1Jn 3:17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
1Jn 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
Loving others.
If we love others we will care for them. If we see another in need we and turn our backs on them we are NOT loving others. If we consider our OWN needs first- we are not loving others.
It's so incredibly hard to put others first to the point of us having nothing.
There was a popular television show episode that depicted a man who was giving away his money and lots of it. He was giving and giving and giving until his family left him because he was no longer seemingly concerned with providing them with all the things they wanted etc. Well he fell ill and the physician in charge of his case decided his giving was due to a medical problem not because he was actually caring and giving. This show went on and made it just that- they found a tumor in his brain that pressed on a certain part that made him this overly caring man, willing to lay down his life to save another- literally. What the show wanted to get across is that people are NOT like that, they aren't selfless, they have to be sick to be so. And you know what- with the way people are today- it's sadly true.
Even in my own life I have this huge war going on- the battle between what I KNOW is right and what I would rather do. The battle between wanting to help others, but not wanting to destitute myself looms large in me. Is this selfishness? I fear it is. EVEN with little things- things that are asked of me- I find myself resenting them and this is the FLESH battle within. As soon as I start resenting I recognize that it's wrong and by the grace of God sometimes I can take the chastising and that feeling goes away, others times it's not such a quick release from the battle.
This flesh battle is REAL, so incredibly real. Saying 'flesh' battle almost makes it sound physical but more often than not the flesh battle isn't a battle of tangible flesh but of spirit- emotional, mental- and the flesh war is a battle of flesh DESIRES against spiritual TRUTHS.
Flesh desires warring against spiritual truths- this is our battle.
So when the conflict rages within us we have to expect it and NOT give into the despair satan wants to make us feel. If he can get us to live in despair then he has won us, taken us from our Savior. We have to FIGHT! And oh what a fight it is! Such a fight! A fight we will have until our Savior returns or until our life is over and we are sleeping in the grave.
We will NOT get to a place we are outside of the battle and if we do we have to worry, really worry.
Please Lord, help us to endure, help us fight the battle by choosing to be with YOU, choosing to abide in YOU. We have to seek forgiveness always. It is YOUR righteousness we have to live in, not our own. Help us LORD. Help us to give LORD. Help us to love others MORE than ourselves. Help us LORD because we are immersed in selfishness, drowning in self, choosing ourselves over others, please…help us.
1Jn 3:17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
1Jn 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
In DEED and in TRUTH.
In DEED- in actions.
In TRUTH- in CHRIST!
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Because HE laid down HIS life for us
1Jn 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
WE ought to LAY down our lives for others.
If we are commanded to lay down our lives for others- something so HUGE- does it stand to reason that we are to lay down our lives for others as we live? Seriously. Are we to allow others to dictate to us how we should live- for them? Is it WRONG for them to ask us to do for them? Should we feel put upon and deny them what they ask of us?
Our Savior went about doing good. Our Savior helped so many people in any way He could, even to the point of wearing Himself out time and time again. Our Savior did NOT contribute to ANY sin! Our Savior did NOT help anyone sin! Our Savior helped, He healed and told those He healed to go and SIN NO MORE.
When others are asking for our help- asking for us to do good UNTO them, if we refuse then we are NOT living in Christ, we are NOT abiding in our Savior!
We really do have to lay down our SELF all the way up to the point of death- to do good unto others. Our Savior taught us this and yet we live in a world where there is so much selfishness, so much pain, so much heartache all caused by others hurting others.
I read something today that broke my heart- men/boys sexually attacking a mentally challenged young girl only 17, and her mother saying they've been doing so since she was 12. My heart broke, it broke. This world is so sick, so filled with people who have no love for each other, no love at all whatsoever. The thing they try to call love is nothing like the love of our SAVIOR which is ALL about loving others and loving the One who CREATED us. The words of our Savior--
Mat 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
-- is so TRUE! Never more true, never. We've never had this many people living in this world at one time- not ever and it's growing more populated daily. With more people there is so much more hatred, more sin, more ungodliness, so much more SELF LOVE, and a lot less love for others.
