A Vision

DEVOTION 2 JOHN A VISION 2 John 3 3 Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, will be with us in truth and love. NIV Even though this is just of a, somewhat standard type, salutation among believers, it holds a great truth. It is noted that John does not simply ask that grace, mercy and peace be upon this chosen lady, but that those three incredible actions of God will be with us all in truth and love. Who would not want his divine influence upon their heart, along with his compassion and have spiritual prosperity? Perhaps people who refuse to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their lives would not care for any of these actions of God in their lives, but those of us who know Christ certainly would take all of these we can get. The grace of God working in us certainly proves to be of greater worth than being influenced by either Satan or our own deceitful hearts. Having his divine influence gives us a direction to travel in righteousness. After all it was by his influence that we saw the truth in the first place and accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior. It is this action of Jesus upon the cross which demonstrated his great mercy or compassion on us for without that action we would still be doomed to die not only once but twice. In additional to these two, if they aren’t enough, we are recipients of his peace. Whether we want to define that as no longer at war with God or having prosperity or an abundance of spiritual growth in our lives, it far exceeds anything this world could ever offer. Why would anyone want to refuse these actions of God in their lives is beyond understanding. And then all of these will be with us in truth and love. He is the truth, and his Agape love, his benevolent love, his love feast upon us drenches us completely. Life would be so empty without God pouring himself out upon us. It is almost beyond reason, yet he is God and we are his creation. In such a small way do we not pour ourselves out for our children who in some sense we have created? We can only truly get a glimpse of his great love for us and in these few words we are given enough clues to have more than then a glimpse, we are given a vision.

Forever

DEVOTION 2 JOHN FOREVER 2 John 1-2 1:1 The elder, To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth — and not I only, but also all who know the truth— 2 because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever: NIV Well considering this letter it to the chosen lady, us men need be concerned with what this has to say, right? Yet, what about this truth and the knowing of it, is there something within that truth we all should pay attention to? If all who know the truth would lead us to believe some do not know the truth. What exactly is this truth? If it is the same truth that we all believe, why are there so many different beliefs, different denominations? If the truth lives in us and is with us forever, then we all should have the same basic faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We all should know that he is the one and only Son of God and came specifically to die on the cross for our sin. We all should know that he not only died but was buried than rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God making intercession for us even now. What else is there about the truth that matters? Oh yes, we not only need to know it, but we need to accept it as the truth. It has been said that the difference between knowing and accepting is but the eighteen inches from our brain to our heart. People say that Jesus is the truth, if fact he said he was the truth, the light and the way, yet Jesus not live within us in the sense of being inside of us as he is at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. But the Spirit dwells with us, and the idea, concept, the truth about Jesus lives within out being. We are inspired by him, by his truth, to live in a manner which is worthy of our calling. It is because of this truth we hold ourselves to a standard of trusting God for all our needs. It is because we know and live within this truth we acknowledge out failures to comply one hundred percent with it, and seek his forgiveness and accept his grace and forgiveness. We are the people of God, we are the people of the light, we are the people of the way, and of the truth. Instead of asking God to help us, we should know he already has. He sent us the truth and it will be with us forever.

Idealizing

DEVOTION 1 JOHN IDEALIZING 1 John 5:21 21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. NIV The last statement in this letter written by John as he was inspired by God has just a simple idea, yet says an awful lot. It would be good to determine just exactly what an idol is if we are to grasp the true meaning here. Within the Greek word for idol, it does expressly mean any heathen god, yet that in itself could mean anything which is worshipped. What is it that we worship or consider worthy our given homage to? Does that correlate with what we place value on? Although value seems to go along with treasure more than with idols, but are we in danger of accepting the ways of the world which certainly are a form of idol worship? We absolutely would never worship any foreign god such as the multiple gods of the Hindu faith. We certainly would not accept Buddha as our god either, or any other of the gods people around the world worship if it is not the one and true God. But what about ideas, ideologies and what about things, do we practice some form of worship of these? Sure we may not gather together and raise our hands to them. We surely would not sing songs of praise and worship to them, but in our own subtle way do we give them a certain place of honor within our heart and mind? Do we value and honor the education of this world over pure and simple faith in God? Do we place value or honor in a degree of ministry or even a Christian education over simple faith in God? Do we worship in some form or another of famous people, movie stars, the beautiful people? Do we worship the physical form, and practice an assortment of methods in order to enhance our physical form, even justifying it by claiming scripture to prove our efforts? What else could we worship? Do we worship nature instead of the one who created it? There are many things we could become so involved with that in some sense we would begin to worship them. Yet God desires that he is the one and only that desires our worship. We should not idolize anyone or anything other than God.

Keeping On

DEVOTION 1 JOHN KEEPING ON 1 John 5:18-20 18 We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. 19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 20 We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true — even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. NIV Well, there it is, if we are born of God will simply will not continue to live a life of sin. If we are born of God we will keep ourselves in the love of God, under his protection and direction for our lives. If this is the case then there is absolutely no cause to fear anything the devil can throw at us. It would seem there are three forces in the world, God, the Devil and ourselves. It appears God allows the Devil to have control over the world, that is all those who are not keeping themselves in the love of God. It would also appear since we have heard what the Son has said and have the understanding of the truth, that all those others have not heard the Son and do not understand the truth, but are being deceived by Satan into believing his lies. God actively pursues all his creation to come to him, but allows them to make their own mind up regarding doing that. He provides the truth, explains how it works, offers it to anyone who wants it, and then gives the Holy Spirit to assist them in their journey with him. On the other hand, the Devil does not provide the truth, but spins lies and deceives people not giving them any choice, but entrapping them, snaring them in his web of untruths, enslaving them in the ways of the world, so they will not be willing to listen to the truth of God. But we know the truth, we have the Son, we have the Spirit and we keep ourselves firming within the love of God so that anything Satan says to us, we see it for want it is, a lie. We are not deceived by him into thinking it is alright to do certain things, that God won’t mind, or that we shouldn’t care if he does. Satan brings temptations in many forms, but all of them are attempts to get is to leave the love of God and follow after his ways. Yes, we will fail at times and we will sin. We will never be able to attain a pure sinless condition as long as we are in these bodies, but we do not live the lifestyle of those who are being deceived by Satan. They refuse to acknowledge the truth of God, and live solely for their own pleasure, at least that is what they may think, but actually they are living for the pleasure of Satan. We desire to please God, they by default are pleasing Satan. Even though we fail to be perfect and still struggle with certain sins, we have not left the truth of God for the lies of Satan. We know when we fail, and we seek his forgiveness, and find it, and go on with our walk with him. We have a relationship with the one true God, we know the truth, we have the Son and we have eternal life. We need to keep on keeping on.

