22 August 2021
Two-Minute Features | 29 August 2021 | 15 August 2021

Living By God's 'Real' Input in Our Lives (TMF:1685)

Friday, August 27, 2021
Peace to Live By: Living By God's 'Real' Input in Our Lives (TMF:1685) - Daniel Litton
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       Paul said in Galatians 5:16-18: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (ESV). This passage from Galatians confirms for us that in this section today in Romans chapter 7, that Paul is talking about his current condition as a Christian, and not his previous condition before his conversion experience, or for the Jew living under the Jewish Law—which in this case would have been the same thing with Paul. Paul’s point in both Romans chapter 7 and Galatians chapter 5 is that we are to choose not to walk by the flesh, to walk by our sin-natures, to live following a Christian life without God’s ‘real’ input, but instead we are to choose to be led by the Spirit.

Example of Why Legalism Doesn't Work, Part 2 (TMF:1684)

Thursday, August 26, 2021
Peace to Live By: Example of Why Legalism Doesn't Work, Part 2 (TMF:1684) - Daniel Litton
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       Turns out it had changed routes on me to save a few minutes, and it was taking me on all these back country roads in order to do this. You see, I relied on the GPS app to get where I was going initially. This is like following a law system. I didn’t have to do anything. All I had to do was follow the directions my phone told me. It wasn’t until just following the directions wasn’t working that I had to pick up my phone and figure out the way on my own. This is what we do when we follow a law system from the Bible. We are blindly following rules, and over time it doesn’t work out. Why doesn’t it get us where we want to be? Because that is not how we are supposed to live. We are not to live under a law without personal input, and this personal input from the third person of the Trinity, the Spirit of God. We are supposed to live by following the Spirit in our lives, which means looking at the Bible and then following the way God wants us go. Not just looking at the Bible alone.

Example of Why Legalism Doesn't Work, Part 1 (TMF:1683)

Wednesday, August 25, 2021
Peace to Live By: Example of Why Legalism Doesn't Work, Part 1 (TMF:1683) - Daniel Litton
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       Recently I was driving a couple hours outside of Columbus. I knew where I wanted to go, and feeling lazy, I decided I would just follow the GPS app on my smartphone in order to get there. Things went well for a while. But about a third of the way there, the GPS app routed me off the freeway and started taking me on back roads. I was going left, right, up, and down, on hardly paved roads that you could barely pass by oncoming traffic. Turns out it had changed routes on me to save a few minutes, and it was taking me on all these back country roads in order to do this. You see, I relied on the GPS app to get where I was going initially. This is like following a law system. I didn’t have to do anything. All I had to do was follow the directions my phone told me. It wasn’t until just following the directions wasn’t working that I had to pick up my phone and figure out the way on my own. This is what we do when we follow a law system from the Bible.

The Choice Between Two Ways to Operate (TMF:1682)

Tuesday, August 24, 2021
Peace to Live By: The Choice Between Two Ways to Operate (TMF:1682) - Daniel Litton
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       Romans 7:21: “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am!” (Romans 7:21-24, ESV). After accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we then, in becoming a new creation, were implanted with the desire to do what is right. We had a new desire to please God, to follow goodness in our lives. But we get to make the choice on how we will accomplish this goodness, on what route will will take. There are two choices. We must decide daily to operate in this desire with the Spirit of God’s enablement. Living under grace means we are able to carry out what is pleasing to God because we are following the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

The Greater the Legalism, the Greater the Sin (TMF:1681)

Monday, August 23, 2021
Peace to Live By: The Greater the Legalism, the Greater the Sin (TMF:1681) - Daniel Litton
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       You see, the greater the legalism we find then, the greater the sin. I know this may be a shock to some of you; I know; I lived for years believing that following rules was how you made for a better, more Spirit-filled life. All legalism does is hide sin, it doesn’t take it away. It enhances the presentation of people, so that they appear that they are with little to no sin, but in actuality it is the more a person follows the Spirit’s enabling that they more closely align their character with that of Christ. It’s like Jesus said to the Pharisees: ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matthew 23:27-28, ESV).