1 John 3:16-18 Love with Actions!

1 John 3:16-18  This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.  If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?  Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.  

During his time on Earth, Jesus traveled many miles to spread the Good News: eternal life would come to all who would put their faith in him as their Lord and Savior.  Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  (John 3:14-17)  For all who believe, faith in Christ is eternal life now.  In Christ existed the mystery of God’s plan for rescuing human beings from their destiny of death.  Christ, the Creator of all things, adopted children into the family of God.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning. THROUGH HIM all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  (John1:1-3)  This is the story of the Good News.  As Jesus journeyed from town to town, He not only displayed the power of God by healing people and impacting situations, He also revealed the nature of God by doing good to people.  He taught them about loving God unequivocally, and He also taught them to love each other with the same fervency.  They were to care for each other as God cares for them, loving others as they loved themselves.  Of course, loving God or loving others demands actions in addition to words.  We cannot claim we have faith in God’s goodness and in his love for us and others if we sit in our rocking chairs, unmoved to do God’s will on Earth.  If we say we love others, we should show our love by our actions.  What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?  Can such faith save them?  Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.  (James 2:14-17)  This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.  Our faith in Jesus made us anew; consequently, we should reveal this newness by loving others as He loved others.  Jesus even asked us to love our enemies, for they too were created in God’s image.

Many people followed Jesus from city to city.  Some of them surely were people we would call vagrants, the homeless and the needy; others had homes, places where they earned a living.  However, sometimes both groups would listen and view Jesus’ ministry for days.  During those days another large crowd gathered.  Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat.  If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.”  (Mark 8:1-3)  These people gathered to hear the Good News, but they also had biological needs such as food and water.  This passage does not say the disciples viewed the people with compassion—the Son of Man viewed them with compassion.  He knew what it was like to be in the wilderness without food; He knew what hunger felt like.  He understood what a lack of food does to a person: they will collapse on the way; they will faint.  Of course, these people gathered to hear a great teacher, a man of miracles, but this alone would not suffice their need of food.  Jesus’ words alone would not sustain their bodies; they needed something nutritious for their flesh; otherwise, they would faint, no matter how full their souls were with Jesus’ great teaching and miraculous deeds.  Their spiritual lives were being satisfied, but they also lived in the real world; they needed the real world’s food.  If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?  In the account of feeding the four thousand, Jesus asked the disciples what provisions they had for themselves, what material possessions they had to cover their own needs.  The disciples said, seven loaves of bread and a few fish.  Jesus said to them, feed the people.  His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?”  “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked.  “Seven,” they replied.  (Mark 8:4-5)  What they had was enough for Jesus, their Lord.  THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS would expand what they had to feed the hungry.  The feeding of the four and the five thousand men and their families shows us God’s compassion for the physical needs of people.  We as Christians should have that same compassion for those in need who dwell near us.  Of course, the people who surrounded Jesus in those events were there for their own needs, not for Jesus’ benefit.  In some ways, He was being used by the people.  Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee.  Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down.  Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them.  The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing.  And they praised the God of Israel.  (Matthew 15:29-31)  Jesus satisfied their needs at this time, but He knew soon many of them would turn against him, chiming in with others to have him crucified.  In these accounts of miracles, we see Jesus feeding those who coveted the meeting of their own needs, but when they see Jesus at his weakest point they join others to have Jesus put to death.  Sometimes we do not want to give of our possessions because we perceive we are being used, manipulated.  But we see Jesus feeding people even though He knows that some will eventually turn against him.  Jesus says: But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.  (Matthew 5:44-45) 

 