Responsibility

DEVOTION 1 JOHN RESPONSIBILITY 1 John 5:16-17 16 If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. NIV A passage which so many have offered so much and yet have decided nothing for sure because of the great debate of the meaning of unto death and not unto death. Yet within this great debate there seems to be a lack of comments regarding our responsibility to one another. Although mentioned it is not the main focus of the discussion. This may be just as important then all the rest. Sure we could try to determine which sin leads to death and which doesn’t, but would that not only be looking for ways to offend God and not die? Would that not only lead to putting some value or level on one sin over another? Surely within the civil law, murder may lead to the death penalty, but hatred goes unpunished, yet to God hatred is an awful offense because if we hate our brothers, we do not love God. This type of conversation could go on indefinitely and we might never get to the root of it. If we focus on the fact that all sin is wrongdoing, we could agree living in a manner which offends God as a lifestyle would certainly led to death, both the physical and the spiritual, the second death, of a person. Refusing to accept his Son as Lord and Savior would lead to death without question. Now once we have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives, we still fail to live one hundred percent without any sin, we still fail God, we still do things which we should not do or don’t do things we should do, but we are aware and we seek forgiveness and are forgiven and live. Now we have to ask, what about this responsibility to one another that is spoken of here? If anyone sees his brother commit a sin than what should we do? Is God saying that we should not pray for those who live a lifestyle of sin, refusing to accept Jesus Christ? Is he saying that our prayers for those unbelievers who are doomed to death are worthless? We already know that God desires none should perish and all should come to salvation. We already know that he has sent the Holy Spirit to convict all men of their sin and need for repentance. Would this mean that if the power of God is already at work in the life of every unbeliever, and they have ignored or refused his power at work in them, why would any prayer of ours matter? But as far as our brothers in Christ who are failing in some area of their walk with him, we should pray that God would forgive them. This certainly would prohibit us from judging them and having a sense of superiority. Who knows, they could and should be praying for us for the failure in our lives in our walk with God. This is the common bond that should exist among the body of Christ, reciprocal prayer or intercession. Now we should not go around looking and seeking to find every offense in our brother, but if we become aware of a failure, than we should pray for them. This is our responsibility.

Keep Asking

DEVOTION 1 JOHN KEEP ASKING 1 John 5:13-15 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him. NIV So what is so difficult about this? Simply ask and receive right? Well ask according to will and receive, right? Actually ask for whatever we want, as long as it is according to his will, and receive, right? So how hard can that be? Seems pretty simply doesn’t it? So why don’t we ask for more things? Why do we live without asking? Is it because we are not sure what we want is within his will? Or maybe we want stuff that is not within his will and so why bother asking. We know he said that he would supply all our needs according to his riches in Glory, but then needs may be different than wants. But if we are believers and followers of Christ should not our wants be to bring Glory and Honor to God? Could there be a big difference between our needs and our wants? Shouldn’t our needs be our wants? Maybe the trouble all starts when we get all catch up in wanting all the stuff of the world, when we get distracted from his will and pay attention to our own will instead. I know from personal experience that he has given me way more than enough of this world’s goods than I could ever deserve. If we are believers we need to remain focused on his will, doing that which he has called us to do. If we really what to get what we ask for, we need to know what his will is. The way to know his will is to understand his Word and to listen to the Spirit. True, there are other voices that speak to our mind. Voices from the evil side, the dark side, our own voice, but there is the still small voice of God who continues to talk and walk with us in the cool of the day, so to speak. There is just so much within the will of God that we need, but do we ask? Maybe we don’t have the confidence in him that we should. Maybe we have asked, thinking what we asked for was according to his will, and did not receive so we have given up asking. But was it according to his will? Again, we need to make sure it is according to his will and who better to ask if it is or not than God. Sometimes we just don’t know, but why not ask anyway. If it is, get ready to receive, if it isn’t then no big deal, we really did not need it anyway. But keep asking; sooner or later we are going to get it right. Just don’t get frustrated, keep asking.

God's Testimony

DEVOTION 1 JOHN GOD’S TESTIMONY 1 John 5:6-12 6 This is the one who came by water and blood — Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9 We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. 10 Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. NIV Let us first deal with just a portion of this if we can, the water, the blood and the Spirit. It is said that the children of Israel were baptized into Moses through the sea, water. It also is said they were baptized into Aaron because he sprinkled them with blood. Both of them were types of Christ, but here we have the Christ who was baptized by John and Testified to by the Father as the Spirit descended upon him and shed his blood on the cross for our sins. All three testify that he is the Christ the one who was to come, and came. Now we have the full record or the events which show us he is the Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the one and only way enter the Kingdom of God. Is there any other belief which has all this? They are just beliefs devised by some man to establish some form of control over those who would follow him. God has said that the truth would make us free, because Jesus has set of free and we are free indeed. Those other false teachers cannot say that, they cannot set their followers free, but only entrap them more. Jesus Christ has been testified to by water, blood and the Spirit. He is the truth, the light and the way, no man comes to the Father except through him. Yes it is true that man testify about Jesus, but if that were the only testimony would not our faith be like all those others? But we have more than man’s testimony, we have God’s. The reason people argue with our faith, is because they do not have the Spirit to testify to their hearts. They refuse to accept the testimony of God and believe only some testimony of men regarding other beliefs. They do not believe God, and thus do not have his son, and therefore will not see the Kingdom of God, nor will they inherit eternal life, for they will perish, as all those did in the flood. Why would anyone refuse to listen to the testimony of God about his Son? Why would they choose to perish instead of having eternal life? Is their life of self-indulgence that important to them? God does say that some men love the darkness because his light exposes them for who and what they really are, lost sinners, living in disobedience to his Word, destined to perish unless they accept his testimony about his Son. We should be sad for them, but glad for us at the same time. We have the Son, and we have life everlasting. We have God’s testimony.

Be an Overcomer

DEVOTION 1 JOHN BE AN OVERCOMER 1 John 5:1-5 5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. NIV So much here, about loving God, loving Jesus, obeying his commands, and overcoming the world, that it would seem, it is more than one devotion can handle. But since we have been already dealing with loving God and loving Jesus maybe we should focus on obeying his commands and thus overcoming the world. Would this mean that if we did not obey his commands we would no overcome the world? Or would this be as simple as saying because we are born of God we have overcome the world. That is to say that through the act of accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, being born again, is in fact overcoming the world. It has nothing to do with how successful we are at being perfect human beings, living completely free of all sin for the remainder of our life, but rather it has everything to do with being born again of God. There is a choice that each one of us must make at some point in our life. The choice to overcome the ways of the world and reject the sinful concepts of the mankind and accept the holy concepts of God is the only way we can be among those who are born of God. We must choose to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and in doing so we then overcome the world which rejects Jesus as the Son of God. It is an either or, no middle ground situation. We are either overcomers or we are not. We are born again or not. This is not an evolution of faith; it is a moment of decision. Believe or don’t believe, choose you this day who you will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. That is the only way to overcome the world. We cannot do it on our own ability, our own strength, or determination, for we are weak and unable to live free of all sin. We cannot stand before God and declare to him that we are righteous and that we overcame the world because of our great efforts and that we are therefore perfect enough to stand on our own merits. We can only stand before him because of Jesus, period. Overcoming is the choice to accept Jesus.

