The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away

Job 1:21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

Job 2:9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
Job 2:10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

Job 40:1 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.

Job 42:6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

The LORD gives.
The LORD takes.
Blessed be the name of the LORD.

We receive GOOD at the hand of God.
We receive EVIL at the hand of God- He allows evil to befall us.

We are VILE.
We ABHOR ourselves.

We MUST repent.

God's ways are past our finding them out. When we look at our world and all the horrors that are allowed to happen, Satan wants us to curse God for it all as we try to comprehend it all, thinking that we really do have a way of understanding- when in truth we don't. The horrors, and they are many and unimaginable in their vileness, exist and even the INNOCENT are made to endure them. People love to throw this up high in the air to top their list of reasons why they don't want to believe in a God who allows such agonizing horror. The worse the reprehensible act the more convinced they become that they do NOT want to believe in a God who sits back and watches as the terror unfolds. As tears falls, as gut wrenching sorrow doubles them over for the tragedies occurring around every corner people would rather believe there is no God than believe there is a God who has the power to stop the awfulness, yet does not.

The thing is- our God is MERCIFUL- the horrors, no matter how vile and no matter how long those horrors must be endure- they do eventually end. A God who would allow endless torture, would be a God I could not imagine. All this world's sorrows are TEMPORARY to ETERNITY.

If we spend an entire lifetime- from birth to old age-80, 90 years in pain- we have to take comfort knowing there is an end, a stopping point.

We cannot begin to comprehend why people are put through horrors unimaginable, we simply can't. For that matter we can't comprehend the reality we call life -much at all- no matter how long scientists and the great minds that exist over the ages try to define it all.

If God were a man who had MAGICAL powers upon earth and then he allowed evil to exist- then we could comprehend. But GOD is NOT a man and NEVER will be a man- He is the CREATOR of MAN, He can never be what HE'S CREATED any more than an architect could become a house, a gardener become a flower garden, a doctor a cure. It's IMPOSSIBLE. God did become man in JESUS CHRIST- God taking on flesh and feeling our infirmities completely- but God did NOT cease being GOD in order to become human. The FATHER GOD has forever been God without human flesh. GOD the SON took on the very flesh He'd had a hand in creating and while He laid aside HIS powers and relied upon God the FATHER'S there was never a moment when the power of GOD the Father was gone, NEVER.

From everlasting to everlasting God exists and will forever exist and THIS we cannot fully comprehend in our humanity, in our seemingly finite, our possibly finite, existence.

Job was a righteous man- even God said so.
Yet Job's righteousness became corrupted as He was tried, corrupted because He began to believe in His own righteousness and condemned God for what he perceived was an unjust punishment. Job was in severe pain, in agony, his very existence a nightmare and he was trying to make sense of it. It didn't help that others were telling him it had to be because He'd done something wrong. The others couldn't comprehend that God' s plans could include allowing someone to be tortured by the devil, someone who had done nothing to deserve it.

We cannot begin to comprehend God's ways, they are so incredibly far above us. We don't know that some horror now might not be for some good later, we haven't a clue. We can guess all we want, but we don't know. The horrors we encounter seem to be enough to drive us mad with grief, and yet when all is said and down we have to trust that our Lord has HIS reasons far beyond our understanding and those reasons are just.

I think a lot of what goes on in our lives we forget to contribute to our God. The sun shining, the moon, the stars, the very breath we breathe, the heart that beats in our chests, the flower unfolding, the rain that drops, the majestic mountains, the clouds that form- we stop realizing the power of God and take for granted those very things that He has a hand in.

People want to explain everything and when they can't they make us their own theories and call them factual and scientific just because it's something they perceive and others agree with. What was scientific a 100 years ago might be proven complete wrong today, yet people believe their ideas were factual and true.

Just because you figure out the dna sequence does not mean you've created dna itself. Just because you take a stem cell and create other things from that cell, does not mean you've created a stem cell or can. Just because you've created a mechanical device for a heart does not mean you've created a heart. I could go on and on, but you have to get the point at least somewhat. How many of you know how your television receives the information that is portrayed on the screen? How many of you fully comprehend how electricity is harnessed and sent through wires to your house? How many of you comprehend radio waves? The majority of people don't have the understanding of these things and yet some do, they learn it and go on to learn more. Understanding things did not make them the creator of things. Understanding how to record of voice onto a tiny electronic chip, does not mean you understand every single point of that to the minutest detail. You might know how to put pieces together so they create something, but that doesn't mean you know how to create the pieces themselves. A bricklayer can mix up mortar to lay between the bricks, but he's using things he didn't create to make that mix.

We've come a long, long way from knowing very little about how things work, and we've debunked many a superstition, but in doing so MANY have tried to take God out of everything. Before we lived in a world that held the belief that God created, now we live in a world that takes great pride in what man seems to create. Satan has worked very hard to get people to believe in themselves over God, to believe in things over God and he's done a very thorough job of it. We like to say that if you are SMART you don't believe in the fairy tale, the fable of God, and people love to believe they are smart. The reality, they are more foolish than they'll ever know.

Jas 5:11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

1Pe 1:6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
1Pe 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

By our God's mercy! By our God's love! May we endure to the end clinging to Christ's righteousness.

We've sadly learned to base our ability to love upon conditions

1Jn 3:11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

Heard from the beginning-

-we should LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Joh 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
Joh 13:35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Joh 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

A new commandment- an ADDITIONAL commandment- a commandment that is an addition to the moral ten. This addition to the commandments, this new command was necessary because our SAVIOR was manifested to us and an example to look to- an example that had NOT existed before.

LOVE as HE LOVED.

Jesus was manifested. Jesus' love was manifested to mankind. Jesus - God taking on human flesh and loving us as a Son of God in a way that He couldn't for thousands of years.

So while Jesus could say this in answer to the question--

Mat 22:36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

The man asking the question of our Savior was speaking of the moral commandments and Jesus said- on THESE two commandments hang ALL the law and the prophets.

The first and the second.

And Jesus could also say this in answer to the question--

Mat 19:16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
Mat 19:17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
Mat 19:18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
Mat 19:19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

The commandments of the MORAL law!

The moral law of the ten commandments were given to guide us into a full love of God and a full love of our fellowman.

Our Savior LIVED the law perfectly never straying from it for a single instance- how do I know? Our Savior was sinless. Being sinless means not transgressing the law of God, because sin is a transgression of the law. Jesus loved God perfectly, Jesus loved his fellowman perfectly, and He is our perfect example.

1Jn 3:11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

This is our Savior's message.

LOVE.

When we sin we are guilty of NOT LOVING.

That sin of coveting exists because we are not loving selflessly, we are not loving our fellow man.
That sin of taking God's name is vain exists because we are not loving God.

It's the same for the entire moral law, all ten commandments.

It's the transgression of NOT LOVING.

We've sadly learned to base our ability to love upon conditions that we were NEVER supposed to have, never.

I'll love if…

I can't love because…

If he/she shows they love me…

I'll stop loving you if you do this or that…

I could never love someone that…

Conditions!

Sin is NOT LOVING, and the results that come from NOT LOVING, the actions caused by NOT LOVING.

If we put conditions on our ability to love God and love others, we are NOT loving as our Savior loved. He loved us while we were yet sinners.

Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Please LORD teach us to LOVE as YOU LOVED!

Please!

Help us to love one another, and to love You!

By Your GRACE and MERCY! By Your LOVE!

Manifest in God

1Jn 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
1Jn 3:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.


The children of God are manifest-

The children of God are - made visible, made known, made actual, realized, recognized.
The children of the devil are also manifest.

We are manifested by the choices we make.

We choose to remain sinners, and we also choose to be born again- born of God.

Jesus said these words--

Joh 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

MUST be BORN AGAIN.

We must be born again and born again of God.

Joh 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Born of the SPIRIT.

Those who are born of the Spirit claim their Savior as their righteousness, seeking to give themselves wholly to Him, begging forgiveness, knowing their unworthiness, recognizing their full dependence upon Jesus Christ. We are born of flesh, and given an opportunity to be born of the Spirit.

If we are born of the Spirit we will not seek to willfully sin. We will recognize our sins and seek to repent of them and ask for forgiveness -- NOT seek to keep living in sin. Those who are embroiled in sin wanting to remain in it will do so and they are of their father the devil.

Sin is forever tempting us, forever until our Savior returns for us. We have to surrender ourselves to HIM, to our GOD. We have to keep ourselves IN HIM, having FAITH in HIS ability to save us, to forgive us, to love us.