John encourages us to be faithful to God’s goodness and love by being willing to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters and anyone in need.  Jesus was there for the blind, the disabled, the poor.  He was a man of compassion and love, even for those who despitefully used him for their own needs.  He loved the people and did not turn away from those who cried out for his help.  He (the blind man) called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”  Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him.  When he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”  “Lord, I want to see,” he replied.  Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.”  (Luke 18:38-42)  Since the beginning of time, humanity as represented by this blind beggar has been crying out for help, seeking to understand what life is all about.  Jesus asks us all, What do you want me to do for you?  And we respond as mere humans, Lord, I want to see.  Jesus came to give eternal life to all who will put their trust in him, the life-giver.  All who do, WILL SEE the existential purpose of life: abiding forever as children of God, as brothers and sisters of the Lord himself, adopted into his family by his blood.  For people to truly see and experience the eternal plan of God, they must accept by faith that Jesus is the plan.  He is the essence of all knowledge, all wisdom, a direct metaphor of God’s purposes for human’s eternal existence.  We abide IN HIM.  As Christians, we must shine forth God’s glory by doing good to others.  We must love others as God loves them.  We are to love all people—the good and kind, the broken and unlovely.  Everyone has been made in the image of God.  If we fail to love others, we fail to love God with a pure heart and a contrite spirit.  Jesus revealed unconditional love to us by loving the undeserving unreservedly.  He went to the cross out of love for humanity, even though a fallen, sinful world was pitted against him when they cried out, “Crucify him!”  Even his faithful followers fled when He needed them the most at the cross.  They deserted Jesus as did the people who had received so much goodness from him.  The cries of the angry mob were in his ears when He went to the cross as the complete sacrifice for mankind’s corruption and disobedience to God.  Jesus’ suffering and death satisfied God’s judgment on the world, wiping the slate clean for all, even those who hated him then and who despise him now.  In the throes of death, Jesus cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  (Luke 23:34)  What love, what grace and mercy!   We who are Christians must follow the example of Jesus by forgiving the people who hurt us, who reject our Lord.  We must lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.  Then the world will know that we do not merely love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.  God bless you as you choose love!  

1 John 3:11-15 Love One Another

1 John 3:11-15  For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.  Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother.  And why did he murder him?  Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.  Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.  We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other.  Anyone who does not love remains in death.  Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

From the beginning of time, since Adam and Eve’s decision to disobey God’s commandment of not eating of the Tree of Knowledge, we have seen murder enter into the hearts of men.  Choosing man’s authority over God’s authority introduced the devil’s nature and inclination into the world.  Now man was not only competitive with God, he was competitive with others.  We see this played out with Cain and Abel.  They both brought an offering to God.  God pronounced Abel’s better than Cain’s.  Because the father of degradation, of separation, was crouching at Cain’s heart, Cain decided to kill his brother, to do away with his competition for God’s favor.  Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.”  While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.  Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”  “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  (Genesis 4:8-9)  Because the devil is also the father of lying; Cain obeyed him by lying to God.  Of course, Cain knew where his brother had fallen, so did God; but God allowed Cain to go all the way, acting and expressing only evil, exposing the true nature of wickedness in his heart.  God judged him by not allowing the land to be productive; consequently, he became a wanderer, no longer in the continuous presence of God.  Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence.  (Genesis 4:14)  This judgment of exclusion from the presence of God was so harsh that later we see Moses saying to God, if your presence does not go with us to the Promised Land, then let us die in the wilderness.  Moses coveted the presence of God for he knew the presence of God identified the Israelites from the rest of the people on Earth.  We see that Cain knew he required the nearness of God to survive successfully in this world.  His succumbing to the devil’s spirit and words brought him judgment, but his punishment did not change his heart.  Jesus in disputing with the priests and the elite of his day claimed the devil had infiltrated men’s hearts, even the Jewish hearts.  Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God.  I have not come on my own; God sent me.  Why is my language not clear to you?  Because you are unable to hear what I say.  You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires.  He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.  Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!  (John 8:42-45)  As with Cain, the devil is always crouching at the hearts of men, turning them from a brother one day to a murderer the next day.  The image of Satan crouching at the door merely means the voice of the devil is speaking, whispering lies.  Who will people obey, the voice of the wicked one or the voice of the Creator, the one who made them in and of his image?  As we see in the account of Noah and the great flood, God destroyed mankind because of their violent nature; their willingness to kill, rape, and destroy.  This nature is still present in every person, even the 80-year-old woman who kindly invites you into her house and gifts you with cookies.  As we have said in previous breakfasts, the history of mankind clearly displays this waywardness from God’s nature of love and care, for millions have been killed, raped and destroyed because of the evil within men.  This contamination of self-will, lustful desires, and violence remains a part of our innate selves, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  (Romans 3:23)

