Continuing on the Theme of "Abiding in the Truth" (2 John 9-11)

My Worship Time                  Focus:  Continuing on the theme of “abiding in the truth.”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  2John 9-11

 

            Message of the verse:  “9  For if you wander beyond the teaching of Christ, you will not have fellowship with God. But if you continue in the teaching of Christ, you will have fellowship with both the Father and the Son.  10   If someone comes to your meeting and does not teach the truth about Christ, don’t invite him into your house or encourage him in any way.  11  Anyone who encourages him becomes a partner in his evil work.”  (NLT) 

            “9  Whosoever goes forward and abides not in the doctrine of the Christ has not God. He that abides in the doctrine, *he* has both the Father and the Son.  10   If any one come to you and bring not this doctrine, do not receive him into the house, and greet him not;  11  for he who greets him partakes in his wicked works.”  (DBY)

            John is telling his readers, in verse nine, which no one is to add to the Word of God what is not already there.  The false teachers would teach things that are not from the Bible, things like Jesus Christ was not truly the Son of God, or that He is only One of many gods.  John writes that you must have fellowship with the Son in order to have fellowship with the Father. 

            In the next two verses John tells his readers that they are not to have any fellowship with the false teachers, nor are the to even let them into there house to be hospital to them.  During the time when this letter was written it was common to have traveling teachers and preachers stay at believer’s homes because the inns at that time were not safe for believers to stay in.  John even went so far as to imply that when a false teacher came to the door of a believer that they should not even say “good-by” to them for that meant “God be with you.”  The false teachers of then, and of today are very tricky, and believers need to stay in the Word so that they can know the Truth it teaches and not be fooled by false teachers.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have mad it a practice since I have become a believer not to eve let the false teachers into my house, but I do not remember if I have ever said “good-by” to them.  I will make it a practice not to say good-by to them from now on. 

            This will be taking out of contrast what has been said in verse nine, but it reminds me of not going ahead of God, but to wait patiently on Him, and this is something I have a hard time doing.

 

The Word of God was instructive to me along with challenging to my heart as I read it this morning.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  Be patient and wait upon the Lord in the area of buying a car and also in the area of the trial of our investments.

 

Memory verse for the week:  1Corthinians 13:1

 

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

 

Living in the Truth (2 John 7-8)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 05-19-04

 

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  Living in the truth

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                          Reference:  2John 7-8

 

            Message of the verse:  “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.  Watch yourselves, that you might not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.  (NASB) 

“Many deceivers have gone out into the world. They do not believe that Jesus Christ came to earth in a real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist. Watch out, so that you do not lose the prize for which we have been working so hard. Be diligent so that you will receive your full reward.”  (NLT)

            John writes about deceivers in verse seven, and that is a person who not only has wrong doctrine, but a person who tries to pedal his poison to others around him.  The question on how we can recognize one of these deceivers is answered in verse seven.  A deceiver is one who does not acknowledge that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.  By stating that He has come in the flesh John is implying that He existed before he came to earth in the flesh.  Jesus Christ has always existed as part of the Triune God, and has always been the Son of God the Father, but He put on a human body and came to earth to accomplish the task of paying the penalty for the sins of the world by dying on the cross, being buried for three days, and then being raised from the dead, and now He sits at the right hand of God the Father in heaven.  The false teachers do not believe that Jesus Christ is God come in the flesh.  John goes on to call them antichrists, and that term means that they are not only against Christ, but they are instead of Him.  “They are against Christ because they deny that He is indeed God come in the flesh.  They not only deny the truth about Christ, but they give their converts a ‘substitute Christ’ who is not the Christ of the Christian faith.”

            John gives a warning to his readers in verse eight about not looking back, and by doing this it is possible to loose rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ.  I have heard it said of the Christian life that believers are either going forward or backwards, for there is no standing still.  It is the job of the Pastor of the local church to watch over the flock that God has entrusted them with, Peter speaks of this in his first letter.  When the believer is living for the Lord they are abiding in the Truth.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I can truly understand that if I am not going forward in my walk with the Lord then I am going backwards, and this is not what I want to be doing.  Worshiping the Lord is 24/7, and that is what I want to be doing.  I want to recognize the ways that God is working in my life and also in all things that I do have a worshipful attitude to the Lord, for He is worthy of all my praise and worship because of who He is and what He has done for me.

