What of Our past? What of our present? What of our future? The Incredible Defense of Love

2 John
The Elder: To the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth-- and not only I, but also all who have come to know the truth--because of the truth that remains in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, in keeping with a command we have received from the Father. So now I urge you, lady-- not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning-- that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk according to His commands. This is the command as you have heard it from the beginning: you must walk in love. Many deceivers have gone out into the world; they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves so that you don't lose what we have worked for, but you may receive a full reward. Anyone who does not remain in the teaching about Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home, and don't say, "Welcome," to him; for the one who says, "Welcome," to him shares in his evil works. Though I have many things to write to you, I don't want to do so with paper and ink. Instead, I hope to be with you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete. The children of your elect sister send you greetings.
(2Jo 1:1-13 HCSB)

LOVE is the greatest defense believers have. When that defense is gone, they become highly vulnerable to corruption. People who do not love God or each other get bored with church and become cold, religious, dutiful church-goers. They think they do well when in reality they may strongly be on their way to absolute corruption. History will show you that this has happened continually, and still happens today. When people stop loving God, they stop loving His people, and they stop loving His truth. Motives shift for why they do what they do and the warmth of their relationship with God leaves them. Those who are saved become indistinguishable from those who are not saved. Views rise from within the church itself that are not well caught because discernment is low. What a Christian looks like has morphed from a loving, obedient servant to a well-dressed, good-mannered person who can jump through all the right hoops. Churches that are not committed to pure truth and love for one another are churches that are filled with people who DO NOT LOVE GOD!!! Don’t kid yourself. Don’t be fooled, either. Ephesus ended because love for God, for truth, for each other had left them. Revelation 2:1-7 gives the warning:

"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: "The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand and who walks among the seven gold lampstands says: I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars. You also possess endurance and have tolerated many things because of My name, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you: you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place-- unless you repent. Yet you do have this: you hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. "Anyone who has an ear should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. I will give the victor the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God."

History will show you that the church and the town both died out. There are only a handful of believers known to be even close to this town today. Whether or not the books in 1, 2, and 3 John were dealing with people in Ephesus is secondary to the fact that the message of 2 John is crucial for both churches filled with believers and individual believers alike if they are to stay true to the Lord and to walk in a fashion that won't die out. If you want a church that still preaches the gospel or grandkids that want anything to do with God in a relational way, you'd better learn to love. It's a lesson for us all.

Just a Quick Note

Visit my wife's blog at samandann.blogspot.com! She'd love visitors at her page!

-Sam

A Step Closer

I'm writing this short piece to make you think today about what your life reflects (and to make me think about it, too) when it comes to your pursuit of God. I have no flowery introduction for this, but it's just a few things I wrote down a while back that I came across and wanted to put out there.

1. Don't let your view of God replace viewing God. Meaning, don't let what you've perceived God to be be the place where your mind wanders. In genuinely seeking God, we must daily allow Him to alter our view of Him as necessary if we've had wrong conceptions (which can be done for years on end).

2. Don't let your knowledge about God replace knowing God. This can happen often after we can get saved and get accustomed to being children of God. We learn the Bible (not in totality but enough that we feel like we can forever excel on this knowledge), can spit out doctrine, can tell when something's just "not right" when we hear it, and on and on this list goes. Then we get bored. Which is why I say do not let your knowledge about God replace knowing Him. It becomes cold, religious, and spiritually empty when we stop actively seeking to know Him. Don't forget why you should read your Bible and know it well--when you do it to find God and familiarize yourself with the God of the universe in a personal way, knowing Him never grows old.

3. Don't let external worship replace internal worship. It's easy to go through the motions. It's easy to have your favorite hymns. It's even easy to work yourself up emotionally and to enjoy the feelings. It's easy to bow your head in prayer. It's easy to say what you've always said to God. It's hard to mean it. Check your motives. "God, I sing because You are worthy to be praised. I pray because I believe You hear me and honor prayer. I'm emotional because the truth is grabbing. I bow because I mean total honor to You. This is my favorite hymn because the message is genuine." People jump through countless hoops Sunday through Saturday. The Sunday hoops are being the model Christian and doing what model Christians do. Let me tell you this--it doesn't matter what people think. Don't worship because you're being watched by people. Worship because God is the Almighty Creator and you are a lowly creature.

4. Don't let duty replace devotion. Tell people about Jesus because love for God compels you. Go to church because it's a place to worship God with other people. Do right because you value God more than anything else, not because you hope to earn his favor (which you never could do as a human being. It's Jesus' righteousness being charged to your account that would ever make you find favor with God).

5. Don't let what you see replace what you should hope for. Do you really think life is all about pleasure and comfort and being happy and being fit? There's nothing wrong with any of those but that was never where we were meant to focus our attention. Colossians 3:2 "Set your minds on things up, not on things on the earth." Heaven is coming for the believer. Jesus is going to return. Eternity will be here before you and I know it. (I say this to myself, too): Don't concern yourself with things that are here today and gone tomorrow. A blessed life is a by-product of those who fear God and walk in His ways (Psalm 128).

6. Faith cannot be substituted with cautious calculation. Hebrews 11 should give you a fair picture that faith will require trust even when it's difficult to trust. Faith will require risks at times, but to those who step out in faith, they will find that God will be there to catch and uphold them where they cannot and would not have ground to venture out upon. It's the Wylie Coyote scene without the coyote falling. When God leads you to step out in faith, He will see you through even when you don't know what will happen. Faith is trusting in a God who sees in full what I only see in part. He is outside of time and yet functions within time in a very personal way. Don't you think he sees it all from start to finish and knows exactly what will happen? I genuinely believe that faith has more to do with learning to trust God than seeing that faith rewarded.

Thanks Be to God!

To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever. (Psa 30:12 NKJV)

I'd like to encourage you to be thankful to God today. I'd like to encourage you to think what I've written here for yourself and to say it to God where you are if you genuinely can say that Jesus Christ is your personal Savior. Here we go:

Thank You, God, for saving me.

Thank You for sending your Son Jesus for me.

Thank You for letting me serve You.

Thank You for revealing truth to me as it comes from You.

Thank You for knowing what's best for me and always working to such ends.

Thank You for being a holy, sovereign God who is above my comprehension in your totality and yet necessarily understandable by Your revelation of Yourself in Your word.

Thank You for being gracious and merciful to me despite my tremendous failures as a sinful human being.

Thank You for not being like me and yet calling me to be like You.

Thank You for being able to celebrate my life and for sustaining this life by Your power.

Thank You for listening to my prayers and knowing how to respond. I don't know what life has in store for me in the future, but I know You do. You ordain my days and my circumstances. You control everything and allow what You deem best to make me become like You. My hope can only be found in You.

Thank You for loving me enough to protect me even from myself sometimes.

Thank You for giving me people that I can share life with. Thank You that I can share life with You.

Thank You for letting me live on Your earth, using Your resources, spending Your time with Your people, breathing Your air. Thank You for letting me see Your sun rise, Your clouds move through Your blue skies, Your stars and moon and planets at night...Thank You for Your animals and the beauty of nature. Nothing I look at within or without is less than Yours.

Thank You for not withholding Your truth and being gracious with me regarding all the times I've taken it for granted; thank You for helping me to grow up when I should be left as an immature, hopeless and helpless person.

Thank You that my salvation is not dependent upon my ability--I know that salvation is completely of You.

Thank You for my body--ears to hear, eyes to see, nerves to feel sensation, feet to walk, a brain to think, a heart to pump life into me, muscles that render me capable of living, and much more.

Thank You for teaching and training me, for guiding me, for assisting me, for sending me places, and for going with me where You send me. I thank You for the Trinity--thank You, Father, for your will and your plan; thank You, Jesus, for Your life, Your death, and Your resurrection; thank You, Holy Spirit, for Your presence in my life, convicting me of my sin, illuminating the Scriptures, guiding me in life and in moment. Thank You, God, for You are worthy of all my thanksgiving and praise (and far more than just mine).

Thank You for taking me by the hand and leading me through this life. I will never know in my mortal life just how much I needed You, but I thank You for loving me with Your deep, passionate and unconditional love. I need it so much.

Your thankful child--

(Sam)