The number one commandment, according to the Word, is to love the Lord our God.1 But the commandment that is repeated more times than any other is “fear not”. God does not want His people to live oppressed by fear. God has provided everything necessary for us to live free from fear. He told us […]

To be able to shame someone is a very powerful weapon. It puts the other person in a state of shock. And, if the shame is public, they freeze up. To do this to a fellow Christian, even with the best of intentions, is not acceptable. We use various methods at different times to shame […]

The only motivation that God looks for in us is love. It is the only motivation He has for everything He does. Love does not act unfittingly, is not envious and is not selfish.1 Love does no ill to its neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.2 You cannot fulfill the law by […]

Three of the weapons that legalists use to make others do what they “should” do are guilt, shame and intimidation. The other day, a good friend of mine who pastors a church told me that this free will thing is okay but that legalism is much quicker and has better results. I think he is […]

One of the main problems in our fight against legalism is knowing how to identify it. I do not believe that anyone who has made it this far in this book is a total legalist. I also do not believe that anyone in history has been totally free of legalism — except, of course, for […]

Access to the Throne of God. That is the whole point. We have seen how God uses the Word to help us enter into His rest. In another chapter, using the same text in Hebrews 4 we talked about our Great High Priest whose name is Love, and how He helps us to rest in […]

God desires that we enter into His rest and has provided everything that we could need- forgiveness of our iniquities, freedom from the slavery of sin, divine healing (physical, mental or emotional). Our High Priest, Jesus, lived His whole life in God’s rest. He did nothing on His own initiative, but only that which His […]

In Hebrews chapters 3 and 4, where the author goes deeply into how to rest in God, he gives us three tools at the end of the discourse. To enter into the rest is the opposite of legalism which is works based. When we enter into the rest, according to Hebrews 4:10, we cease from […]

We need to take very seriously the verses in Proverbs that say, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes”1 I make goofy comments about my need to “get […]

One Sunday after church, I was sitting in our living room in my recliner. One of the young men from church was with us that afternoon and all my effort was concentrated on not falling asleep. This young man — Antonio — was one of the leaders in the youth group. He was very active […]