Loving God

DEVOTION 1 JOHN LOVING GOD 1 John 4:19-21 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. NIV We are still getting talked to about loving each other, but this time it is even more pointed. Here we are being told that if we have any ill feelings, which are labeled hate, toward anyone else in the body of Christ we simply do not love God. Once again we might attempt to justify ourselves by thinking we actually do not hate anyone in the body of Christ, or even outside the church, that we only dislike them or have a difficult time liking them because they are just so arrogant, or self-centered, or whatever. We put the blame for not loving them on their personality or certain behaviors rather than coming to terms with the simple fact we are being disobedient to God by not loving them, as well as we are being lairs when we tell people we love God. Wow, that is calling a spade, a spade, isn’t it? But is that the truth spoken of here? If we go around telling people we love God and then act in a manner which does not reflect that, we are lying to them, but even worse, we are lying to ourselves. If we do not behave in a loving manner toward all other believers, then we cannot actually love God. Then is no middle ground here either. We simply cannot hate them, we have to love them. We cannot be indifferent to them or ignore them for that would not love toward them. We cannot justify ourselves by saying, “Well they do not love me so I do not have to love them”. It is a without question a love triangle of the best kind. We love God therefore we love them, and we love them therefore we love God, and they love us because they love God, and they love God therefore they love us. Now that is an ideal situation which seems to have some sort of inherent problem, which would be us. Somehow we fail, we fall way too short in the part about loving each other and that would imply we fail in loving God. Acknowledging the truth is one step closer to loving God and thus loving each other. Is this something we need to repent of? Any ill feelings at all need to be laid at the feet of Jesus, seeking forgiveness and asking for the Spirit to inspire our love for all the saints, as we can then truly love God.

No Fear

DEVOTION 1 JOHN NO FEAR 1 John 4:16-18 God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. NIV If we are afraid that God might punish us for doing something wrong, then we simply do not understand the love of God for we can see here that in perfect love there is no fear. Whenever that Day of Judgment happens because of the love of God for us we can stand with confidence before him. It might be that on the earth we could not say that about our earthly fathers, or in fact our children might not be able to say that about us, but that is not the case with God. Here there might always be that doubt as a child stands before their father as to whether they are going to be punished or not. In fact many parents think it is their duty to punish their children for wrong doing as a form of discipline in order to teach them not to do that again. What if God did that to us? What if he punished us every time we failed to be perfect in his sight? What if he punished us each and every time we did not get it right and made a mistake? What a horrible way to live, in fear of consistently being punished because we are not perfect. But his love is perfect and therefore we need not fear punishment. Maybe we should try to take a lesson from that with our children. Can we exhibit perfect love? Maybe we should exhibit that we each other. That would require not having any hateful attitudes, or at least we could not feel hurt and store away that experience for a time to use later on, keeping a record of the others wrong. Maybe we would have to overlook every offense, as God does especially on the Day of Judgment. But do we convene our own day of judging over and over again? Do we harbor any ill feelings about another, holding them at arms distant as a form of punishment for the way they behaved toward us at some time? Is that perfect love? Aren’t we supposed to be like him? Should we love each other so much that we have no fear of each other, knowing that we all love one another and thus overlook each other’s faults? We simply should be able to live without fear of God or of each other. No fear!

DEVOTION 1 JOHN LIVING IN THE TRUTH 1 John 4:13-16 13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. NIV This is another one of those firsthand accounts of someone having actually seen Jesus and testifying that Jesus was sent from the Father to be our Savior. Do we what any more proof? Well we have it, because he has given us the Spirit. It is the Spirit who comes to us and introduces the truth into our beings in the first place. We could, like so many in the world, hear the truth and refuse it, but once the Spirit convicts us of our false thinking and opens our minds and hearts to the truth, than we know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that he died for our sins, and is the one and only way to restore a very broken relationship with God. It is sad how some people even refuse to pay attention to the Spirit and refuse to listen, refuse to accept the truth about Jesus Christ. But praise God we did pay attention, we felt the Spirit speaking to our hearts and we understand what needed to be done. We knew we had to confess to God that we were living as a sinner, as disobedient children. We knew we had to ask him to forgive us and accept his provision for being restored to our rightful place. We also know now that we have to continue to rely in Jesus for our salvation, that we will never attain such a perfect state that we could be in the presence of God without Jesus standing next to us. We know we have to rely on the love of God each and every day of our lives for without it we would be lost forever. It is a wonderful feeling knowing that God lives in us and that we live in God, all because of Jesus. How great life is, knowing that God loves us so much, and that he provides our every need, and that he will be with us forever. True we could turn our back and walk away, but how foolish that would be, no how stupid that would be. Even though God loves people so much he does only calls then foolish for not accepting him, it might be more actuate to call them stupid, dumb and darn right wrong. But nevertheless we know the truth and have the truth and live in the truth and the truth lives in us.

Complete

DEVOTION 1 JOHN COMPETE 1 John 4:7-12 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. NIV One again this gives us a lot to think about, to ponder on, even though we are getting it over again about this loving one another. Coming back to what kind of attitude we have about one another, whether we actually can say that we love you, and mean it deep down within, because we desire more for the other person than for ourselves. God desires more for us, he desires the best for us, eternal life. God desires that we have the very best, that is why he sent his son to die for us, that we might live rather than die. Should we not desire the very best for our fellow believers? Is that not the perfect expression of love? If we have any kind of negative attitude about any other believer than we have to admit that we are not loving them, and isn’t that sin? If we were to use the description of what love is from the letter to the Corinthians than we need to really examine our attitudes to see if we are lining up with how God desires we love each other. Are we patient with each other? Are we always kind to each other? Do we ever envy each other? Are we boastful, always talking about our own exploits, our own plans, our own life, and never listening to the others? Do we consider ourselves any better than any other, being a better Christian than the other? Or do we think of ourselves as more intelligent, that we know more about scripture, or that we have a bigger house, better car? This could apply if we have an attitude about what others have, a smaller house, an older car, not so nice clothes, less money, whatever, are we being prideful? Have we ever ignored another believer? Isn’t that being rude? Have we ever thought about our own needs before thinking about their needs? Isn’t that self-seeking? Have we ever had an attitude of being upset, hurt, or actually angry because of something another has said or done? And oh yes, we sure have never kept any kind of record of what someone has done wrong. We just keep it buried deep down so we might bring it up later when it serves our own purpose. Is that love? Do we ever get an attitude of superiority when we see another fail, falling short, actually sinning, because we think we do not sin anymore? Is that not delighting in evil, rather than rejoicing in the truth? Do we always have an attitude of protecting others, always trusting them, always hoping for the best in them, and having an attitude of preserving our love for them, no matter what? A lot to ponder on, to consider, to apply to our lives. How else could our love be complete?