When we are IN our Savior we cannot sin.
When we are HIS, covered by HIM we cannot sin.

Outside of Him we are lost sinners.

It is ONLY when our SAVIOR is ours that we are sinless, we are NEVER sinless on our own, never!

We must abide in Christ.
We must live in Christ.

We must love our fellow man, we must love as our Savior loves, love through Him, love because He loves, loves because His Spirit in us lives.

All in HIM! Always!

Jesus came to destroy sin- NOT excuse it

1Jn 3:7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
1Jn 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Do NOT be deceived.
If you DO righteousness- you are righteous- as our Savior is righteous.
If you SIN- you are OF the devil- the devil sinned from the beginning.
The Son of God was MANIFESTED- created- brought into being- God taking on flesh- all to DESTROY the works of the devil- SIN.

Our Savior is righteous and if we ABIDE in Him- we will be righteous because of Him. Any righteousness we do, we do it because HE enables us to do that righteousness.

If we sin we are doing the works of the devil.
Sin exists because of the devil. When we sin we are working FOR the devil.
Sinning isn't trivial.
Sinning isn't something we can simply overlook and ignore.
Every sin needs to be confessed and repented of.
If we sin and are not concerned about the sin we've committed then we've been blinded by the devil. The devil will use every opportunity possible to get us numbed to the sins we commit, to make us call EVIL - GOOD. When Satan gets us to believe that evil is good he's blinded us to the TRUTH. And when we are blind to the truth we are lost to our Savior.

Our SAVIOR came into existence as the Son of God so He could eradicate sin once and for all. The kingdom of heaven, the promise of eternal life with our Savior, with God the Father - is all promised to those who abhor sin because SIN is of the devil!

We need to despise sin because is SEPARATES us from God!

Righteousness is GOD.
Sin is of SATAN.

Jesus will destroy ALL SIN.
All sinners will be destroyed.
Not a single sinner will live.

Those who have sinned and repented, finding forgiveness in our Savior are COVERED by HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS!

Those who have sinned and have NOT repented will NOT be forgiven and they will be destroyed.

We must be found in CHRIST'S RIGHTEOUSNESS!

He came to destroy sin, not excuse it.

Abide in love

1Jn 3:6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.

Not seen Him.
Doesn't know Him.

Those who CHOOSE to willfully sin, those who choose NOT to love God or love others, can't see our Savior, the can't know Him.

When we CHOOSE not to love, we are in fact CHOOSING to live in sin.

So many get all caught up in the BLATANT sins they ignore the fact that that ALL sins are transgressions of God's laws and all of God's laws have to do with love because- God is love. NOT loving is the GREATEST sin, seriously, because it is the source of each and every sin.

If we abide in our Savior we are abiding in LOVE. Remember- God is LOVE. Abiding in love keeps us from sinning.

The love of God is so amazing we can scarcely comprehend it.

We get so caught up in our own self we believe love is something we are to get, to obtain, to seek. We believe we are loved when others treat us special and care for us.

The truth is love is something we are to GIVE. Our lives should not be spent trying to find love, but rather trying to give love to others, to God.

We spend SO much time thinking about the love we receive, or should receive, want to receive. How many days of depression are spent by millions because of the HUGE misconceptions about love? We kill ourselves because we are NOT loved by others, we haven't found love.

People say they are IN LOVE when the truth is, they are CHOOSING to involve themselves with another person to mutually benefit each other, by sharing their feelings, their lives, their trials, their happiness. LOVE isn't the idealized fantasy we grow up on- that shows up in movies and in books, on tv, over and over again. So many of those idealize LOVE end up without any love, why, because they stop choosing to share the burdens, and the good times with each other. Maybe someone more exciting comes along, someone who seems better to share our lives with, or maybe we want to simply not share our lives with anyone for awhile.

When we put the fantasy spin on love if we are NOT grounded in the reality of that newness - that learning and sharing with another - wearing off over time, then that love we are so filled with can tragically die. We have to CONTINUE to choose to share the life of another when we view them at their worst. We need to imagine them at their worst, not idolize them at their best and end up shocked when we view their basest humanity.

Love.

1Jn 3:6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.

If we love we see- we know our Savior.
If we do not love, if we don't see and know our Savior then we are sinning and living in sin.

We need to love.

To love and in love abide in our Savior- who IS LOVE.

Sin- not loving God or others

1Jn 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
1Jn 3:5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.

When you think of sin do you think of the law of God?

Seriously. Do you think of the law of God when you sin?

The law says that we are to LOVE GOD, and LOVE OUR FELLOW MAN, all those ten commandments- that moral law is summed up in those two acts. Out of love for God we follow the first four commandments, out of love for our fellow man we follow the last six commandments.

When we sin- we are NOT loving God, and we are NOT loving our fellow man.

Any sin we commit is a sin because we stop loving God and our fellow man.

You cannot sin in any other way because sin IS the transgression of the law and that law tells us to LOVE God and LOVE others.

We STOP loving God when we love ourselves more than we love Him.

So many of our sins are committed because we choose to love ourselves more than God. We can spend our whole lives believing we love others and if we do NOT love God it means nothing. That love we believe we have for others is really a selfish desire to get accolades from them, to feel self-important, to be the person who is lauded for their actions. We HAVE to realize that every SIN we commit is a breaking of the law, it's GOD'S law and we break it when we sin.

Our Savior was manifested- our Savior - our God took on human flesh- so He could TAKE AWAY our sins. So that He could FORGIVE us when we commit acts that show our lack of love for Him and for Others. When we transgress His law that tells us we MUST LOVE HIM and OTHERS, He came to forgive us those acts that reveal how unloving we really, really are!

We can be unloving towards HIM and towards others, and that is sin.

Our Savior forgives our lovelessness, knowing that our propensity towards selfishness, towards self-love, is soooo incredibly great. We NEED HIM to draw us out of ourselves, it is ONLY our SAVIOR who can give us what we need to LOVE as we need to LOVE- selflessly. It is HIS righteousness that must stand in place of our unrighteousness. God has to see His Son's righteousness in OUR PLACE, because we have NONE. And we must submit ourselves to the SON completely, knowing we have NOTHING that is worthy in and of ourselves, it's ALL HIM and ONLY HIM, we choose!

By HIS GRACE! HIS LOVE!

Not peace- but division

Luk 12:51 Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division

Way too many people believe that our Savior came to GIVE peace on earth.
We've heard it over and over especially during the Christmas holiday season- Peace on Earth. Why because of this--

Luk 2:14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Who said those words?

Luk 2:13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying
Luk 2:14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

This is on the occasion of Jesus' birth and the angels are praising God. The goal of having peace on earth is a goal that will only be achieved when our Savior comes again. That Jesus was born - the fact that He is the AUTHOR of peace means everything. Without the birth of the Messiah there would be no hope for any peace on earth, ever.

Too many people take this to mean that Jesus wants peace on earth here and now without His return, yet clearly our Savior speaks these words.

Luk 12:51 Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division

How do you equate that with the belief people have that we are to STRIVE for peace on earth?

The fact of the matter is- there will NOT be world peace- but we are to strive for individual peace among each other.

Heb 12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord

We are to abide in our Savior and in abiding in Him we are to have peace towards all those around us- not strife.

World peace- no- not until our Savior returns.

Luk 12:51 Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division

Jesus said- suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth?

And He answers-

No.

Not only does he say no, He says this-

But RATHER division.

DIVISION!

And He continues by explaining this--

Luk 12:52 For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.
Luk 12:53 The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

Division- NOT PEACE.

The dividing factor is between those with our Savior and those not with our Savior. And the division will be as close as one family member against another. This isn't PEACE promised, this is division. And wherever there is division there comes strife. When peace isn't prevailing then strife is. There is one or the other.

Our Savior KNOWS that there is a fight between the flesh and the spirit, a fight between those who strive to live in the spirit and those who choose to live in the flesh. We war with ourselves over the spirit and the flesh and we war with others around us. As long as there is sin in the world there will be this division, our Savior has told us this. He didn't come to give peace on earth.

We have to comprehend this because way too many people WANT there to be worldwide peace without our Savior having come again. They're expecting this now, striving towards it as if they're ignoring our Savior's own words completely.

We cannot ignore His words, we have to hear them! We have to understand what we're facing not hide from it. When we try to put our own spin on the words of the Lord then we are following our own path and NOT His. We need to follow HIM in all ways.