 

The Word of God has brought challenges into my life as I have read it this morning. 

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  Trust the Lord to give both Sandy and I the right words to say to those who will be in our group this evening at Church, and to give us wisdom as we study the material for the lesson, to trust the Lord with our investments, and also with providing a car for us.

 

Memory verse for the week:  1Corthinians 13:1

 

 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

Walking in the Truth (2 John 4-6)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 05-18-04

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Walking in the truth

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  2John 4-6

 

            Message of the verse:  “4  I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father.  5  And now I ask you, lady, not as writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.  6  And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.

            John said in verse four that he was glade to find some of this lady’s children walking in the faith.  It must be noted that some of her children were walking in the faith, and if this is speaking of a house church, then it is possible that some of those who attend there had been “captured” by the false teachers.  It was great joy for John to learn that some of these children were indeed walking in the truth.  John goes on to say that all of us have received the commandments from God the Father.  “The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart from generation to generation.”  This is from Psalm 33:11, and the last portion of it says that the plans come from the heart of God, and not just the mind of God.  This means that our obedience to Him should be out of love and not out of fear.  1John 5:3 has this to say about love, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.”

            John appeals to this “lady”, and to all of us who read his words, that we love one another and that we walk in the truth of these commandments.  Believers can love one another because of the Holy Spirit that lives within us, who enables us to do this, “For the fruit of the Spirit is love,” Gal. 522.

            I wish to give a simple definition of Agape love, treating others the way that God is treating you.  It is interesting that by doing this it does not mean that we have to like those that we love.  Agape love is not a feeling like we get when we love that special one that God has given us, of like loving our children, parents, family or close friends, Agape love is actions, and our attitudes.

            John has three themes running through this paragraph, and they are love, truth, and obedience.  When we believe the truth about Jesus Christ and that of the world we our saved, and when we are saved we will be obedient to the truth and then we can love others as John has been writing about in this section.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  To treat others the way that God is treating me, and that means that I will love them.  Jesus spoke of giving a cup of cool water to those who were in need of it in Matthew 24, and I believe that that puts loving others in perspective, for it is meeting the needs of someone who needs their needs met. 

 

The Word of God was both refreshing and also very challenging to my heart as I read it this morning.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  To trust the Lord, that through His Holy Spirit, He would begin to transform my heart into loving others the way that He loves me.  To trust the Lord with the trial that He has allowed me to be in, trust Him that He will work out the circumstances of this trial to be good for my wife and I, and that it might also bring honor to the Lord.

 

Memory verse for the week:  1Corthians 13:1

 

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

 

Knowing, Living and Loving in the Truth (2 John 1-3)

SPIRITUAL DIARY

 

                                                                                                            Date:  05-16-04

 

My Worship Time      Focus:  Knowing, living and loving in the truth

 

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  2John 1-3

 

            Message of the verse:  “1 ¶ The elder, To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth—2 because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us for ever:  3 Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.”  (NIV)

             In verse one John describes himself as the “elder” to whom he is writing this letter.  Some scholars believe that John is writing to a local church that possibility meets in the home of this “chosen lady.”  Some think that he is just writing to this local church, and calls the church “chosen lady.” 

            John uses the word “truth” four times in these first three verses, so it must be assumed that the truth is very important to John.  In the gospel of John, he used the word truth on different occasions to describe the Lord Jesus Christ, and also the Word of God.  Another reason that John is using the word truth in this letter is to remind his readers of the truth as opposed to someone trying to teach a lie to them.  There were people going around teaching the truth in this early period of the church age, and there were people going around teaching a lie too.

            As stated above the Lord Jesus Christ is the truth, (John 14:6), and also the Word of God is the truth, (John 17:7), and also the Lord has given us the “Spirit of truth” to guide us along our path, (John 14:16-17; 16:13). 

