marklindberg - Not Don't, Do!*

I've been struggling with how to finish the major sermon series :) "You Can Stop Sinning": The Perfect Me, The Perfcet me, Cont., Can You Do It?, and Apparently You Can - Stick Edition.

I had fully intended to write another blog called "Apparently You Can - Carrot Edition", but just haven't been able to. I even found a really cool picture of a carrot cake. Yum.

Did you know that the law was NEVER intended to save us? Jesus "...was the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes." But how does this fit with Jesus fulfilling the law? Are we supposed to obey/follow the law or not?

Do me a favor and take off your church glasses for a minute. Do you realize that God uses His kindness to lead you to repentance?
I know you may have heard this 100 times, so think about it for a
minute. God is not about the business of saying, "do this or I'll
punish you." He says, "I love you so much that I died for you when you were at your worst."

It's easy to quantify the don'ts. I didn't lie, steal, murder,
commit adultery, etc. this week. It's much harder to quantify the do's
because you have to actually...wait for it...do something.

I'm really tired of doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. I don't want to do what God wants because I'm afraid he going to punish me if I don't. I want to do what God wants because I want to.

If you want to give up on the "Don't lie, don't steal, don't covet" way of living, then do this: Love your fellow man! Don't harm your neighbor.

OK, I stole that from the Bible. It's in Romans 13:8-10. Go read it.

This is very freeing to me. Rather than worrying about all the things I'm not supposed to do, all I have to do is love my fellow man**.

*I'm SORRY for the pithy title. It's just so much fun to say!

**Let the caveats begin