Favorite Book Friday February 19,2021
It’s #favoritebookfriday and I got to do something really cool before I started writing this post and the adrenaline is still pumping. Anyway we’ve got maybe one more week on this book before we start another! We’ve got two more chapters to look at in Classic Christianity.
Chapter eleven is titled “living by a higher law”. This big word is thrown around called legalism is what’s here Bob’s definition to help us what’s is legalistic or not. The first is the motive for action. Like why are you doing something. Remember Law and grace are the issues of God’s acceptance. We don’t have to do anything to gain God’s acceptance. We can live under grace now. The second is what is the source of life. It’s like if you were in a room of deaf and hearing people. You see a man tapping his foot. The deaf person comes in and taps too because he sees the person next to him. It’s the response to the music the person who hears is hearing. Like the same is true of you look at Christianity and legalism. Legalism is just an imitation of the real thing. All legalism is getting people to tap and snap at right rhythm. Grace helps is say no to sin not keep sinning. It’s frustrating sometimes when people say “live by the spirit.” So how do we do if? Like we know Holy Spirit is in us but we just don’t feel it. What’s missing? Maybe you don’t have a good understanding of the love of God. Let’s start over there. At the beginning of this book, we talked about total forgiveness, we’re complete and reconciled before God. You’re unconditionally loved and accepted. That also means we don’t have to be shamed when we ask for forgiveness because God already has. Because we’ve be reconciled before God we can be reconciled to one another. We can’t get too full of knowledge that we aren’t full of Christ. We’re called to share God to one another not our knowledge. Once you shift your focus to sharing God’s love and grace you share Christ again. You see his love like in described in 1 Corinthians 13. These verses are a description of how God loves us. God literally is love. It truly makes love come alive when you realize God is love. We treat people how we think God treats us and it goes both ways. There could be more love in the church if we understood God’s love in the church. In Ephesians 3:17-19, Paul prays for power not to do things but to understand how big and wide the love of God is. Whatever you’re filled with is what controls you. Walking in the spirit helps us deny the things of the flesh. This verse doesn’t say clean up the flesh and you’ll be spiritual. That won’t work. We respond to the message we hear about God’s acceptance. Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law but fulfill it. He did that not by what he didn’t do but he did which I was live a life of perfect love. Walk in total assurance you’re loved so that you can share that love with others.
That’s in for Instagram, read the rest on my website.
The last chapter for today is chapter 12: freedom in dependency. So the church has this belief if the size of your faith determines if you get what you want from God. That makes you responsible for your lack of faith which isn’t correct either. That’s not what faith is about. It’s impossible to read the Bible and miss the fact of faith. You wonder what does it mean to live by faith and how do you do it?
First let’s talk about what faith is not then what faith is. Faith is not a feeling, faith can result in a feeling but isn’t an actual feeling. Next, faith is not an intellectual agreement with doctrine. It’s not all head knowledge. Knowledge is a part if faith but isn’t faith. Faith isn’t a tool we use to manipulate God. God is the initiator and we’re the responder. It’s not about the amount of faith it’s how you respond in faith. Jesus himself is the author of faith. Jesus says without God’s power, he can do nothing. A life of total dependency is hard for us to understand though. Once we do, it’s how we’re able to live according to God’s will.
We no longer obey God because we fear punishment but because we love him. If this isn’t correct, we make a return to the law. But how do we love God? By understanding God loved us first. It’s his message of God’s unconditional love and grace, total forgiveness, righteousness, acceptance and life that he freely fish’s is in Jesus Christ that transforms our hearts and minds. We can only bear fruit if you’re attached to the vine. We’re not responsible for producing the Christian life our job is to have a receiving dependable spirit. So how do we do it? We have an attitude of total surrender. That’s the best thing you can do is offer yourself as a living sacrifice to a loving Heavenly Father. We’re transforms by the renewing of our minds. We can’t hold onto earthly rights and a thankful spirit at at the same time. Giving Thanks in a concrete expression of our faith. Through Jesus, we can see that Jesus was everything we need: the answer to every need of the human heart.
Chapter Highlights (Chapter 11-12)
The two ways sometimes is legalistic or not is the motive for the action and the source of life.
Law is the realm of self effort. A life under grade is exemplified by the resurrected Christ living in and through you.
The grace of the love of God are the true motivation for the Christian life. It’s the real music which should be the source of our lives
The key that unlocked the door was seeing God’s love for me.
This kind of love is not a feeling, it’s an attitude that is exemplified by certain actions.
How we are in the body of Christ to love accept and forgive one another. We will treat people with the same measure of love, acceptance and forgiveness that we are (rightly or wrongly) think we are receiving from God.
To be filled with the Spirit is to be totally filled with the knowledge of God’s love in grace in Jesus Christ.
Jesus didn’t come to improve the flesh; He came to execute it and give us new life. Trying to clean ourselves up is merely returning to the law— the ultimate exercise in futility.
God’s love working in our hears deals with us on a level of sensitivity that neither law nor self discipline can ever reach.
The truth is there is no power in faith itself. The value of faith is found only in its object.
Jesus exemplifies a life of dependency(faith) that God had designed man for.
Love for God, results in dependency on God resulting in obedience to God.
We must first receive God’s unconditional love and acceptance for before we ever learn to love him in return.
One of the most fundamental things we are surrendering to Christ is all claims to personal rights.
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