The beautiful story of Jesus is that He came to do away with the innate sinful nature in the soul of man.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  (Romans 5:8)  Jesus came to create new creatures, those who are described by him as being born again.  We were not reborn with Cain’s disposition, but with Christ’s disposition as joint-heirs with him, called to be sons and daughters of the Father God.  Of course, this is a transformation of our souls, what God sees when He looks upon us.  For the blood of the Lamb has taken away our sins, by covering us with the works of Jesus, and not our works.  John understood this when he said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”  (John 1:29)  Yes, at times we are still sinful in our flesh.  We are not absolutely perfect as God is, but IN CHRIST we are completely perfect, for He is completely perfect and pleasing to God.  In the worldly domain, we walk with the spirit of helping others around us because the Holy Spirit lives in us.  We love others as we love ourselves; we serve one another, preferring others above our own needs and desires.  The world hates this spirit of irrevocable love.  Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.  We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other.  The contrast between living a life of goodness by helping and loving others with the way the world lives is dramatic.  The Bible says they are living lives of death while we who are IN CHRIST are living eternal lives.  The world hates those who are totally committed to Christ.  Over the millenniums of time, countless believers have sacrificed their lives for the truth of the gospel.  After telling about all the great people of faith, the writer of Hebrews speaks of those who were persecuted, tortured, and killed for their faith, saying, the world was not worthy of them.  They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.  These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.  (Hebrews 11:38-40)   

How should we live as Christians?  When John says, Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him, we agree with him.  We surely do not want to hate anyone, and obviously we do not want to murder anyone, for God is love.  But how should we live?  How do we have a victorious life filled with love and not governed by self-interest?  Paul says, we must commit to Jesus Christ, to his wisdom and knowledge, for IN CHRIST is the essence of all truth.  I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally.  My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  (Colossians 2:1-3)  Knowing Christ and living in and for Christ means we are experiencing the mystery God designed for human beings.  God makes sons and daughters out of us who are but flesh, created by his hands from dust.  But to know the mystery of God, to accept the reality of what God is doing in us through Christ, we must remain passionately faithful to the message of Christ and his redemptive work.  We must be sold out!  In Revelation, the Lord talks about the Laodicean church.  He tells the church that they are lukewarm, neither hot or cold.  They are double-minded, sometimes existing in fervor about God and then at times existing in doubt about God’s favor and goodness towards them.  They are playing the odds: maybe there is a God, maybe there is not, not landing on one side or the other.  Of course lukewarmness can be swayed one way or the other, but hot or cold cannot.  The state of a person’s faith is clear when it is hot or cold.  The Laodicean church believed their way of living was validated by God, for they were rich and satisfied with life.  The Lord tells them, But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.  (Revelation 3:17)  He infers they have been running on the octane of fleshly ways, knowledge, and wisdom.  The Lord advises them to build their lives on the purity of gold: Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  They are advised to buy white garments, completely perfect; garments washed in the blood of the Lamb.  He says, when your nakedness is covered, when your eyes have received healing ointment, then you can claim the richness of the Lord, but until then you are under judgement.  Hear my knock at the door of your hearts, He says.  Hear my voice, open up the door to my presence.  If you will open your hearts to my words, I will sup with you; we will share our friendship.  You will sit with me on my throne forever.  For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.  If we love Christ passionately, we love God the Father.  We will sit with the Father God forever.  We cannot love others as we should unless we sup with Jesus.  To be his friend, his servant, his companion is to be the friend, servant and companion to the world.  We cannot say, we love God and we are God’s friend, and then live with hatred in our hearts.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  (1 John 4:8)  Today, go forth in love! 

 

1 John 3:4-10 Greatly Favored!

1 John 3:4-10  Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.  But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins.  And in him is no sin.  No one who lives in him keeps on sinning.  No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.  Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray.  The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.  The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.  The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.  No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.  This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.  