We are to LAY DOWN OUR LIVES FOR OTHERS if the need arises, as CHRIST laid down HIS life for all of US.
And if we are to DIE for others, give up our very life to save another, then how can we NOT give all we can to others as long as we live? How do we STOP when it comes to giving while living, and yet try to convince ourselves that we would lay down our lives for others if need be? What kind of self deception is that? We choose to hold back while we live- not giving- not loving others fully as our Savior would have us if we really abide in Him and love HIM, and if we hold back we are NOT HIS! We will NOT be found in HIM.
It doesn't matter if you feel inclined to help- what matters is helping. Seriously. Satan would have us so caught up in our feelings that we *FEEL* that we should *FEEL* like giving, only then are we truly giving. That if we hold the LEAST bit of feeling of resentment then it ruins everything. We HAVE to realize, we really, really have to realize that we are made of FLESH and we are fighting that FLESH, we fight daily, hourly, minutely against our own flesh being that isn't inclined towards the spiritual life we must live. As we fight we'll have SATAN whispering in our ear that we are NOT God's, and we are not HIS because we don't *FEEL* inclined to be loving towards others.
We have to set our FEELINGS aside and CHOOSE to LOVE regardless of those feelings.
We choose to love and we choose to give, to lay down our lives, and to live for loving others as our Savior did. This is a CHOICE we make.
So while Satan might be whispering his evilness to us trying to get us to despair because we don't fit the mold that we imagine we should as loving Christians, we have ignore him and CHOOSE to not living by feelings, but through FAITH. Faith tells us that we can have HOPE, not in ourselves but in our GOD, in HIS ability to LOVE.
Please LORD, help us choose to love and in choosing to love- live to love others all the way up to the point of laying down our lives if we need to. Please LORD, through YOU! Through YOUR LOVE ALWAYS!
WE ought to LAY down our lives for others.
If we are commanded to lay down our lives for others- something so HUGE- does it stand to reason that we are to lay down our lives for others as we live? Seriously. Are we to allow others to dictate to us how we should live- for them? Is it WRONG for them to ask us to do for them? Should we feel put upon and deny them what they ask of us?
Our Savior went about doing good. Our Savior helped so many people in any way He could, even to the point of wearing Himself out time and time again. Our Savior did NOT contribute to ANY sin! Our Savior did NOT help anyone sin! Our Savior helped, He healed and told those He healed to go and SIN NO MORE.
When others are asking for our help- asking for us to do good UNTO them, if we refuse then we are NOT living in Christ, we are NOT abiding in our Savior!
We really do have to lay down our SELF all the way up to the point of death- to do good unto others. Our Savior taught us this and yet we live in a world where there is so much selfishness, so much pain, so much heartache all caused by others hurting others.
I read something today that broke my heart- men/boys sexually attacking a mentally challenged young girl only 17, and her mother saying they've been doing so since she was 12. My heart broke, it broke. This world is so sick, so filled with people who have no love for each other, no love at all whatsoever. The thing they try to call love is nothing like the love of our SAVIOR which is ALL about loving others and loving the One who CREATED us. The words of our Savior--
Mat 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
-- is so TRUE! Never more true, never. We've never had this many people living in this world at one time- not ever and it's growing more populated daily. With more people there is so much more hatred, more sin, more ungodliness, so much more SELF LOVE, and a lot less love for others.
We are to LAY DOWN OUR LIVES FOR OTHERS if the need arises, as CHRIST laid down HIS life for all of US.
And if we are to DIE for others, give up our very life to save another, then how can we NOT give all we can to others as long as we live? How do we STOP when it comes to giving while living, and yet try to convince ourselves that we would lay down our lives for others if need be? What kind of self deception is that? We choose to hold back while we live- not giving- not loving others fully as our Savior would have us if we really abide in Him and love HIM, and if we hold back we are NOT HIS! We will NOT be found in HIM.
