Destroyed them that believed not

Jud 1:5  I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

Why do we need to remember this? Because too many people hold fast to the fact they were born again and then seem to believe that because they were once saved- they are always saved. They believe that after their initial born again experience they have no more need to concern themselves with whether or not they are saved. The Hebrew people freed from slavery were SAVED. They longed for a deliverer and they had one in Moses. The Lord had sent Moses to free His people and He did just that. They were freed and they traveled far away from Egypt. During that journey did all those who were saved stay saved? No. Why didn't they? They'd been set free through numerous miracles. God was there right there with them. God Himself spoke in their hearing and they were so scared they asked Moses to intervene for them.  They WITNESSED all this FIRSTHAND! They weren't told things and then told to believe them by word of mouth, they were witnesses to the many miracles and sadly it wasn't enough for a lot of them. Given proof unlike proof any of us have ever had they still turned around and decided NOT to believe. In the face of the proof they threw it all away. They faced hardship after hardship and because they'd been called to a life of intense hardship when they wanted a life of ease in their new found freedom, they rebelled. They didn't want to believe in this miracle working God who had freed them because that freedom wasn't the type of freedom they wanted. They wanted to live in sin, not in the love God's mercy. They didn't believe God's love was what they really needed. They didn't believe they needed God to live, they believed they could do it all on their own without God. 

God does NOT force anyone to believe in Him and those who do NOT believe are left to their own devices.

LIFE is found in our God- eternal life is found NO WHERE else!
If we believe that life is found anywhere else we are horribly mistaken.

If we don't believe we will NOT have eternal life, it's that simple.

Only by the grace of God do we even live at this moment.  Our very life affords us the opportunity to believe.

If we choose not to believe while we are alive- why should it matter if God chooses to destroy us? If a person doesn't believe in God then they won't believe that God can destroy them- right? If He doesn't exist then He most certainly cannot destroy them.  You hear people say they don't want to believe in a God who could destroy someone, allow someone to die. And yet they turn around and blame this God they don't want to believe in for that very thing. If they don't want to believe that God is a God that knows good and evil and  IS good, then that's their choice. If they don't want to believe in a God that chooses good over evil then God won't make them. There is a right and wrong, a good and evil, a light and dark, a black and white- these are facts. God will never EVER destroy good. He will allow Satan to use evil, look at the story of Job, but eternal life is the promise of all who suffer under the fires of Satan in this world.

We suffer a temporary suffering, and I'm not belittling the suffering- for some it is horrific beyond anything we can imagine or want to imagine.  We do suffer, but we have a promise for a life without suffering. 

Evil will be destroyed.

People who choose evil over God will be destroyed.

Evil people have been destroyed and will continued to be destroyed, and ONLY God knows if someone is evil, ONLY God knows, we have NO way of knowing the end from the beginning. We can't know if someone who commits evil acts will ever repent of them, that's not in our power. God does know. God KNOWS.

We cannot live our lives as if there is no such thing as evil. And if we do believe there is evil we must believe there is good. If we can admit to believing in evil and good then we should understand that we choose one or the other and we do so often. Our so called bad choices are evil choices, we soft pedal the word evil by covering it up as being just bad. Being bad sounds less evil, but in truth, evil is evil and we need to repent of all the evil in our lives- choosing good over evil.

No one can make another believe in God, it will never be anything forced, ever.  We all will make the choice - no one will be exempt. You can choose not to believe but don't choose not to believe and then be surprised when that choice results in eternal death.

By the grace of God may we PLEASE be HIS, Believing in HIM always! All by HIM, all through HIM! His LOVE!

As to the LORD

Eph 6:7  With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men

How different we would act if we had our Savior as a house guest.

Think about it, He knocks on the door and shocked, you let Him inside and invite Him to have a seat, to rest. You offer Him something to drink, to eat, you even offer to let Him freshen up- use your shower if need be and even allow Him access to the guest towels. Seeing He doesn't have any luggage with Him you also offer Him access to your husband's, your son's closet  (if you're a female like me hehe) where the best clothes are kept. Anything and everything you're willing to do for Him, whatever He needs, whatever He desires you want to be able to offer it to Him.

