1 John 4:9-16 Let Your Light Shine!

1 John 4:9-16  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.  This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.  If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.  And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

We have no other avenue to God other than acknowledging Jesus as the Son of God, not that He is just a good man, but the Son of God.  Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.  (Acts 4:12)  This acknowledgement is a stumbling stone to many.  People will give Christians credit for believing Jesus is a good man, maybe a good teacher, even one who espouses the beneficial message of love, but for Christians to make the jump to believing Jesus is literally the Son of God is just too much for many people.  The problem for Christians with the unbelieving world is that our recognition of Jesus as the Son of God separates us from all others in the world, often causing us to come under persecution.  Our belief in Jesus as the Son portends future judgment for those who do not believe in Jesus as the Christ.  This belief of judgment creates a huge gulf between believers and unbelievers, often causing rejection of the believer, leading to torment.  Another separating element between Christians and the world is the idea that we become imbued with the Spirit when we accept Jesus as our Savior.  The concept of possessing the Spirit of God troubles those in the world, but is certainly integral to our lives. This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.  Claiming that God lives in us brings us Christians close scrutiny by the world.  Any variation in our daily walk from what the world perceives as godlike will bring us the label of hypocrite, giving people an excuse to disclaim the message of Christ.  Of course, Christianity rests on the word atonement: being “one” with God in harmony with HIM.  Atonement in the New Testament is the saving work that God did through Christ to reconcile the world to himself, and also the state of a person having been reconciled to God.  The world does not believe they need to be reconciled with God, for if there is a God, as their Creator He already recognizes them as his children; therefore, He is not an inimical Creator but a loving Creator who adores his creation.  Consequently, all that a person must do to be counted worthy in one’s life is to perform good works. This kind of belief does not fully appreciate the self-serving, self-oriented nature of man that often leads people to hostility, even causing death to others.  Humans have killed their fellow humans by the millions, causing great pain and suffering throughout history.     

Most religions consider God’s recognition a positive outcome of people’s lives, resting on a tabulation of their good works.  Almost all individuals who believe in a God, believe if their personal ledger lands on the positive side of living, their reward will be heaven or nirvana.  Their assumption is that for a small minority such as Hitler, their ledger might fall on the negative side.  These few will receive some sort of future judgment, either long or short in duration.  Christianity runs counter to this assessment of God’s acceptance of human beings.  Christianity defines a God of absolute perfection and holiness, accepting no other standard for mankind than God’s righteousness.  Eternity demands perfection, as God is perfect and eternal.  Mankind in his fallen state is not capable of entering into an eternal dwelling with God as sons and daughters of the Most High.  Consequently, to know God as Father God, an atonement must be made for man’s imperfection.  This atonement was made through the blood of the Lamb of God, who paid the complete price for sin.  He came as the Son of Man, the perfect man, to redeem mankind from his bondage to sin.  Jesus was without sin, guiltless, not deserving any judgment from God.  He was in right standing before his Father God, his Abba Father.  He did not require an atonement for himself or need to be reconciled to God, for He always did what the Father directed him to do.  Jesus laid down his perfect life for all of sinful humanity.  He took the place of Abraham in God’s covenant with man.  The man of faith, Abraham, was not a perfect man.  He betrayed his covenant with God by twice giving away his wife, Sarah, but he still believed God would bless all nations through his seed.  God counted that faith unto him as righteousness but not perfection.  Jesus took the place of Abraham in the new covenant where God now stood on both sides of the offering, swearing in the covenant.  God the Father on one side, Jesus on the other, with no double-mindedness on either side, no corruption.  True fidelity stood on both sides, for the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father.  Salvation came to all of mankind through this covenant.  Men and women would no longer come under judgment if they believed in Jesus Christ who gave his life to fulfill his promise to God on his side of the covenant: man’s side.  He proved that IN HIM people would keep their fidelity to God, fulfilling Jesus’ command: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  (Mark 12:30)   Hidden IN CHRIST, who alone fulfills that love, they would please their holy, jealous God.  This is the salvation message that self-serving humans despise.  Man does not want to release control over his life to Jesus Christ; he wants to work his way to God, telling God that he is capable of fulfilling the covenant with his good works.  His fidelity to God will be proven by his actions.  The problem with this attitude is mankind’s innate fickleness, his waywardness, his lack of allegiance to anyone for very long if it does not benefit him in some way.  As long as he feels the blessings of life, he will advocate God’s goodness, but as soon as he experiences long-term adversity or hardship, his love for God wanes.  He then fails to serve God, to love him with his whole being, his whole strength.  Mankind needs the perfect substitute for the sinful nature acquired when Adam and Eve fell.  Of course, that substitute, that propitiation, is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, known to us as the Son of Man, the Perfect Man, the only one who could fulfill God’s perfect will for all people.

