Obedient Love

"Love is the root: obedience is the fruit" That's a fantastic quote in the picture above on this newsletter - "Love is the root; obedience is the fruit". If you've attended church for a reasonable amount of time at any point in your life, you've probably heard something about the need for us to obey God. Maybe you've even been taught that if you don't obey Him, you might as well prepare yourself now for "hellfire and brimstone". However, when Jesus talks about obedience in the Gospels, it's always in the context of love. In other words, obedience is born out of the loving relationship we have with him, and NOT fear. That doesn't mean that the fear of the Lord has no place in our spiritual journey. It does. But love is the root that leads to obedience. This week at Friendship, we'll discover what it means to truly love God to the point of DESIRING obedience, instead of it being forced on us. We'll also look at where fear of the Lord gets us started and how love takes us from there!