Who Do You Glorify?

DEVOTION 1 JOHN WHO DO YOU GLORIFY? 1 John 4:4-6 4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. NIV Have we gotten the point yet? Or does God have to keep driving it home over and over again? Those voices out there all claiming to have the truth may well be voices of the world. We have to discern which have it and which don’t. We know for sure there are many out there proclaiming mankind’s achievements and the power of the human spirit. There are those who declare the power of the collective, that together we can attain greatness. There are voices proclaiming the power of positive thought, and that if through correct speech to ourselves we can become whatever we desire to be. There are voices seeking for us to believe in them and place them in authority over the governing of our lives, and they will take care of us, they will supply all our needs. All those voices are easy to discern as from the world and we know we should not listen to them, for we have a greater truth to guide our lives by. But the greater danger that we must overcome is those wolves in sheep clothing. We need not listen to those voices of partial truth and partial lie. Yet both of those voices are corrupted by self-gratification, self-aggrandizement, self-serving motives. We also can tell exactly who those voices belong to because they refuse to listen to the truth we share with them. They insist we are fools and simple minded, putting our faith in words written by men, yet they desire we put out trust in their words, the words of but mortal men, who do not have the inspiration of the Spirit. When we actually hear the truth spoken we know it is the truth because we have that same truth within us. But when we hear words spoken from the viewpoint of human kind, we see it for what it is for we have overcome the words of the world. We do not need to be entangled in all the human plans and efforts to save the planet. We do not need to be entrapped by all the plans to solve all the aliments of mankind, such as hunger, poverty and the lack of a proper education, or indoctrination of human ideas and ideals. We simply have to live by the truth of God. Does that include some of the same things? It surely may, but not as human plans and efforts, but rather as the people of God, so that in everything he receives all the glory. The world glorifies man, believers glorify God.

True or False

DEVOTION 1 JOHN TRUE OR FALSE 1 John 4:1-3 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. NIV How many believers have been hooked into listening to every electronic preacher or are drawn to their teaching by the charismatic presentation of their message. Should not we be testing every word against the truth of God instead of being so accepting of their words? Sure many of them profess Jesus Christ as the Son of God and that salvation is only through him. Yes it is true many of them may have good things to say and have insights into the truth of God. The question which drives the question as to their motives has to be answered. Testing the spirit of every preacher is a most if we are going to stand fast in the truth of God. He has given us the Spirit who has brought gifts, one being of discernment. We can discernment those who teach and preach other than the truth. It may not be as clear as simple saying their believe Jesus came in the flesh from God. That is easy to say, but then teach falsely for self-gratification, motives that are driving by personal gain, rather than a gain for the Kingdom of God. Many may use his name, but do not belong to him. We must test, and after testing, trust the test. It is not difficult with the Spirit to know who is and who isn’t within the truth. Yet, deception is one of the great attempts by the evil one and we must be very vigilant to that scheme, allowing the Spirit to show us those falsehoods. Many antichrists have already been here, but there are many here now and it would make sense many more are on the way. The devil will never give up trying to deceive the believers. He will never stop rising up more false teachers to led believers astray. He will give them great powers of persuasion, good speaking voices, nice looks, great smiles, and words as smooth as silk, but it will be nothing more than flaming arrows in an effort to destroy the very fabric of our faith. Not only should we be on guard against such efforts, we should be actively engaged in testing everything we hear. Test the spirit of man; test it with the Spirit of God. This is not a multiply choice test either; it is a true or false answer.

Love One Another

DEVOTION 1 JOHN LOVE ONE ANOTHER 1 John 3:21-24 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. NIV Why would our hearts condemn us? Surely it would because we know the truth and do not live by it. But because we know the truth and have accepted that truth and obeyed his commands and have done what pleases him, which is of course accepting his provision for our salvation. We have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we have believed in the name of Jesus Christ, but the only catch is thing loving one another as he commanded us to. Maybe that might cause our hearts to condemn us, and maybe that is why we do not have the confidence before God to receive anything we ask for. Maybe we know deep down there are fellow believers we really do not love as God desires us to. If this is so, if we know what God desires and we know we should love that certain one or ones who we just are having such a problem loving, is that rebellion against God? Shouldn’t we just give in, get over ourselves and simply love them? Maybe we even need to go and ask them to forgive us for having hard feeling toward them. Maybe we need that kind of healing in our relationship with them. Sure there are people who have personalities that simply rub us the wrong way, but isn’t that because we are too concerned about us rather than pleasing God by loving them anyway? Because we know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior he has sent us the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, to guide us, to lead us into all truths. Does not the Spirit reveal to our hearts the truth about loving each other? Could this refusal to love every single other believer be a reason some of us live a crippled life, not receiving what we ask for? What if we talk about them behind their backs, even in private with one of our most trusted believing friends, is that loving them? It appears there is but only one way to respond to the truth of God, we must Love one another.

Truth and Love

DEVOTION 1 JOHN TRUTH AND LOVE 1 John 3:16-20 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. NIV Should we all go around dying for each other? If so there would not be any of us left, so this has to mean to put others before our self so to speak. If we say we love each other than we need to see how selfish we are when it comes to all the stuff we have and especially our time. But here we are looking more closely at all the material goods we have and not being willing to just give it away to someone who is in need. It sure is easy enough to tell them, “I will pray for you brother” and then maybe not even do that. It is far better if all we intend to do is pray for them, that we do it right then and there in their presence, even laying hands on them during our prayer. But it cannot be just words according to this statement by God. We have to be not only willing to give some stuff up, but actually do it, helping the brother in need in a real and tangible way. Sometimes is it easy enough to simply hand over the cash, at least a quantity that is not going to put any stress on our own financial situation, yet giving up something tangible, something we bought because we liked it, and we have a certain sense of value about it, that might be a bit harder. Could this be a part of laying down our own life? Could this be putting aside self for others? It would seem we need to just give, not lend our stuff, our money, and do it in such a manner, with love, so that our dear brother or sister does not feel embarrassed or ashamed of their need, or feel guilty for having a need. Now it may be easy for us to judge them , thinking their need is due to their own bad choices, and so we have no responsibility to have pity on them, but maybe we could teach them by pointing out their bad choices in hopes they can credit their thinking. It sure is a good thing Jesus did not spent time telling us about all our bad choices, but simply laid down his life for us. Yes he taught us the truth, but he did not require us to make all the corrections so we could be perfect, he still laid down his life for us, He loves us, and the truth is we should love each other.