God’s perfect will for mankind is to reveal God’s goodness to the world, and his goodness is wrapped up in the word love as expressed through his Son, Jesus.  Love flows without any need of reciprocation or reason.  Love is from the fountain of God’s goodness, flowing on the good and the bad, on friends and enemies.  As Christians we ought to reveal God through our expressions and desires to love.  For Jesus was sent to us as a message of God’s love for us in the midst of our waywardness, our unredeemable state. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  God sent Jesus to us as a baby in the manger, a personification of his love for humanity.  Jesus came to us to bring salvation to lost souls, to save anyone from eternal destruction who would believe in him and his works.  We who believe in Jesus are transformed into new creatures, acceptable to a holy God, for God lives in them (us) and they (we) in God.  Now, how should we live?  What should be the story of our lives?  What should people know about us?  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.  We who are born again because we are IN CHRIST through faith in him and his death and resurrection should be true ambassadors of God and his kingdom of love.  We are not to live unto ourselves but to live for God and his purposes.  Our lives are to be hidden.  Hidden where?  IN CHRIST underneath the covering of his blood, totally free from the works of the devil, walking as Jesus would want us to walk: free indeed.  We are not just anyone walking this world: we are known as the chosen, God’s own, his family members.  But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  (1 Peter 2:9-10)  Since we are free because Jesus has paid for our deliverance from slavery, let us sing his praises constantly, let us continually portray the goodness of God.  May our lives be disciplined, so others might see the God we serve, seeing how different we are from them.  Jesus said, In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.  (Matthew 5:16)  If we are as He says, people should know when light has entered a room; people should know that something is different about us.  Breakfast companions, let your light shine today.  Let the world know that God exists, for He shines in you.  Amen!  

      

1 John 4:4-8 God Is Love!

1 John 4:4-8  You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.  They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.  We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us.  This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

We read last week that every spirit that does not recognize Jesus as coming from God is part of the antichrist spirit.  The antichrist spirit is divisive and hurtful and can even lead to the death of others.  Sin promotes hatred and willfulness, lack of respect for others.  God’s Spirit promotes love and self-sacrifice, kindness toward others.  We see the full picture of God’s love in the story of the baby Jesus in the manger.  God sent his Son to gather together all those who would believe in God as their Creator and place their faith in his mercy and grace.  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.  (John 3:16)  Because of the nature of sin that has saturated the will of mankind, a new path to God was made for mankind: the birth of Jesus Christ, his death, and his resurrection.  A new way to be right with God came to men and women: the death of God himself on a cross made by the hands of men, depicting mankind’s willingness to kill goodness, a manifestation of the antiGod spirit.  This man Jesus, called the Son of Man or the perfect man, came to redeem mankind from the judgment of God on all unrighteousness.  Because of Jesus’ works, at death people would no longer have to stand before the Almighty Righteous God in their unclean clothes, but rather in the garments of the PERFECT ONE.  You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them (those who do not accept Jesus as God), because the one who is IN YOU is greater than the one who is IN THE WORLD.  This rightness with God is acquired by placing faith in Jesus’ works and not their own.  But for most men, the Good News of Christ’s redemptive act has either been rejected or has gone unnoticed.  The history of mankind as chronicled in books reveals the spirit of sin is still thriving in the world: self-interest, self-aggrandizement, hate, killings, and hurt are embedded within the nature of humankind.  People still choose to live in the cesspool of sin rather than in a place of peace and quietness before God.  People take their own lives rather than serve God.  Today, even now, we are under the threat of total annihilation by either nuclear war or by destroying our sustaining planet.  Our unrestrained self-will promotes death; however, God’s Spirit of eternal life promotes love in all situations, for God is love!