Why are you being so generous? If it'd been a stranger who knocked on the door would he even have gotten a foot inside? Most likely not. At most you might offer that stranger a chance to use your phone if they need to call someone else to help them out, someone they know. 

It's practical isn't it? No one in society expects us to open our doors to strangers, in fact we are cautioned earnestly NOT to ever let strangers inside our houses, only those you trust. If you let strangers in you're asking for a lot of trouble- to be robbed at the least, to be murdered at the most.

Am I suggesting you open your doors wide to any and all who would come in? Maybe. But you have to realize I'm suggesting this contrary, this insane thing to myself too. I'm no more desirous of opening my doors to one and all, than the next person. So why suggest it? Because each of those strangers- even the dirtiest, the grungiest, the most abhorrent of them all is your fellow man, your neighbor, a human being just like yourself and we are to treat others - doing service unto them - as we would do for the LORD. This is the will of God, that we LOVE one another.

We would treat our Savior with such honor because why? He died for us, He died to save us. We don't treat others with any sort of honor because they didn't do that for us, they didn't give us the chance for salvation, for life ever lasting. Yet, our Savior who died specifically told us on more than one occasion that He wants us to LOVE each other- even our enemies.

LOVE one another.

Serve one another.

Serve our enemies.

Pray for those who despitefully use us.

Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you

Jesus' words!

Do you know someone who hates you, curses you, is your enemy, who despitefully uses you, and persecutes you?

Most of us don't live with an arch enemy- a vile nemesis waiting to orchestrate our demise in a very painful, torturous manner. Most of us don't live that way- under constant persecution. We can imagine what it is like because most of us have experienced some sort of situation where others treated us with less than what we deem proper respect.

Jesus would have us LOVE all others.
Jesus LOVED those who killed HIM!

Luk 23:34  Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

Would He ask for forgiveness for them if He didn't love them?

We understand this in part because even when our own children do awful things we love them, the mother of a murderer can still love their child. That murderer was a babe in their mother's arms, a child whose scraped knee they kissed to make all better, that child was not evil in the crib but innocent. Wives still love cheating husbands, husbands still love cheating wives. We are wounded by the actions of those we love, but that doesn't mean we instantly stop loving them.  We are told to LOVE our enemies. If we are to love our enemies it stands to reason that we would love those who we naturally have affection for even as they some how became our enemies, hurting us.

If we are to have LOVE for our enemies- a love that means treating them with respect, caring for them in spite of their hatred of us- it really stands to reason that we are to serve others as if we were serving the LORD. This is a PERFECT example of how we should live in relation to each other, to love each other.

Eph 6:7  With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men

We should live as if we are doing service to the LORD.

No, we obviously realize those we are doing services for our not the LORD, that they might even hate us and use us, but we are to do the service we do to them in spite of all that because we are in truth following the very commandment our Savior gave to us- loving one another.

We can love the unlovable only when we embrace our Savior and allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, teaching us to love as Jesus would have us love.

Reading C.S. Lewis- Mere Christianity- He says (and I paraphrase really badly) We are to ACT as if we do love, even when we don't, because if we ACT as if we do this will make it a real possibility that one day we will naturally love. We should do what we KNOW we should do, even when there is NO feeling at all, NO desire to do what we know we should do.  Using our intellect, using our knowledge, not attempting to use feelings to guide us. 

Eph 6:5  Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
Eph 6:6  Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
Eph 6:7  With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men

Luk 12:37  Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
Luk 12:38  And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.

Luk 22:24  And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.
Luk 22:25  And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors.
Luk 22:26  But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.
Luk 22:27  For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth.

Joh 12:26  If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.

Gal 5:13  For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

Col 3:24  Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.

Heb 9:14  How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Heb 12:28  Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear

Rev 22:3  And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him

*

Eph 6:7  With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men


AS TO THE LORD.

We are to live, to serve, to work, to do all we do as UNTO the LORD and NOT to men.

