completely different!”
Sometimes we will add a P.S. at the end of these monthly letters, selecting a brief comment from the many letters and emails and phone calls we receive, but rarely do we give you a chance to read longer portions of letters. Some of the letters we receive tell amazing and beautiful stories of how lives have changed, by the grace of God, through our combined efforts here at CWR and PTM. Here’s one longer portion of a letter we received:
Dear Greg and PTM,
My parents were divorced when I was young, My sister and I were raised by an extremely bitter, controlling mother. She relentlessly attacked my sister and I, always assuming the worst of us, openly telling us she expected us to fail in life. I had no idea then, at that young age, how her hostility, combined with all the rules and stipulations from her church, caused me to think of God in a negative way. I found that out later.
After I left home I finally realized what my mother “had” is religion – I say she “had” it because the Christless religion she had is like a disease – like a germ or virus. She still “has” this plague, because she doesn’t seem to have any idea about authentic Christianity, as you call it. She does not really know Jesus. She knows religious rules. She knows criticism and condemnation, and compassion is for her a sign of weakness.
Though I was raised in a strict legalistic Christian church, I had no idea about the gospel or about the grace of God. No one ever told me about “resting” in Jesus – instead my warped impression of God was all about how hard I needed to work to please him, my mother and my church, and I was never good enough.
Leaving home and leaving the church I grew up in were two huge steps toward starting to find God, but it took me a long time. When I left home I had no idea about what my past in a legalistic religion that called itself Christian was all about. It didn’t seem right. It hurt me. It demoralized me. It caused me pain and grief, shame and guilt.
A friend convinced me to try Buddhism – which was followed by me taking a deep dive into what is popularly called “New Age” mysticism and superstition. I even lived for a brief period of time on a commune, probably because my rules-based religious past had programmed me for structure. I felt more comfortable if someone told me what to do, as long as it was done without yelling and oer-the-top authoritarianism.
Then I made a mistake, and would you believe it I married a man who was a Mormon. I felt like I was back in my past again – so after two years of hell I divorced him (really, I divorced Mormonism – he was a nice man apart from his religion).
Looking back I see that I really wanted to find Jesus – but all these groups just kept giving me the same old stuff – more religion. Even when I tried more “normal” Christian churches I found out that most groups and ministries and churches serve the same diet – it’s all spiritual junk food. I now realize that it doesn’t matter what the name of the church or denomination was, the buildings I attended were just another fast-food “joint” (I got the spiritual junk food word picture from one of your sermons – it describes my experiences perfectly).
I will spare you the details, but let me tell you trying to find my way in the world was filled with lots of mistakes on my part. Thankfully after a few years I met a patient, kind and understanding man, who also wanted a stable home and children. But even after meeting him and getting married I still had no idea about who God was and how I could know him and relate to him. Neither did my husband.
I was in mid-thirties, with two wonderful children and a loving husband but I was spiritually lost. I was spiritually starving to death, even though we went to church every Sunday. I came to realize that legalistic religion does not preach the gospel of Jesus – very little about mercy and grace and love and forgiveness. Most of the time it’s all about control and its programs and its regulations. Yes, they threw Jesus’ name around a lot, but it wasn’t Jesus – it was religion.
Some old friends told me to look up your website and start reading your magazines, monthly letters, books and listening to your sermons and podcasts. It all made sense. Wow! You don’t say that God’s grace means doing anything we want to – you make it clear that God’s grace will lead us to a life of responsibility and “clean” living.
But you always make it clear that religion can be toxic, harmful, degrading and even addictive, in a bad kind of way. You really tell is like it is when it comes to the authoritarian baloney of “bad news religion.” You helped my husband and I to realize that God is BIG – filled with love, never-ending forgiveness, amazing grace. But religion and most of those who are addicted to it are SMALL minded hypercritical people filled with pride and sadly, sometimes arrogance.
After my husband and I discovered your ministry we almost immediately gravitated to your Christ-centered teaching. As time went by we came to deeply appreciate how you were, as you say, all Jesus all the time. My husband and I were hoping you had a church, or that you were affiliated with churches close to us, but then as we kept listening and reading and studying, we came to see why you do not.
We do attend a Christ-centered church, for our kids mostly, but honestly, your ministry is our spiritual home – but of course, I’m sure you would say that Jesus alone is our spiritual home. We rely on PTM for solid, grace-filled teaching.
We are pleased to support you as we can and we thank all those who do so in order that many others, like ourselves, can find out what the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about. Thank you – thank you! Thanks for helping to lead me to the real Jesus and the real Christian faith. May God bless all of you at PTM.
My fellow Friends, Partners and co-workers in this worldwide, ongoing ministry of the grace of God – I don’t need to tell you the obvious. These are the kinds of people God graciously allows us to help change. Your prayers and your financial support are reaching people in so many ways – perhaps most of them we never even hear from, but
- by the grace of God we are able to help point them toward Jesus and the incredible, supreme love of God.
- by the grace of God we are able to tell people that resting in Jesus means they can be relieved from the enormous burden of guilt and shame that Christ-less religion has laid on them.
- by the grace of God we are privileged and blessed to work together to let people know God is not a monster filled with wrath, but a loving heavenly Father who always has his door open and always leaves his light on for all of us.
We will not back down or retreat from the mission of proclaiming the grace of God boldly and without reservations.
We are not part of any denomination. No powerful, influential religious legal entity tells us that we should cut back on how much we preach and teach God’s grace.
We worship and serve Jesus, not religion. We stand up for Jesus – we stand up for the gospel – we stand up for the matchless grace of God and his never-ending, no-matter-what love.
Thanks for all you do as you partner with us. Thanks for all you do to help us, as God directs and allows us, to save and rescue people from the toxic swamps of religion.
Thanks for helping us introduce so many to the God who is far from the god of wrath, condemnation and punishment about whom they have been indoctrinated.
So many have been brainwashed into believing that God is something and Someone whom he is not at all – and by God’s grace, we are helping point them to the love, mercy, grace and forgiveness of God.
Until next time, I am your fellow partner, team member, co-worker and brother in Christ,
Greg Albrecht
Letters to My Friends
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