Of course, men and women will never fully accept the Good News even though they know that what they are espousing is not working.  They attempt in every way to persuade people not to be so self-destructive.  We see on our televisions the gurus of the self-help method of attaining goodness and cooperation speak with assurance of their panaceas.  They tend to say, “If we will only unite the goodness in each of us, then we will live in peace and harmony.  All we need to do is mine the gold in each of us, let it come to the forefront of our lives.  Then we will have the security of love wrapped around our beings.”  This spirit of finding goodness in the core of mankind is usually the foundation of most Eastern religions.  The celebrities in our midst flock to these ill-willed, fleshly answers to solve the predicament of sin in people.  John says, these people who try to find the answer to man’s wicked behavior are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.  We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us.  Many, if not most people, welcome fleshly answers to the problems of sin and self-destruction.  They reject the Good News of Jesus the Christ coming in the flesh to redeem men of their innate godlessness, creating them anew to be with God in a timeless place called heaven. People do not want to be healed by something other than their own wills.  As in the Garden, when the serpent deceived Eve.  “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”  The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”  “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.  “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  (Genesis 3:1-5)  Since the beginning of time, mankind has always thought the answer to life was within themselves.  If there was a cure to be had, it must come from the minds and the hands of the created and not the Creator.  When dealing with our sickness of sin, we have sought answers within our own communities and societies.  Surely, we can manage this thing that is destroying us, our neighbors, and even our world.  Surely, the answer must be somewhere within the midst of our human existence.  But the answer never has been in us from the beginning.  Jesus says very clearly to us today, just as He did to Nicodemus, You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.”  (John 3:7)   Paul talks about a new creature being formed in us—not one made by human hands, but one made by God himself through the Son of God, Jesus Christ.  When the Good News is rejected, we know the source is the spirit of the Serpent, the Evil One.  The devil knows that the only way to unlock his hold on mankind comes through the blood of Jesus Christ.  That is why he willingly makes Christians useless or destroys them, for they have the message of truth, the message of redemption from the bondage to eternal death and destruction.  

Love in the secular world and love in the spiritual world are usually considered the antidote to hate, fighting, and killing.  Whatever the source, love is a very positive and curative action.  John encourages his Christian brethren to love each other: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Love carries a powerful message that can sway people’s actions to do good quite successfully.  This message should be preached everywhere.  But what is the difference between the two loves: the secular and the Christian love?  These two easily and usually overlap in many contexts and situations.  We should never fight against the message of love wherever we find it espoused.  John says rather emphatically the message of love can be indicative of one who knows God.  But the Christian love emulates Christ and his life.  He did nothing but good, pronouncing a healing message to the world.  Jesus healed many, performed marvelous miracles; yet the world hated him.  The religious elite who should have recognized God’s love the most, despised him.  Their innate nature revealed the father they served when they wanted Jesus dead.  This was not God’s love, but an antichrist spirit.  What love did Jesus display: perfect love.  When concluding his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told the people to be perfect as God is perfect.  He said, God sends his rain on those who hate him as well as those who love him.  His love needs no reciprocation.  Jesus said any barbarian will love his own children, relatives and friends, for that is the nature of man.  But He was asking them to love their enemies, those who would want to torture and kill them.  Now we see the difference between secular love and God’s love.  Now we see why a new creature must be created by God in us, for we are decrepit in sin and self-interests outside of Christ.  We cannot view ourselves loving those who hate us.  It is not in our carnal nature to be like that.  We will love, but our love will end when adversity strikes us from another man’s hand.  But Jesus, the baby, was born to be struck by those who hated him and his birth as the King of Kings.  They would place him on the cross willingly, with joy.  “Crucify him!” would be their mantra.  Christ, the Perfect One, would be crucified by the imperfect ones who should have worshipped him.  But his love endured as He called out, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  (Luke 23:34)  This is the love of God; this is the love that Christians must display to the world.  This love comes only through a new creature, one founded and birthed in the blood of Jesus.  We give our lives not only for our friends but for our enemies too.  As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.  Now remain in my love.  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  (John 15:9-12)  Christian brethren we are to love others as God loves us.  Christ’s commandment is summed up in loving others as we love God.  If we fail to love God with our whole being, we will fail to love people in that same way.  As you read this breakfast, you might say, I cannot display that much love; I feel condemned, unworthy.  Jesus did not come to condemn you, but to save you.  Place your rightness with God in Jesus’ hands.  Repent where you need to repent, and then count your blessings, for Jesus has come to you in all his glory.  Your life is hid in him, BUT STILL DEAR BROTHERS AND SISTERS LOVE THOSE WHO ARE MOST UNLOVING TO YOU.  Be a servant of God, not a servant to the flesh.  Amen!  Merry Christmas!  

