When the Jesus We Imagine Isn’t the Jesus of Scripture
What happens when the Jesus we picture in our minds doesn’t match the Jesus revealed in Scripture?
In this episode of Honest Christian Conversations, I sit down with Pastor Phill Tague, co-founder of Ransom Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for an honest and deeply freeing conversation about legalism, shame, and rediscovering who Jesus truly is. Phill’s story mirrors the journey many believers quietly walk—trying to earn God’s approval, carrying hidden sin, and mistaking performance for faith.
Phill grew up in a legalistic environment where doing the “right things” mattered more than knowing God personally. Beneath the surface of church involvement and outward obedience, he wrestled with shame, pornography, and the fear that he would never measure up. Eventually, the weight of trying to be “good enough” pushed him away from faith altogether.
But Jesus was not finished.
In the middle of rebellion and distance, the Holy Spirit confronted Phill with a question that changed everything: “Why do you think the answer to hypocrisy is more hypocrisy?” That moment shattered his airbrushed image of Jesus and revealed a Savior who wasn’t demanding perfection—but inviting surrender. A Jesus who wanted intimacy, not image management.
Throughout this conversation, we explore the difference between happiness and joy, why we often want God’s benefits without His lordship, and how vulnerability becomes the doorway to transformation. Phill also shares the heart behind his book, Jesus Be the Centerfold, a call to move from shallow, performance-based faith into a covenant relationship with Christ.
🎧 Listen to the episode to reflect on how your view of Jesus may have been shaped by culture, fear, or past wounds—and how meeting the real Jesus can change everything.
💬 After listening, join the conversation in the community.
This is a space to reflect, share, and grow together as we learn to follow Jesus not as we imagine Him but as He truly is.
Wife. Mother of five. Podcaster. Fiction Novelist
Ana is the host of the Honest Christian Conversations podcast and a prodigal saved by God’s unending grace.
She grew up in a legalistic Christian home where asking questions often felt wrong. In her early twenties, overwhelmed by confusion and hurt, she walked away from her faith. Yet even then, God’s love never stopped pursuing her. At thirty years old—and after a painful second divorce—He brought her back to himself, and she has never looked back.
As Ana returned to Christ, she began rebuilding her faith from the ground up and asked the questions she once feared to ask. Along that journey, she discovered inconsistencies, misplaced teachings, and even lies woven into the Christianity she grew up with. Instead of destroying her faith, this only deepened it. Out of that discovery, she founded Honest Christian Conversations. Ana's heart is to help others navigate the same tension she once lived with: wanting to know the real Jesus while sorting through the noise of deceptive teachings, spiritual manipulation, and “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
Everything she creates flows from gratitude for the God who rescued her, restored her, and continues to shape her into who He intended her to be.
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