… of many things …

Our pastor wrote a letter recently which I have been reading and praying over at various times. Here’s a part from it about Victorious Faith, a faith that utterly conquers the devil, which has really blessed me:

Let us not be ignorant of Satan’s devices to fall for his subtilty. The gospel where the cross of Christ is only peripheral and not central is no gospel at all. Such a gospel will rob us of our liberty in the Lord, and little by little destroy us. The gospel that the apostles preached is the gospel of Christ and him crucified as apostle Paul declares in I Cor.1:23, 2:2. It is in regard to preaching any other gospel than the gospel of Christ and him crucified that apostle Paul thundered the terrifying warning in Gal.1:8, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”

What is the greatest thing about the cross that makes it the center of all the revelations about God? It is its message of the love of God. “God is love” – I John 4:16. Love is the very nature of God – the essence of God, the heart of God, the motive of everything that God does. And it is the cross that manifests the love of God in all its fullness and perfection (John 3:16, 15:13; Rom.5:8-10). Scriptures in Eph.3:17-19 teach us that we grow in the fullness of God as we comprehend the love of God. We hunger and thirst to be filled with the fullness of God. How and where could we satisfy this hunger and thirst of our souls? Simply by going to the cross and staying there constantly, for there the love of God is revealed in all its fullness and perfection. In practice, our growth in the fullness of God means the growth in the fullness of our faith. How can we grow in faith? Once again the answer consists in simply going to the cross. “Love never faileth” – I Cor.13:8, and “Faith worketh by love” – Gal.5:6. Faith operating by the unfailing love of God completely conquers the devil and makes him of none effect, for the devil gets his power over man only as he causes man to mistrust God.