AS TO THE LORD.

By His grace.

Denying God, Denying Truth

Jud 1:4  For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let me ask you a question, do you know anyone who doesn't believe in God the Father? Or anyone who doesn't believe in Jesus Christ our LORD and SAVIOR, God's Son? I do. There are many who proudly claim their unbelief holding it up as a banner waving it about as if it's something amazing. Many unbelievers fill our world and many of these unbelievers have taken it upon themselves to educate the believers in many various ways. They've CREPT in and laid their seeds of doubt, their poison bleeding in through the masses of believers and they are bent on turning believers into unbelievers. People have taken the GRACE of God and turned it into something wicked. Ungodly people have twisted and vilely warped all that is God, all that is truth and turned it into something unseemly and evil, making it something it was never, ever intended to be. They've wrapped up the grace of Christ into something sensual and dared people to try and say it is anything but this gross misinterpretation of the pure love of God. They prepackaged their brand of salvation and it is anything but our Lord's TRUTH. They hold up false gods and claim they are God, they are Jesus. They've taken the very name of our SAVIOR and have used it to entice people into a false religion, deceiving millions, sending delusions to so many.

The outright deniers of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ are few in number compared to those who have entered into the lives of those who would truly be God's chosen, God's elect, and presented the imposters they've made up to take the place of our TRUE LORD, our TRUE GOD. They refuse truth preferring fables, preferring their false beliefs over God's reality. They want traditions that have been held for thousands of years instead of the truth that has been around since our world was brought into existence.  The hold up those traditions and shout, 'THESE are our gods! We believe in these truths of our fathers, and their fathers! We hold fast to our customs, they must be truth because so many have believed and for so long!'  They tout their proof from longstanding tales as if there is no light to be had, no light to shed across their darkened eyes. When the light dares shine towards them they slam the door on it, they pull down their ancient shades, and close their eyes just as their fathers and their fathers before them did. They prefer the darkness rather than light, and they've deluded themselves into thinking they are in the light while the truth lays in darkness. They succeed in fooling themselves and they're allowed to do so because the light of Christ's truth is never forced upon anyone.

People know other people who deny God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son, and mostly distance themselves from them in this respect- they allow them to believe as they please, not letting it affect their own walk with God. People MUST be aware of those who creep in among the believers with the same deadly denying, they too exist and they are so incredibly convincing as they speak words you want to hear and give you enough lies to soothe any doubts that rise up. They won't tell you outright they are denying the Truth, they are under the sheep's clothing snug and secure, living to deceive by turning others from the truth.

Harsh words? Yes. But true words.

Joh 3:19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

2Pe 2:1  But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2Pe 2:2  And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

Mat 7:15  Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Mar 7:9  And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

Mar 7:13  Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

Col 2:8  Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

1Ti 1:4  Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.

2Ti 4:4  And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

2Pe 1:16  For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

Cunningly devised fables will deceive many and all of those deceived will be so willingly, refusing the truth in preferences to fables.

2Ti 4:3  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears

People will prefer to hear lies rather than sound doctrine. They will put on all the outward show of being believers but the god they are believing will NOT be God the Father or His Son Jesus Christ in TRUTH. They might give Him the same exact name, but that will not change the fact they've turned TRUTH into lies. They've placed their own idea of God and Jesus Christ in place of the TRUTH and they will in fact believe in antichrists over the real true GOD. These will cry out when they are inevitably face to face with our SAVIOR- 

Mat 7:21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.


Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Gal 1:4  Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father

Eph 6:6  Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart
Eph 6:7  With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men

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

All by the grace of our God! May we NOT be deceived by those who have crept in to steal us away from God. May we NOT hold fast to fables, to traditions, to anything that would keep us from the TRUTH! Open our hearts, open our minds to YOU and YOUR WILL, YOUR TRUTH, GOD!

Contend for the faith

Jud 1:2  Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.
Jud 1:3  Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

Mercy, peace, love.

Mercy - compassion.
Peace - rest.
Love - benevolence, charity.

All the above be multiplied.