Heart Checkup

DEVOTION 1 JOHN HEART CHECKUP 1 John 3:11-15 11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. NIV Alright then, maybe there are some murders in the church. It would seem most believers take pride in not committing any of the crimes delineated in the Ten Commandments, especially the one that says, “Thou shall not commit murder” but what about this hating a brother? Although the main meaning of this word hate is in fact to detest, it is by extension also to mean to love less. Are there those within the body of Christ that we love less, or perhaps have some sort of non-loving attitude towards? Do we have a tendency to judge others by their appearance, maybe they are not as good looking as we are, and maybe they are way too better looking than we are. Maybe they may be too heavy or we are heavy and they are too thin. Perhaps they are not dress really well or they are dressed really well, and we are jealous. Or they have a bad hair do, look poorer, or richer than us, or maybe seem to be in the “in” more than us? Maybe we feel a little inferior or, God forbid, a little superior then others. Whatever the reason is there some who we love less or maybe even have a certain amount of detest for, if we are truthful with ourselves? Is that then not murder? How can we say we are Christians and love God and have any feeling but the deepest love for all of our fellow believers? Even though this Greek word for love is not the same as the one used to outline the behaviors associated with love in 1st Corinthians, it still means to love in a social or moral sense. This would still imply that we cannot have any other feelings toward our fellow believers other than loving them. So are there murders among us? Are we committing murder? This is a hard question which needs an answer. It not only needs and answer it requires an adjustment of our attitude and thus our behavior. Should we not be greeting each other with a holy kiss or at least a holy hug? Does that not mean everyone, no exceptions? Do we need a checkup from the neck up, or better yet a checkup of our heart? Do we need a heart checkup?

Doing

DEVOTION 1 JOHN DOING 1 John 3:7-10 7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. NIV So what is right? How do we know we are children of God? Because we already did what was right. The only right thing to do is to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. It is certain that if we had not done that right thing we would still be children of the devil. Now can we continue to do right? Yes, of course, and we can continue to live our lives pleasing to God, which of course is giving him honor and praise, bringing glory to him and trusting him completely for our life. Do our good deeds or deeds of righteousness count as well? Most likely we could say that as we serve him, or how we serve him, by doing what we have been called to do is part of doing what is right. There should not be one believer who does not have something to do in the service of the Kingdom of God. Not a single person who has accepted Jesus Christ can simply be a bump on a log, sitting and soaking, not ever doing something. It is possible we could say that if we are not serving in some capacity we are being disobedient and therefor sinning. That would even qualify as keep on sinning as long as we continued to do anything for the Kingdom. We have all been called to be living stones being built into the temple of God; we have been called members of one body each having a part to do. If the foot refuses to do its part, we would either fall down or have a severely bad limp. If the eyes, well we get the picture, we all must be about doing what is right, if not we might not be born of God, but rather of the devil. Are some just pretending to do what is right, but in reality are not? It may not be possible, if fact it is not, to live a life completely free of sin, but we can certainly turn our backs on purposefully doing what is wrong, which includes not doing anything for the Kingdom. We cannot allow anyone to lead us astray into believing we are alright if we just listen to them. We all must be about our Fathers business, that is truly being born of God, we are his children and we pay attention to his commands, his teaching, his correcting, his discipline, and we love him, and that means we love everyone else, because he so loved the whole of mankind that he sent Jesus to die for all of them, not just us. So doing what is right is a lot of doing, not just being. It is not about us just be concerned about not making a mistake, not committing a sin, being perfect, because if we think that, we have been led astray. It is really all about “doing” the right thing.

The question

DEVOTION 1 JOHN THE QUESTION 1 John 3:4-6 4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. NIV IS there any question that if you break one itsy bitsy point of the law we have broken the whole of the law? Is there also any question that there has never been nor will there ever be a human being that is capable of keeping every bit of the whole in all perfection? That is the express purpose for God sending his Son to die on the cross for us, to take away our sins. Now we do have to come to terms with this keep in sinning thing which is discussed here for our benefit as a child of God. Surely when we come to God through Jesus Christ, accepting what he did for us on the cross, that God reconciled himself with us, that he forgave our sins, and wiped them away, we change the pattern of our life. We stopped living in a manner of total self-indulgence, self-absorption and in ignorance of what God desires for our lives. We begin a journey discovering his plan for our lives. Sure at first we are going to make mistakes, maybe a lot of them, maybe even falling back into old patterns, but as we continue on this journey with him we gain more and more insight, especially after experiencing the infilling of the Holy Spirit as those disciples did on the day of Pentecost. We begin to understand more and gain more power over the temptation to sin, but that does not mean we are completely free from sin. It is a fact that we no longer continue to live a sinful life, but if we ever did reach perfection, with the total lack of any sin in our lives, than Jesus would not have had to die on that cross. Even though we should not make excuses because we are human, we are human; we are not divine like him who has no sin. That is why we must remain in him. Yes, we have turned from our old ways of living, yes we have turned toward God and we seek his truth and desire to live pleasing him. Yes we try our utmost to find out what pleases him, and do our level best to accomplish everything he desires for us, utilizing that power he have given us in the Holy Spirit. But unfortunately we still fall short at times and make some mistakes, getting trapped by our own desires. We say or do something which is not pleasing to him. We might judge or gossip, or respond inappropriately, or we might, we might think we are better than another for a moment, or think we can plan for the security of our own future. There is a whole host of attitudes and behaviors that we might allow to creep into our lives, but still we are determined to live in a manner that is pleasing to him. We have not turned our back on him and simple returned to the old pattern of sinning. It is a fine line, to see the truth in this teaching. The question we have to ask ourselves, is have we gained any progress in being more like him, than like our old self? Do we spend more time thinking about God than about ourselves? We need to ask that question.

