1Jn 3:20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
1Jn 3:21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
God is greater than our heart.
Our heart will either condemn us or not condemn us.
Remember this--
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.
1Jn 3:19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him
IF we love we are not condemned.
We know if we love. We know if we don't love.
When our heart condemns us- it is condemning us because we don't love- we are not loving in action as God would have us love one another, and we cannot assure our hearts before God.
And GOD knows our heart better than we do. We cannot hide our hearts from God. That is why this is my prayer-
Psa 51:9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Psa 51:11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Psa 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Create in me a CLEAN heart.
I need God to create in me a CLEAN heart, a heart that doesn't condemn me.
I long to have confidence towards God.
Putting my confidence anywhere else will only offer a false security if it offers any.
1Jn 3:20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
1Jn 3:21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
We have to comprehend the reality that nothing we are is hid from God. He knows the good, the bad, and the ugly, as well as the beautiful that is in us. He knows whether we long to be His. He knows our hearts and HE can CREATE in us a CLEAN heart. The heart of filth we possess can be cleaned. It's not irreparably stained, not if we believe in our Savior who died to be able to cleanse our hearts.
We must believe that our God will clean our hearts, we must have this faith in God, it's only with this faith in God that our heart won't condemn us. As long as we place our hope within ourselves we will never have a clean heart. We can try to wash our own heart over and over again, we can scrub at it, throw all the mental, emotion bleach we want onto our own filthy heart and it will forever remain stained. There isn't a SINGLE thing we can do to clean our own heart. We cannot do it, just as there are some things only a dry cleaner can get out, ONLY God can cleanse our heart. Our heart cleaner- God. We must go to Him and only Him and stop trying to scrub the filth from our own heart.
We must live our lives as we have been told in God's word to live it and trust in our God to save us.
We do have an Advocate with the Father and when we feel the weight of transgressions heavy upon us we have to go to our Advocate and seek forgiveness, seeking to be cleansed by the only One who can clean us.
Psa 51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Our confidence must be in GOD, only then our heart will not condemn us.
The verse reads- if our hearts condemns us not THEN we have confidence towards God- and that is a FACT. Our hearts will condemn us if we have no confidence towards God. And God knows whether we submit to Him or not, He knows.
God knows- He is greater than our own conscience, greater than our heart- and He knows.
All by HIS grace! May we be cleansed by Him and our hearts have confidence towards Him.
All by HIS LOVE!
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
Assure our hearts before Him
1Jn 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
1Jn 3:19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
Hereby we KNOW that we are of the truth.
Hereby we KNOW that we are of our Savior.
If we love actively.
It's easy to say- I love you.
I know some people might say it's not easy at all and that's true for some people but others find it easy to say. I know about three, four, maybe five years ago suddenly it became important for me to tell the people I love that I love them. Maybe it was one of those thing I read- who knows- but I never wanted to regret NOT telling those I love that I love them. So it began, and at first it wasn't as easy to do but now- now it's easy to do and yet now it almost seems as if it's become more habit when in truth it's not, at least not for me. Believe it or not before I say those words I have that momentary thought about saying it and why- wanting the person I'm saying it to, to know that I love them and if that's the last time I see them then they'll remember, or I'll remember that it wasn't something that went unsaid.
So when I say it is easy to say I love you it is, and many might say it without truly meaning it, without any action behind it.
Every single person I've told I love you- at least over the last few years or so- I really hope that if the action of love has been needed that I've acted out of love and not just spoke those words to them.
I'm not a very demonstrative person, not at all. And I fight satan all the time as He encourages my selfishness, being selfless doesn't come easy to me and I hate that about myself. So these verses really hit home with me. I want to, I need to love in deed and in truth, in action and in Christ and I pray to God that He make this possible in me. What seems impossible to me, isn't impossible to God.
Luk 18:27 And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.
I want to know I'm of the truth. I want to assure my heart before my Savior all by loving not in my words- not by just saying the words- but in action, in my interaction with those I love, and to all as we are to love our fellowman. Please Lord, help me to truly LOVE all by YOUR grace and mercy.
All through You Lord, all through YOU.
1Jn 3:19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
Hereby we KNOW that we are of the truth.
Hereby we KNOW that we are of our Savior.
If we love actively.
It's easy to say- I love you.
I know some people might say it's not easy at all and that's true for some people but others find it easy to say. I know about three, four, maybe five years ago suddenly it became important for me to tell the people I love that I love them. Maybe it was one of those thing I read- who knows- but I never wanted to regret NOT telling those I love that I love them. So it began, and at first it wasn't as easy to do but now- now it's easy to do and yet now it almost seems as if it's become more habit when in truth it's not, at least not for me. Believe it or not before I say those words I have that momentary thought about saying it and why- wanting the person I'm saying it to, to know that I love them and if that's the last time I see them then they'll remember, or I'll remember that it wasn't something that went unsaid.
So when I say it is easy to say I love you it is, and many might say it without truly meaning it, without any action behind it.
Every single person I've told I love you- at least over the last few years or so- I really hope that if the action of love has been needed that I've acted out of love and not just spoke those words to them.
I'm not a very demonstrative person, not at all. And I fight satan all the time as He encourages my selfishness, being selfless doesn't come easy to me and I hate that about myself. So these verses really hit home with me. I want to, I need to love in deed and in truth, in action and in Christ and I pray to God that He make this possible in me. What seems impossible to me, isn't impossible to God.
Luk 18:27 And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.
I want to know I'm of the truth. I want to assure my heart before my Savior all by loving not in my words- not by just saying the words- but in action, in my interaction with those I love, and to all as we are to love our fellowman. Please Lord, help me to truly LOVE all by YOUR grace and mercy.
All through You Lord, all through YOU.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
In Action and In Christ
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!
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!
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!
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