In March of 2013, I made a public declaration of my faith through water baptism. Leading up to the event, I underwent several weeks learning about what I consider today as doctrines, statement of faith, church membership expectations, etc.

To be frank, I didn’t know how ready I was or how to live my life as a new believer. I don’t remember fully committing to all that I learned in those weeks. I knew there were moral ethics I needed to live by. On the other hand, I could not understand this sensitivity, nor where it came from. In the words of A.W. Tozer, God had made me acutely sensitive to evils-evils I was not sensitive to before my journey to baptism. It really “takes the work of God in a man to sour him on the world to turn him against himself; yet until this has happened to him he is psychologically unable to repent and believe.” (Tozer, 2018, p. 15). I didn’t quite grasp the power at play in my life during that season of life.

Conversion is an interesting phenomenon. I can’t say for sure when I got converted. This is especially true when I think about Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 3:6, ‘God causes the growth.’ Because of this, I can’t confidently tell you if my conversion happened prior or during baptism, or during the COVID pandemic. Or that from 2013 to 2021 God was responsible for the growth (which I believe he is) I am experiencing and the boldness to share this with you.

In 2021 I had a career identity crisis that exposed my shallow relationship with God. Beaming with confidence in my skillset, I decided it was time to move on from my current job. A desire to explore new opportunities quickly resulted in countless interview rejections after another. This went on for about 9 months. So I did what seemed to always work for me or so I thought. ‘Pray to God and he’ll help you land the job you desire.’ Well, I never got the job and as a matter of fact, I got laid off from my current job about a year later. Mind you, this is how I’ve always treated God. Offer up prayers for the things I wanted and didn’t have control over and he’ll answer. I realized there was no genuine relationship nor a desire to know him. I pinned my desires over his.

Humbled by this realization, I had a choice to make. Remain in my current state of shallow relationship, or get to know him. I made the commitment to go to the one I place I knew I could learn about him: the Bible. It was during this season of devotion that I learned about God’s love. I was captivated by his faithful loving relationship with ancient Israel. It was as though my eyes were opened to a new reality of who God is. During this season, I received a rekindled gift of grace. A gift far better than a job, which I will forever cling on to for it is life to me.

With this new reality, I’ve been on a quest to saturate my heart, mind, and will with the things of God. This has raised a few questions for me that I’d like to share.

• What if knowing God was a lifestyle?

• What if we commit ourselves to the gospel and practice holy habits of faith, hope and love?

• What if every spiritually mature believer makes it their mission to ground fellow believers and seekers in the knowledge and love of God?

Here’s the truth, we, followers of Jesus are partakers of the divine nature, So I believe these “what ifs” are possible. We have everything we need to live a godly life, there’s no excuse. Our problem is our disordered loves, desires, and longings—the kind that causes us, the Church to drift from the gospel message resulting in stagnant spiritual growth, choking what we already have, the divine nature.

I ask these questions because, just maybe we’ve forgotten God, the maker of the heavens and earth. Forgotten his promises, his power and saving grace. We need to get back to filling our hearts and minds with the knowledge of who he is. Get back to making every effort to remember what he has done for us. We do this by looking to the one who gave up everything so that we can have everything, Jesus Christ. We allow his life, atoning sacrifice, death, resurrection and authority above all things to transform us. In so doing, our love for him will grow deeper and obedience to his commands will follow. I trust that this lifestyle of remembering will become the way we make Jesus truly known everywhere.

Now don’t get me wrong, knowing God comes in many forms. And I believe they’re happening in teaching and preaching services, Bible studies, small group gatherings, para-church ministries, seminaries and much more. At scale the Church is spending time with God through his word, cultivating intimate fellowship with one another in community, and learning to submit to God’s will, even in the face of suffering. What I want to emphasize are the disciplined rhythms and habits of faith, hope and love. 2 Peter 1 makes this clear, we must make every effort to grow in these virtues. While this pursuit is entirely possible and rewarding. It is undoubtedly costly, it will demand every facet of our lives. It will require vulnerability and in some cases it will hurt. But, there’s nothing that we’ll face that Jesus our great high priest hasn’t experienced. It is fair to say, we’re in a race called the Christian life, and cannot remain stagnant, we must keep running by adding to our faith in increasing measure, for it confirms our calling. Stick with it and we’ll grow and transform in character and virtue.

So, I’m calling you, you who are disciples of Jesus, you who are humble and committed to denying yourself, you whose hearts eyes are enlightened, who know the grace you received is a gift from God. Come be part of helping the Church remember the wonderful words and deeds of God. Come join me in enabling the Church to cultivate daily rhythms and habits that produce virtuous lives. To make this pursuit possible, I built the Tassel Discipleship App.

If I can borrow from Tim Keller, “If you’ve had your life changed enough by the gospel, have developed enough knowledge of the Bible and the gospel, enough confidence and motivation, to want to talk to believers and seekers, to pray with them, to share the Word with them, to talk about the gospel with them. If you want to put in the time to do it,” come join me on Tassel to faithfully and lovingly tackle these what-if questions together so that we can make disciples of all nations.