Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Follow that which is GOOD, not evil

3Jn 1:9  I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
3Jn 1:10  Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.
3Jn 1:11  Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.
3Jn 1:12  Demetrius hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself: yea, and we also bear record; and ye know that our record is true.
3Jn 1:13  I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee:
3Jn 1:14  But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name.

One loved to have POSITION and POWER. He loved to speak maliciously, act selfishly, rebelliously, evilly.

The Other loved the TRUTH and was known by others to be good.

Evil and Good.  This is our existence right now, this is the world we live in at the moment, the world we do not BELONG to, yet must dwell upon.

A person put in prison, locked in a cell, physical freedom taken away- knows at first that great sense of loss- being unable to come and go as they please and ALL the little freedoms that are taken for granted disappear. They feel this intensely. Why do they feel it? Because they desire to return to all they know is out there, all they've given up, all they've lost.

We cannot know all there is in our true home, in the places being prepared for us in heaven. We are however told how wonderful it will be for us.

1Co 2:9  But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

But we ARE allowed a glimpse into it all through the Holy Spirit.

1Co 2:10  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

We KNOW, a part of us knows deep down, a part in ALL of us that flickers briefly for some and burns in a conflagration for others knows and realizes that this world is NOT the world we were ever intended to live in. Every heartache, every pain- none of it is NORMAL- none of it is ACCEPTABLE! We cry out WHY when tragedy strikes because we KNOW that it is NOT supposed to be! Those tears are NOT supposed to fall! That agony was NEVER meant to be felt, not EVER! We were created not with all that horror in mind, but with LOVE in mind! We feel the despair and awful sin sickness of this world and we internalize the rejections, the lack of love that we are confronted with throughout our lives and we KNOW, it's all wrong, it's not right…it's just not right!

Why do we know this? We know this because this truly is NOT our world!

We must live in this corrupted world, we are born into it but we are NOT left to flounder helplessly. As our spirit reaches out for a tether of truth to cling to we CAN find it because our Savior has given it to us!  We are given HOPE that the world we are truly meant for exists out there for us. We do not have to despair because we have HOPE, real HOPE in our SAVIOR!

There is evil and there is good and as long as we live here we MUST be on one side or the other- there is NO middle ground.

The reports for each of us will either be that of good reports or bad reports- reflecting our love or lack of love for our SAVIOR, our GOD.

We cannot judge another's eternal life, we only control the fate of our own- through believing, through a real living faith in our Savior's redemptive powers towards us- the worst of sinners.

Living in a world where there are two sides, we will know where most people choose to put their allegiance by their actions but we truly cannot judge them for eternity- only GOD has that knowledge, He KNOWS the hearts of men and the truth or lack of it in those hearts. He alone can clean our hearts and make them new.

We exist in this horrible sin prison, our lives trapped by the heartaches and agonies of living here and now, but we also live in this sin prison with the hope of FREEDOM, the very real FREEDOM that has been bought for us with the Blood and Body of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. This freedom is REAL, as real as the pain we must feel physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually.  This freedom is OURS and while we do NOT have a known date for our pardon to be realize, we know that our pardon has been secured! We are serving our time here in this awful prison, allowed a lot of moments of beauty and happiness amid the horrors. We are serving our time and none of the wonders of this world will compare to our future of freedom in Christ!

We live for our Hope- Christ our Savior!

All in HIS LOVE!  All by HIS GRACE!

No comments: