SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 08-02-04
My Worship Time Focus: Helps for living a holy life
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: 1John 3:1-3
Message of the verse: “1 See how great a love the Father has
bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are.
For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it
has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we
shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him
purifies himself, just as He is pure.”
(NASB) “1 See how very much our
heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we
really are! But the people who belong to this world don’t know God, so they
don’t understand that we are his children.
2 Yes, dear friends, we are already God’s children, and we can’t even
imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when he
comes we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. 3 And all who
believe this will keep themselves pure, just as Christ is pure.” (NLT)
In verse one John tells his readers
what they are, and in verse two he tells them what they shall be, and in verse
three he tells them in light of what they shall be, what they should be. 1John 3:1tells of the great love that the
heavenly Father has for His children, and of the wonderful privilege of being
called the children of God. He goes on
to write something that Jesus said in reference to Himself, and now this is in
reference to His children, and that is that because His children are called His
sons the world does not know the true believers, and the reason they do not
know true believers is because they do not know God.
In verse two John tells his readers
that because of the great love the Father has for them that one day they will
be like Jesus, when they see Him face to face.
This seems to be speaking of Christ’s second return and at that time all
true believers will have their new glorified bodies just like the one Christ
has had since His resurrection.
In light of God’s love for his
children, and in light of one day in the future when all believers will be like
Him, then all true believers should live a holy life, as John puts it they
should purify themselves just like Jesus Christ is pure.
Spiritual meaning for my life
today: One of the things that I have
been struggling with is putting into practice the things that I have learned
for doing my daily devotions each day. I
seem to have a good time around the Word of God each day, yet putting into
practice the things that I have learned has been a bit of a struggle for
me. John has been talking about abiding
in Christ, and Jesus spoke of this in John 15, when he talked about the vine
and the branches. I also think that
meditating upon the verses that I memorize is a good way to be living a holy
life.
The Word
of God has brought conviction and hope to me as I have read it this morning.
My Steps of Faith Today: Trust in the Lord with all of my heart and
lean not upon my own understanding, in all my ways acknowledge Him, and then He
has promised to direct my path.
Memory verses for the week: 1Cor. 13:8-11
Love never
fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are
tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophecy in part;
but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child,
think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with
childish things.
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