How you doin? This will need to be short today. We are leaving for the annual Osler (Stacey's family) gathering in Lancaster, PA. at 7:30am. It's a good day to make it short, because 1 John 4 can be summed up in one word... love.
Verse 4, "You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world." Now that's encouraging.
Verses 9-11, "By this the love of God was manifested [b]in us, that God has sent His [c]only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." This one of those "Oh, yeah. That makes sense" moments. If God loved us this much, we should love each other. Why not? The manifested love of God should make this an incidental happening. If God loved us this much, that He sent His Son to die for us and He dwells in us, then that very same love should flow through us. COME ON!!!!!!! This Scripture makes perfectly good sense. Then why do I still feel anger, resentment, hurt, and unforgiveness. A tough question, no doubt. I continue to ask God to remove all that stuff from me. It's coming or should say going. It's improved in a remarkable way as of late. Praise God.
Verses 15-17, "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has [d]for us. God is love,and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world." WOW WOW WOW!!!!!!! That's yet another great deal. We're as He is. COME ON!!!!!!!
Verses 18-19, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear [e]involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us." I'm sure you had these verses memorized, but I copied them anyway. These verses are famous due to their AWESOMENESS!!!!!!! Not to over simplify this journey through life, but the great philosopher J. Lennon had it right so many years ago... "All you need is love... love is all you need". Pray that the Holy Ghost manifest the love of God in you today.
PS This is a pleasant follow up to chapter 3. Enjoy your day off from this email tomorrow. I will not be sending it out from Lancaster.
PPS I was trying to keep it super light today, but I can't let this go. Verse 2, "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world." We believe that Jesus was 100% man... 100% dependent on the Holy Spirit. Like Hebrews says that Jesus set aside His rights and submitted to the will of God the Father to come here in the flesh and die on the cross. One of the revelations I had while watching the Son of God movie and watching Jesus die on the cross is that Jesus died! GOD can NOT die right? So that is one sure example of something that Jesus had to set aside of his God-ness... He was a man. Apostle Paul did the miracles of Jesus and he also did extraordinary miracles. Paul was definitely a man. Why would Jesus do this? Set aside his rights as God and come here in the flesh as man? We believe that scripture shows that he did this to regain authority that Adam (a man) had lost. Jesus did this to show us what it looks like to live as a man 100% dependent on the Holy Spirit. 1 John 2:6 Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did. I for one don't want to create or believe a false theology to meet me where I'm at in my sinful state. I would rather believe the truth and pray that the Holy Ghost continues to bring me up to the standard that Jesus set... as a man. Claiming that Jesus was 100% God AND 100% man to justify and rationalize my life that look like Jesus', just doesn't work for me. I'm going after patterning my life after Jesus'. He is the example a normal Christian life. Following Jesus doesn't mean walking behind Him, it means following His model. COME ON!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment