WATCH OUT

 

WATCH OUT

II John 8-9 Watch out, so that you do not lose the prize for which we have been working so hard. Be diligent so that you will receive your full reward. For if you wander beyond the teaching of Christ, you will not have fellowship with God. But if you continue in the teachings of Christ, you will have fellowship with both the Father and the Son. NLT

It is so easy to slack off in our Christian walk. It is so easy to get into a coasting mode. We are not prone to work very hard at keeping our walk with the Lord fresh and sharp. We get so caught up in other things and take the Lord for granted.

The rewards of heaven are beyond our imaging. The Lord is preparing great things for us to enjoy. The stuff He uses is the fruit of our lives on earth. The more faithful and diligent we are in our walk with Him, the greater our reward will be. It is possible to make it to heaven and lose out on what might be our greater rewards. We don't know what all the Lord wants to do for us, but we hinder Him from what He can and wants to do by the way we live. Heaven's rewards are the natural fruit of a life lived rightly in Christ on earth.

We must be very careful how we treat Christ and His teachings. We easily can read into the Scriptures what we want them to say. There is great danger in trying to make the Lord say what He has not said. God said what He means already and we do not have the right or authority to go beyond what He has said. We must strive to understand what God has spoken and apply it to life. Do not let the words of man deceive you. Jesus has spoken clearly about eternal life and how it plays out in life. Listen to Him. He alone is the way to God. His life alone is our standard for living and loving. We cannot add to or take away from anything He has said.

If we continue to live the life Jesus has shown us and taught us, we will have fellowship with both the Father and the Son. If we don't, we won't. It's as simple as that. It is good soul food for us to consistently read and meditate on the Gospels where we have recorded the life of Christ. It is not the only soul food we need, but nothing else makes sense without it.

KEEP GOD FIRST

 

KEEP GOD FIRST

I John 5:21 Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts. NLT

It is so easy to get involved in things that become more important to us than our relationship with God. We get preoccupied with life and tend to put the Lord somewhere down the list of priorities in our lives. We don’t do it intentionally, but it happens often. Unless we are very diligent about our relationship with Him, the Lord is crowded out as the focus of our lives.

In order for the Lord to remain as the number one priority in our lives, we must diligently work at keeping Him there. We must not neglect our time in the Word or go to it as almost an afterthought in our lives. It takes time to discover the treasures of God’s Word. It takes time to think seriously about the things we read. It takes an open heart and mind to hear God speak from its pages. It takes time to comprehend what God is saying. There is no greater investment of time than to take the time we need to unravel the treasures of God’s Word. False doctrine plagues those who take God’s Word casually and give it only a nominal amount of time in their lives.

We also must take time to pray. If you don’t have the time to pray, your life is way out of whack. Prayer is an absolute necessity in order to keep the Lord number one in our hearts. We must get alone with God. We must spend time to worship Him as we pray. We must take the time to let Him examine our hearts and lead us to repentance. We must take the time to pray for others and the church.

We must take the time to serve. Our living must always be governed by the Lord. We must see life as a relationship with the Lord. It is good for us to have Jesus in mind as we go about our daily living. It is important for the health of our souls that we seek always to honor Christ in what we do. It is good for the soul to think often as we live about the Lord being with us always.

In order to keep away from those things which would keep the Lord away from the throne of our hearts, we must not neglect our great salvation. We must discipline ourselves and always stand guard over our walk with the Lord. We will never live in victory if we let the Lord off the throne of our hearts. He must always be the number one priority in our passions. He must be in our thoughts as we go about our daily living. We must temper all we do in light of our relationship with Him.

Staying away from anything that may take God’s place in our lives takes work. It takes purposeful living. It takes a determination to guard our souls against everything that would crowd the Lord out. God is a jealous God and He demands His rightful place as Lord of our hearts.

PRACTICE SINNING

 

PRACTICING SINNING

I John 5:18 We know that those who have become part of God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot get his hands on them. NLT

God’s children do not make a practice of sinning. Period. There is so much emphasis placed on God’s grace today that many of us have taken a lax attitude about sin. There seems to be little concern about how we live our lives as long as we commit ourselves to Jesus as our Savior. However, grace does not give us a license to sin. Grace changes us so that we no longer make it a practice to sin. We strive to please God by not sinning instead of striving to please ourselves by sinning. This truth must be understood by all believers. Grace does not give us an excuse to keep on sinning!

When Christ saves us, He grabs hold of us securely and when we are in His grasp, we are deeply influenced by Him. He is righteous and holy and in His hands, we too become righteous and holy. The key to stopping sinning is to rest in the grasp of Christ who is holding you. We let Him be the focus of our attention and as long as He is, we will not fall into the habit of sinning.

Satan cannot get to us and lead us into sin as long as Jesus is our shield and defender. It is when we step out from behind His protection that we fall into sin. We have no one but ourselves to blame when we sin because Jesus is more than capable of keeping us from it.

We know these things are true, but we find ourselves still sinning from time to time. It is going to happen because we don’t always put into practice what we know to be true. The allurement of sin is always before us and it overpowers us in our weak moments of life. Praise the Lord for He always forgives us when we confess our sins before Him and seek His forgiveness.

Our greatest need is to strive to always keep our relationship with Christ strong through the daily disciplines of prayer, Bible study, witnessing and serving. Only then will we be able to resist the urge to sin against God. Satan is unable to get to us when we have the shield of faith guarding our souls.

Do you find yourself unable to stop a certain sin? Do you keep doing it no matter how hard you try not to? Do you find the allurement of sin to be stronger than your resolve of not doing it?

If so, you need to embrace this verse of Scripture today. Renew your love and devotion to Christ. Believe what He says. Believe that you CAN do it through Christ who gives you the strength to do it. Believe God when He says when we resist Satan he will flee from us. You are a child of God, act like it. You can do it if you really want to. Claim today the victory that is yours in Christ Jesus.

FORGIVABLE SINS

 

FORGIVABLE SINS

I John 5:16-17 If you see a Christian brother or sister sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it. Every wrong is sin, but not all sin leads to death. NLT

One of the ways you can know that you are truly connected to God in love is how you react to those around you when they sin against God. When we who are God's children sin, God does not reject us as unfit for His kingdom and cast us out. He graciously brings our sin up, reminds us of how awful sin is to Him, convicts us, leads us to repentance, forgives us, and leads us forward in love. We are to treat each other the same way. Instead of judging one another and treating each other harshly because of sin, we should be kind, gracious, and forgiving. We should never let the sin of a repentant heart keep us from embracing the sinner in love and having fellowship with Him. But, sadly we do. Instead of coming alongside of them in prayer, we cast them aside and treat them as unworthy of our fellowship. Shame on us.

There are times in which we have to sever fellowship because of unrepentant hearts. That is not the issue here. Here we are dealing with our heart attitude towards those who really do want to do what is right before God. We need to pray for them. If they don't recognize their sin, pray that the Lord will make it known to them so that they can repent. The goal always in Christ is restoration to a right relationship first with God and then others. Human relationships cannot be right until first our relationship with God is right.

What is the sin that leads to death? I believe it is a stubborn and willful rejection of God. It is an unwillingness to listen to God. It is a desire to have nothing to do with God. It is a heart that is spiteful towards God. Such a heart cannot hear God speak about sin and all sin leads to death of the soul. We all sin, but we all are not bound for hell because of it. God forgives the sin of a repentant heart and judges the sin of the unrepentant heart. There is nothing that we can do when someone refuses to repent of sin. However, it is not for us to judge others. We are to continue to love them in spite of their sin and let God deal with them for their sin.

Is there someone you know who needs the love you have withheld from them because of their sin against you? It is a sin to not love those for whom Christ died. Confess your sin and ask the Lord to show and teach you how to love them.

ANSWERS TO PRAYERS

 

ANSWERS TO PRAYERS

I John 5:13-15 I write this to you who believe in the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. And we can be confident that he will listen to us whenever we ask him for anything in line with his will. And if we know he is listening when we make our requests, we can be sure that he will give us what we ask for. NLT

Do you know you have eternal life? Can you say with absolute certainty that it is true? How can you be sure? One of the ways we can be sure of our relationship with God is whether or not our prayers are answered or not. God answers the prayers of His children who pray in His will. He doesn't promise to hear and answer prayers that are outside of His will, only those in line with His will. How can we know we are praying in His will?

We know we are praying in God's will when what we ask for is in agreement with what we know is best for us as seen through God's eyes. Consider what we know of God: His character, nature, and love. Do our requests fit in? If what we pray for is consistent with God's known attributes and character, we can be confident that we will have what we ask for. God knows what we need better than what we do and will not give us what we don't need simply because we may want it or think we need it. He loves us way too much to do that for us. Spoiled children are never His will for us.

Two things you can always count on as far as what God wants you to know. He wants you to know who He is and what His will is for you. When we get those two things right, we can be sure that whatever we ask for from God will be granted to us.

Food for thought: the best way to stay lined up with God when we pray is to first spend time in worship of God before we ask Him for anything. Adoration should always precede asking.

NO DOUBT ABOUT IT

 

NO DOUBT ABOUT IT

I John 5:13 I write this to you who believe in the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. NLT

John wrote his letter to the body of Christ so that there would be no question amongst them that they indeed had eternal life. There are many different things we can point to that assure us that indeed we are children of God.

Lip service gives way to living service. A child of God is not an idle bystander. He is an active participant in the household of faith. He is putting faith into action. He not only talks about loving others, he is doing it. He is striving to daily live in obedience to God’s commandments. He is actively letting his light shine in the darkness of the world, sharing his faith whenever he can.

You know you have eternal life when you are never satisfied with what you already know and have in Christ. You long to grow in Christ and are endeavoring to do so. You seek out more understanding through His Word and don’t shy away from spending quiet time with Him in prayer.

You have eternal life when you love others in similar fashion as God loves you. You seek the good of others and not their harm. You reach out to them when they are in need. You are an encourager and not a discourager to their faith. You act graciously towards them and extend forgiveness when they wrong you. You dwell on their goodness and not their shortcomings.

You know you have eternal life when your faith rules your life. A child of God is one whose body, mind and soul are faith-driven. There is a desire to always live within the constraints of the Gospel. There is a constant awareness of the presence of Christ. There is a driven desire to always do what is right before God. There is a continuous readiness of the soul for Christ’s return.

You know you have eternal life when you cherish the time you can spend with the Lord in His Word and in prayer. You get it. You understand how important it is to the health of your soul to feed it with proper spiritual food.

Yes, dear friend, there is no doubt about it, we can know for certain that we have eternal life. Think on these things.

PROOF OF LOVE

PROOF OF LOVE

I John 5:10-12 All who believe in the Son of God know that this is true. Those who don't believe this are actually calling God a liar because they don't believe what God has testified about his Son. And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. So whoever has God's Son has life, whoever does not have his Son does not have life. NLT

John is talking about the evidence that determines whether or not we are truly God's children, our love for God and people. God is love and His children are lovers. It can be no other way. Christians are distinctly different than non-Christians in this. Non-Christians are first and foremost lovers of themselves. Christians are first and foremost lovers of God and then others. As believers, we must love ourselves, but it doesn't stop there.

It is a very serious thing to call God a liar, but when we live like we are nothing more than lovers of self, aren't we in essence doing just that? God says that His children love beyond themselves and when we act differently, we are by practice saying that what God says is not true. We cannot indeed be His children if we can't or won't love those for whom Christ died.

Jesus is the greatest testimony of what God's love is like. He was sent by God to die for our sins, and that is exactly what He did. In Christ, we have eternal life because He broke the back of the law's condemnation of sin. He did what no one else could do; He satisfied the just wrath of God against sin. He who knew no sin became our sin sacrifice.

Whoever lives in Christ has eternal life with God, and whoever does not live in Christ does not have life and is doomed to an eternity in hell. There is no wiggle room in this.

Is Jesus your Savior today? Are you loving others even as you are loved by Him?