September 16, 2018
I stand here with great joy and satisfaction. Not because everything is perfect in my life or going the way I hoped it would, but because I am witnessing before my very eyes sons and daughters of God catching the heart of God. I have the joy of working with many of the men here and you are beginning to realize that this life is all about Christ!! Not just another 5 steps to this or 10 steps to this, but that our IDENTITY will take us much further with God then trying to simply change our behavior and act more Christian like.
John 15:5
5 “I am the vine and you’re my branches.[e] As you live in union with me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you—but when you live separated from me you are powerless.
How many of us are trying to fit into some Christian mold; Rather than allow the True Molder to mold us into His image!
God is all about transforming us from the inside out. God is not some task master requiring your allegiance. He is a Father to those who accept Christ and He Is looking for us to discover who He is and enjoy every aspect of Him.
I have said it many many times, but I believe it to be appropriate to say it again here – God is relational before functional! God wants to relate to us and with us before we DO for Him.
God wants us to receive His love before we try and love Him or even others.
God wants us to receive His Joy and Peace and Goodness before we try and earn or strive to get any of those things by our obedience.
God is interested more in YOU than He is your performance.
And so with that said, we REVISIT THE GOSPEL today for the sole purpose of diving in and seeing all that it contains for you and I. Just like an ocean. The depths of the gospel and splendor and the wonder are endless.
So lets explore the gospel some more today!
When I saw this passage, I said, God this is my heart for New Day, Help me to communicate this –
Col. 1:28-29
28–29 Christ is our message! We preach to awaken hearts and bring every person into the full understanding of truth. It has become my inspiration and passion in ministry to labor with a tireless intensity, with his power flowing through me, to present to every believer the revelation of being his perfect one in Jesus Christ.
Rom. 1.16 (NKJV)
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
Rom. 1.17 (NKJV) For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
The Gospel. The simple proclamation that Jesus finished the work that He came to do and now The Father has now CHOSEN, ADOPTED and ACCEPTED us as His own!
Eph. 1.4 (NKJV) just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
Eph. 1.5 (NKJV) having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
Eph. 1.6 (NKJV) to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.