1 John 4: 1-3 Antichrist Spirit in the World!

1 John 4: 1-3  Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.  This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.  This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

The antichrist spirit wants to eliminate God’s presence of redemption from mankind.  When humans reject that Jesus has come in the flesh for the benefit of mankind, they reject every aspect of pleasing the perfect, holy, eternal, Creator God.  Jesus came to place mankind in right relationship to the only true God.  People who live by faith in Jesus Christ and his works are cleansed of their own works and efforts to please a holy God.  Jesus replaces our attempts at holiness by giving us his holiness, his perfection, making us able to live eternally with an everlasting God.  Because of Jesus’ works, the Holy Spirit came to abide within men.  He testifies of the eternal God by closely allying himself with the spirits of those with faith in Jesus.  Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, came to redeem mankind of its waywardness from God’s presence, allowing men and women to know God and to be perfect in his presence.  The Creator God has never left his creation, even though mankind’s rebellion was so great that in Noah’s time He did away with everyone but Noah’s family. Yet his plan from the beginning of time was always to redeem humans who were made in his image.  Redemption’s plan was completely fulfilled in the life of Jesus.  No other man could do the things that Jesus did: He healed the sick and broken and moved the natural elements to suit his purposes.  But we might ask, why did the Creator have to come in the flesh?  Why did Jesus call himself the Son of Man?  Jesus had to come in the form of a lowly man to experience the finiteness of human beings.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.  (Hebrews 4:15)  If He had not come as a human, He could not have been the perfect sacrifice for people, for He would not have known the pressure and the terror of living for a short time in an incomprehensible existence.  He lived by faith just as men who are alive to God live by faith.  As the perfect sacrifice, Jesus died with faith in God and his redemption plan, satisfying God’s wrath on a wayward, rebellious people, imprisoned by their own desires, living under their own authority and not God’s.  We see human bondage in the Israelites who were led into Egypt because of the scarcity of food in their nomad environment.  The slavery experience of the Israelites in Egypt is analogous to humans in their slavery to the Evil One.  A savior was needed to release the Israelites from their captivity, and a savior is needed to redeem men from their bondage to rebellion.  Moses was chosen to free the Jewish people from Pharaoh.  Jesus came to deliver mankind from their slavery to the evil one, displaying the devil’s works, not God’s goodness.  Moses through God’s directions and power performed many miracles, so did Jesus through God’s direction, for Jesus always did the will of his Father.  The Father’s words were his words, and his words were the Father’s words.  Moses’ words were given to him by God.  The Jewish people in captivity had to believe in Moses’ words for deliverance from captivity.  They had to place the blood of the lamb above their doors to escape death, to find life outside of Egypt.  Christians have appropriated Jesus’ blood for their lives.  By this act of faith, the souls of Christians have been released from the hold of the Evil One.  Jesus rejoices when his apostles come back to him and tell of their great ministries, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”  (Luke 10:17)  John states very emphatically that people must believe in the words and actions of Jesus Christ in the flesh or they will never be free from the control of evil.  The Jews had to followed Moses’ words to find release from captivity; people must believe that the Deliverer has come to them in Christ to bring release from eternal death.  Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.  (Acts 4:12)  Christ had to walk this world as a man; He called himself the Son of Man, identifying himself with humans, even to death, alone as all humans experience death, for no one can go with you on that last journey even though they might wish to.  From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land.  About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,[c] lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).  (Matthew 27:45-46)  We see Jesus alone on the cross, and we see him in desperation, if God has abandoned him, Life itself has abandoned him.  Jesus felt alone, as mankind is alone without God, caught literally in nothingness.  But Jesus knew by faith, God is faithful.  Just as we the believers know that truth when we die.

