Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Jensen Holt McNair.

As a kid, I think I asked Jesus into my heart over a dozen times before I actually grasped what the gospel was and what it really meant to follow

Jesus. Now, each of those times was motivated by fear. I'd be riding in the car with my mom and

suddenly be overcome with anxiety that maybe I hadn't said it right the last time or maybe I had

hallucinated asking Jesus to save me. And maybe I really wasn't saved and I wouldn't said it right the last time, or maybe I had hallucinated asking Jesus to

save me, and maybe I really wasn't saved, and I wouldn't get to be with Jesus forever.

I was so scared of being left out of heaven that I prayed the sinner's prayer every opportunity

that I got.

Now, in middle school, the gospel was presented to me in a way that was all-encompassing.

And as I went throughout high school and college, my understanding of the Christian life,

of the biblical story of the kingdom that Jesus came to bring, and what it meant for my life, expanded.

And it replaced fear and anxiety with joyful living and obedience to my creator.

My faith was less about getting out of hell and more about stepping into life with Jesus,

the life that I was created for, to be who I was made to be.

Now, I'm thankful every single day for the people who shaped my

understanding of the gospel, who helped me recognize my misunderstandings and walked me through

what life with Jesus could look like. And yet, even after my shift away from fear-based faith

and into joyful surrender, the verses that

we read today always make my heart pound. The familiar pangs of worry creep in. These are verses

that scare me, and I think that scare many people when we read them. But I don't believe that was Jesus's

intention when he said what he said. And I hope that with a better foundation, with context, and with

...