Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God? Matthew 15:3 (NLT) Jesus challenged the religious status quo. I’m not saying that Jesus rebelled against God. In Matthew 5:17 He said, “I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose”. Jesus fulfilled the law because He never sinned. But He did break all sorts of man-made religious rules. For example, during Jesus’ first miracle, He turned water into wine in water jugs that were reserved for rituals of sacred hand washing (John 2:6). He healed people on the Sabbath. When the law dictated that a woman who had been caught in adultery was to be …

So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. Romans 8:3 (NLT) I hate what religion does to people. I also hate what it does to churches. I spoke to one woman who told me that she and her children were removed from their church. Her husband had left her, and because the church felt that divorce was wrong, she was asked to leave. You can’t find examples of Jesus rejecting people for their sin. When He was speaking on a mountainside, people didn’t have to pass a …

For God so loved the world… John 3:16 (NKJV) When babies are born, they do nothing to earn their families’ love. They keep their parents up at night, mess their pants, spit up and cry. They don’t contribute to the household income, cook, clean or even say thank-you. Babies don’t earn one ounce of love, and yet parents love them so much they would die for them. Parents front load love to their baby, meaning they give love freely before it’s ever earned. They pour their lives into that baby. They help them to learn and grow. When they mess up later in life, parents are often the first to be there for them, loving them through it all. This is also what your Father …