It doesn't matter if you feel inclined to help- what matters is helping. Seriously. Satan would have us so caught up in our feelings that we *FEEL* that we should *FEEL* like giving, only then are we truly giving. That if we hold the LEAST bit of feeling of resentment then it ruins everything. We HAVE to realize, we really, really have to realize that we are made of FLESH and we are fighting that FLESH, we fight daily, hourly, minutely against our own flesh being that isn't inclined towards the spiritual life we must live. As we fight we'll have SATAN whispering in our ear that we are NOT God's, and we are not HIS because we don't *FEEL* inclined to be loving towards others.
We have to set our FEELINGS aside and CHOOSE to LOVE regardless of those feelings.
We choose to love and we choose to give, to lay down our lives, and to live for loving others as our Savior did. This is a CHOICE we make.
So while Satan might be whispering his evilness to us trying to get us to despair because we don't fit the mold that we imagine we should as loving Christians, we have ignore him and CHOOSE to not living by feelings, but through FAITH. Faith tells us that we can have HOPE, not in ourselves but in our GOD, in HIS ability to LOVE.
Please LORD, help us choose to love and in choosing to love- live to love others all the way up to the point of laying down our lives if we need to. Please LORD, through YOU! Through YOUR LOVE ALWAYS!
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
We can KNOW that we have passed from death to life...
1Jn 3:14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
Because we LOVE our fellowman- we have the hope of eternal life.
If we DO NOT love our fellowman we only have the hope of death.
This is TRUTH beyond what so many want to ever imagine.
People want to believe that to gain eternal life means so much more, but the truth is, eternal life is found in our SAVIOR, through HIS GRACE. And when we live under the grace of our SAVIOR He will enable us to LOVE Him and love others.
We have to make the CHOICE regardless of any circumstance we find ourselves in. The choice to have FAITH in GOD, FAITH in our SAVIOR'S GRACE, our SAVIOR'S RIGHTEOUSNESS!
It is a choice and again, people want to cloud it up with so much other stuff. Do this, do that, to the other thing and you'll be saved. The truth if we must BELIEVE in our SAVIOR fully, wholly and LIVE in HIM, ABIDE in HIM, then we are HIS and we MUST BE HIS!
We MUST be CHRIST'S! We must belong to our SAVIOR and not even ourselves. We must belong to HIM, NOT OURSELVES.
We can KNOW if we belong to HIM if we LOVE OTHERS more than we love ourselves! Because those who long to be HIS, to abide in HIM will LOVE OTHERS. If we find ourselves NOT loving others we must repent of that, we must ask forgiveness, and we MUST fall at the feet of GRACE so that HE lives through us! Only through HIM can we LOVE at all! If we try to love outside of that abiding in HIM then we are trying to produce a self-love that can't be allowed to exist. Our love for others must come from HIS LOVE and ONLY HIS LOVE in us.
1Jn 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
If we choose to HATE our fellowman then we are choosing death, eternal death. We are choosing to purposely hate, to purposely disobey our God!
Please LORD, please keep us from hating anyone! So many seem to live to encourage hate- hate of themselves or hate of others. Whole organizations are filled with hate and spewing that hate through others, encouraging that hate. ANY person who claims to love our Savior and to abide in Him and they encourage the hating of ANYONE, regardless of their actions, is not of Christ.
Our Savior forgave those who brutalized Him, those who murdered HIM, those who HATED HIM!
Our SAVIOR hated NO ONE!
And we THROUGH HIM can hate NO ONE.
Please Lord, help us to LOVE, to truly LOVE with YOUR LOVE.
Because we LOVE our fellowman- we have the hope of eternal life.
If we DO NOT love our fellowman we only have the hope of death.
This is TRUTH beyond what so many want to ever imagine.
People want to believe that to gain eternal life means so much more, but the truth is, eternal life is found in our SAVIOR, through HIS GRACE. And when we live under the grace of our SAVIOR He will enable us to LOVE Him and love others.
We have to make the CHOICE regardless of any circumstance we find ourselves in. The choice to have FAITH in GOD, FAITH in our SAVIOR'S GRACE, our SAVIOR'S RIGHTEOUSNESS!