Please Lord help us to understand that the division we face is something that will remain in the world around us until You come again to take us home with You. Help us Lord to understand that we can be in You and have division surround us. Satan will fight us at ever step, and at every step You are there to fight for us!

Please Lord, help us, bless us, forgive us! LOVE us.

Your love always.

No Fence to Straddle

Dan 12:1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
Dan 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

1Jn 2:28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

There will be only TWO types of people at the coming of our Savior.
Those in Christ and those filled with shame and guilt.
Only two types, there will be NONE that are in between the two, not a single one.

We think that hovering somewhere between abiding in Christ and living for the world is a good place to be. We're not among the class of people considered on the lunatic fringe for their obsessive religion, and we aren't fully engulfed in the debauchery of the world. As we live in that hovering existence we somehow try to convince ourselves that it's an acceptable place to live. Yet there is NO fence to straddle when our Savior comes. All those who are sitting on the fence - not fully Christ's, and not fully the world's- will be LOST. Because at His coming ONLY those who are abiding in Him will have the confidence that will come from living in Him, and they won't be ashamed at all. Those who have one foot dangling over the fence dipped in the mire of the world will feel shame, shame for not living fully in Christ.

Living in Christ.

What it means to live in Christ is to live as He lived, to love as He loves.

Does this mean we need to live a cultish life in a commune somewhere? For some it might mean just that. Each of us has to pray that the Lord shows us the path we need to take. For some they'll need to stand in the middle of the sin darkened world as beacons of light set on a hill, not hid away in some wooded secluded cabin. Some will have to live among temptation, their cross to bear a very, very heavy one. Others will face less temptation, but have other fires to refine them.

Everyone has their own refining furnace to face, no two furnaces are the same. I can look at another's furnace and wish it were mine because it seems to burn less hot, yet the truth is, EVERYONE has a furnace designed to burn the impurities from them and it's a painful process whether you only have a few impurities or many.

We can't walk in another's shoes, but sometimes it'd be great if we could, just so we could understand the reality they are immersed in and not judge them by our own reality.

We have to live in Christ as HE guides us as individuals to live.

John did not live as Peter did, yet they were both Apostles of Christ. Shouldn't their lives have been exactly the same if they were both walking with our Savior? No. Why? Because each was called down a separate road with different obstacles. Some might say Peter suffered more for having been murdered, while John was allowed to live into old age. Others would say John suffered more because he lived so much longer. The opinions are varied and yet the bottom line is their abiding in Christ, no matter what they faced.

We have to CHOOSE to live for Christ, a conscious, fully aware choice to live in HIM.
We cannot pull on a costume of Christianity and hope the costume is enough. The heart must be Christ's. Our outward covering means nothing if our heart is not our God's. We can tug on the costume every day, some day's wearing more of it than others, but that façade will NOT keep God from seeing through to our hearts. It doesn't matter a whit what others believe, it matters what our Savior knows.

When our Savior comes He will find only two sorts of people living-

Those that are abiding in Him and those who are not.
Those that will feel the amazing love fully at His coming, and those who will feel nothing but shame.
Those that will no longer feel any weight of guilt upon them, and those who will feel the crushing guilt of their sins.

We choose daily.
We choose to abide in our Savior or abide in Satan.
When we aren't choosing to abide in Jesus Christ then we are automatically abiding in Satan.
We can't fool ourselves into thinking there is a fence to sit upon because there isn't, it's illusion that Satan has erected to keep many people lost in Him while they are none the wiser.

Please Lord help us to fully abide in YOU, no matter the seeming cost to us, that cost is NOTHING compared to the price YOU paid to give us the choice to choose SALVATION IN YOU!

Hope purifies

1Jn 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
1Jn 3:3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

Hope.

Without hope there is NOTHING.

Those who have no hope have nothing to believe in.

You see it all the time on various tv shows, in various movies the tragic sense of living a life of hopelessness. The theme in a lot of those shows is getting that hope back, because the moral of the story is to live without hope is to live without really being alive. But unlike movies a lot people today live without hope. The living for the here and now is all that matters. The living for the various plans made for the next day, or the next week, or even the next vacation might be a way of life but beyond that the hope for more is missing. A lot people have lost sight of the reason our Savior came to earth, taking on human flesh, living among sin, and dying among sin and sinners. He came to bring the gospel of the kingdom of HEAVEN. He came to bring the message of hope in eternal life through HIM, through HIS grace. Our Savior's sole purpose in coming to our world was to bring us salvation in HIM and that salvation is for eternal life in the kingdom of heaven. Our Savior did NOT come to bring us a happy, wonderful, pain free, life here and now. The promise was for SALVATION from this world of sin, this world of pain. This is the HOPE. The hope isn't for things to go wonderfully here and now. When tragedy strikes as it all too often does we somehow feel abandoned by God, forsaken by God, forgotten by God, punished by God, we feel betrayed by God, and as a result of all that we hardened our hearts towards God. Satan loves when this happens, absolutely dances with delight when people blame God for the tragedies that are allowed to happen to them. They, for some reason believe that by believing and loving God that they'll be put under a protective dome and the horrible tragedies of life will pass them by, that they'll be spared the agonies others who don't believe in God like they do must endure. That isn't found anywhere in the Bible, not in one single place. We are to hope for the NEXT world, our REAL home, our heavenly abode, for life with our Savior, not for our lives here and now to be tragedy free.

The hope we must have is in JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD AND SAVIOR, OUR COMING KING. This is the hope we must have CONSTANTLY, not just on certain occasions, it's a hope we must have LIVING in us. This hope that when our Savior appears we will be like Him, that we will see HIM as He is, must be REAL to us because it is that HOPE that will purify us- EVEN AS HE IS PURE.

We can be purified through the HOPE in our Savior, that we will be PURE as HE is PURE. It is HIS purity that we are given, not a purity of our own outside of HIM. We do NOT purify ourselves and then go to HIM, that is a HUGE DEADLY mistake too many make. We GO to HIM and live with the HOPE OF HIM and THAT hope will purify us. Satan wants us to try and purify ourselves without Christ, thinking we cannot go to our Savior without first being pure. Was the adulteress pure when she lay at his feet, thrown there by her many accusers who wanted to stone her to death? No. Did Jesus tell her she was filthy and turn His back on her because of her unclean state? No. Jesus forgave her in her unclean, filthy, impure state and told her to sin no more. HE forgave her, HE worked the purifying in her. He could tell her to go and sin no more because He'd purified her, He'd given her the full hope of salvation in Himself, and that hope would guide her from then on, purifying her.

Try all you want you will NEVER make yourself clean enough, it's IMPOSSIBLE!

It's focusing on the HOPE we have in our SAVIOR that will PURIFY us.

As long as we are focusing on ourselves and our inability, or seeming ability to cleanse ourselves, we will keep our eyes off the only One who can truly purify us.

Our focus- this is key. Our HOPE cannot be in our achieving self-cleansing, our HOPE as to be in seeking to be cleansed.

This is truth as it is found IN CHRIST JESUS OUR SAVIOR! This is HOPE.

Called the sons of God

1Jn 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.


Sons of God.

We have various organizations that people consider themselves sons and daughters of, and yet they have no blood tie to anyone.

The aspect of begin a son or daughter is more than our blood relation.

We have children adopted by parents without any blood ties.

Being a son of someone is MORE than just blood.

When a person willingly adopts a child they do so with the intention of raising that child as their own. For all intents and purposes by law they are responsible to do just that- raise the child as their own, they've taken over ownership of that child. The child will not be free of that ownership by law- ever, unless they willingly choose to emancipate themselves from their adopted parents when they are of age.

Just as a birth child at 18 and/or 21 is considered responsible for themselves, an adopted child is the same.

However, any child remains the child of their parents forever, they just become adult children.

Called the sons of God.

Adam was created by God, in God's image.

Jesus was God with God, chosen to be the Son of God when He took on human flesh. The Father God took on His role as the Father as Jesus took on the role of the Son. We become sons of God when we take on the role of repenting, of one seeking to be forgiven, as one who is BORN AGAIN into a spiritual life with Christ, through Christ our Savior.

These are all chosen acts, nothing forced upon anyone, but a willing acceptance, a willing decision that is made.

1Jn 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

It's through LOVE that is given to US by the Father we are given the Son's love.

The WORLD will not KNOW those who are God's sons, why? Because they do not KNOW GOD.

How do we know if we know God- we keep His commandments.

The world does NOT keep God's commandments, and they do NOT know God.

