Acts, Psalms and 1st John--oh my!

Hello dear friends! It's been 3 days since I've posted--I'm so sorry! Yesterday was the end of the grading period, so I have been drowning in papers to grade! I graded over 200 papers over the last few days!!!

All of this is an unworthy excuse, however...often in life we do not HAVE time...rather we must MAKE TIME for the Lord and for His Word! I have failed to do this and I'm sorry! Keep me accountable, guys--bug me (REALLY) if I don't post everyday...this helps me keep my promises to God! **THANK YOU, JAIME, FOR YOUR COMMENT ON HERE--I AGREE! And your comment made me come back and post again--hey someone actually reads this!!!** Accountability is an excellent tool we can use to keep ourselves walking the straight path when the crooked path seems so much easier and shorter! (Even though it really ISN'T!)

That being said, I am going to SKIP to today's "assigned reading" --1 John 5:1-6. I do this because we ask our students to simply pick up with the daily reading if they have gotten off track--otherwise it is way too overwhelming and it may deter them from returning. Remember, His mercies are new every morning. So, it's forgiven, forgotten...let's break the bread.

This is a mobile variety...I'm sitting in the lobby waiting for Madi's dance performance which begins in an hour, so I'm googling the scriptures so that I can MAKE TIME right now to focus on God's word in the midst of an incredibly hectic week!

PRAY:

Father God...you are amazing and your word is a light and a lamp unto my path. It is water in time of great thirst. I offer up this time to you and ask that you have your way in me as I dissect your Holy Word. Open my eyes that I may discern your Truth, my ears that I may hear your voice, my heart, that I may receive you fully. Help me to understand that which I read and guide me as I stive to communicate your Truth to others. Forgive me, Lord, for not always making time for you and help me to be a vessel of your mercy as I have myself received it. When I am weary and tempted not to make time for you, remind my heart of your love and faithfulness. Strengthen me and draw me to the waters of your love. In your Holy Name, I pray...AMEN.


READ ATTENTIVELY:

1 John 5:1-6

 1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
 6 This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

I must say that this is one of my favorite passages of scripture! Let's break it apart a bit...
"Everyone who believes / everyone who loves / everyone born of God" These three lines are CONTRACTS. The difference between a contract and a promise is that a promise is a given plain and simple. God promises never to flood the earth again....plain and simple, no ifs ands or buts....THESE ARE DIFFERENT. The words "EVERYONE WHO" let us know that we are about to read a contract... think about it this way... EVERYONE WHO has an "A" in english is going on the field trip. SO...there is a "qualifier"...there is something that determines WHO is going and WHO is not going...anytime we see these words in scripture, we have to be very careful to read and see what exactly is the contract if there is one.

These ones are:
EVERYONE WHO believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God--READ CAREFULLY HERE! It does not simply say "everyone who believes that Jesus Christ is born of God"... NOTE the words "IS THE" between Jesus and Christ--the word CHRIST is not His last name...CHRIST is interchangeable with "Messiah" or "Savior" SO...EVERYONE WHO believes that Jesus is the SAVIOR is born of God...SO THOSE people that believe this are the ones who are born of God...every one of them and nobody else.

"Born of God"--what does THAT mean?? Well, if you are born of "Jane Doe", then you are "Jane Doe's" child, right?? You are an heir to the inheritance of Jane Doe and you partake in the blessings of being a child of Jane Do.... IN THE SAME WAY, when it says we are "Born of God", it means that we are CHILDREN of GOD...we are "join heirs with Christ" we share in the inheritance and blessings of God and His riches. We have access to Him and the gifts He has. We can call out "Abba Father" / "Daddy" just like a child calls out to her father, and know that He hears us.


EVERYONE WHO loves the Father loves His child as well--this one is a bit different. It is a contract, yes, but it is not a contract where God is giving us a promise like the other two. Contracts do NOT always come hand in hand with promises. THIS is a "qualifier" for the promises...it is saying everyone who loves the Father must also love His child--as in "it is impossible to love God without loving God's child(ren)" It is here to make you very aware of the rest of the passage. Contracts are funny because they also say the OPPOSITE of themselves..here, anyone who does NOT love God's child(ren) does NOT love God. It is a stated fact from God. IF you do not LOVE the Father, you CANNOT love His children; if you do not LOVE his children, you CANNOT love the Father. The contract here is that IF you Love God, then you can also TRULY love His children.

