Monday, March 18, 2024

The time is near.


Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
Revelation 1:3

The time is near.
Lord, let me hear
and keep the words written here
in Your Word. I fear
I may forget that You are near.

And so today
I will read aloud what You say.
Help me to listen and obey
the truth, the life, the way.
This I pray.

Blessed are these words I read
You furnish all I’ll ever need
as Your promises I heed.
From sin and death I am freed.
Jesus will return. It’s guaranteed.

Near is the coming of the Lord.
I will read and hear His Word.
I’ll pay attention to what I’ve heard.
In His promises assured
I’ll keep my focus heavenward.

The time is near.
Lord, let me hear
and keep the words written here
in Your Word. I fear
I may forget that You are near.

Friday, March 15, 2024

This I know.


Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
2 John 9

Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, has come into this world. He Who created the universe, the earth, and all that lives upon it is the Savior of the world! God became man, took on human skin, walked among us, taught us, loved us, and was rejected by those whom He loved. His death on the cross was not a tragic loss, but it was a marvelous victory, freeing us from the curse of sin and hell. Jesus is God. Jesus is “the Christ” — the Promised Deliverer and Savior of the world. Jesus is God.

I confess this as a core of my Christian faith. I throw my soul into a confident eternity based on the facts I have known for over half a century. It is tested and true. It resides at the very center of all my life. Without Jesus as God, nothing makes sense. If He is not God I should just burn down all my life’s work and be ashamed. But I AM NOT ashamed. Jesus has proven Himself over and over again. He is God. He is good. He is loving. He is merciful. He is holy. He is just. He is Savior. He is Lord. This I confess. This I believe. This I experience first hand. This I know.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

at odds with evil


We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
1 John 5:19

Is there any more powerful description of the status of the Christian in the world than this simple observation from the apostle John? Christians have been born of God, remade as His agents of glory. We live in a world of evil. Simply put: Christians represent a holy God in a world owned by Satan and his forces. We are at odds with evil. We are opposed by evil. We are God’s people living in a society that is gripped by the devil who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy all that is good.

We have escaped the devil’s grasp. His long, crooked claws cannot hold us any longer. He knows this and is wickedly frustrated by it. So he will keep squeezing the rest of our world around us, and certainly makes life as hard as he can for us. The evil should therefore not surprise us. We aren’t controlling the world and never will. It’s Satan’s playground! Instead, this situation should burden us. We are the holy rebels fighting Satan’s evil empire! We should be alarmed. We should stay alert. God calls us to wear the full armor of God and compels us to bear the light of the gospel in one hand and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God in the other. Our mission: bring the light of the gospel into the darkest recesses of the devil’s den where we pray that Christ might charge forward and rescue many others from the power of the evil one. We are from God, used by God, for God, to bring Christ into this dark, broken, evil world.

Lord,
The devil has no grip on my life! He is impotent against You and Your Spirit! I am Yours. I pray that I can be useful to bear Your truth in a satanically saturated world that hates You. I do not lie in the power of this evil. I fear no evil because You are with me. But I take seriously this reality. I am from God in Christ. My world is in the grip of a murderous evil. Keep me thinking rescue thoughts! I am grateful for my own rescue by Christ. I am compelled to serve You as You rescue others as You live in me.
Amen

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

distinguished Christian living

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
1 John 5:1

I see five distinguishing characteristics of a true Christian in the first five verses of the fifth chapter of 1 John. As I reflect upon them I know these five things set the course of how I approach my life. In fact, they are what my life as a Christian is all about.

1. I believe Jesus is “the Christ” (1 John 5:1a). There is a lot in that Messianic title “the Christ”. It means Jesus is exclusively God, Savior, Lord, and Deliverer. He is the One promised to save us, sent by God, prophesied of old, anointed by God the Father, …the only means of eternal salvation is faith in the gospel of His death and resurrection. He is Lord over ALL my life.

2. I love the Father (1 John 5:1b). God is my Father. Faith in Christ provides a new relationship with God as my Father. I am in God’s family. He loves me. I love God.

3. I love the people of God (1 John 5:1c-2). Jesus is my Lord, God is my Father, and Christians are my family. I live my life tightly in those concentric circles. I learn to love the people God is saving by Jesus. Yes, like me, they are highly flawed at times and they are broken by sin and suffering. They are however always my brothers and sisters and I cannot reject them, hate them, or ignore them if I truly believe Jesus and love God.