People believe many things to make sense of life, developing philosophies, ideologies and religions to navigate existence.  Their hope of something more than this life usually rests with their own imaginations, their own awareness of life.  Even the atheist has a solution to future existence: a perfect nothingness, falling back into the black holes of the universe.  For them our lives are but a personification of energy; when the energy ceases, the light goes out permanently, trailing back into the abyss of blackness.  For many people, maybe the majority of people, if eternal life exists, it must be achieved by a life of goodness, love, and help, doing what is right, not what is hurtful or destructive to others.  Do unto others as you desire to have people do unto you.  This kind of life is somewhat like a game: the scorekeeper tallies up the good acts and the bad acts that transpire in our lives.  If the good outweighs the bad, the person is the winner, but if the bad supersedes the good, well, there has to be consequences for losing, so some religions see some sort of punishment after life; others see a gracious God evening out the score so there is no punishment.  Some religions consider the idea of oblivion for bad people such as Hitler.  Because of our finite nature and the unresolvable understanding of why we have an awareness called life, we imagine many answers and solutions that will perpetuate life.  John’s letter emphasizes that there is a God to serve and that his Son Jesus Christ came in the flesh. The New Testament emphasizes the Holy Spirit coming to earth to abide in those who have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as their own.  Of course, all of this happens by faith, vicariously.  This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.  If God’s Holy Spirit resides in a person, that person has acknowledged Jesus as the Savior of mankind.  The work of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life is to reveal God and to proclaim the saving works of Jesus.  Anyone who claims anything else is not from God, neither does he or she know God, nor the plan of God for the redemption of humans from their evil ways.  The antichrist people exist in darkness, in blindness, ignorant of their purpose for living and their need for redemption.  When Jesus was talking to the Pharisees after He healed the blind man, He was stern with them.  The Pharisees believed they knew God and how to please him.  They were satisfied with their religion as followers of Abraham and Moses.  Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”  Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What?  Are we blind too?”  Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”  (John 9:39-41)  These Pharisees displayed the antichrist spirit.  No matter what they saw Jesus doing, or how many miracles He performed before their own eyes, or how deep Jesus’ teachings were from the Old Testament, they were not going to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.  They were so embedded in their own religion of rights and wrongs, they were blinded to truth even when it walked boldly into their world of religion and philosophy.  This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

         

We should analyze whether we participate in the antichrist spirit that easily erodes the lifestyle of Christians.  We might believe that Christ came to this earth two thousand years ago, but his teachings and affirmations in our lives might be weak.  We must be careful if we only have a vaccination of Christ and not a lifestyle of Christ.  A double-minded spirit can weaken our commitment to the Lord.  In the Old Testament Abraham claimed absolute fidelity to God by offering to sacrifice his son because of God’s demands on his life.  Later on, God tested Abraham, saying, “Abraham!”  “Here I am,” he replied.  Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah.  Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”  (Genesis 22:1-2)  We see an absolute “all in” factor in Abraham’s life.  He was willing to give up his son, not for some personal gratuity from God; maybe more wealth, more blessings from God in some way.  No, his willingness to give up his son was an obeisance to God, honoring God as his maker.  If God desired his son’s sacrifice, he would do it.  We see this same spirit in the widow who gives her last two pence in an offering to God.  She was not giving for her own personal gain, but she was giving her last means of living for the benefit and pleasure of God.  Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury.  Many rich people threw in large amounts.  But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.  Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.  They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”  (Mark 12:41-44)  This total commitment to God is often the direct opposite of the human spirit to fend for himself or herself in this world.  This lack of trust in God can be called an antichrist spirit, a double-minded spirit.  Rather than trust God completely, relying on the plan of God to take care of us, we rely on our own efforts.  In some cases other divinities, philosophies, ideologies are more important to us than God.  In our present world, we find Christians hoping power and authority will keep us safe from the world’s wickedness.  By seeking the world, we desire the most for ourselves and others we love.  Rather than dedicating our sons and daughters, our wealth, our livelihood to God, we place them in the hands of the world.   Often in our minds, our salvation is based more on our decisions about life rather than on what God desires for our lives.  If God does not satisfy our yearnings, maybe something other than God is necessary.  As Christians we might say Jesus the Son of God has come in the flesh; believing we have evaded the contamination of the antigod, antichrist spirit, but our lives really journal the truth.  If we serve God as if we are acceptable to him, for we have said the magic words of salvation, we have taken the vaccination of truth on our arms, but have avoided the real story of our lives, written clearly in our diaries of how we really live, we fool ourselves.  The real truth of a life is the dedication to God, our obeisance to him.  If we believe Christ has come in the flesh, He is the story of our lives.  Are we daily writing God’s tunes, his words, or are we writing our music, our words?  Do we know the voice of God?  Do we have ears to hear?  Are songs of praise radiating from our lips as we walk through the day?  Are we interacting constantly with God?  Even Cain the rebellious one interacted with God. The antichrist spirit is believing God did not come in the flesh; believing the Spirit has no voice within us; believing life has to be worked out by ourselves.  The antichrist spirit is believing God is not really involved with our lives.  If our thoughts, our lives are sitting in any of these poison patches of unbelief, we are accepting the antichrist spirit.  If any of that is true in us, we need repentance, for we are children of God because Christ came in the flesh to set us free!  Amen!  