It is a choice and again, people want to cloud it up with so much other stuff. Do this, do that, to the other thing and you'll be saved. The truth if we must BELIEVE in our SAVIOR fully, wholly and LIVE in HIM, ABIDE in HIM, then we are HIS and we MUST BE HIS!
We MUST be CHRIST'S! We must belong to our SAVIOR and not even ourselves. We must belong to HIM, NOT OURSELVES.
We can KNOW if we belong to HIM if we LOVE OTHERS more than we love ourselves! Because those who long to be HIS, to abide in HIM will LOVE OTHERS. If we find ourselves NOT loving others we must repent of that, we must ask forgiveness, and we MUST fall at the feet of GRACE so that HE lives through us! Only through HIM can we LOVE at all! If we try to love outside of that abiding in HIM then we are trying to produce a self-love that can't be allowed to exist. Our love for others must come from HIS LOVE and ONLY HIS LOVE in us.
1Jn 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
If we choose to HATE our fellowman then we are choosing death, eternal death. We are choosing to purposely hate, to purposely disobey our God!
Please LORD, please keep us from hating anyone! So many seem to live to encourage hate- hate of themselves or hate of others. Whole organizations are filled with hate and spewing that hate through others, encouraging that hate. ANY person who claims to love our Savior and to abide in Him and they encourage the hating of ANYONE, regardless of their actions, is not of Christ.
Our Savior forgave those who brutalized Him, those who murdered HIM, those who HATED HIM!
Our SAVIOR hated NO ONE!
And we THROUGH HIM can hate NO ONE.
Please Lord, help us to LOVE, to truly LOVE with YOUR LOVE.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
1Jn 3:13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
Marvel not.
Don't be surprised.
We cannot be shocked by the hate we receive when we truly love God and out of that love- love our fellow man.
Have you felt the hate? I don't think I have, not like I know others around the world have been and are being hated by others.
Being a Christian in an Islamic dominated country like Iran and others in the Middle East, and even in Africa- is often something that takes amazing courage. When those Christians read these words- 'Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.' When they read these words they understand in a very real way. They live seeing the hatred in their fellow man's eyes. They live hearing the hate-filled words spewed at them in anger. They feel the sting of stones, bullets, fire, fists as they are beaten senselessly all because they love God, all because they love their SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!
And they are told not to be surprised, not to marvel when they are hated.
I sit here and I marvel at it, even after I'm told not to because I don't live in that existence, it's foreign to me.
Marvel not if the world hates me!
Oh, how much time we spend wanting NOT to be hated! Not that we all want everyone in the entire world to like us, we know better than that, but the majority of people aren't living a life where they actively want others to despise them. As we grow up, go to school - preschool, kindergarten, elementary levels, middle school, high school, college- we do NOT want to make enemies as a rule. We tend to try and find a few good people to become friends with and the rest we want to co-exist without any trouble. We do NOT want to be hated.
Yet we are to MARVEL NOT if the WORLD HATES US!
And the world will hate us why? Because we LOVE!
Because we LOVE we are hated.
And it's not a hidden love, it's a known love. A love others know we have in us, a REAL love, a POWERFUL love, CHRIST'S LOVE! How will then know of this love we have, they'll know because we love THEM, we truly LOVE them, with Christ's LOVE.
Marvel not.
Don't be surprised.
We cannot be shocked by the hate we receive when we truly love God and out of that love- love our fellow man.
Have you felt the hate? I don't think I have, not like I know others around the world have been and are being hated by others.
Being a Christian in an Islamic dominated country like Iran and others in the Middle East, and even in Africa- is often something that takes amazing courage. When those Christians read these words- 'Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.' When they read these words they understand in a very real way. They live seeing the hatred in their fellow man's eyes. They live hearing the hate-filled words spewed at them in anger. They feel the sting of stones, bullets, fire, fists as they are beaten senselessly all because they love God, all because they love their SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!
And they are told not to be surprised, not to marvel when they are hated.
I sit here and I marvel at it, even after I'm told not to because I don't live in that existence, it's foreign to me.
Marvel not if the world hates me!
