Our Pastor and family are away to celebrate Thanksgiving with family. The Illuminate Series continued with our assistant/youth Pastor in Galatians 5:1-12.
It is important to remember that the Christian life is more than a judgment message or trying to follow commands. The important element is the love message. The gospel is the good news.
Life to the fullest is in a loving relationship with God.
Some people have been raised with a scary view; raised in fear trying to stay on a narrow path above a floor of lava. The gospel is an Important message for eternity, but it must be based on love. Is your faith expressing itself in love?
Paul confronts difficult issues head on. He tells the people don't get tied back into law or works. No manner of dress, prayer, or fasting will make you more approved. It is better to live in grace than in the law.
There are 613 laws set out in the old testament. It is impossible to follow them all. You don't get to pick and chose which you must follow if you are trying to live under the law. Christ’s salvation is a gift that frees us from living under the law. We can't keep promises. We are fortunate that God’s love is based acceptance by faith, not by works. We are accepted in faith before being transformed to whom He wants us to be; before growing through the process.
The Point: What is important is faith expressing itself in love. Galatians 5:6.
The situation you are living in may not change, but how you live through it can change. People see how we live outside the church walls. We mustn’t live within the church like we are special. We each go to church because we are not perfect. We are always learning, growing. We need God and need to love the lost. If we love God, then we love people.
It's love that changes people. The love and acceptance of God and who we are is the key. It changes everything. The role we play is not to correct the lost but it's to love the lost.
1 Corinthians 13:13 says the greatest gift is love. Then that gift should be the most used. Allow God to reveal himself to you. Accept His free gift of love; acknowledge who you are and then share the love He has shown you.
I had this song in my list and I think it fits today.
Verses for Today:Galatians 5:4-6 NIV
4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Lord, I pray that you help me to show Your love in the way that I live each day.
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