We love God, we keep His commandments, He calls us His sons and the world will NOT know us, will not love us, will not have anything to do with us just as it has nothing to do with God- IN TRUTH.

There will be a lot of false love, a claim to love without any real love at all.

By the grace of God may WE know God and be known of Him as His sons.

Please LORD, know us, love us.

All through Christ Jesus our Savior.

Abide in Him

1Jn 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
1Jn 2:28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
1Jn 2:29 If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.

Abide in Him.

Live in Christ.

Make our life in Christ.

Make Christ our life.

This isn't something for just preachers, evangelists, or those who say they have a special calling from God. This is for ALL OF US!

We must ALL make Christ our life because if we don't we aren't abiding in Him and if we aren't abiding in Him then we are going to be ashamed at HIS coming.

Ashamed.

You've felt ashamed before haven't you? Ashamed at some bad behavior you've committed, something hurtful you've said. That shame penetrates to your very core, doesn't it? It can eat away at a person, it can cause a spiritual ache inside that is brutal. Shame. It's KNOWING you've sinned, you've done wrong. We feel that shame because the HOLY SPIRIT is convicting us of that wrong, of that sin.

IF we are not abiding in Christ then when He comes we WILL feel ashamed without any doubt. We will feel the weight of our sin upon us because our Savior will not have taken that sin for us. When we abide in Christ we are abiding in His forgiveness, His love, His salvation. We cannot live a life separated from our Savior and expect salvation, it's an impossibility.

It's very true that ol' saying about imagine Jesus with you at all times, if you can't then you have to question whether or not you're walking with Him. People will get ridiculous with it and say silly nonsense about that, but for the MOST part if you cannot live with Jesus by your side even in your imagining, will you ever be able to imagine the reality of eternal life with Him?

It's true, another bit about the people that do not gain salvation are not losing out because they would NOT be happy there if they did have it. To those who believe eternal life in Christ is everything that seems ludicrous, but to those whose lives are happiest in their sins, in their separation from God, they would not desire life eternal with Him. It's heartbreakingly sad, but true.

We MUST abide in Christ!

By HIS GRACE!

In HIS LOVE!

Promised Eternal Life

1Jn 2:24 Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
1Jn 2:25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
1Jn 2:26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.

The truth has forever been in the beginning.
Our Savior brought the truth with Him, He was and is the truth.
Salvation in Him is our only hope and this is the gospel of the kingdom which Jesus came to preach to us.
We continue forever in the Son and in the Father with we continue in the truth given to us at the beginning.
Eternal life is the promise given in truth and we can never forget it.
We are NOT promised anything here and now.
We are not promised good health, great wealth, love from others, intelligence. We are NOT promised these things in fact of ALL the many followers, the many believers of our Savior - as the Messiah to come and the Messiah having come- very few have been given all those things- VERY FEW. The majority are the average, humble people who have nothing of great prestige upon earth. We are PROMISED only eternal life through our Savior and what an amazing gift that is.
Often we lose sight of the big picture because we are so caught up in the little one- our life here and now. We think our life here and now is the big picture but it's not, not if we believe- truly believe and have faith in our Savior and His promise.

The promise is ETERNAL LIFE, not a good life now.

And those that would seduce us want us to believe that this life here and now is all that matters and if we are not given great rewards now but rather made to live a life of poverty, of illness, of mental and emotional trauma, that we are somehow disappointing God and He is punishing us now.

It's not unheard of that God works in our lives and we have the Bible, His word telling us how He's worked in the past and with that in mind we know His hand guides all we do. Some of us are meant to fill the role of the needy, and it's not because God hates us. God wants to save us all and He will do, and has done all He can for us. We have to trust Him fully, not ourselves and not other people, but GOD.

We have to keep what we hear from the beginning.
We have to keep the truth we heard from the start.
We have to keep the gospel of the kingdom in our lives as it first rang out in our hearts, giving us a new birth, a spiritual birth, a new life in Christ our SAVIOR!

All in HIM!

Always!

Satan's words are in our mouths every single time we lie!

1Jn 2:20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
1Jn 2:21 I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
1Jn 2:22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
1Jn 2:23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.

No LIE is of the truth.

No lie.

Not ONE single lie has truth in it.

Is it any wonder that LYING is of the devil? Seriously.

Truth and lies.

God and Satan.

The Father of Truth and the Father of Lies.

We cannot lie and not be speaking Satan's words- that is truth!

Satan's words are in our mouths every single time we lie!

No lie is of the truth.

No lie is of our God.

Liars need to ask for forgiveness every bit as much as any other sinner, you cannot lie and not repent of it if you are seeking truth in God.

Lairs put themselves in the place of Christ. Seriously. When we lie we are pushing Christ out, we are pushing the truth away and setting ourselves up in place of Christ by trying to make our lies truth.

That's what a lie is, right? A lie is someone trying to make a falsehood truth, trying to get others to believe that their lies are really truth.

We have to see things for what they REALLY are and not what we want them to be. LIES are so incredibly insidious. That saying- oh what tangled webs we weave when at first we practice to deceive- is true. Webs of deceit, webs of lies that will most certainly entangle us.

1Jn 2:22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
1Jn 2:23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.

This is TRUTH!

Liars deny the truth of JESUS CHRIST.
Liars put themselves in place of the truth as it is found in our Savior.
Liars do not know and cannot be known by the Father and the Son.

You cannot say you know God and not know Jesus Christ, the Son.
You cannot say you know Jesus Christ and not know God, the Father.

If you know One you know the Other.

If you deny One- you deny Both.

These words are TRUTH!

We must hold to the truth!

We must hold to our SAVIOR!

Please Lord, please help us to stay and live in You, in the TRUTH!

Let us NEVER put ourselves in Your place, never!

Please Lord, all by Your love, Your grace!

All in YOU!

Are you living in place of Christ?

1Jn 2:18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
1Jn 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

It is the last time.

The last time. It makes sense doesn't it, seriously, it does- WHEN we look at the BIG picture and not the small one.

The big picture- 4000 some years passing with the promise of a Messiah.
The promise finally realized.
The Messiah realized.
And NO longer could Satan strive to keep the Promised One from coming to save mankind.
Salvation was REALIZED, it was a REALITY for all who would seek it, and all who WILL seek it.
What is left but the LAST of time?

Seriously, the time left with us remaining here on earth before our Savior returns for us is the last of time. Once our Lord returns time will be NO MORE. The PROMISE is realized and what is left is for us to accept what has been promised. We no longer wait for Salvation, we no longer wait for a Savior, we have salvation and an amazing Savior!

We have lived in the last time from the moment our Savior died for us and rose again, giving to us eternal life through HIM.

The antichrist --

This is the true meaning of Antichrist. In the Greek, anti means, "in place of" rather than as in English, "against."

In place of Christ.

We have heard that antichrists would come and even now are many that live in PLACE OF Christ. They've put themselves in the place of our true God. Anyone who puts themselves in the place where Christ alone belongs- is an antichrist.

After our Savior's death many of His followers banded together into groups, and many left those groups that followed our Savior's truths. Many created falsehoods, teaching their own doctrines for the commandments of God. They put their own spin on things and began to teach their OWN way, NOT Christ's way.

1Jn 2:18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
1Jn 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

As more and more people put themselves in the place of our God and His truths, we know it is closer to the return of our LORD.

Those who LEAVE the truth of God in favor of their own truths were NEVER really committed to our God, never. Those who leave the truth reveal their true selves, and those selves are NOT those who belong to God.

Way too many people believe they follow the Lord when they do NOT follow His truths, but their own. They are DECEIVED!

God's truth this is what matters more than anything!
God's truth is ALL that matters.
Our Savior had told us that more and more will seek their OWN ways to take the PLACE of Christ, and in our day and age this is so incredibly true!

Look around us, look around and see the truth before our eyes, the truth that many feel NO need of following our Lord's truths, as if they don't matter at all.

IN PLACE OF CHRIST.

Do you live in place of Christ? Do you? Ask yourself WHOSE truths you are following, your own or God's?

If you cannot answer- God's, then you are an antichrist even if you don't want to believe that you are- you are, plain and simple!

It's not enough to just believe-

Jas 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

We have to do more than believe! We have to live God's truths! We have to LIVE God's truths. We have to follow our LORD'S truths, whether we like them or not. Whether the truths are convenient to us or not. Whether or not we enjoy the truths. The TRUTHS will war with our flesh nature because they are SPIRITUAL. We must keep the spiritual truths ALIVE! If we do not keep the spiritual truths alive then we are dead to them and we are NOT Christ's.

