Stop Inviting Jesus into your Heart.

Union with Christ changes everything. Seriously.

Alright, so the title is a bit “clickbaity.” I’ll admit that. But Jen Wilkin doesn’t call me “clickbait Kyle” for nothing. I earned that nickname.

The truth is: I prayed that prayer. I was just a kid, but I heard the preacher: I was a sinner separated from God, I was under the judgment of God, and I needed Jesus.

And I did. I needed Jesus. Right then. Desperately. We all do.

I believed. With childlike faith. So, I repeated every word the preacher said when he told us to pray the simple prayer: “Jesus, I invite you into my heart. Forgive me of my sins and make me clean.”

I entered that little church building in east Texas a sinner and I walked out a saint.

But it wasn’t because Christ was now in me - though I didn’t know it at the time - it was because I was now in Christ.

There is no doubt that the overwhelming emphasis in the New Testament is on our life in Christ. Yes, Christ dwells in us by the power of the Holy Spirit, but He is only in us because we are in Him. Being in Christ is the most fundamental reality for any and every Christian.

And we call this reality: union with Christ.

Union with Christ is not some new thing. It isn’t even just a recent fad. Lord knows, I wish it was - I wish it was cool to be talking about union with Christ. I wish it was so present in the discipleship of Christians, young and old, that we didn’t need another book on the topic. But unfortunately, this is just not the case. It has been ignored, misunderstood, neglected.

In an effort to make the gospel more actionable, we may have inadvertently made it appear less wonderful.

That’s why I wrote Home with God: Our Union with Christ. I want to make this doctrine unavoidable for Christian discipleship. I want it to become so elementary that when children come to faith in Christ Jesus they stand in the waters of baptism and say, “My name is __________ and I am a child of God in Christ Jesus.”

If you want to be a part of the revolution on turning the tide - of shifting the focus back to what we find in scripture - here is how you can help:

• Pre-Order a copy of Home with God || For new authors like myself, pre-orders help so much. They tell Amazon and all book distributors to “showcase this book!” and “make sure you have plenty in stock!” (Also, if you pre-order it you can go here and redeem your order to get a bonus video session of me talking about union with Christ, Taylor Swift, and Bob Dylan. Seriously. And I sing a song in the video. It’s not good, but it’s there.)

• Then pre-order a copy for a friend(s) || Each chapter has discussion and reflection questions at the end. My hope is that people will read and discuss it together and we’ve tried to make it super easy to do that.

• Lastly, you can share it/talk about it on social media. || I know this seems wild, but word of mouth is still the best way to get other people to discover something special. Your friends and network trust you.