The fall from God’s presence in the Garden was complete, dividing God and his righteousness from man’s spirit of the flesh.  From the beginning, man broke the one commandment from God, separating himself from God’s absolute authority.  Rather than not eating of the Tree of Good and Evil, man chose to disobey, attempting to become his own creator.  Now he thought he could make creation better by taking control.  By being willfully deceived by Satan, the spirit of alienation came into his heart.  Freed from God’s authority, he could think entirely for himself, as the Evil One was free to do.  Through his action of disobedience to God’s commandment, his heart became depraved as is the devil’s heart.  The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.  Paul describes the results of this separation from God’s authority: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.  (Romans 3:10-12)  The contamination of unrighteousness is complete and devastating.  The history of man chronicles pain, killing, war, destruction.  Millions have faced death by human hands; millions of women have been raped; millions of children have been abused or made orphans because of the sin of humankind.  Even today we have millions enslaved by others.  Sin remains rampant on the face of the earth, as it has been in every millennium.  The hearts of men are deceitfully wicked; who can know them.  Of course, this sinful nature is in all flesh, even in us who are reading this breakfast.  We deceive ourselves if we do not understand our fleshly nature.  All flesh tends to be selfish and self-absorbed.  When John the Baptist answered the question of those who desired to escape the coming judgment of God, or hellfire: What should we do then?  John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”  (Luke 3:10-11)  John was very direct; he called the crowd that came to be baptized vipers, fleeing from the wrath to come.  (See Luke 3:7)  Why was he so vehement?  They were but fleshly people, filled with their own needs, wants, and careless ways of living without God’s purposes in their lives. To reveal their selfishness, John told them they should share with the poorly clothed and the hungry.  John said these words because he lived in the desert, full of the Holy Spirit from birth, and he knew God’s heart—his concern for everything and everyone on Earth. The truly righteous should have God’s mind, caring for others, all people and the earth God gave them.  Who are the righteous?  Those who love God with all their hearts, souls, minds and strength, and love their fellow man as they love and care for themselves.  Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.  As you can surmise, none of us, even the redeemed, are truly righteous in the flesh.  How many of us have inventoried our wardrobe and given half to the poorly clothed; how many look daily at the food we eat, thinking to share some with the hungry.  As Adam and Eve, we have been given domain over the earth, every animal, plant, natural resource that exists on the earth, yet our sinfulness exploits everything for our own purposes, not sharing with others.  In Isaiah 58, we hear the Lord say that He does not want religiosity, long prayers, temple worship, fasting.  What He desires is service to him from the heart by freeing those who are wrongly imprisoned, lightening the burden of the worker, setting the oppressed free, removing the chains that bind people, sharing food with the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing those who need clothing, and helping relatives.  These actions are important to God.  The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.  The devil’s work is to hurt, depose, destroy, neglect, and the like.  The Lord has come to bind up wounds, to bring peace to a hurting world of violence and harm.

When John says, No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him, he is talking about people who claim to know God, but do not change their lives to serve God.  Rather than change their lifestyles, they allow sin to exist in their lives with little or no feeling of conviction.  They remain committed to the devil and his way of thinking.  They practice sin rather that excise it from their lives.  They keep lying for their own purposes; they hold bitterness in their hearts because they feel it is justified.  They hurt others with their tongues or physically abuse them, believing they are doing what is good for themselves.  This kind of lifestyle conflicts with God’s nature.  Jesus did good to people, expended his energy and time to bring help to the hurting, the lame, the sick, the captive.  We who are under the authority of God through our faith in Jesus Christ and his works should always image God to the world.  We are to love as He loves; we are to serve as Jesus was a servant to the world.  We are to give our best for the purposes of saving people from the hold of the devil.  Without thinking this way daily, we will think as the flesh does: ME FIRST, ME ALWAYS.  This is not the new life of the new creature within us.  A self-serving life reflects the devil and his attitude about life.  Jesus said, we must be born again; we must start over, clothed in a new way of living.  As born again people, we are obligated to put on the new clothes of the new creature birthed in us.  These new clothes of love and concern for the world, even for our enemies, are very shiny, for they reveal clearly to the world a hundred-and-eighty-degree shift from the sinful nature of humans.  A sacrificial love becomes the center piece in a new creature.  Men sometimes do good, even sacrifice themselves for the benefit of others, but the  abiding nature of servanthood to all people at all times is not endemic in people.  We will often judge whether people deserve our help or not, or we will need a natural disaster or calamity before we will serve unreservedly.  This is who we are as natural people!  But Jesus and the new creature ask more of us.  You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  (Romans 5:6-8)  We are to serve even the froward master, one who hates us and abuses us.  Christ died for all: we also should sacrifice our lives for all, not depending on circumstances or places.

