So I haven't been really great about keeping this blog up to date, but I truly appreciate everyone who has stopped by! I've said it before, and I'll say it again. 1 John is probably one of my favorite books of the Bible. It talk ALL about how we should be as Christians, as well as highlights God's love for us. It's short, but extremely powerful, and always seems to cheer me up when I've had a rough day. I believe we just have 1 John 3-5 to do, so hopefully we can get those done! If you want to read past entries on 1 John you can find them HERE :)
Verses 1-3
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,[a] we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
God loves us, and He is our Father. Because of this love Christ has for us, we are all His children. The world struggles to see us as Christians because they do not know and understand God and what He wants to do for them. When Jesus returns, we must draw near to Him. Heck, we must draw near to Christ NOW. As followers of Christ, we need to remain pure in Him and for Him.
Verses 4-6
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
Sinning is the equivalent of breaking the law...God's law. Jesus came to earth so that we no longer have to struggle with sin. He showed us that it is possible to resist temptation. That we CAN do it. Jesus came to this planet to go through what we are going through. Jesus DIED so that we no longer have to face the pain of sin. When you choose to accept Christ's invitation to follow Him, confessing your sins and giving Him your life, a new life begins. Turning to Him frees you from sin. If you're stuck in sin, you cannot fully know Christ.
An important note: if you ARE stuck in sin, find someone to talk about it with. Finding an accountability partner is SO worth it. Why? Because then you don't feel as alone. And if you feel like you're alone in your sin, know that you are NOT. AT ALL. I can promise you that EVERYONE is struggling with SOME form of sin. There is not a single person who doesn't struggle with something.
Verses 7-10
7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
There will be people who try to bash your faith. There will be people who try to tear you down. There will be people who are in your life to try to tempt you. DO NOT listen to them AT ALL. The enemy is trying to take you away from Christ. Jesus came to this Earth to destroy what the devil created. Jesus came to show us that we can crush what Satan is trying to put in our way. We will ALWAYS have to face sin. However, when you choose to follow Christ it gets a tiny bit easier. When sin gets in our way, we have to turn to God. We have to open our Bible to His Word and our hearts to prayer. Also, as God's children we MUST love those around us. Even those who do not know Christ. If we do not love others, God finds it hard to claim us as His. God also finds it hard to claim us as His if we don't follow His word. As children of the King, we must love others and follow God's commandments.
I pray this helped you, even if just a tiny bit! I need some sleep, so I'm going to stop here for tonight!
“...a God who could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones;
ReplyDeletewho could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one;
who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short;
who gave his angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it;
who gave his angels painless lives, yet cursed his other children with biting miseries and maladies of mind and body;
who mouths justice, and invented hell--mouths mercy, and invented hell--mouths Golden Rules and forgiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell;
who mouths morals to other people, and has none himself;
who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man's acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself;
and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites his poor abused slave to worship him!” --Mark Twain--