Children of God

DEVOTION 1JOHN CHILDREN OF GOD 1 John 3:1-3 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. NIV We are children of God. How great is that? Surely there are people in the world that have absolutely no idea what that means. In fact, they cannot understand our faith, or our lifestyle. Sure they see us, and wonder how we could be so gullible to believe that mumbo jumbo stuff. Maybe some of them believe they are Christians simply because they were born in America and they have some concept God exists, but really have no clue what being a child of God means. Some simply refuse at accept the fact God exists and so how could they know us either? But we know what it means and that we are included in the inheritance he has for his children. Now exactly what that is, and what we are going to look like and be like when we receive it, when we step into eternity, we really are not sure, because God has not fully disclosed all of it to us yet. That is to a certain point what faith is all about. When we think what it is going to be like, to be like him, to be like Jesus, what a glorious though it is. That is truly when we will shed this body, shed the imperfection of this shell and become perfect without any sin at all, a completely pure being. Yes we are in the process of becoming a pure being, by being in Christ. We cannot even come close to purity unless we are in Christ. In fact, it is Christ who makes us pure, that is how we purify ourselves by the hope in Christ for our salvation. As children of God we are seen by him through the blood of Jesus and he sees us as pure, innocent of sin. Of course we should not continue to live as those who are not children of God. Of course we should make every effort to keep from sinning, from living a lifestyle of sin. Yes, we should try with all our strength and determination to resist temptations. But it is our hope in Christ, not our ability to be perfect and without any sin, which makes us pure. This is a wonderful truth, for if it was up to us, we could not qualify to be called children of God. If it was up to our efforts to justify, sanctify and purify our beings, we would be in great distress, for we cannot do it. But our hope is in Christ, in him we are all of that and more. It is a little difficult to understand just how it works considering we still struggle with some sin in our life, but it is the truth and that will set us free from the bondage of a life of complete sin, a life that leads to death. We are the children of God.

What is Right

DEVOTION 1 JOHN WHAT IS RIGHT 1 John 2:28-29 28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him. NIV Why would someone not continue in him? Why would someone who has seen the truth, experienced the truth, lived within the truth not continue to do so? How could anyone walk away, leave, or simply stray away from him? We know from before there are a whole lot of false teachers, wolves in sheep’s clothing, trying desperately to decimate the flock. There are trying with their silver tongues to deceive people and draw them unto themselves for their own agenda, their own personal gain, using portions of the truth simply to seem upright and just. But we who believe need to be aware of them and remain steadfast in him, in the truth, in the way, in the light. If for some reason we get distracted either with false teachings, or with some other form of unrighteousness will we be ashamed at his coming? That would be a very uncomfortable situation and we need not be concerned about it, if we remain, if we continue in him. We can be confident of our inheritance, of our place within the Kingdom of God because we are doing what is right, we are continuing in him. That is what is right, that is what makes us born again. It is not by our doing deeds of rightness, by our following all the rules and regulations of man or even by our living a sin free life, which of course if not possible, that makes us born again. It is by our accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior which qualifies us as being born of him. That is the only way that we can really do what is right. Sure we need to repent and attempt with all our abilities to resist temptations, to turn from them and keep our eyes on Jesus, but we will fail, we will not be able to sustain day after day, month after month, year after year of never ever falling short of the mark. If we think we can, or are, we are deceiving ourselves and calling God a liar. But we can remain in him, we can continue to believe in him, and look to him for our strength and for the forgiveness of sin. We can stand fast in our faith that Jesus Christ is our Savior. We can stay in the truth and not get distracted by the world or those false teachers. This is what is right.

Not led Astray

DEVOTION 1 JOHN NOT LED ASTRAY 1 John 2:24-27 24 See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is what he promised us — even eternal life. 26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit — just as it has taught you, remain in him. NIV It is imperative that we do not allow anyone or anything distract us from the truth of God. There was no question men were teaching lies about the message when God inspired John to write this letter. But it is also true people today are doing much the same. Why do we have so many beliefs systems in the world, can every one of them be the truth? The answer is of course not, but what about all the different denominations within what is consider Christianity? Can all of them be right, teaching all the truth of God? Why do some ignore portions of the Scripture? Why do some say some things were only for the apostles and not us? Why do some add requirements up and above Jesus for salvation? The variables are endless. It would seem that all each individual needs to know the truth is the anointing of the Holy Spirit. But why then do so many who espouse to know the truth teach other than the truth? It would also seem true that we really do not need anyone to teach us anything, yet that is not completely true either for God has given the church the gift of Pastor and teacher. It really does come down to us being able to listen intently to the voice of God and follow according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. There are false teachers, false doctrines, false rules and regulations which serve another purpose than the Kingdom of God. But just as it may not be easy to detect a really good counterfeit twenty dollar bill, it may be just as difficult to flush out the counterfeit teachers, doctrines, rule and regulations if we try to do it without the anointing of Holy Spirit. But we do have the Spirit and we can flush all of the counterfeiters out and see them for who they are. We have the truth of God and we will not be led astray.

The Anointing

DEVOTION 1 JOHN THE ANOINTING 1 John 2:20-23 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist — he denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. NIV The Anointing of the Holy One is an all-powerful experience in the life of a believer. This anointing enables us to not only know the truth, but to have an understanding of it as well as having the power to live it. Although some people may want to discredit the Word of God, the Bible as simply a book written by men that contradicts itself, we know different. We know that every word in the Bible is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, correcting and rebuking. We know because we have the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth. Those who are still unbelievers or who have been deceived by Satan into not believing in Jesus as the Christ are nothing more than liars. They do not have the truth in them, and we should not ever be influenced by their eloquent and persuasive arguments. There are those who claim to know the truth but refuse to accept that Jesus is not only the Christ, but that he is not God. Thomas was one of the first ones to get it right when he said, “My Lord and my God”. The schemes of the devil are so sly that it could be possible to get distracted from the truth and start to think maybe those people have some valid points. But we should not be moved from the truth, which has been revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. All faiths or belief systems which deny that Jesus is the Christ are not only lies, but they are, by the very Word of God, antichrists. We must stand fast in the truth we have been given, and stand up, speak up, declaring it as the one any only truth. We might get shunned from some social events, or not liked, or even hated, but are we to compromise the truth just to be friends with un-believers in hopes of them learning the truth? What does righteousness have on common with unrighteousness? What fellowship can light have with darkness? What do we have in common with them? What agreement can there be between God and idols? Yes, we need to declare the truth to them, but never accept their declaration of the lies. They even twist the truth, using it to substantiate their lies, but with the leading of the Spirit and his gift of discernment, we can hear the lie within the twist, for we have the Anointing.