To be willing to die for everyone depicts the nature of God and his righteousness.  John says, The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.  How can we in the flesh be that righteous?  Are we to give our lives for God by sacrificing even for those who hate God?  Well, yes!  But our righteousness does not depend on our actions.  Our rightful place by the side of Christ IN GOD does not hinge on our goodness or lack of fidelity; our place in the family of God relies entirely on Christ’s works, not ours.  Yes, we should do what is right.  We do not want to be called vipers, or the unredeemable.  We do not want to be alienated from the love of the Creator.  However, without the works of God in us, through faith in Jesus Christ, that is what we are.  As people of fleshly endeavors, we tend to be contaminators, often displaying the selfish works of the devil more than the loving works of God.  We usually are not cognizant of our selfish lifestyle.  In our daily journey, we often forget our obligation to display our Creator’s generous love to the people around us.  But righteousness is a gift, not something deserved or earned.  This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  (Romans 3:22-24)  We are justified freely by God’s grace that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.  We are new creatures because Christ has come into our hearts.  We have been born again.  Our trust is not in whether we are righteous in our actions or not; our trust relies entirely on Jesus’ righteousness.  We do not look at ourselves and condemn ourselves for who we are in the flesh.  Jesus did not come into the world to condemn us, for he knows who we are.  He knows the bondage of the devil in men’s hearts, but He came with a message of love from the Father.  He came to redeem the vipers, the unredeemable.  He gave us a new name, written down in the Book of Life.  He knows each one of us; we cannot deceive him.  He knows the intents of our hearts, how much we are committed to him or not committed to him.  He knows our personal journeys through life: how we were formed, what happened in our early lives and later years that causes us to think and react in this world as we do.  He knows everything about us; the good and the evil.  HE KNOWS!  How then must we live?  We live by faith in God and his righteousness.  Every day we look to him and praise him for the new work He has done in us.  Every day, we attempt to display God to the world.  Every day, we lay our lives down for the purposes of God as children of a living God.  He knows our names and we are GREATLY FAVORED.  Amen!  

  

1 John 3:1-3 Great Love!

1 John 3:1-3  See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!  The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.  But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Praise God what a beautiful scripture, stating the truth about Christianity and our place hidden in Christ by faith in him.  He is the only song we sing in our hearts.  Dedicated to serve him and him alone, we daily attempt to walk in purity.  This is the purity of serving the Creator only, not our flesh or anything else, not any other doctrine or philosophy.  He represents the center of our existence.  When we live by faith in Jesus Christ and his works, we are hidden within a position of faith.  As Paul wrote: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  (Galatians 2:20)  We are surrounded by the eternal womb of God with the Holy Spirit abiding in us and protecting our new life with his love and care.  As children of God, in this early state of eternal life, we are as God made us.  And that is what we are!  The world does not know who we are, for they are not in the womb of CHRIST; yet all who are alive in God are there by faith in Jesus.  The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.   Because we are IN CHRIST, perfectly formed by him as a child is in the womb, we now can be called children of God!  Because our souls have been made right with God, we presently sit in heavenly places, along with Jesus at the right hand of God.  Dear friends, NOW we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.  Of course, now we do not comprehend fully our exalted position IN CHRIST.  We do not appreciate completely how important we are with our Abba Father, for in this world, we experience emotional, psychological, and physical pain.  Our souls are caught in the dimension of time and within an adulterous environment, not under the complete control of the Holy One of Heaven.  The world from the beginning of time has chosen to ignore the one and only Creator, willingly bowing down to everything else but God with obeisance to idols of wood, stone, metal, made into false images including animals of every kind, birds and reptiles.  Of course, idol worship was part of the ancient world.  These gods were created out of people’s own fleshly imaginations.  For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.  (Romans 1:21-23)  Many of their idols created an atmosphere where mankind lived in a sinful state of violence, sexual impropriety, and self-interest.  Today, we scoff at such primitive idol worshipping, for such a lifestyle is strange to us.  Why would people try to create gods from their own imaginations?  However, in our modern world of knowledge and wisdom, we worship and serve the self in our dedicated pursuit of getting the most out of life by eating, drinking and being merry as we rush to experience and to accumulate all life has to offer.  Men and women across the world have written God out of their lives, serving only themselves.  Knowing and fearing the shortness of their lives, cognizant always of the eternal abyss awaiting, they push to have it all with little or no time for God.