The TRUTH or nothing! God's truth or nothing!

We cannot put ourselves in PLACE of Christ! We just cannot!

By the grace of God we must live in Him and ONLY HIM.

Please Lord, help us! Please! We would be YOURS.

Love Much

Luk 7:47 -

Wherefore I say unto thee
Her sins
which are many
are forgiven
for she loved much
but to whom little is forgiven
the same loveth little

Remember this verse-

1Jn 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

The more we LOVE, genuinely love, the more we KNOW God.
The more we LOVE, genuinely love, the more our sins are forgiven us.

LOVE truly is the real answer.

I know we hear that formerly popular song- 'All you need is love, love is all you need.' And in truth it really is all we need because GOD is LOVE. So in essence we are saying all we need is God, God is all we need, and THIS is truth!

What gets in our way of being able to love? Our selfishness, our self-centeredness, our self-admiration.

Is there any wonder Jesus said this--

Mat 23:11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.

How many people out there believe they are more important than others? Aren't we being taught from a very young age that we have to put ourselves first because others will only walk all over us if we don't? How many people that you know ASPIRE to be servants to others?

Luk 9:48 ... he that is least among you all, the same shall be great.

Servant- least among us- these are NOT things we are taught to desire. We are taught that the last one chosen, the least desired is the outcast, the worst of the worst. How many people are thrilled not to be that LAST person chosen when others are picking sides? We are taught NOT to want to be the least, the last, the servant, that these are the things we are to despise not desire.

When we are treated like servants we become appalled and disgruntled, even upset and angry, we want to lash out at those treating us like servants, we want to tell them to do it themselves whatever it is, we don't like to be unappreciated which is what we are taught servants are. Even then something inside us rebels at having to do for others what we believe they can do themselves, or should do themselves. We pride ourselves at being able to tell others we're not going to do whatever it is, that they should just do it themselves, we are not their slaves. Yet the truth of the matter is… the REAL HONEST truth is… it is a BLESSING on us to be able to serve- yes, to be able to serve even those who could in all reality very well do for themselves. Every time we serve we are given an opportunity to receive a blessing. I say given an opportunity because we can destroy that opportunity by not RECEIVING it, but rejecting it and letting a spirit of discord rise up in us wiping away any blessing.

I was raised to believe that there were things I had to do- chores and such, whether I liked it or not. I wasn't raised to believe I received a blessing in doing those sorts of things. I, very unfortunately did NOT raise my children to believe in the blessing of serving even in the most minor of things. I taught that they owe the family something- and had to contribute to the over all well being of a semi-well ordered household. They did things because they OWE a debt, they are being well cared for and in exchange for that they should pull their own weight. And now that they're older children I've switched from that to the- you ought to help out because you're an adult and legally you are capable of being out on your own- of having to take care of yourself. Because you're living here and not paying any rent/bills etc you ought to do the things you are told. Again, I haven't really stressed the blessing they can get from serving. Would it make a difference? Would it change the fact they still have to do things they'd rather not, that they have to pull themselves away from their own activities? No. It wouldn't change that.

In my own life as I try- all by the grace and mercy of God, through the Holy Spirit- to alter the awful way I begrudgingly do things that need doing, I hope to make this 'serving is a blessing' a reality. It won't be easy, because the other way is so engrained in me- in fact from my youth.

The least the greatest?
The servant the greatest?
The one who loves most- forgiven most?
The greater sinner who loves is forgiven more than a lesser sinner who loves less?

These are TRUTHS!
These are God's truths!

Love others as GOD would want us to love them.

If we LOVE much, we will be forgiven much and I don't know about you, but there is so much I need to be forgiven for, so much.

Please LORD help me to love!
Please LORD help me to obtain a blessing through serving.

All through YOU!

Sabbath - a WEEKLY reminder of God's love for us!

Gen 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Why?

Why bless a day?

Why make a day holy?

Did days exist before the first day?

The first day.
The second day.
The third day.
The fourth day.
The fifth day.
The sixth day.
The seventh day.

There was NO eighth day of creation- all had been created.

God stopped creating on the sixth day. When that sixth day was over creation now existed. From nothing, from a void, from an emptiness came all of creation by God's wondrous power.

God did it all in six days and added an extra day in instituting a day of rest after such an amazing act.

Could God have created everything in one day? In one hour? In one minute? One heartbeat?

Yes.

The thing is, God was creating a future with the needs of His creatures in mind. The creation process was for OUR edification, it was done as it was for US.

The creation process at our very beginning mirrors so much of life in general. You've heard all about the circle of life, God's circle of life wasn't supposed to include our deaths. Yet there was still a circle of life going on and it's mirrored in creation. That cycle, that circle was instituted in creation. God told Adam and Eve the were to eat of all the trees bearing fruit- save one tree. God told Adam he was to tend to the garden- all before sin entered our world.

Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Gen 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Gen 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

Gen 2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

What happens when you eat a piece of fruit? Does that particular piece of fruit exist any longer? No. There was to be a constant consuming of the fruit and the replenishing of that fruit through that cycle our God brought into existence. God created us with the need to eat. God created us with needs and intended all of those needs be met in all that He gave us. Living as we do in such horrific sin- we can scarcely imagine having all we need - living in a beautiful garden. We can't begin to believe that we could be happy existing in a garden without any of the trappings of our sin filled society, without modern day conveniences. We imagine it to be like camping, but even our best days of camping are still encumbered by sin and the toil that exists in being a sinner- separated from God.

We were changed when we sinned.
Instantly Adam and Eve noticed the difference. It didn't take a minute, an hour, a day for the effects to begin- they were instantaneous.
Sin altered them.
That separation was immediately felt.
Their lives were forever changed in that moment. They were soon cast out of the garden and knowing pain, heartache, shame became real to them- just as we know these things.

You know who God told our first parents to be fruitful and multiply?
Well remember when God added this part after they sinned--

Gen 3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

In SORROW would she multiply. It wasn't meant to be PAINFUL, it wasn't meant to be SORROWFUL. Being fruitful and multiplying was to be a glorious, wondrous thing, without a hint of sorrow involved.

Yes, a lot changed when sin took over.

So while we might not be able to fully imagine living happily in a garden it's because we are imagining doing so as sinners filled with all the trials and tribulations that possess sinners.

God created days and did so with a purpose.

The seven day weekly cycle is the only one that has worked and survived for humanity. God instituted that cycle.

What was begun during creation was REINFORCED when God gave His written MORAL LAW to man. A law that needed to be memorialized in stone to a people who had been held captive for four hundred years and as we all know time has a way of changing things. This was something God never, ever wanted changed not ONE jot not ONE tittle!

Mat 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Exo 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exo 20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
Exo 20:10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

And reinforced yet again--

Exo 16:15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.
Exo 16:16 This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.
Exo 16:17 And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.
Exo 16:18 And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.
Exo 16:19 And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.
Exo 16:20 Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.
Exo 16:21 And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.
Exo 16:22 And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
Exo 16:23 And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
Exo 16:24 And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.
Exo 16:25 And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field.
Exo 16:26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.

The six day work week and the seventh day rest.

This was God's intended design from the beginning, even before sin. Adam in the garden of Eden would work six days and on the seventh day of the week he rested- GOD instituted this amazing day way back at our very beginning and it's a memorial to HIM, our CREATOR.

The cycle given at the beginning still exists for us right NOW.

Our Creator wanted us to NEVER forget our beginning. To forget is to sin because to forget is to deny God, to deny our Creator and if we deny our God, our Creator, we have no hope of being blessed by Him. We have to believe that He is first and foremost.

Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

What an AMAZING blessing it is to have this WEEKLY reminder of God's love for us!

We can get caught up in the world, caught up in the cares of this life, but EVERY SABBATH our God wants us to be brought back into remembrance of who is in charge of our lives. God wants us to remember His amazing love fully realized in the sacrifice of His sinless Son, Jesus Christ. EVERY SABBATH is a chance for renewal. Honestly, God put the word REMEMBER on this commandment for a reason. It doesn't take long for the world to get it's evil clutches into our lives, not long at all. But if EVERY SABBATH we are drawn back into a renewed FAITH the world has less and less of a chance to sink it's clutches in so deep we are drawn away from our God, our Savior, and this God intended. We would forever be reminded of our origins, of our dependent status, of our being LOVED so perfectly that Satan could not keep us from HIM.

All in HIS LOVE!