            John said that not only he loved this “lady” in the truth, but also all who know the truth, and the reason for them loving her too is because of the truth that they have in them, and this truth will be with us forever. 

            He goes on in verse three to speak of grace, mercy, and peace, and again truth and love at the end of the verse.  It is God’s grace that has saved us.  Grace can mean God’s riches at Christ’s expense.  It also means that God has given to the believer something that he can never deserve or earn.  Mercy is God holding back what we all deserve.  Truth has been discussed before, and love is the Greek word “agape,” which is the kind of love that God loves us with, and the kind of love we can love others with as the Holy Spirit pours out this love in our hearts.  John uses the word peace in verse three also, and the way to get peace is to receive grace and mercy from God.  Romans 5:1 states, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I want to live in the “truth” today, and not only today, but also every day of my life. How am I to do that?  By spending time in the Word of God each day, by listening to those who teach the truth, and by depending upon the Holy Spirit of Truth to teach me and to lead me in the paths of righteousness.

 

The Word of God was very refreshing to my heart as I read and studied it this morning.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  To live in the truth, to trust the Lord with the trial that He has seen fit to send my way, to depend upon the Spirit of God to guide and direct my path each day.

 

Memory verse for the week:  1Corthinians 13:1

 

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS

            I promised a couple of days ago to write a Christmas greeting on my blog on Christmas Day.

            What I have to day about Christmas has probably already been said before, well at least some of it, but if that is the case then I will say it again.  Christmas, to me, holds mixed feelings in my mind.  I am not one who likes going all out on buying presents just because it is Christmas, but want to remember what Christmas is suppose to be all about.  Now we know that Jesus Christ was probably not born on the 25^th of December, but we do know that He was born, and probably born in the winter months, and I do not know exactly know how the 25^th of December came about as the day we celebrate Christmas.  I suppose a little digging on the internet would answer that question, but I probably will not do that.  Like I say the important thing is that Jesus Christ was born into the world and the first prophecy of Him coming into the world goes all the way back to the book of Genesis, and right after Adam and Eve sinned we read “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."”  God is speaking of Satan in this passage and also He is saying that there will be war between Satan and the offspring of the woman.  “I’m declaring war between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers. He’ll wound your head, you’ll wound his heel." (Message)” We see in the NASB that God speaks of the “seed of the woman,” and this is the only time we see this in the Word of God.  The seed comes through the man, but there were three differences in the Scriptures when this did not happen that way.  First God created Adam out of the earth, and then God created woman out of Adam’s rib, and then we read that Mary became pregnant through the Holy Spirit and this is where we get the seed of the woman as involved in the birth of Jesus Christ.

            Now as we read through the Old Testament we see how the Lord narrows down the line in which the Messiah would come from.  In the book of Matthew we see the bloodline of Jesus through Joseph, and in Luke’s gospel we see the bloodline of Jesus through Mary.  Both Joseph and Mary were descendants of David, but Mary came through the line of Nathan while Joseph came through Solomon.  Luke’s line of Jesus goes all the way back to God, while Matthew’s line only goes back to Abraham.  One of the kings of Judah, Jeconiah had a curse against him and so his line could not be in the line of the Messiah to be King.  As I said Mary came through the line of Nathan, Luke 3:31 “the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David,.”   Joseph also came from the line of David and even though Jeconiah was in his line this did not permit Jesus from being the Messiah for He was not born of Joseph but of the Holy Spirit and Mary.

            Now as far as the place where Jesus was born and who was there when He was born, it is not like the nativity scenes we see in people’s yards or in their houses.  I read a historic novel a few years ago and the author incorporated into the birth of Jesus a place called Midgal Eder and this place is mentioned in the book of Micah 4:8 where we read “8 "As for you, tower of the flock, Hill of the daughter of Zion, To you it will come-Even the former dominion will come, The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.”  The words “tower of the flock” in the Hebrew is Midgal Eder, and this place was near Bethlehem on the way to Jerusalem and is where the lambs were born who would go to the temple and used for sacrifices.  There was a cave there and many believe that Jesus was born in that cave where these sacrificial lambs were born.  When you think about this it all makes perfect sense.  Now as far as who was there we know that Joseph, Mary, Jesus and later on the shepherds came, but as far as the wise men they did not come and see Jesus until he was near two years old.  They probably came from what was once Babylon and they probably got their information from Daniel who prophesied in his book of the time when the Messiah would die and so they would know when it would be near time for Him to be born and looked for Him following a star.  They first came to see Herod and asked him where the Messiah would be born and then went to find Him, giving gifts to Him and were then told in a dream not to go back to tell Herod.  Herod then had all male boys from the age of two years old and younger killed as was prophesied by Jeremiah. 