Stand Fast

DEVOTION 1 JOHN STAND FAST 1 John 2:18-19 18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. NIV Although it is true we are still waiting for the antichrist who will set himself up as a god, which will happen in what is referred by God, through John in the writing of revelation as the tribulation, it would appear there was and is a series of antichrists who have lived and may yet live before this final one. But what is this last hour? Has this past two thousand years been the last hour? We know with God time has a whole different set of rules, so what really matters is that there are and will be antichrists which we need to be aware of. As we will see in the next statement they are people who refuse to accept Jesus as the Christ. This is once again a group of people who are filled with false teachings. But in a sense are not all unbelievers’ antichrists? If they teach the strength and power of humanity and have no need to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, in fact refuse to acknowledge Him as such, are they not an antichrist? Yet does this speak of people who once pretended to by believers but then left and started some other belief system? Over the year could Buddha, Mohammad, Joseph Smith, St Cyril, Charles Taze Russell and others who have formed all sorts of belief systems other than the true Gospel message, be antichrists? Could those we know as wolves in sheep clothing spreading their “name it and claim” or their “prosperity” message, gathering so many followers to themselves be antichrists? They may well teach Jesus is the Christ, but because of their pollution of the rest of the message, does that simply make them false teachers, or could they be antichrists as well? One thing is for sure, we have to remain in the Word, the truth, and depend on the gift of discernment from the Holy Spirit to know this antichrists when we see them and to stay clear, keeping ourselves pure and holy acceptable to God, through faith in Jesus as the Christ, as our Lord and Savior. We cannot allow deceptive words of silver tongue antichrists to sway our thinking from the truth. No matter how great it may sound, no matter how right it might appear, if it is not the truth, the Spirit will give us insight to see what is wrong with their message. We need but to stand fast in the truth.

Make a Choice

DEVOTION 1 JOHN MAKE A CHOICE 1 John 2:15-17 15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. NIV How can it be said any other way, but do not love the world or anything in the world? What does this mean to love the world and the things in it? Are they things in this world that we take pleasure in, prize above all else, and are we unwilling to abandon or do without it? That seems to be the sense of this word love as used here. Do we crave for certain creature comforts? Do we have to have a new this or that; we simply cannot do without having the latest version of whatever it is? Do we get great pleasure out of just window shopping, gazing upon all the things we would like to have? Does obtaining a new thing make us feel better about ourselves and we cannot want to show it off? Do we employ all our time and energy to accrue finer things? Are we always looking and longing for the time when we can buy something newer and better than what we already have? Do we take pride in our worldly accomplishments and make sure others know how much we have done. God has told us to be in the world but not to be of it, not to participate in way the people of the world behave. We serve a higher power and must always place Him first in our lives. Yes, as the husband we must love and wives, be willing to lay our life down for her, and as wives, we must be honor and respect our husbands, be willing to set aside our own desires for his. Yes, all the relationships and all the behaviors commanded by God, we need to do, but that is, in fact, putting Him first. But when we start spending our time and energy in the accumulation of things for our own enjoyment and pleasure we might well be in danger of setting God in second place. Can we have nice things? Absolutely, without question, but we must give God all the credit for what we have and what we do. Without Him we can do nothing that is worthwhile, or have anything that matters. If we serve Him with all our heart, our mind, our soul, and our strength then He will bless us beyond our wildest dreams. He will provide all our needs, whether they are spiritual, mental, emotional, or material. Did He not say that life is more than all these things? Did He not say that He would take care of us, that we are so valuable to Him? Did He not say that what we place value on is where our heart is also? Stuff is just stuff, but God is God. Which can give us the greater joy? If we can actually acknowledge all the stuff we have and what we do is a result of the hand of God, if we can give it all up, leave it behind, or give it away, then we can pass this test spoken of here and say we do not love the world or anything in it, that we love God. So who do we love? We must make the choice.

Living For God

DEVOTION 1 JOHN LIVING FOR GOD 1 John 2:12-14 12 I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. 13 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father. 14 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. NIV Does it matter at the point the need to describe or discover the differences between dear children, fathers, and young men? Do we need to know the children may have been new converts, the fathers may have been believers right away and may actually have seen Christ, and the young man might have been those who came to Christ and are now working diligently for the cause of Christ? What we should be focused on is what or how do we apply this to us today. Sometimes we can get so distracted with the history of the Word that we lose sight of the application to our lives. If all of scripture is God breathed and good for teaching, correcting and rebuking then we need to see how this works in our lives today. There is no question that we know our sins have been forgiven, but do we, at times, forget and allow guilt and shame to creep in? When we became believers did we spend time really getting to know him, have we continued to gather as much information as we can about him? Are we continually improving in our understanding of him, his character, his personality, his methods of communication and interaction with us? Although by the simple act of accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior we have overcome the evil one, having forsaken his control over us, and submitted ourselves to Christ, we still need the strength of Christ, the power of the Spirit to continue our journey, not returning to our old ways or succumbing to the influence of the devil. We need to be strong and have the word of God live deep within us, so that we have the words of God to speak against his attacks on our soul. True we all may be on different levels in our journey with God, some just beginning as dear children having to learn the basics, being able to learn and understand the language, as our children must do in this world. Some may be those old fathers who have been in the faith for most of their life, and are now old and grey in the standards of this world, but we know God, and must continue our faith and journey as well, not even being content with our position and retire from his service, sitting back and thinking I have done my part, it is time for the younger one to battle now. There are also many of us who are young and strong in our faith doing battle daily for the kingdom of God, knights in shining armor, carrying the sword of truth into the battle, guarding the women and children, so to speak. Then again we could see each phrase, in our lives as well, seeing our development as a believer, but truly it is all about each one of us, being all that we can be, living for God.

Something to Think About

DEVOTION 1 JOHN SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT 1 John 2:9-11 9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him. NIV Is there any room at all in the heart and mind of a believer for anything but pure love for their brother? The question is of course, is who is our brother? That is answered by the Greek word for brother who can include fellow citizens of the world, all of mankind. It does in the sense of having been written to us believers appear that brother means all fellow believers in Christ. But still that is a tall order, as we find so many different types of personalities within the body of Christ and some can be quite irritating. Sure hate is a strong word and within the meaning of the Greek word used there is has many applications, but still it refers to not loving, no matter how we attempt to apply it. So how do we love? Can we have feelings of less than love, even towards those who seem not to love us? Can we allow any hard feelings to exist at all? If we apply the definition or explanation of what love is from Corinthians and then think about all our fellow believers can we say we are doing what is right, that we are walking in the light? Do we dare think we could be walking in darkness while attending church and being a part of worship with those people who we do not necessarily enjoy being around? Why do believers form little tight knit groups and seem to not allow outsiders to be a part of? Can we have special friendships within the whole body? Maybe, but do we exclude others from even being friendly towards. Maybe on the outside we appear to like, or love everyone, but what about on the inside? Are we being false in our appearance, all the while having a little envy, jealousy, bitterness, or some other form of distain for a fellow believer? Do we even go so far as to be judgmental of their personality all the while, thinking we are judging their behavior, which still is a problem and then we still try justifying our feelings? Have we been blinded to what love really is by our own selfish ways? Do we actually love our brother? This is truly something to think about.