1 John 3:19-24 Great Joy!

1 John 3:19-24  This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.  Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.  And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.  The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them.  And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

If we lose contact with the God of love because of our hearts condemning us, we need to go back and search the scriptures.  Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world, but to deliver the world from its condition of unrighteousness.  Christ came as God’s messenger of love.  He came to all, not only to those who do good things, but to the whole world, even his enemies.  The angel that revealed himself to the shepherds on the night Jesus was born said, “Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news that will cause GREAT JOY FOR ALL PEOPLE.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”  (Luke 2:9-12)  This message of the glory of God coming to earth in the form of a baby excited the shepherds so much that they ventured to Bethlehem to view the child.  They who lived every night under a canopy of billions of stars and galaxies believed they saw God’s grace and mercy in the form of a baby in Bethlehem.  This baby Jesus as a mature man would call himself the Son of Man or God in the flesh.  He identified totally with those in the flesh, but as the Son of God He was always present with his Father.  All those He associated with possessed the Adamic nature.  Even if they were loving and kind, they were still away from God’s acceptance, walking under their own authority.  Jesus lived as flesh, but served God in his spirit.  The angel that night announced GOOD NEWS to all people: a Savior had been born who would deliver men out of their place of unrighteousness before God.  Later in the New Testament, we see the disciples moving from one community to the next, proclaiming the Good News that the angel expressed to the shepherds: God had come down to men to bring salvation through the life of this baby, Jesus Christ.  His life and death would fulfill the plan of God, bringing humans into his eternal household; adopted as children of God, originally birthed in finite flesh, but later because of faith in Jesus Christ, birthed in the Spirit to eternal life.  God formed this plan in his heart before the foundation of the world.  A fallen creation would find eternal life through the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross.  No longer hopelessly lost, cast from God’s eternal home because of rebellion to his authority, the works of Jesus would lead men and women who put their faith in him into God’s intimate presence.  