            Okay so the story of Jesus’ birth is probably much different than what we use to celebrate it in our world today as I tried to bring out, but the point of all of this is that God was in control of all the things which would bring His Son into the world to fulfill what His plans were for Him to accomplish, and He accomplished all of them, and we can praise the Lord on this Christmas Day that He did accomplish all of them.  Jesus told His mother while in the temple that He came to do His Father’s will and at the end of His life, while hanging on a cross He said “It is finished.”  What was finished was His becoming sin for us so that we could receive His righteousness and have it credited to our account so that when the Father looks at those who have received this free gift of salvation He will see Jesus Christ and not our sinfulness.

            The all time very best gift a person can receive on Christmas Day or any other day is to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, to confess that they are a sinner in need of a Savior and find out that Jesus paid it all, and receive Him as Savior and Lord.

            Merry Christmas to all!

Pray for the Straying (James 5:19-20)

SPIRITUAL DIARY

 

                                                                                                            Date:  11-22-03

 

My Worship Time      Focus:  Pray for the Straying

 

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  James 5:19 & 20

 

            1.  Message of the verse:  “19 My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth, and one turns him back, 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.”  (NASB)  “19 My dear brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back again, 20 you can be sure that the one who brings that person back will save that sinner from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.”  (NLT)

            James identifies a problem in these last two verses of his letter.  It seems to me that James probably knew that this problem, and the other problems that he has already written about were going on with his readers.  There must have been some unbelievers in his reading audience and these verses can be applied to not only those who were backslidden, but also to unbelievers.  The root problem in these verses is sin, unconfessed sin and although James does not specifically say that prayer must rendered for these it certainly can be said that we should pray for those we know who are demonstrating this type of behavior.

            The condition of backsliding is a very dangerous problem for not only the person involved in it, but also for the church that he attends, or at least did attend.  It is dangerous for him because it could actually be a cause of death, as both John and Paul have pointed out in their writings.  “That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died.”  (1Cor. 11:30 NLT)  “If you see a Christian brother or sister sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it.

Every wrong is sin, but not all sin leads to death.”  (1John 5:16 &17 NLT)

            As stated before the root problem is sin, however to get a bit more specific about this sin we can see that it is a straying away from the truth.  Not only is the Son of God the truth, but also the Word of God is the truth, and in this case this offender is probably staying away from the Word of God, thus staying away from the Son of God.  It has been said that a person is either going forward in his Christian life or backwards in it, for there is not a neutral Christian walk.  The Word of God is described as food and one cannot go long without food before bad things begin to happen to him.  In 1980 while attending a “Basic Youth Seminar” in Cleveland, and the leader asked the question of the audience if any would like to make a vow to the Lord to read their Bible at least five minutes each day.  I made that vow to the Lord and by His grace I have read the Bible at least five minutes a day over the past 23 plus years, missing only six days.  I am not saying that by doing this has always kept me from sin, but I will never regret making that vow, because before making it I did not have a good track record of consistent time in the Word of God.

            Dr. Wiersbe says the outcome of this wandering is sin and possible death (James 5:20). 

      In the next paragraphs Dr. Wiersbe writes about how the sinning believer is brought back into the fold, and the responsibility of other believers and this process is described in Matthew 18, where Jesus spoke about it.  This process is similar to leading an unsaved person to Christ.  Part of the process involves love and is described on page 174 in the third and forth paragraphs.  “If we are going to help an erring brother, we must have an attitude of love, for “love shall cover the multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). Both James and Peter learned this principle from Proverbs 10:12—“Hate stirreth up strife: but love covereth all sins.”