This verse is interesting to me because it is stating that if you don't love God, you CANNOT love the children of God, which might cause some of us to argue. "Well certainly people who don't love God can love His children"...but it is making that point here on purpose--no, really, you cannot TRULY LOVE His children without first loving HIM because HE IS LOVE and the AUTHOR of LOVE, the GIVER of LOVE...this was also stated in the previous chapter of 1 John. So without loving God, they do not have access to that true, Christ-like, sacrificial love...it is not within them to love to that extent, only a shallower version of "love"

This scripture poses a question to the careful reader...If I must love God's children in order to truly love God...then HOW DO I LOVE GOD's CHILDREN???

It goes on to tell us and we'll get to that in a minute...


EVERYONE (who is) born of God overcomes the world--that goes back to the first point--if we are born of God, then we have this promise--that we DO overcome the world..the world = sin, temptation, evil, distress, dispair...those things that come to us by the king of this world--satan. We are no longer in bonds to these things...rather, we CHOOSE them--sometimes this choice is easier than choosing the GOOD, but nonetheless, we are no longer under the control of the enemy...we are freed from the slavery of sin...we overcome the world.

HOWEVER this passage can seem like a very big warm fuzzy if you do not take a second good look at that second contract--that stated fact about loving God and loving His children.

Before we check this off the list prematurely, let's look at what the rest of the scripture has to say about this...

Going back to that question we must ask ourselves....HOW do we love the children of God?

2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,

It lays it out... by loving God and carrying out His commands...and His commands are not burdensome. What about that "love your neighbor as yourself" command...easy, right?

Well...did you feed yourself, clothe yourself, house yourself, make yourself feel pretty...etc... today?? Did you feed, cloethe, house, encourage anyone else today?? Did you steal today? Stealing can be much more than material items...did you steal the credit for someone else's effort? Did you lie--even just a lie of ommission--where you simply witheld the WHOLE truth? Did you murder--maybe not "murder"...but did you kill a person's spirit, self esteem with your words--the tongue has the power of life and death... DID WE DO THESE THINGS (and the ones I did not detail here)...before we even DARE approach #1....Love the Lord Your God with all your heart and have no others before Him....but....did you?? Did you put your image, your work, your fear of ridicule, fear of loss, fear of whatever else before Him? Did you put your perception of TIME before Him...failing to MAKE TIME for Him like I so often have?? Did you put sports or APATHY before Him?? We cheer and roar and weep at games...When's the last time we cheered that loud at church??

It is a hefty list to say that we have TRULY carried out these commands..and the second part of that is almost laughable....did you do all these things and do so in an attitude that they are NOT burdensome.....that means "without complaining--in your head counts too...He knows your thoughts".... DID WE DO ALL THESE THINGS WILLINGLY and WITHOUT COMPLAINING??

OUCH...

The water and blood thing at the end is also really interesting...obviously we can look and say "hey--the two symbols of our faith...water and blood" water--the water baptism; blood--the sacrifice on the cross.... we must be baptised both in water and in the blood of the cross...

Interesting fact--John, the disciple Jesus loved, and Mary the mother of Jesus were the first to receive these both--when Christ was pierced on the cross, water and blood flowed out of the wound. These are really interesting because not only is it symbolic of the baptism and the sacrifice....but it is also an interesting scientific truth! When a person suffocates--as was the death of many (including Jesus) on the Cross (I can explain this in further detail later if needed!)--when a person suffocates to death, their heart chamber fills with a clear solution as they die--looks just like water....when Jesus was pierced, it was this that flowed out along with the blood. I always found this interesting because some people speculate about whether Jesus was really DEAD when He was laid in the tomb and thus ignore His resurrection....but indeed, this is just one piece of proof that He did in fact DIE on that cross.

Anyway, there is a LOT to these two symbols. I'm going to let some of you comment here on those since it's almost that time and I don't want to miss the show!


GOD BLESS!!!