4. I keep the commands of God (1 John 5:2-3). I keep them because I believe… because I love God. And I keep them in the community of believers, encouraging them to do the same. This is not a drudgery. It is a delight to love God’s Word and obey its truth by faith in Christ.

5. I will overcome the world (1 John 5:4-5). By faith in Jesus Christ, by loving the Father, by living in Christian love and community, and by obeying the Word of God with the Spirit’s enablement, I can overcome the sinful inertia of a broken world. I can be different. I can have true life beyond just an average existence. I have my feet on the earth and my eyes toward heaven. I see the need for Jesus in my world and I fix my heart on Jesus looking beyond this world. The life Jesus gives me is greater and always wins as I believe in Him!

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Spirit given


By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
1 John 4:13

This life of mine is spiritual.
There is a way I always know
that what I do and say here below
is under my God and Savior’s control:
My heart is where God’s Spirit dwells.

God lives in me, I live in Him.
I feel conviction of my sin.
I know He makes holy within
all that I surrender to Him.
Heaven’s breeze brought on a Spirit-wind.

I live in Christ. Christ lives in me.
By His Spirit now I am set free
to love and move and have my being
right now and through all eternity.
God will draw me near and live with me.

Sin no longer from my Lord has riven
since God His only Son has given.
I am made new. I am forgiven.
And I know I’m headed toward heaven
through the comfort of His Spirit given.

Lord, I praise You for this gift I receive
as in Jesus I firmly now believe.
The sorrow and brokenness You relieve
from death and hell my soul’s reprieve.
I have life beyond what I can conceive.

Monday, March 11, 2024

blessed assurances


By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
1 John 3:19-20

This third chapter of 1 John has within it six marks of assurance that give the believer confidence in Christ. I need not worry about my eternal salvation when Jesus saves my soul. He does good and lasting work. Here are the marks that the apostle John gives us:

1.  Love for the family of God (1 John 3:13-18; 3:19). This is an active love that is shown in what we do with fellow believers. These become our dearest relationships. “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). In short, we live out love with each other, showing we are indeed transformed by Christ.

2. Spiritual sensitivity.  It is what we “know” here in 1 John 3:19. We know we are in the truth and like Jesus promised in John 8:31-32, the truth sets our hearts free from worry.

3. Confident prayer. “We have confidence before God” (1 John 3:21). We can ask of God with kingdom values driving us as we serve Christ. And that confidence along with answered prayer assures us.

4. Obedience. “…we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him” (1 John 3:22). The fact that I can truly obey Christ is assurance that He has saved me.

5. Faith in Christ. “And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ…” (1 John 3:23). My obedience is directed solely to my Lord and this faith is now evidence of His work giving me the capacity to follow Him. Faith in Christ comes from Christ.

6. The indwelling Spirit of God. “And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whose he has given us” (1 John 3:24). I’m not highly mystical at all, yet I know, feel, and experience God’s Spirit at work among the saints and daily in my own heart. Yes, I feel His presence and work. Sealed by the very presence of the Holy Spirit of God, I am confident then that I am Christ’s saved one! Amen!

Thursday, March 7, 2024

A love that lays down life


By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
1 John 3:16

Love is a basic human emotion and a real human need. It is also part of what God created for us to know in Him and with one another. Love led God to create humanity with His own hands. Love would later drive Jesus to spread His arms and have His hands nailed to a cross. Love was shown to the world by the Father sending His only Son to save us. And it is only through experiencing this saving love that we can truly love God and other people.

Christians proclaim this love to the world. And we celebrate the love of God in Christ in our worship, in gospel preaching, and at the Lord’s Table when we remind ourselves of the amazing way God loves us. We also celebrate God’s love by loving each other well. And as the apostle John reminds us here, just as Jesus laid down His life for us in love, so we should humbly sacrifice ourselves in love for one another.

These two loves are always linked together in John’s practical theology. Because we have been loved in Christ, we now love our brothers and sisters. And the only way to truly love our fellow Christians is for us all to love as Christ loves… giving ourselves for and to one another. We lay aside self and devote ourselves to the need of another person.

Lord Jesus,
I do not always love like You do. I often appreciate Your sacrificial love. I may even selfishly demand it from others. Help me first to give myself to living and giving love as You do. My life is not my own. I lay it down for You to use as I lay my life and love down for others.
Amen