This world will pass away- God's will abides forever

1Jn 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1Jn 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
1Jn 2:17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

ALL that is in the world-

Lust of the flesh.
Lust of the eyes.
Pride of life.

ALL THAT IS OF THE WORLD!
All that is NOT of the FATHER.

Lust of the flesh- so much is lust of the flesh so much more than just sex.

Sex is a HUGE part of the flesh and lust. A HUGE part. You can't live in our world today and not know how overwhelmingly corrupted the WHOLE world is by sex. All the horrors of sex slavery, of pedophilia, of homosexuality, of fornication, of teen sex, of meaningless sex, of sexual diseases, of adultery, pornography, of well, you know, you have to know that sex is something that CONSUMES our world. There isn't a single society, a single country, a single place that is exempt from the horrors of the lust of the flesh in sex. In every single household- I'M NOT EXAGERATING! As much as people want to scoff and not believe it's true, it is so incredibly sad that there are very, very, very few households that haven't been touched by the horrors of the lust of the flesh.

How often we hear of the extreme horrors of the sexual perversions filling our world- and just recently I read an article where a very old man confessed to a younger man that the horrors of our perverted sexual world have existed for years- only as a former police officer of many years ago- they were NOT allowed to reveal the horrors to the public because the powers that be thought it would do more harm than good.

These perversions aren't new. We can read of ancient perversions and shake our heads but just because our day and age hides their perversions rather than exposes them, doesn't mean they don't exist, they do in numbers beyond imagining.

Sex is a powerful, powerful thing. Sex can be a good thing it really can but the potential for it to get out of control is so great that we were TOLD it is better NOT to marry, NOT to even go down that road if we can help it. But our LORD knew and knows that some wouldn't be able to contain that powerful force.

1Co 7:8 I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.
1Co 7:9 But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

The lusts of the flesh the obvious - sex, but there are other fleshy lusts- there is a perverted appetite, a love of filth, a warped desire to adorn the flesh outwardly, etc. there are many, many lusts of the flesh and ALL of them are not of GOD.

People might argue that we need lust- but passion and lust are two different things and we do need passion. Lust is a pervert passion.

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes- NOT OF GOD!

The pride of life- NOT OF GOD!

We cannot LOVE this WORLD!

WE ARE NOT OF THIS WORLD!

Yet this world will do everything to suck us in and keep us all caught up in its snares, everything!

We have to recognize the FIGHT we are in, the WAR we are ALL IN. We have to believe this is a war, our lives are all caught up in this spiritual battle. Every single person! We have to choose the side we fight on. We have to choose to forsake this WORLD and it's lusts if we desire to be God's.

We choose, and it is a REAL choice we must make.

1Jn 2:17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

All the LUSTS will pass away!
But HE that DOETH the WILL OF GOD ABIDES FOREVER!

We choose!

All by HIS GRACE AND LOVE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, OUR GOD, OUR LOVE.

He writes unto us

1Jn 2:12 I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.
1Jn 2:13 I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.
1Jn 2:14 I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

Little children.
Fathers.
Young men.

Little children- sins are forgiven for the for the name of Jesus.
Fathers- you have known Him from the beginning.
Young men- have overcome the wicked one.

Little children- you have known the Father.
Fathers- you have known Him from the beginning.
Young men- you are strong and have the word of God in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.

The word of our Lord is being given to us all.
None of us is left out.

Those who will listen, those who LOVE GOD will be able to hear, they will be able to comprehend His LOVE.

Those who will NOT be God's, those who do not want to be God's- all the little children, all the fathers, all the young men- will NOT be God's.

We will be forgiven for HIS name's sake.
We will know HIM from the beginning.
We will overcome the wicked one.
We will have the word of God in us.
We will know Him.
We will be strong.
We will overcome.

We will be HIS.

The word of God is written for us to learn from-- we must understand that God WANTS us to read what He writes for us. This isn't a book meant for a select time- it was never intended to be. This is a book that is everlasting in it's knowledge of our God of His LOVE.

So many people want to pick it all apart and not take it as a whole.
So many people want to destroy the word of God, to make His love perverted, something to abhor.

The word of God is filled with LOVE, and a love we can truly see in all that's done.

An exacting REAL love beyond anything we can fully comprehend.

We are given His word, we HAVE to read His word and let the Holy Spirit give us the understanding we need.

All by HIS GRACE.

Darkness is past, true light now shines

1Jn 2:8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

The DARKNESS is past.
The TRUE LIGHT NOW SHINETH.

What darkness?
What did our Savior accomplish at calvary?
He was the PROMISED seed from the beginning. Right after our first parents sinned and separated us from God, our Savior was a spoken promise to our first parents. Our Savior was ready to step in before Creation, ready in the event we fell. That spoken promise was fully realized after 4000 or so years! 4000 years in darkness. 4000 years with Satan trying everything in his power to stop the Promised Seed from coming. Truly 4000 years of darkness.

When our Savior was born a LIGHT was brought into the world that lived in darkness. A world that lived with a Promise as yet unfulfilled. A world that hung in the balance, it's hope of salvation unrealized. Satan fought hard to stop it and he continued to try and stop it. After the birth of our Savior took place Satan working through Herod ordered all infants in Bethlehem to be killed!

Mat 2:13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

Mat 2:16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.

Satan worked through many, many people, filling them with his evil, manipulating them to try everything to destroy the seed line of God's promised One. Once the LIGHT was shining in the world Satan tried to destroy that Light and He succeeded- only it happened under God's PLAN, not Satan's.

The LIGHT shined brilliantly in the world, brilliantly!

The TRUE LIGHT came to SHINE in the world brining the message of the kingdom- the gospel of salvation through our SAVIOR!

The darkness was past. The obscurity of what was promised was no longer there as the promised was fulfilled.

As always an unfulfilled promise lives within the realm of un-fulfillment- in darkness.
Light shines on fulfilled promises, they are realized, they are brought to life.

Our Savior was brought to life, the promise of Salvation at hand!

Our Savior emphasized the truth of the commandments we were given, the moral law. Our Savior told us that we were to LOVE God and to LOVE our fellowman.

1Jn 2:9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.

This is TRUTH. If we say we are in the LIGHT of Jesus and HATE others then we are in DARKNESS!

1Jn 2:10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

We must LOVE others!

1Jn 2:11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

Darkness equals HATING others.
Walking in darkness is walking, living and HATING others.
Walking in darkness is BLINDING.
Living in hatred of others is blinding, darkness complete and utter darkness fills us and we cannot see there is NO possible way of seeing because that hatred allows NO light to enter, none.

By the GRACE of God may we WALK IN LIGHT, in the LIGHT OF OUR SAVIOR who dispels ALL DARKNESS!

Love conquers hate!

It truly is all about LOVE! Real, real genuine LOVE.

In His LOVE always!!!!

Commandment we've had from the beginning

1Jn 2:7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.

NO new commandment unto you.
An OLD commandment.
A commandment you had from the BEGINNING.
The WORD ye have heard from the beginning.

I'm sorry but anyone who says the moral commandments, the ten great commandments given by God were first introduced at Sinai by Moses well they're WRONG. Those many, many years before Moses those laws were in effect. These laws are STILL in effect. Writing them down for a people who were being CALLED out of a 400 year life of slavery was necessary but they weren't brand new.

Remember when Cain murdered Abel? Cain knew IMMEDIATELY it was wrong to murder. Cain didn't believe he'd done nothing wrong, that is was okay to murder, he KNEW instantly.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God's only verbal warning command to them and committed the first sins- they KNEW instantly they'd done wrong.

There is a right and wrong that existed from the beginning and it is summed fully up in the ten commandments. Jesus renewed the truth of the ten commandments when He walked the earth. They are fully realized in these two commandments- LOVE GOD and LOVE MAN.

The newness of commandments is in the doing away of the ceremonial commandments, doing away with that which isn't in the MORAL LAW.

NEVER would there EVER be a reason for God to do away with His moral law, NEVER! It was established in the beginning and will always exist, always and forever!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, there will NEVER be a time to disobey any of the ten commandments, NEVER. Never will any single one of the ten moral laws be obsolete, never! We will forever be instructed to LOVE GOD and LOVE EACH OTHER.

When our Savior returns we will be filled with this love forever and ever and ever, a love we cling to now all by the grace and mercy of our LORD and SAVIOR. Our Lord and Savior make it possible for us to LOVE, we could NEVER love without them, NEVER.

In the beginning, during, and at the end, on to eternity God's love written in His law will forever be realized.

Please Lord, please help us to realize the eternity of your commandments, the love of your law, help us!