John says when we see Christ, we will be like him.  Our full godly stature will be known to us.   But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  Now we are cloaked in the robes of the flesh.  Our desires are oftentimes controlled by our carnal nature, but inside us is the fullness of Christ.  The Bible says, The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.  (Hebrews 1:3)  We who are IN CHRIST are part of his body, known as the church; therefore, we also are the full representation of God.  Nonetheless, as we analyze our lives, we know that we are not like God in all our ways.  We often do not reflect the goodness of God by displaying his mercy and love to others.  But by faith, we must commit to the reality that God is in us, and his grace covers our weaknesses.  Jesus is the center of our lives, the key to our victory over sin.  Now religious service or obeying the regulations of the law will not display God to the world in the purity that He desires.  Our religious service to God might make us feel better or ease our consciences, but does not indicate a Spirit-led life.  We might find some peace by reading the Bible, fasting, and religiously regulating our lives, but this lifestyle might be far from what God desires for us.  Why?  Because it might be for ourselves and not for others.  “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?  Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?  Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.  Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.  (Isaiah 58:6-9)  In this present life, we should display God fully, showing his image to the world.  Yes, someday when we meet Jesus, we will understand fully who we are, children of God.  But at this time, in the veil of flesh, we need to be about our Father’s business.  This is what Jesus’ life was about, doing his Father’s business: healing the sick, caring for the lonely, working with the outcasts.  We should be as Jesus, caring for the disabled, the hurting, the lonely.  In the Isaiah passage, we see the Lord’s disdain for a self-serving religious way of life.  He said He would not answer the concerns and cries of those people.  The life He would honor, the fasting He would respond to by saying: Here am I is a life that works to loose the chains of injustice, to set the oppressed free, to share food with the hungry, to provide the poor wanderer with shelter, to cloth the naked, to turn not away from your own flesh and blood?  Jesus said we would be honored by God if we served the least in the community of man.  If we serve them, we serve God, for as his children we reveal him to humankind.  Yes, we are in the womb of Christ, developed in his likeness.  We have his eyes, his mouth, his hands and feet.  In our weak state of being still in the flesh, we should shine forth his glory and likeness.  We ought to be God’s servants in this life, preferring others above our own needs and wants.  How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation.  (Isaiah 52:7)

Breakfast companions, life can be stressful and difficult to navigate.  Many times our lives seem to have no exit from our troubles.  But God is on the throne—miracles happen to those who set their feet on a straight path, believing God is in our lives, and we are the children of God.  When our lives fail to be as we desire, let us continue in our belief that we are children of the living God.  He will not abandon us: He will make a way for us.  AS CHILDREN OF HIS, WE MUST CONTINUE TO BELIEVE HE IS WITH US AND HAS THE ANSWERS.  Does this mean that our lives will smooth out for us?  Not always, but it does mean that if we walk with God, He will walk with us.  Our image of our lives so often depends upon our circumstances, but we must lift our lives to heaven, understanding that our likeness is God’s likeness.  Presently, even in our difficulties, we are perfectly made.  He will not abort us.  He will not leave us in shame but will guide and keep us.  Recently, Dad told a very talented young lady to sing the songs God has put in her heart.  To capture those songs, she should place the words on paper, and publish them by singing them to herself and to others.  All of us have songs God has placed in our hearts.  All of us do not have a beautiful voice to sing to others, but we do have a voice to sing to ourselves.  If you feel locked in, as if there is a yoke around your neck, as if the burden of life is too great, know that God is with you.  All of your experiences can be used.  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  (Romans 8:28)  Reflect on your talents as you move forward step by step with God directing you.  YOU ARE NEVER LOCKED IN: He has a way out for you, if nothing more than reflecting his goodness and love to others.  No other mission is greater or more beneficial to his kingdom.  When Christ appears, we will know who we are and who we have been.  This will either be at his second coming or at our demise, but God asks us to know who we are at this time.  We are his children—greatly loved, formed in Christ.  Let us live that way, capitalizing on our skills.  Let us love as He loves, giving mercy as He gives mercy.  As we fight the good fight, we thank God for freedom from the bondage of the devil.  Dear friends you have been given so much by God, serve him with all your might, knowing He will be there to comfort you and make a way for you through the power of the cross.  But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.  Praise God forever!