Shining The Truth

DEVOTION 1 JOHN SHINING THE TRUTH 1 John 2:7-8 7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. NIV From the very beginning all this was already planned by God as he was revealing what he was going to do to this people. He has been telling them the redemption story from the very start of their disobedience, this is the old one spoken of here. It is not the law in essence, although it was the law which points us to Jesus. If we try to live by the law, by the rules and regulations set forth by God, or by men, we will surely fail, for it is impossible to keep the whole law, and if we break just one itty bitty portion of it, we are guilty of breaking the whole law. There is just no way around that. But the darkness of that fact, of never being good enough to re-enter the paradise of God, has been put aside, because of the true light. What can we do that is good enough not to be guilty of the whole law? We can accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and thus in him we have been proclaimed innocent by God. He has rendered us, considered us innocent and thus the darkness in our lives has passed and now the new light of Christ is not only in us, but shining forth from us. At least that is the way it is supposed to be. But the question which has to be asked is in fact the true light shining in our lives. Do we walk around burdened with the cares of this world? Do we walk with a slump in our step because of the heaviness in our heart? Do we walk with one eye on material things, one eye on our own agenda, and one eye on gaining as much of this world as we can? Should we not turn our eyes, both of them, on Jesus and look full in his wonderful face? Then the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of his glory and grace. Yes we should be so filled with his glory and grace that his light shines brightly through us into the darkness which others are still walking. If we now the truth, how can we keep it to ourselves? Do we just let those who are still in the darkness of living under the law, under the rules and regulations of man stay there and perish? We need to let the truth shine. We need to be shining the truth.

What To Do

DEVOTION 1 JOHN WHAT TO DO 1 John 2:3-6 3 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4 The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. NIV It cannot be much clearer than this. Yet we have to ask if we are supposed to walk as Jesus did, does that mean without sin, being perfect in every aspect of our life? If we look at this within the context we can see that is not what is being said, but rather Jesus obeyed his Father’s command and so should we. God had a plan, a reason for Jesus being here on earth. God had determined what was to be accomplished for his kingdom by Jesus doing what he was called to do. Jesus was here for an expressed reason, to be the Lamb of God, to be the ultimate sacrifice for our sin. Jesus set the example, showed us the way, in terms of doing what God has called us to do. Yes, Jesus surely set an example for us to live a holy and upright life. Yes Jesus set the example for us to live without sin. But within this truth we are to gather the example of being obedient to the plan and purpose God has for our life and what we are doing to in order to benefit the Kingdom of God. If we say we are Christians, that we know God and yet continue to live our lives focused on our own plans, our own ambitions, our own goals, trusting in our own efforts to store up whatever it is we feel we need for our later years, looking to our future, and not giving much thought at all to what does God require of us to advance his kingdom, then maybe we lie when we say we are Christians, and the truth is not really in us. If we claim to be a believer, that we are in Christ, then we need to see exactly what is our purpose, what is God’s purpose for our live, what are we supposed to be doing for him, for his kingdom? That should be our main focus in life. Jesus said that he had no place to lay his head, he was not concerned about where is was going to sleep, or what he would eat, or clothes he would wear, he was focused on the Kingdom of God, should not we be the same way? Is that not what this is all about? Should we really spend so much time on all the temporal things, when we should be spending time on the eternal things? Life is more than…..isn’t that what Jesus said? So what will we do?

Invited Back In

DEVOTION 1 JOHN INVITED BACK IN 1 John 2:1-2 2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. NIV That is the goal, the mark to which attain to, not to sin. This is the purpose we have been given these words, these standards that God has established for us to live by, so that we do not sin, we do not behave in a manner which displeases him. It would seem simple enough. It would appear we have a whole lot more of his words then Adam had. Is all he said to Adam was don’t eat of that one tree? We have volumes of what God has said to us and still we aren’t any better than Adam. However we do have one thing going for us, which it does not appear Adam, did. He was cast out of the Paradise God had created for him. It seems clear enough that all of mankind is still cast out of God’s paradise, because of sin, Adams as well as each individual’s continual sin. So because we have such a difficult time not sinning, God in his infinite mercy provided a way for us to regain our rightful place in his paradise. He provides the ultimate sacrifice for our sin, Jesus Christ. Now Jesus sits at his right hand and speaks on our defense. When we behave in manner which displeases God, Jesus is right there, telling the Father he took that into account on the cross. Should we continue to sin so that God’s grace may abound, God forbid. But if we do, Jesus is there for us. Rather I should say, but when we do, Jesus is there for us. It is not a question of if, but of when as perfection in the human condition is next to impossible. As much as we try, as hard as we make an effort, as determined we set out heart to remain completely free of sin, we still fail. How is this possible if we have the Spirit? Clearly we are not mindless robots totally control by a source outside our own power. We always have a choice to listen and obey or not listen and not obey. Clearly we still set our course of action. It is true for the most of the time we set our course in the direction of God, listening to the instructions of the Spirit, but then there are also times when we travel our own path, setting aside, if just for a moment, however brief, those instructions. That is when sin enters and that is when Jesus speaks up. Where would we be without Jesus? Cast out. But we do have Jesus and so we are invited back in.

Keep Asking

DEVOTION 1 JOHN KEEP ASKING 1 John 1:8-10 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. NIV A confusing bit of truths which some have determined this sin spoken of here is that which only occurred prior to accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. These people state, at least, that once they accepted Jesus they no longer have any sin, that in fact, they have stopped sinning. I have actually been witness with my own hears to those kinds of words and ideas. It is difficult to understand how anyone could ever make a statement like that. It is clear they have deceived themselves into that kind of thinking. In the first place it would seem saying we have no sin, that we have stopped sinning, would be in some sense spiritual pride, if not fleshly pride, which both would in fact be sin in themselves. Therefore by merely saying we do not sin, is sin, and therefore we lie, and we make God out to be a liar at the same time. Now it is certainly true that we need to when we come to Christ we need to acknowledge that we are sinners, and we need to ask for the forgiveness of God for such behavior. It is absolutely true that if we ask, he will forgive, he will cleanse us, he will purify us of all unrighteousness. But that does not mean we will never sin again, for it is simply impossible for us to be perfect sinless people, no matter what anyone says. Our lives must be a continued seeking of forgiveness, and he will continually forgive and cleanse us. It is when we start thinking we do not need to ask for the forgiveness of sin, that we have no sin to ask forgiveness from, that we are lacking his forgiveness and cleansing and purifying and are in very danger itself. If we love him and his word is in us then we must know we are not perfect like Christ and that we fail on a regular basis to live up to the standard God has laid out for us. It is when the word is actually not in us, that is we have developed our own ideas of Christianity, our own doctrines, and our own rules and regulations that we begin to think we are “good” Christians because we follow our own set of ideas. How dangerous is that? No the word declares we need the forgiveness of God all the time, not just once. Keep asking.