We need it all to be multiplied don't we? We really need all the mercy, all the peace, all the love we can get and give.

Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

Contend- to struggle.

A faith was given unto the saints- that faith was delivered by Jesus Himself. Living with Him, following Him, listening, learning from Him directly the Apostles were brought face to face with faith. Yet our Savior said this to Peter…

Mat 14:31  And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

And this to those gathered to listen to Jesus-

Luk 12:28  If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?

And this to those He healed-

Mat 9:29  Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.

And to His disciples-

Mat 17:20  And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Our Savior taught about faith throughout His ministry here on earth. He knew how important faith was, because it was faith that allowed belief, that allowed salvation, and still does. This lesson of faith is so incredibly important. And the faith that was given to the saints, was a faith revealed by our Savior and this is the SAME faith we MUST struggle for! We must contend for this faith! We must seek to possess this faith!

Why do we need to be exhorted to contend for this faith? Because without it there is NO salvation!

There are so many varied beliefs out there in the world that have nothing at all to do with having that faith given to the saints. So much has strayed away from the truth, the truth found in CHRIST.

We need that faith and we can have that faith it is ours, it is available, but we have to struggle, we have to contend because there are so many evil forces out there that would keep us from that very true faith, that living faith, that salvation faith!

People might think it easy to have faith, but go back and reread those verses above and it's not what people think. It's not some flippant thing that means nothing, it is something that means everything! Faith, QUALITY faith, SALVATION faith!

Faith the grain of a mustard seed- moves mountains.

It does, it really, really does.

It's the belief in our CREATOR, our REDEEMER and THEIR LOVE! The true belief. And it's this heartfelt cry…

Mar 9:24  And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

In HIM!

Always!

Follow that which is GOOD, not evil

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We live for our Hope- Christ our Savior!

All in HIS LOVE!  All by HIS GRACE!

Fellow Helpers to the TRUTH

3Jn 1:5  Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers;
3Jn 1:6  Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well:
3Jn 1:7  Because that for his name's sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles.
3Jn 1:8  We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth.

Fellow helpers to the truth.

THIS is our mission in life. THIS is our calling.  And this is for EVERYONE. This isn't for special people, this isn't calling us to be teachers, prophets, evangelists but rather be alive in Christ, living in HIS truth. As we LIVE His truth we are automatically fellow helpers to the truth.

Loving one another this reveals Christ!
Loving God this reveals Christ!
Loving one another and God this reveals the TRUTH.

This is to be our life!

You can have a job that keeps you busy digging ditches, or climbing ladders to telephone poles, or cutting into someone's body to heal them, or…well…you name it. No matter what your job is you are called to LOVE God and LOVE others and THIS is living the truth.

Are we to take Bible tracts around and distribute them? You could, but not everyone is called to that path. Are we to stand on a soapbox and give our message to any and all who will stop to listen on that street corner we are preaching on? Maybe, if God leads you to that act. You do NOT have to despair though if you are NOT called to that life because YOU are called to be a LIVING witness of Christ, of the TRUTH by your LOVE!

Is there any wonder Satan would attack us every moment he can to get us to be unloving? He will abuse us by using others, by using situations, by doing anything he possibly can to keep us from revealing the LOVE of God in us, by us being LOVING.

Our Savior said this--

Mat 5:43  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, BLESS THEM THAT CURSE YOU, DO GOOD TO THEM THAT HATE YOU, AND PRAY FOR THEM WHICH DESPITEFULLY USE YOU, AND PERSECUTE YOU;
Mat 5:45  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Mat 5:46  For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
Mat 5:47  And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
Mat 5:48  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Read that one part again--

Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, BLESS THEM THAT CURSE YOU, DO GOOD TO THEM THAT HATE YOU, AND PRAY FOR THEM WHICH DESPITEFULLY USE YOU, AND PERSECUTE YOU

LOVE our enemies! This goes against everything inside of us, we want to give back what we were given. We want to defend ourselves, we want to claim what we believe is justice for wrong, but we are told NOT to do any of that at all!

We are to LOVE!

By loving we are LIVING the truth!

