1John 4:19 says, "We love Christ, because he first loved us." Our Christian maturity is totally dependent on us experiencing the love God has for us which makes us know that; our steps are being ordered by Him. In the Greek concordance love is described as a breath. We must be interacting with the breadth of the Holy Ghost in a symbiotic relationship by a interacting of His spirit and our spirit as we become one.

God is a spirit and our worship with Him must be in spirit and His truth which will give us the assurance of how much He loves us. Now common sense tells me, that a person, who is experiencing the rewards of this kind of affection, would respond with a desire to seek more of this kind of attention.

Acts 28:28 tells us that, "we are the offspring of God." An offspring has all of the characteristics of its parents and we must have a sure understanding how we were united with God when we became born again and God spiritually impregnated us with His genetic sperm.

John 20:19-23 tells us that, the disciples were in hiding after Jesus was crucified on the cross because, they were also afraid of being killed. After Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared to them and showed them His side and hands that were pierced. When the disciples saw that it was the Lord, they were filled with joy and ecstasy. Then Jesus said, "be at peace, just as the Father has sent me, I am sending you." Having said this, He (breathed on them) and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." Now that they had the Holy Spirit living in them; they had the ability to be led by Him. He went on to say, that if they would forgive the sins of anyone, their sins would be forgiven, but if they retained the sins of anyone, they would be retained. By our attitudes, we can keep people in bondage to their burdensome faults by not exampling a spirit of acceptance and forgiveness.

In John 3:3-8, Jesus tells us that a person must be BORN AGAIN, (Born of the spirit.) "The wind breathes where it will, and though you hear its sound, yet you neither know where it comes from nor where it goes. So it is with every one who is born of the Spirit." When Jesus breathed on the disciples, they became born again because they received the Holy Spirit.

Paul tells us in Gal 5:22-23 that, "the fruit of the Spirit is love." If we have received the Holy Spirit, then we have the capacity to experience the love of God and not only respond to it, but we will be able to give it to others. The fruit of the spirit of love is described as, "spirit of release" or like something has been lifted from our soul. In one definition, it's described as something taken by force. It's only by us experiencing the love of God that gives us the ability to love God back with passion and commitment. If we do not sense this relationship in our spirit, it's impossible to grow and mature in Christ.

John 1:29, says that; when Jesus went down to the Jordan River to be baptized by John the Baptist, John saw Jesus coming towards him said, "There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."

Paul the Apostle in his second letter to the Corinthian church tells them what happened to them when they became born again by the Spirit of God. He says, "We became a new creature. Our old moral and sinful nature has been crucified or been lifted from our soul. We were enslaved and weak willed by our sin or sinful nature to be continually breaking God's laws. Since we now have this new nature and been changed; Jesus Christ has received us into His favor and brought us into agreement with Him self. He has also given us a ministry of reconciliation" We becoming this new creature brought us back into friendship with Christ and we can do the same for others as we allow the Holy Spirit to be the motivator within us of the spirit of reconciliation.

Romans 8:1 says "Now there is no judging of guilt or wrong for those who are in Christ Jesus. Who live not after the dictates of the old sinful nature, but after the dictates of the Spirit" Born again people have a witness from with in that, they have been set free and this weight of our sinful nature has been lifted from their soul. Our newborn again nature must now be encouraged with total love and patient teaching. We are no longer an enemy of God because we have been spiritually impregnated into His family by the blood Jesus shed at the cross and we have become God's children.

There are many Christians today that cannot define their relationship with God as being an enemy verses a child of God. Parents who are healthy don't look at their children as enemies and treat them like one. The way we are to bring people into agreement with God is by our words and deeds and this must be done with a spirit of grace and love. The Holy Ghost motivates this process as we yield to Him and not by our plans of how to do it. An atmosphere of trust and safety must be created in this process because; a person must voluntarily feel free to confess their sin or faults to receive forgiveness for them. This is what (Romans 10:10 & 1John 1:9 states.)

