April 21, 2010
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Earning Love… And Losing It at the Same Time…
Every week I assign a sermon podcast to my church plant team to listen to during the week and take notes on. For this past week I assigned Lesson 1 of Patricia King’s Glory School, which is all about the Cross. Powerful stuff!
What stood out to us a lot is the simple yet powerful revelation that when we do things like prayer or fasting in order to draw closer to God we are acting out of religion (works) rather than grace. We cannot earn love. Love is not based on works. The fact is that by the Cross of Jesus we have access to all of Him. There is no other way to the glory of God but through the Cross. Every other way is based on works. All other religions are based on works. Religion emphasizes that we have to go through step after step in order to receive His love. The Cross emphasizes grace and new life in Christ (Galatians 2:20). Our acts of worship, obedience, and love for God are always done as a response to the revelation of God’s love.
When we worship God we become like Him. What you set your focus on you become. You focus on fear, fear will consume you. You focus on lust, lust will consume you. You focus on God, God will consume you.
Hebrews 12:2a – “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…”