All in YOUR amazing LOVE!

Jesus is our role model

1Jn 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
1Jn 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Jesus is our ROLE MODEL.
Jesus in the One we need to emulate.
Jesus is the One we need to follow and NO other.

If we say we BELONG to Jesus we need to live as Jesus lived.

Jesus did NOT call all the people He came in contact with to be PHYSICAL followers of Him. He did call ALL to be His spiritual followers, but He did not tell every person He healed to give up everything and follow Him. He did not tell every person that listened to Him that they needed to leave their homes, their jobs, their families and go with Him. Jesus gave many, many lessons to those He knew would never leave their families, their homes, their jobs.

When we are told to walk as He walked, we are being told to live the spiritual life He led, to live the moral life that He did, to live the self-less life that He gave us as an example, to live connected fully with the Father. Anyone who actually believes that walking as Christ walked means PRETENDING (with great delusion) to be Christ is far off the mark. We are to live towards our spiritual life, not our carnal life.

If we are abiding in our Savior we are living a life PLEASING TO GOD.

Our Savior lived a life PLEASING to God.
Our Savior lived a life fully dependent upon God.
Our Savior did NOTHING in and of Himself.
Our Savior did GOD'S WILL, not His own.

You wonder how could the two wills be opposed?

Luk 22:42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

This is how our Savior lived His life.

He felt His humanity every bit as much as we do.
He didn't WANT to suffer. He didn't WANT to be betrayed. He didn't WANT to be tortured, to be ridiculed. He didn't WANT to be murdered. He KNEW what was going to happen and He did NOT want to go through it all. He wanted His CUP- the bitter dregs of what lay ahead to be taken away from Him so He wouldn't have to drink it, so He wouldn't have to endure all the pain, all the unspeakable agony. But more than facing all that torture HE didn't want His OWN will to be done, He wanted His FATHER'S WILL to be done.

We have to WANT God's will to be done over our own will.

The two wills- man and God's will war against each other because sin separated us from the natural desire for God's will to be done in us.

Jesus revealed His humanity in this statement- NOT MY WILL. Not what He wanted, not what He desired and YES, He did WANT something contrary to the will of God, HE DID, He said it HIMSELF!

NOT MY WILL.

To say those words meant that His will was contrary to the Father's will or else He never would have had to say those words at all.

NOT MY WILL.

BUT THINE BE DONE.

This is HOW we must live. We must submit to the WILL of God, not to our own will which is contrary to God's.

If we are to walk even as Christ's walked then we have to comprehend that our Savior's humanity was as real as ours is. That He faced the same temptations we face- only probably worse. He did. Too many people want to believe that He was above even the idea of temptation, that it was impossible to tempt Him because He couldn't be tempted. Tempting someone that can't be tempted is pointless. Jesus WAS TEMPTED and the possibility for Him to give in to temptation existed! He could ONLY be victorious over sin if it were a real possibility for Him to sin.

He CHOSE to follow God's will, not HIS OWN.

This is what we must do as we fight this Spiritual war. We have to understand that we are in a constant battle of wills ours against God's, with Satan urging us on to follow our own will.

Satan starts teaching us at a very young age that our own desires, that our own will is more important than anything else. That abiding in only ourselves and walking after only our own ways is what's best for us. Satan teaches us that to deprive ourselves is a bad, bad thing, totally unnecessary. Satan teaches us that to be served is better than to serve. Satan teaches us that resenting others is a good thing, a natural thing, an expected thing, that to receive a reward for our service is expected.

Jesus teaches us this--

Luk 6:34 And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to

If we do for others because we are hoping receive in kind we are doing it for the wrong reasons yet we are told that is exactly what we are to expect. You do this for someone and they are obligated to repay in kind. We grow up on this stuff!

Being the servant is NOT something we are encourage towards especially here in the United States.

Yet we MUST be servants.

Our Savior was a SERVANT!

And our SAVIOR told us that if we want to be first we must be last!

Such contrary teachings to our society.

Looking out for number one is how we are raised and that number one is always self. This is completely contrary to our Savior's desire for us. We are to look out for God, for others, NOT OURSELVES! Yet it's become so ingrained in us that we call it second nature, is it any wonder we find it so incredibly hard to walk as Christ walked? We've been living lives completely contrary to God's will, taught to do so, encouraged to do so.

May God help us all!

Our only hope is the RIGHTEOUSNESS of Christ!
Our only hope it the MERCY, the GRACE, the FORGIVENESS of our SAVIOR!

Our only hope is found in HIM and not in us.

May HIS WILL, may GOD'S WILL be done in us!

All through HIS LOVE!

The love of God perfected

1Jn 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

Keeping the word of God PERFECTS US in GOD'S LOVE.

Do we want to know that we know HIM? Then keep His commandments.

Do we want to have the LOVE of GOD perfected in us? Then keep His commands.

We CAN know we are in Him and NOT fooled into believing we are when we really aren't.

Does this mean you'll be perfect? No. It means you'll be forgiven, fully forgiven, fully covered in HIS love.

So what happens when you realize that you are coveting daily- breaking a commandment of our Savior's? Does this mean you are NOT in God's love, that you don't know God? Absolutely NOT.

Contradictory? It might appear so but the truth is in the heart.

Was Paul loved by God? Did Paul know God, did he know that He knew God? YES.

This same Paul spoke these words--

Rom 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Rom 7:15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

Rom 7:16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

*

So tell me, did Paul know the EXACT same struggle that we today are facing?

We would KEEP the law of God the spiritual law that is His MORAL law as He has commanded us- this spiritual law will be written upon our hearts and we will keep it fully in our changed flesh when our Savior returns to give us new life. That new flesh we are given will no longer be carnal but changed into a spiritual nature no longer corrupted by sin.

We have to KNOW this--

FOR I DELIGHT IN THE LAW OF GOD AFTER THE INWARD MAN.

This delight in the law of God is a spiritual delight. This delight in the law makes us feel the stinging pain of conscience when we see ourselves sinning. The deep need to repent, to ask for forgiveness to seek to be free from the propensity towards the sins we cherish, the sins we enjoy- that our carnal nature exalts in making us slaves to those sins, making us believe we cannot be happy without those sins, that our lives would be deprived of a need if we have to give up something we find so convenient, so pleasurable, so normal, natural, so status quo, so conformed to the world that we can't imagine our lives at all without the sins whatever they may be.

We are called to be PILGRIMS, to be STRANGERS walking in a strange land not to be natives to the land, not people at home and content in this world, not seeking to plant our roots deep in this worldly sin stained soil. Heaven is our HOME. Heaven is where our Savior has prepared a place for us! Heaven is the place sought for by all of those who would be God's. This world is NOT our home! Is it any wonder Satan does every thing in His power to get us to believe differently?

1Jn 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

God's word tells us to LOVE.
God's word tells us to have FAITH.
God's word tells us we have an ADVOCATE with the FATHER.
God's word tells us that when we fall to the carnal flesh we have a SAVIOR and it's to HIM we must go, HE has the righteousness we need, we do not possess it.
We must keep God's commandments and He commands that we LOVE HIM, and LOVE EACH OTHER.

More on this tomorrow ALL by the grace and mercy of our SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!

In HIS LOVE.

We can know if we know Him- this is how...

1Jn 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

Do you wonder if you know God?

Many people do.

How can we know if we know Him?

We KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS!

He tells us how we know if we know Him, we do not have to wonder.

Are we keeping HIS commandments?

If we are NOT keeping His commandments we do NOT KNOW HIM.

We might think we know Him, but we don't if we are not keeping the commandments He's given to us.

All of the commandments our Savior has given to us are enveloped fully in His MORAL law. That law was put into the heart of mankind upon their creation and when man sinned they cut themselves off from the source of love that put the law of love into their hearts.

Once man was cut off from that source a WAY had to immediately be put into action for man to obtain the love of the law in their hearts again. The separating breach had to be mended and that was done in this promise…

Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

The heel that was to be bruised was our SAVIOR'S.

This promise was put into action the MOMENT God confronted mankind and Satan in that garden. In truth read this…

Tit 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began

2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began

BEFORE THE WORLD BEGAN!

The plan was in place before the world began! The promise we given before mankind existed. Knowing the risk they were taking in creating human beings, flesh and spirit mingled, they realized all the pros and cons and knowing there was that possibility of sinning and separating themselves from God through the urging of the corrupt one-- our Creators had a plan.

Yes, before the world began the plan was there ready to put into action.

