Spiritual Growth

    The greatest way of faith — within the road of salvation that Jesus is — is love. God is love, but love is not God. One nature of God is love, but God is more than love. The path to heaven is the Lord Jesus Christ, and within the nature of Jesus, love is the most reliable path to heaven.   All laws and prophets could be summarized in the laws of love. Love your God with your full heart, mind, soul, and spirit — or simply with all that you are. If you have the love of God, obeying him, serving him, following him, trusting him, and doing it with all you have is common sense. People go to hell for a life partner and lover; they give it all for nation and ideology, and all is a matter of love. What if we love God with all we are and all we have? As Jesus and the Father are one, we and God will be one — but we need to love God with all we are and all we have.   What about if we love our brothers and sisters in faith like ourselves? What if we see one of us a...

   Jesus said those who walk in the light will not stumble as those who are under the influence of darkness do by default. Light is Jesus, light is the Heavenly Father, and light is the Holy Spirit. Some of this light is always available in the Bible, but the fullness of the light is manifested in the word and life of the Lord Jesus Christ — the Word which became flesh, which died for our sin, rose from the dead, and now stands at the right hand of the Lord.   But why is it that our church history is almost a history of failure, and even when the fruit of heaven starts to germinate, very soon the devil takes over and leads us astray? It is because we come with the Lord from our Egypt of sin and worldly life, and we are baptized by the Red Sea while drinking the blood and eating the living flesh of the living rock — the Lord Jesus Christ — but Egypt lives in us.   We come from the world after dying in the baptism water in flesh and being born again in Spirit...

    You could sell your garment of faith and be naked in the sight of God to buy the sword, but you will live and die by the sword. However, since most faithful do not live by the right standard of faith, how far we sell our garment and how naked we are is a relative term. Holiness said if they take your cloth, give them your coat also; but most of us take them to court. Some get ugly and may fist-fight them, and others may start civil war to exchange the blood of their youth for a worthless garment.   We are told to love those who hate us, to pray for those who persecute us, and to feed the mouth of the hand that starved us. We are told to never resist evil but to die in the hand of evil while doing what is holy, so light can defeat darkness — not by more darkness, but by pure light. But that demands great faith that most of us lack. God is not a liar, but we are incompetent because our faith is shallow. The sword in our tiny and weak hand seems to us to be much mi...

    It is always right to do things in a way that grows the body of Christ to the fullness of Christ in both quality and quantity. That is by love, not by law. Love does not desire its own rights but covers the sin of others. Paul had every right to demand contribution from the farm of God, but he did not do it — not as a matter of law but as a matter of love. He did what was necessary for the faith, not what was legal. Love is more important than knowledge.   Even if by law all food is allowed by God, if eating some food in front of some faithful who are weak in spirit destroys their faith, give up your right to save your brothers. Knowledge is dangerous because we don’t know enough to add it all. But little knowledge with love is more powerful than more knowledge with less love. Love is more important. That is why our giants knew less, but they produced the best. While our “ignorance” that we call knowledge is destroying the faith.   Legally I can drink w...

   The difference between law and grace is the difference between slave and child. More than a slave, however, law is related to a hired servant. A servant is conditional, and the tolerance label for his folly is minimum. If the servant becomes a liability rather than an asset, the odds are he will find himself in the unemployment line. This is law — and our relationship with God is conditional on following laws, and when we break them, we come with animals to ask for forgiveness from God who loves mercy, not the blood of animals.   Grace and the Reality of Being a Child of God   Grace is being a child of God, and a child is not a hired servant. Being a child of your father is not conditional because you are not a hired servant but a loved one. In infancy nothing is expected but to be adorable and incompetent, and a great deal of tolerance and freedom is given to raise a man out of a baby. Even when you run away from home or family pushes you to be self-emplo...