March 5, 2025
When sharing your salvation sounds annoying
We tackle the often misunderstood phrase, "asking Jesus into your heart," exploring its implications and why it may not resonate with everyone. The discussions aim to free listeners from guilt and provide a more genuine approach to faith.
• Examining the impact of Christian clichés on personal faith
• The confusion surrounding the phrase "asking Jesus into your heart"
• Encouragement to engage in authentic conversations about spirituality
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I'm Jimmy and I'm IN YOUR CORNER!
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Chapters
00:00 - Introduction: Tackling Crappy Christian Clichés
18:00 - The Problem with Asking Jesus Into Your Heart
32:00 - Navigating Faith Without the Guilt
Transcript
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Are you tired of crappy Christian cliches?
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That's what I call them, and we're going to cover one of those cliches today.
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If you've come here looking for the same guilt and condemnation that you often receive from your pastor, congregation, so-called Christian friends, your Bible study, your prayer group, we're going to push a lot of that baggage to the side here and we're going to go guilt-free.
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This is Jimmy James Johnson, and I'm in your corner.
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Let's get to it.
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Have you ever heard someone say I asked Jesus into my heart.
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Have you ever been confused by, or turned off by, this cliche of asking Jesus into your heart?
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As soon as we start talking about things like that first of all, just somewhat stereotypically, but as a guy, as a man, we generally don't walk around talking in those terms all the time here you are, you're going through a difficult time, or you're perhaps a new believer or getting settled in a new church, or maybe you're deeply embedded in a Christian or a spiritual life and it frustrates you when you go to somebody that's supposed to be understanding or kind or have an encouraging word, or.
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God forbid if somebody would just listen to you without overruling you or calling out what's wrong or why the Bible says this, or why the Bible says that going to people for help, being vulnerable, telling somebody about something you're going through positive or negative and having them just smash you with these Christian cliches that you just feel fake, hollow and empty and just aren't that helpful, not to mention the fact that they may actually push you to questioning your faith just in general, because you're thinking, hey, I'm trying to show up for God, or I'm doing my prayer thing, or I'm going to church, or I'm gathering with others, like I'm doing the things I know to do, and we may have enough trouble just admitting that we love some people that are obviously very close to us.
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So to go to something even more abstract and talk about it or him or God, could be really difficult to speak in those terms just to start with.
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But here's the thing, though.
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Let's say somebody's talking to you about Christianity, or you're a new believer and you're trying to get a grasp on this whole thing.
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What is a Christian?
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How do I become a Christian?
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Is there a certain process?
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Is there certain magic words I have to sprinkle over myself, or something I need to read out of a holy book?
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How do I get that green checkmark next to my name in the eternal book of life, one of the sayings that you'll hear oh, you just ask Jesus into your heart.
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And okay, for some people that might be very intuitive and very touching and very intimate.
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To feel that type of closeness with God, with Christ, with the Holy Spirit, it's something we crave in some way or another or described in some way or another.
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Using certain words, different words, maybe.
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Using certain words, different words, maybe I've seen people confused or just off-put.
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What the hell is this person talking about when they start using that cliche of oh, I became a Christian last year, I asked Jesus into my heart.
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I'm not saying that's not a good thing to do.
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I'm not saying that's not a perfectly appropriate thing to do in the whole Christian rites of passage.
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But let's consider rarely do I enter a situation, particularly with people I really don't know that well, that might be coming into a new church, a men's group or a Bible study.
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I'm probably not going to be talking about the love in my heart as if I first jump off into the conversation with these guys.
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Right?
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