When heartbreakingly it became necessary to do so, the plan was enacted and it's STILL being carried out and until our Savior returns and we are united with HIM in eternity it will be unfolding. The completion of the plan will be when we are inhabiting the new heavens and new earth with our God, with our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

The commandments we must keep are commandments of love all encompassed in the moral law of our ten commandments and summed up by our Savior in this verse…

Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

LOVE GOD.
LOVE OUR NEIGHBORS.

1Jn 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

We must love this is our Savior's commandment to us.

For the sins of the whole world

1Jn 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
1Jn 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Our Savior is THE propitiation-

-the one who appeases-

for our sins.

Our Savior stands between us and God the Father.

Our Savior stands between us and the wrath of God the Father.

Our Savior is our Advocate, our Mediator, our Propitiation for our sins and NOT just a few people, not just for special people, not for a select few but HE is the ONLY ONE who can stand as the propitiation for our sins and the SINS of the whole world.

THE WHOLE WORLD.

Our world could not be saved, our world could not exist without Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior intervening.

So many people believe that our world exists on its own. They believe the world came into existence by chance not design. They believe the world will exist forever unless we human and our ways destroy it. They believe that all the natural disasters exist for reasons that are easily comprehended and every single planet has it's own natural issues all existing by mere chance.

This world was not accidentally created perfect and then slowly started to fall apart. This world was not created a mess and then put itself together magically.

This world was created PERFECTLY by a PERFECT GOD filled with love we scarcely can comprehend. This perfect world was perfect in all its ways as were the inhabitants created to fill this world. ONLY after sin entered the world did it become corrupted. Only after the unimaginable chaos of the worldwide flood did this world develop the awful problems that plague it through so many natural disasters. Our God's wrath could have destroyed this earth in an instant and yet the compassion that flows from the LOVE He is didn't allow Him to do that. There was a WAY made for the world to be reconciled to Him.

Rom 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

1Jn 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
1Jn 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

The sins of the WHOLE WORLD CAN BE FORGIVEN. The possibility is there, it exists. Sadly, so tragically, heartbreakingly all the sins won't be forgiven because so many don't believe they even have a need to seek forgiveness. The unforgiven sins will be punished fully, every single one. Those who do NOT accept what our Savior has done for us, shedding His innocent blood to cover our sins, to wipe them away completely, so that we are truly and fully RIGHTEOUS in HIM with HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, those who do not accept this will perish eternally they will no longer exist in any way at all ever. They have to answer for their own sins they have no mediator, no advocate, no one to stand between them and the awesome LOVE of God.

Please LORD help us to seek salvation, to seek the gospel of the kingdom in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, His righteousness. Please…please.

In Your LOVE.

An Advocate

1Jn 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

We should NOT sin.
Anyone who thinks it's okay to sin is deceived.
Anyone who thinks there is any sin no matter how small that doesn't need to be forgiven is gravely mistaken.
We cannot commit even the tiniest of deliberate sins and expect that we are forgiven.
Any sin that we are aware of MUST be forgiven and in order for that sin to be forgiven we have to ASK for it to be forgiven.

We are NOT to sin.

However…

IF ANY MAN SIN we do have and ADVOCATE with the FATHER, and JESUS CHRIST the RIGHTEOUS.

We have an ADVOCATE!

We don't have to pay for this Advocate.
When you need an advocate in worldly matters you more often than not must pay for them or go unrepresented by anyone but yourself.

Have you ever had to represent yourself in court? I have and it's not easy, especially when you have a judge ignoring all your attempts to follow things to the legal level of the law, the judges I've had to deal with have taken offense at my audacity to even try to think I might know something of the law. They say over and over that I should get a lawyer, get a lawyer, hire a lawyer, get someone to represent you. But when you just CAN'T afford to hire representation then you only have yourself to rely upon and the mercy of the court which isn't all that understanding. They want those who have gone to school and studied to speak with them, not someone ignorant of all that learning. Judges, lawyers, and those they represent.

Spiritually we have a judge, spiritually we have an advocate, and spiritually we exist as those who will be judged and those who have a need for an advocate because in this spiritual trial we cannot survive representing ourselves. We need someone to advocate for us. In fact we need someone to actually TAKE OUR PLACE, someone willing to STAND IN for us, someone willing to ACCEPT our punishment because we are GUILTY!

We cannot plead our case, we are GUILTY.
We can only stand before the judge and admit our guilt and pray that our Advocate Jesus Christ our Savior will stand in our place and take our guilt. He's already served the sentence and it was the death penalty. A God- taking on flesh and dying an innocent man.

Only by the grace of our Savior will we live and no other way at all whatsoever.

If we do sin we must confess our sins and repent of them, seeking forgiveness in our God, our ADVOCATE, this is our only hope.

By His LOVE always!

Walk in light

1Jn 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
1Jn 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
1Jn 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
1Jn 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1Jn 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Joh 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Joh 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

God is light.
There is NO darkness in God at all.

When we live in darkness we are living in ignorance.
There is NO blindness with God- He sees all and knows all.

If we say we are living in Christ and then do the works of darkness we are LIARS.

We cannot do the works of darkness and say we are Christ's.

Yes, we are all sinners and sinners who seek to be with Christ, sinners who seek Christ's forgiveness. We need to repent and that repentance means giving up the sin. If we don't give up the sin then we have to repent and seek forgiveness over and over again. We cannot keep sinful things in our lives willingly and not repent of them even if that means repenting constantly. Some will tell you that you can't repent constantly, that you aren't truly seeking forgiveness and repenting if you commit the sin again, but that is Satan trying to lead us into despair. We have to constantly seek the Light and to walk in that Light. We cannot allow ourselves to walk in darkness with no hope of light, we just can't. This isn't a free pass to sin and get by, not at all. God knows our hearts and knows whether or not we are truly repenting. He knows whether or not we truly want Him to lead our lives, to be the LOVE of our lives, HE knows our HEARTS and He alone can give a clean heart.

The blood of our Savior will truly CLEANSE us from ALL SIN.

We can't believe we have no sin, we can't deceive ourselves- NOT if the TRUTH is in us. We must confess our sins, we must realize that OUR LORD is faithful to us and WILL forgive us and HE will CLEANSE us from ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS!

If we pretend we have NO sin, then we call our LORD a liar and His truth, His word is NOT in us.

We have to remember always that God is LIGHT, God is LIFE. God will shine HIS TRUTH into our IGNORANCE, so that our IGNORANCE will not kill us.

We need to comprehend the LIGHT of God, the TRUTH because if we don't we will live in darkness and believe me, Satan loves to surround us in his darkness masquerading it as light.

2Co 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

If our arch enemy can transform himself into an angel of light we have to seek only the TRUTH and live in that TRUTH of God's so we are NOT deceived!

All through HIS GRACE!
All through HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS!
All through HIS LOVE!

Fellowship with the Father and the Son

1Jn 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
1Jn 1:2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

That which was from beginning.
That which was heard.
That which was seen with their eyes.
That which they looked upon.
That which their hands touched.
The WORD of life.

How do you touch words?

You don't, not really.

Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.

In beginning the WORD existed.
The WORD existed WITH GOD.
The WORD also was a GOD.
God with God in beginning.

The first word spoken was spoken by our Savior- He is the Word.
All things were made by our Savior.

Joh 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

God with God, God the Father with God the Word creating our world, bringing us into existence.

God the Word with God throughout eternity no beginning, no end, ever existing. The Word gave us existence and the Word offers us salvation. The Creator, the Redeemer.

Some were witness to the miracle of the Word made flesh. They were blessed, able to see Him, touch Him, hear Him. These brought the message to us who would exist thousands of years later that through faith we would believe without seeing, without touching, without hearing.

1Jn 1:3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
1Jn 1:4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

We also may have FELLOWSHIP with those who lived thousands of years ago and this fellowship is possible through faith in the Father and with the Word made flesh, the God who became the Son and lived among us.

We are told that this fellowship is possible, this amazing fellowship with our eternal Gods and we must believe it because only in believing will our joy truly be full.

When our hope is in eternity and things eternal and not focused on here and now, we can have that joy because NOTHING can take away that joy, that hope, nothing!

As our existence here might seem unbearable - we suffer truly suffer- we can still lay hold of the hope that is found in our God the Father and our God the Son- our Savior. Eternity can be real through faith in our Lord. Satan would blind us to eternity, or make it so that eternity is something impossible to obtain, but the real truth is that eternity must be our hope, our truth because eternity exists in our Savior!