Satan wants to put us in a place that reveals our lack of love and he'll do everything to that end.

Situations will be created that will test us to our very limits of patience- over and over and over again-and we MUST repent of our failing to reveal God's love, but rather our weak flesh responses.

3Jn 1:8 ...we might be fellowhelpers to the truth.

WE need to be fellowhelpers to the TRUTH, to CHRIST and HIS amazing LOVE!

By the grace of God may we allow the Holy Spirit to live in us guiding us towards this end- being living, breathing, active witnesses, active fellow helpers to the truth of our SAVIOR'S LOVE!

All through HIM, all in HIM, all by His loving grace!

Walk in Truth

3Jn 1:1  The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the TRUTH.
3Jn 1:2  Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
3Jn 1:3  For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the TRUTH that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the TRUTH.
3Jn 1:4  I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in TRUTH.

In truth.

The TRUTH is all that our Savior came to give to us, to preach to us, to live as an example of because HE is the TRUTH. Christ embodies the TRUTH. There is NO deception in our Savior, there is NO falsehood in our Lord, none! He never bent the truth, He never twisted the truth, He never told only half a truth, He never deceived not once!  Did He use parables and speak in such a way it was hard for some to understand? Yes. But He never did that to deceive, not to a single person. Those who found it hard to comprehend what He was saying failed to have their heart open to Him, failed to allow Him into their hearts fully. Those who remained spiritually blinded did so because they lack the true desire to know the Savior. And if our Savior said something that was hard to understand sometimes those who really had their hearts open and were seeking the truth were not ready to fully understand- not until a later time. But our Savior never spoke a single untruth. Every word out of His mouth was truth. Every action He made was truth.

Is it any wonder that so many people feared Him? They did fear Him and they wanted to silence Him and they did so by crucifying Him. There is power in the truth and often people want to hear lies, because truth would convict them and they'd see a failing in themselves that they don't want to admit to. Pride has been the downfall of so many people. It's our pride that rears it's ugly head against the truth in so many ways. We don't want to be WRONG. We don't want to be wrong even in the little things that have no bearing on eternal matters other than when those little things add up they fester and grow into big things. 

In reading Mere Christianity, a book I enjoy by C.S. Lewis, he says in one part (and I'm paraphrasing badly) that a man with a temper isn't so bad unless that temper grows worse little by little, year after year. However if that man's life didn't end after the human's average lifespan but continued on through eternity how AWFUL it would be if that temper continued to grow throughout eternity.  The gist of it is- while little things might not seem like such a big deal now, they would if you measure them to eternity. A growing temper that continues to grow would be a monstrous temper over time unending. So all the defects in our characters- all the UNTRUTH we live in- must be purged by our Savior before we can ever hope to be His through eternity.

3Jn 1:4  I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in TRUTH.

Is it any wonder it says here in this verse  - NO greater joy than to hear that my children walk in TRUTH.

Walking in truth. Walking in Christ. Living in truth. Living in Christ. We must always strive to do this without ceasing.

Does this mean we won't ever fail? No. It means we will fail and then fall at the feet of our Savior. It means that we will allow the lessons to be learned. It means we will not become impenetrable stone, but clay- pliable in our Lord's hand- able to be molded, able to be shaped. We are called to walk through fires of trials and tribulations, not to suffer through them only to come out of them without a single change. What good is a refining fire if the metal put into it in order to purify it, doesn't change at all? What good is a trial if absolutely nothing is learned from all that has been gone through? If you are put to the test does it do any good if you don't learn where you failed? Only by learning where you went wrong can you allow that knowledge to keep you from continuing on down the wrong way. 

Yes, sometimes it seems as if we have faults that reoccur over and over and it seems as if we'll never learn- but the lesson we might be learning because of this happenstance is the patience we need to deal with yet another problem in the future. We can NEVER give up, that is Satan's joy, when we give up. We have to hold fast to our Savior, and the TRUTH found in Him!

We must be found WALKING in the truth! Always in HIS truth!

By HIS GRACE, HIS LOVE!