Rest in God's Love

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 1 Peter 1:22

There is a false notion, that being holy has something to do with actions. That if we act the part, then we must be Christians. Jesus was not an actor, He didn’t pretend to be anyone. Jesus was who He was, all the time, and what He was, was holy. The idea that one must be “good” to go to heaven is not the gospel presented in the Bible. Heaven is a place where people have had a change of heart, and because their hearts have become holy, their ultimate outcome is heaven above. We can not earn our salvation. We have sinned, and many times over. Our hearts are evil, and there is nothing that a man can do to change this fact. What Jesus grants us is a new heart. Faith in Jesus gives an opportunity to be born again. This is a true statement.

Our birth into this world was a continuation of a sinful genetic code, we humans do not possess the ability to change what we are. Being a Christian is not so much a change in what we can do, but what happens to our heart. This is indeed the true miracle, that God can change our hearts from inside. If we let God be the Lord of our lives, He has promised us to change us so completely, we become new creatures.

I want to know what it means to love others as God loves us. I just don’t want to suffer long with people, I want to know what it means to love those who I normally would not like. I want to know what Love is, I want to see what God sees, I want a character that has been changed from the inside. How do we do this? Peter tells us, it is obedience. If we would follow God the way He tells us to, we can become changed, and what a wonderful life it will be. May the Lord continue to work the miracle He has already started in our life. God Bless.

Connected to the Vine

-Pastor Danny