The Good News for all mankind allows men and women to choose God’s way of righteousness over their own works.  God is a just God who will allow only what is good and right in his presence.  A life of 60% good and 40% bad outside of Christ will not experience God’s acceptance.  No, that life will experience death, for God does not tolerate imperfection.  He will not allow sin to go unpunished, for that would violate his holy stature, his righteousness, his eternal existence.  God’s salvation plan is to obliterate in men’s souls their contrariness to God’s authority, to substitute the Good News of grace and mercy in place of their rebellious spirits.  We do not pay the price for our waywardness; Jesus paid the price for everyone’s sin.  He experienced the full wrath of God, even to the point of death.  In faith, we exchange our lives for his life.  We no longer live before God in our sins; we live before God hidden in the righteousness of the Messiah.  The New Testament proclaims that our souls are literally part of the body of Christ.  Paul wrote, For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  (Colossians 3:3)  In Christ, we are presented to the righteous, perfect God.  Jesus is the head of the body of the living church.  Our transformation from death to life is his work: old man to the new creature.  So, if our hearts condemn us for who we are in the flesh, by faith we place the health of our souls in the hands of Jesus Christ.  His work is perfect and finished.  IT IS FINISHED are his last words on the cross.  God fully implemented his transformational salvation plan at the cross.  The wrath of God on sin was satisfied for all those who believe in the work of the cross.  Consequently, we know that we live in this truth.  If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.  God’s plan of salvation through the works of Jesus Christ is greater, more thorough, than anything we could conceive.  Therefore, we do not let our hearts condemn us by depending on our own righteousness.  If we do, we belittle the plan of God and sadly count Jesus’ suffering of no consequence to our salvation.  The truth of the scriptures is that God’s plan is the ONLY PLAN that will place man in right relationship with a holy God.  Other self-righteous ways of pleasing or appeasing a perfect God will always fall short.  Any audacious substitute for God’s perfect plan places us in danger of God’s judgment on sin.  Christ is the only way!  From the very beginning of time, since the fall of Adam, mankind has been under the judgment of God.  When Noah’s ark rested on dry ground, God made a covenant with mankind; allowing the existence of men to continue, even though, planted within them was the Adamic gene of rebellion.  This willful anti-God nature would cause darkness and violence to prevail in every country, race, and ethnic group.  No century or millennium is free from the signs of man’s evil and wrath.  But Jesus has come to the world to deliver men and women from this dilemma.  This is God’s plan for his creation: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.  If we follow God’s plan, we will live in God’s presence.  His shadow will always fall on our lives.  We will live as He desires, with hearts of compassion and love for the world.  When we live that way, we remain in the will of God.  The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them.  And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.  We no longer live by commandments, we live by the Spirit in us, by his voice within us.  We are infilled with his Spirit when we take Jesus as our Savior, yet we often still try to live by Old Testament regulations on how to please God.  But the Spirit of God within us leads us not by regulations or obedience to laws, but by his voice.

If we live by the Spirit, we will not limit God in our lives.  We will not condemn ourselves, but will live in freedom.  In fact, in God WE ARE LIMITED ONLY BY OUR OWN VISION.  When we are in right relationship with God because of our faith in Jesus Christ and his works, we have God’s face shining on us, helping us to see our paths clearly.  We walk in his shadow, presenting his likeness to the world.  When we limit God’s work in our lives, the world has difficulty seeing God in us.  When we become lazy, eating of the wrong food, desiring the wrong activities for our spirits, we lose our purpose for living.  As Christians, our purpose should be to reveal the pristine or wholesome life of God.  We are to set our minds on the healthy things that promote eternal life within us.  The Bible says, Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.  (Colossians 3:2)  If we do so, our hearts will not condemn us.  If our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.  We must realize everything in the world that attracts us can be a danger to our soul’s health.  If a man or woman claims to love God, but loves this world and lives immersed in the attitudes of the world, he or she cannot love God.  These people are drinking at the wrong fountain of life, drinking death and expecting life.  Such lives will produce the wrong kind of fruit.  Their children and friends will believe winning the world is the meaning of life, but such a life is finite while God’s life of the Spirit goes on forever.  Teaching to win the world, such as the prosperity teaching, presents problems because carnal thinking produces its own kind.  People become intrenched in this life with their tent poles deeply embedded in the wilderness, seeking the comforts and amenities of the world, content with this short lifespan, ignoring God.  But Christians should seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.  Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are the fruit of the Spirit we find in Galatians 5.  These attributes will be the products of seeking first the kingdom of God, not the desire for new cars, nicer houses, exotic vacations, impressive jobs, and the like.  Striving for power, recognition, and status in this world is often detrimental to the spirit of peace, quietness and love.  As John states, we set our hearts at rest in his presence.  If we feel chastened or condemned, we must go back to the truth: Jesus and his works set us free from the works of the flesh—bondage to this world of darkness.  If we feel good about the way we are walking, we should open our lives to more ministry to others.  We should not be limiting ourselves by our lack of vision.  We should allow God to open up new truths in our spirits, speaking the Good News through our lives.  We should understand his shadow falls on us daily.  Let us believe great things will happen in our lives, yet be content wherever we are camped today.  How great is our God?  Great enough to take care of us, to lead us through this wilderness we call life.  Let us image that God to the world.  Some years ago, Mom went on a church sponsored mission trip to help on some church repairs in a Yupik village in Savoonga, Alaska.  In the evenings, the people would gather around the elders to listen to their stories.  The first thing they would say is, “Let me tell you about my miracles,” then they told amazing tales of God’s goodness to them from simple blessings to times God brought them through the fog back to the village.  What miracles do you have to share with someone today?