It’s easy to get caught up in Checklist Christianity. What do I mean by that? We make a list of do’s & don’ts:

Do: pray, read the bible, go to church, love people.

Don’t: cuss, gossip, lust.

Is it good to pray? Yep.

Is is bad to gossip? Sure is.

But there is a lot more to it than that. It’s about our heart.

When we reduce Christianity to a checklist we lose the true focus: Jesus. Instead of focusing on what Christ has done for us, Checklist Christianity becomes about us.

A list of do’s and don’ts makes us focus on being good enough to earn our way to God. But the truth of the matter is, we can never do enough good things to earn salvation or make God love us more.

The core of our faith is this: the finished work of Christ. He paid our debt, conquered sin, and set us free.

The amazing thing about the Gospel is that we get to live in freedom from sin & death. It’s not by our own actions, but by Christ’s sacrifice.

We don’t do good things or avoid bad things to be made right with God. Instead, because we have been made right with God, we choose to obey. It’s a heart thing.

Once we grasp the unbelievable love that our heavenly Father has for us, it changes our heart. It makes us desire to follow Him and not follow the world. Jesus is better than anything the world can give us.

Paul explains in Romans 6 that we are to turn from sin because of our transformed heart. Grace doesn’t give us an excuse not to obey, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Romans 6:1-2,6-7 says:

“Should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?”

“We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.”

TK & Taymac did a great job last night of showing the heart with which Mary worshipped Jesus in John 12. She understood who Jesus was, and she wanted to give Him her all. She poured out the very finest perfume she had to wash His feet.

Why? Because she loved Him. Jesus was worthy of Mary’s best, and He’s worthy of ours as well.

God loves you and he desires your heart. When we taste the sweetness of his grace, mercy and love: it changes us.

Watch this video and think about these words today:

turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth with, grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory & grace

-Dan