Oh, how much time we spend wanting NOT to be hated! Not that we all want everyone in the entire world to like us, we know better than that, but the majority of people aren't living a life where they actively want others to despise them. As we grow up, go to school - preschool, kindergarten, elementary levels, middle school, high school, college- we do NOT want to make enemies as a rule. We tend to try and find a few good people to become friends with and the rest we want to co-exist without any trouble. We do NOT want to be hated.
Yet we are to MARVEL NOT if the WORLD HATES US!
And the world will hate us why? Because we LOVE!
Because we LOVE we are hated.
And it's not a hidden love, it's a known love. A love others know we have in us, a REAL love, a POWERFUL love, CHRIST'S LOVE! How will then know of this love we have, they'll know because we love THEM, we truly LOVE them, with Christ's LOVE.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Be of God - NOT of that wicked one
1Jn 3:11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
1Jn 3:12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.
LOVE ONE ANOTHER
NOT as CAIN who was of that wicked one.
Cain belonged to Satan. He belonged to Satan and his works were evil.
Abel belonged to God and his works were righteous.
We have to choose a side too. We are either on Satan's or God's, Cain's or Abel's, Wicked or Righteous.
When we LOVE one another we are on God's side, on the side Abel was on, on the side of righteousness.
We have to LOVE not hate.
And we can't LOVE the love of self.
Cain loved HIMSELF. Cain was MORE concerned with HIMSELF.
We get so caught up in OURSELVES that we can scarcely think of another without first thinking about how our interaction with them will affect us. We put ourselves first and that is what Satan did- put HIMSELF first. Is it any wonder that sort of self love is so incredibly wrong? Is it any wonder that when we love self first we are NOT loving others?
If we LOVE our selves MORE than others we are not following the will of our God.
We CANNOT LOVE OURSELVES before we love God or others - that is NOT in the dictates of God.
The EXTREME importance of loving others cannot be overemphasized.
Realizing that LOVING others before SELF is a very real, true love, makes us pause for a moment because we so horribly have love confused with our selves- with receiving more so than giving.
Only by the grace of God will we learn to love truly- in HIS LOVE.
And this IS something we have to LEARN- because if we think it will come naturally to us then we are caught up in Satan's trap. If we expect it to be NATURAL to us then we are setting ourselves up to fail miserably!
Choose to love, make a choice to love, make a decision to love, actively love, decide to love and in all that LOVING others!
All through our Savior's GRACE and MERCY, HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS - ALWAYS!
1Jn 3:12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.
LOVE ONE ANOTHER
NOT as CAIN who was of that wicked one.
Cain belonged to Satan. He belonged to Satan and his works were evil.
Abel belonged to God and his works were righteous.
We have to choose a side too. We are either on Satan's or God's, Cain's or Abel's, Wicked or Righteous.
When we LOVE one another we are on God's side, on the side Abel was on, on the side of righteousness.
We have to LOVE not hate.
And we can't LOVE the love of self.
Cain loved HIMSELF. Cain was MORE concerned with HIMSELF.
We get so caught up in OURSELVES that we can scarcely think of another without first thinking about how our interaction with them will affect us. We put ourselves first and that is what Satan did- put HIMSELF first. Is it any wonder that sort of self love is so incredibly wrong? Is it any wonder that when we love self first we are NOT loving others?
If we LOVE our selves MORE than others we are not following the will of our God.
We CANNOT LOVE OURSELVES before we love God or others - that is NOT in the dictates of God.
The EXTREME importance of loving others cannot be overemphasized.
Realizing that LOVING others before SELF is a very real, true love, makes us pause for a moment because we so horribly have love confused with our selves- with receiving more so than giving.
Only by the grace of God will we learn to love truly- in HIS LOVE.
And this IS something we have to LEARN- because if we think it will come naturally to us then we are caught up in Satan's trap. If we expect it to be NATURAL to us then we are setting ourselves up to fail miserably!
Choose to love, make a choice to love, make a decision to love, actively love, decide to love and in all that LOVING others!
All through our Savior's GRACE and MERCY, HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS - ALWAYS!
Saturday, April 14, 2012
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.
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!
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!
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