A condemning attitude will not cause a person to want to confess their sin or faults and therefore without confession there cannot be forgiveness. In turn; with out forgiveness, there is no restoration of relationship with God and others. Jesus by His words and deeds laid down His life for us. He restored the world to Himself by not counting up and holding against men their trespasses but canceled them out and gave us His unmerited favor. By His goodness, He became sin for us so that we might be acceptable and in right standing with Him. In turn, now we have become His ambassadors or front-runners and can offer to the world this same goodness, so that they can have their sin forgiven and be put in right standing with God.

Gal 6:1-2 states, "If any person is overtaken in a fault, you who are (spiritual and controlled by the Holy Spirit) should restore and reinstate him, without a sense of superiority. Be gentle and kind keeping an eye on yourself at all times, knowing that you yourselves are going through the same growing pains of conforming to the will of God. Bear each other's burdens and troublesome moral faults and continue to seek God's way of thinking. In this way, whatever may be lacking in your understanding of God's ways may be completed in you."

Since our sinful nature has been wiped out when we become this new creature in Christ as stated in 11Cor. 5:17; we have to now allow God to empower us in our new life. There is a difference between leading people to Christ verses some one becoming descipled and growing up in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to stop making people feel like they never get past being totally saved. Too many still believe that they have the "old nature." I hear repeatedly from people that they feel like their sins have never been totally forgiven. The whole idea that Christ came to earth was to relate to His creation and restore them to wholeness, so that they would not focus on their lack and stay sin conscious and always focused on cleaning up their behavior.

11 Peter 3:14 says, "when Christ comes back to earth, He wants to find us without spot or wrinkle and at peace in serene confidence, free from fears, agitating passions and moral conflicts." When we became born again; Jesus put a white robe of righteousness on us and our sinful nature is not seen by Him any more. What pleasure do we get by picking up our white robe and looking under it, remembering our past failures, short comings and feeling guilty? The real issue is we look at ourselves with judgment, because we have a wrinkled interpretation of scripture. We don't rightly interpret God's word and understand that His total love is without Him putting any conditions on us other us having a hunger and thirsting for His love and acceptance.

Why do we (from the pulpits and among each other) judge our Christian family and allow a spirit of condemnation on them, and we are not even talking about the unsaved by condemning them for their sinful life styles. What we do is frustrate the grace of God. In turn, we condemn and accuse rather than forgive. Our words are not seasoned with salt and grace and we keep saved and unsaved people from experiencing a vibrant love relationship with the Lord. Rather than becoming God's ambassadors, we become judges by making people feel that their sin can not be totally taken away or try to patiently reason with them that they can be set free if; they have made a decision to change and repent. How many times do you have to get saved and be continually rededicating your life to Christ?

Now we talking about people who are looking for freedom from their un godlike life styles and not those who are deliberately living in sinful behavior and know that they are breaking God‘s laws. I am talking about born again children of God who know they are breaking God's precepts. When they live like this; they sin against them self and it bruises their soul and they live in shame and hide from the presence of God their Father. There unclean life style makes it impossible for them to fellowship with the family of God in comfort and acceptance. They live as illegitimate children with surface relationships that have no depth of understanding.

The grace of God not only saves us but it also keeps us from a self-hatred from the person you see in the mirror every morning.

People that have not met Christ have value and people who have been born again and met Christ, now have the power to use their value in the service of Christ. Did Jesus give up His life on the cross for trash! Even when we were in our sinful condition, Jesus died for us. Becoming born again changes us from sinners to saints; saints in progress. We're saints, who must be yielding them self to the Holy Spirit and become nurtured and begin to recognize that they have value in God's sight and ours if; they want to receive it.

You begin to understand why so many in the body of Christ are still children in their understanding of how much God truly loves them. They spend too much time being "sin conscience" focusing on their faults and trying to measure up to get God's favor. Let's start seeing ourselves with this new white robe that God put on us and concentrate on a spirit of worship and thankfulness for what God has already done for us. We must realize that God gave us a free will choice to run to Him for direction and purpose. If we make a willing decision to do this; it will create an expectation for greatness within our self and make life what it was meant to be; a hungering relationship for more of His presence in our life.