Father’s Love Motivation 

There is in God a love motivation for the preaching of the Gospel and Christian living that supersedes everything else. We live in a fear-based world that seeks to use control to diminish its insecurities. So often this has colored our Christianity. Galatians 1:1 says, Paul was sent out not of man—not of his own effort or according to man’s cunning, scheming or striving. Vs.2, 3—he was sent to the Galatians and speaks grace and peace to them. Grace, the free, unmerited gift of God’s love and the peace that comes from the cessation of our own works.  Verse 4—Jesus gave himself for our sins (the total opposite of man’s effort, living for “number 1”), that He might deliver us from this present evil age. The age we live in is evil—full of wars, oppressive dictators, poverty, greed and corruption, using and abusing one another. It’s a world system based in selfishness. Verse 6—Paul marveled that they turned away from their calling into the grace of Christ to another gospel. This other gospel was a thing of legalism being promoted by the cunning of the Judiazers. A gospel which destroys the grace of Christ and puts salvation and the living of the Christian life on a different basis. With law comes control. Law says you are accepted or rejected based on how well you perform the laws, the standards for acceptance.  This is not only true of legalistic “Christianity” but of all other major world religions. It is true of the mafia, where a strict code exists that the breaking thereof is met with death. Inmates in prison operate under a system of rules for conduct and survival. Much of business culture has its own “norms of acceptance, ways deals are struck”. Clicks in high school are the same. We live in a present evil age.  Control is about fear and fear is about self—controlling and using others to get my needs met rather than trusting a loving God.  God has called us into the grace of Christ, to be a people of love and compassion. We are to win the world, not by fear tactics of hell and doom but by love and acceptance. To be a people so passionate for the love of God we will gladly lay down our lives. Not moved by fanaticism or zealotry or even taking a stand for righteousness sake but rather for the passion of seeing love touch the lost and hurting! No longer calling people to get right with an angry God that hates sin, but demonstrating a love that hates the way sin hurts and longs to see healing come. This is a profound difference to the way much of the gospel is presented today. I believe God is calling us to the purity of a love motivation. Check Out Father’s Love Letter http://www.fathersloveletter.com/Learn about Father’s Love at Shiloh Place www.shilohplace.org