Jesus came to die for us and set us free from death, guilt, shame, and dead religion.
On Feb. 2 of 2012, author Eric Metaxas stood before politicians, religious leaders, journalists, and the President of the Unites States at the National Prayer Breakfast and courageously said as much. His speech caused a stir both inside and outside the Christian community, and he joins Susie to unpack his message.
Eric’s new book, based on his speech, is No pressure, Mr. President! The power of true belief in a time of crisis: The National Prayer Breakfast speech.
He shares that he couldn’t believe he was asked to speak at the National Prayer Breakfast. He got a phone call from a friend in Alabama who had been in contact with a senator. The senator wanted to invite Eric to speak at some prayer breakfast and he accepted, thinking it was the Alabama governor’s prayer breakfast. Turns out it was the National Prayer Breakfast.
“I just about fell out of my chair.”
The shock of the invitation for Eric made him sure that the Lord wanted to speak through him. He was planning on sharing his testimony and some life applications but God had a different idea. Eric ended up talking about Wilberforce, Bonhoeffer and the difference between real faith in Jesus and phony religiosity.
“I think a lot of people when they reject Christianity, they’re really not rejecting Jesus, they’re rejecting something that they feel is kind of phony.”
In his speech Eric pointed out that Jesus also rejected phony religiosity. Fake religion pretending to be faith is the darkest thing there is, Eric maintains.
Eric’s speech went viral, something he sees as evidence that the Lord really was in his words.
Key Scriptures: Philippians 4, Mark 7:5-8, John 8:42
