Live Not By Rules—But—Live Because of a Love Letter
Love letters are really special, even the ones not written to us. Take for example, a letter we have found, one written from our grandpa to our grandma before they were a couple, before they were married, before they were a family, before they were an “us.” If a love letter is never received, then the letter is a nice letter, but the love remains with the giver.
- A love letter has a purpose: It is to be received.
- A love letter has a purpose: It is to be received because of the love from the one who writes.
- A love letter has a purpose: It is to be received because of the love given from the one who has written the words to the one who takes in the words and believes them (the words) to be true.
Love letters do not peddle falsehood, and they are not meant to drive away the one who is the recipient of the letter. The Word of God speaks of the “love letter” Jehovah God has gifted us with, to read, to absorb, and to receive.
See with me the Love of God.
“For we are not like the many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some letters of commendation to you or from you?
You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all people.”
(2 Corinthians 2: 17 & 3: 1-2 NASB)
The gospel message does not just peddle out more words into a word-filled space. That is correct. The Good News of Jesus Christ does not peddle anything because the Goodness of God is the sincere Word from Almighty God given to mankind to receive into our hearts. We who believe, who have received Jesus into our hearts do not walk around proclaiming a bunch of rules that must be followed, the “rule of the letter of the law.”
NO!
- We preach relationship with Jesus!
- We preach the LOVE of God!
- We preach how one’s heart, how his entire being, can be changed by a gracious & holy God!
Some may ask us—HOW?
Some may be looking for a religion that tells one what to do & what not to do.
Some may be looking for a doctrine to follow, a list of rules to follow.
Some may be looking—WRONG!
The Word of God (with life-changing clarity) describes the One we seek, the One we know in relationship, the One who brings us into the gracious LOVE of God, and the One who changes our hearts.
SEE how. &
- If you do not believe, then today, begin to SEE the TRUTH of GOD discovered.
- If you do not believe, then today, SEE the Only WAY—GOD’S SALVATION is Only Through a RELATIONSHIP with JESUS CHRIST.
Begin to Live Not By Rules—But—Begin to LIVE because of GOD’S LOVE LETTER!
SEE! BELIEVE! RECEIVE!
“You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all people.
revealing yourselves, that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Such is the confidence we have toward God through Christ.
Not that we are adequate in ourselves so as to consider anything as having come from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,
who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
(2 Corinthians 3: 2-6 NASB)
- Our faith does not rely upon words written by mankind because once we: Accept God is Truth & Once we Believe in the Resurrection of Jesus, & As we Confess Our Sins—Then we receive Christ Jesus—“written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, . . . [received] on tablets of human hearts.”
- Our faith does not call us to obediently follow a list of rules, a list “to do this & to not do that,” but our faith in Almighty God gives us adequacy—“but our adequacy is from God, . . . .”
- Our faith does not require that we walk through this life following someone who is dead or who has been buried because Faith in God through Jesus Christ “made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, . . . .”
- Our faith in Almighty God & His Salvation fills us up with the indwelling Spirit of God and “the Spirit gives life.”
Our Faith is NOT a Bunch of Rules—But—A Love Letter Gifted to us from Jehovah God!
God Gifts us with the Solution to our sinful nature, & the Solution has a name—JESUS!
The “Solution” is to receive & to know the LOVE of GOD into our hearts of stone.
The “Solution” is to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior!
The “Solution” is to receive the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit filling us up—COMPLETELY!
THE “SOLUTION” & “THE CONFIDENCE”—(as the Bible tells us)—“Such is the confidence we have toward God through Christ.
Not that we are adequate in ourselves so as to consider anything as having come from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,”
- Through JESUS, we are given a new heart!
- Through JESUS, we have more than a feeling raging within us!
- Through JESUS, we have the Spirit of Holy God dwelling within our soul!
- Through JESUS, we have the HOPE & the ASSURANCE & the SEAL of GOD!
“For we are not like the many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God. . . .
Therefore, having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, . . .
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
(2 Corinthians 2: 17 & 3: 12 & 3:17-18 NASB)
We are called to not live by rules.
BUT
We are called to live by the LOVE LETTER written to us by ALMIGHTY GOD!
LET US LIVE & WALK & MOVE because “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”