This does not mean that love “sweeps the dirt under the carpet.” Where there is love, there must also be truth (“speaking the truth in love” says Paul in Eph. 4:15); and where there is truth, there is honest confession of sin and cleansing from God. Love not only helps the offender to face his sins and deal with them, but love also assures the offender that those sins, once forgiven, are remembered no more.

On page 175 Dr. Wiersbe writes about different ways evangelism is described in the Scriptures and I am not going to go over that, however I hope that everyone has read it. 

On the last page of the book he lists 12 questions that we have dealt with before in private.  I would like to ask if anyone would like to give testimony as to how the Lord has been dealing with you through these questions, as they have to do with maturity in our walk with the Lord. 

 

Prayer for the Nation (James 5:17-18)

SPIRITUAL DIARY

                                                                                                            Date:  10-20-03

My Worship Time                  Focus:  Prayer for the Nation

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  James 5:17-18

            1.  Message of the verse:  “17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.  18 And he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit.”  (NASB)  “17 Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for the next three and a half years!

18 Then he prayed for rain, and down it poured. The grass turned green, and the crops began to grow again.”  (NLT)

            If we agree with Dr. Wiersbe on these preceding verses or for that matter if we don’t there is still an application that seems to flow from verse seventeen and that is this:  If we think of a person who is out of fellowship with the Lord like the man Paul spoke of in 1Corthians, and by God’s grace he is brought back into fellowship he is like the ground in verse seventeen who has just received rain, rain that had not been there for a long time, and now he can again, just like the ground produce fruit.

            We all know the story of Elijah from 1Kings 17 & 18, but I will ask someone to refresh our memories of it. 

            Now verse 17 in the NLT reads as follows, “Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for the next three and a half years!”   It says that he was a man like us, and this should encourage us to read that, for God can use us to do things for Him just as He used Elijah. 

      Dr. Wiersbe give a good quote on page 171 that I think is worth reading.  “Elijah prayed in faith, for God told him He would send the rain (1 Kings 18:1). “Prayer,” said Robert Law, “is not getting man’s will done in heaven. It’s getting God’s will done on earth.” You cannot separate the Word of God and prayer, for in His Word He gives us the promises that we claim when we pray.”

We can also learn from these verses that Elijah prayed earnestly, so it was not a prayer he prayed in just a few minutes, but he must have been throughly convinced that God was going to answer his prayer, in other words he was praying in the will of God.  Let us now look at the account of Elijah’s prayer in 1Kings 18:41-45.  (Have somebody find and read it).  Again let us look at the application of this from our book at the bottom of page 171 and top of 172.  “Too many times we fail to get what God promises because we stop praying. It is true that we are not heard “for our much praying” (Matt. 6:7); but there is a difference between vain repetitions and true believing persistence in prayer. Our Lord prayed three times in the Garden, and Paul prayed three times that his thorn in the flesh might be taken from him.

Elijah was determined and concerned in his praying. “He prayed earnestly” (James 5:17, niv). The literal Greek reads “and he prayed in prayer.” Many people do not pray in their prayers. They just lazily say religious words, and their hearts are not in their prayers.” 

Le us discuss the power of prayer and why it is that God would have us to pray, for some ask why pray, for God will do what He wants to anyway without are prayers.

2.  Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I believe that God want me to be involved in what He is doing on earth, and I can do this by praying in the will of God, that He would accomplish His will in my life and the lives of other that I am praying for.  Jesus prayed “Thy kingdom come Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  God’s will is always being done in heaven and to accomplish His will on earth I must aligen my will with His and pray His will be done here on earth.

The Word of God was challenging to my heart as I read it this morning, and it also convicted me concerning my prayer life at times.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I believe that the Lord would have Bruce Baker and I have this discussion with Pastor Jacobs at lunch time today, and I would pray that the Spirit of God would be manifested there as we talk about things that concern all of us at GBC.  I go there in faith and pray that the words that I speak will be glorifying to the Lord and be said in the will of God.

Memory verse for the week:  Philippians 3:12b

But I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.  (NKJV)