The Ministry of God's Love: Loving like Christ

Love is the greatest message of the gospel. In fact, Christianity is all about love. A righteous Christian is a loving Christian and it takes only a loving Christian to make heaven. He who does not Love does not know God; for God is love. (1 John 4:8). The real definition of God is love don't be deceived. Love is the heart beat of God,, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,,,, John 3:16. Love here come before giving, to be like God is to love like God and to love like God is to love unconditional; ,,,in that while we are yet in sin Christ died for us (Roman 5:8). Go and search your bible from Genesis to Revelation, you will not see where God give condition for loving us.

God's kind of love is the agape love - love without condition. Love to God is not feelings or emotion, it is not about how you feel rather is about your action towards something, it's obedience, it is character reflection . That is why Jesus says, "if you love me keep my commandment" (John14:15). Keeping here means obedience to God's commandment, not confession, neither feeling the presence; obedience is better than sacrifice. The greatest commandment is the commandment of love.

RUNNING TO WIN THE RACE OF LIFE

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. (1 Corinthians 9:24).

What does Paul mean by this verse?  Does Paul mean that there is only one winner in the Christian race?  Does he mean that there are ways to run to win the race?  What exactly is he trying to teach the Christian?

Paul in describing the Christian race uses two illustrations: The runner and the fighter. Two things should come to our mind; both a runner and a fighter aim to win in the game, hence both can be liking to Christianity "fighting the good fight of faith'' (2 Timothy 2:3; 1 Timothy 6:12).

Are You truly Living For Christ?

2 CORINTHIANS 5: 15.... And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

The question is do you believe Christ died for you and for all? Then if you believe, are you serving God or serving yourselves? Christianity, or born again is not about us, but all about Christ, He loved us first and died for us, so we love him back by living for him. It means that our life is not our own. We have been bought with the price of Christ's death and therefore are called to serve not self but Christ (1 Cor 6:19-20). Freedom is an illusion. We like to think along the lines of William Ernest Henley: "I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul." The fact of the matter is that ours is to serve, not to be served. We can either be serving Christ-making Him Lord of our life or we are serving ourselves and making Christ our servant instead of our Lord. The difference is between treating Christ as a houseguest and serving him as the house owner. Five things can be inferred or summarized from this verse. 

Understanding The Concept of Law And Grace

What do you understand by grace? Do grace nullify law? Does it mean that "grace" has replaced "Law" and the "Law" is discarded? Does Christ death actually abolished the Law, and give people license to continue in sin? What does the Bible really say? What then shall we do and teach others?

The misconception of grace and law has thrown many into confusion, with varying interpretations. Many preachers and teachers of the gospel has erroneously mislead people to believe that grace has abolish the law, thereby giving them licenses to live there life the way they like, without paying attention to moral code of conduct. That is why we have so many unbelieving-believers in churches today. People going to hell from the church.

The meaning of grace: Grace is the undeserving favor of God bestowed on mankind. Grace goes beyond forgiving someone who rob and probably rape your wife in your presence, to include giving the person job in your company with company car and allowance. If someone offend you, and you forgive and forget you are just merciful, that not grace. Grace is going beyond forgiving an offender to favor the person.

Moral Code of Conduct: The new Law

Does the Law still apply only to the Jew? What is the purpose of the law? Does the Law still apply to Christians today? Does Grace abolish the Law

Often there is a misconception by twenty first century Christianity that the law was made for the Jews only and has nothing to do with believers today. There is this believes that, Christ death on the cross has abolished the law and that Christian only live in Grace, Free from the law and its dictates to live as they like so long they believe in the death of Christ.