Eternal life is ours

With this post tonight I want to encourage you and remind you that eternal life is yours. I believe that sometimes it is easy for people to get caught up in thinking that there are certain things that we have to do in order to receive eternal life. It's also a common thing for some Christians to think that we have to live in a certain and specific way. The world sometimes makes it seem like we receive eternal life by good deeds and not faith alone.

Over and over again in the bible it is written that we receive eternal life because of faith and because God has given it to us when we commit our lives to him. I think it is key to remember that God has given it to us. There is nothing that says we had to earn it.

Think about times when we are given things. Like birthdays, graduations, Christmas, etc. We aren't given gifts because we earned them, we are given gifts because we have friends and family who love us.

God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him has eternal life.

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:11-13)

It's as simple as this, whoever believes in God's Son has eternal life. He is all you need. You don't need to wait for eternal life, because it begins the moment you believe. You don't need to work for it, because it is already yours. You don't need to worry about it, because you have been given eternal life by God himself-and it is guaranteed.

Life I mentioned up above in the first paragraph, some people hope that they will receive eternal life. John says we can know we have it. Our certainty is based on God's promise that he has given us eternal life though his Son. This is true whether you feel close to God or far away from him. Eternal life is not based on feelings, but on facts. You can know that you have eternal life if you believe God's truth.

So if you believe, and have committed your life to Christ, eternal life is yours...

Shy people don't need to become extroverts

Your personality says a lot about who you are. That's why it's called your personality. I don't know if you have ever taken a personality test before, but if you have, I bet you were shocked about how accurate the results were. Once you learn what your personality is, it becomes easier to understand your own self and how you function.

Are you in extrovert or an introvert? You don't really need a personalty test to tell you the answer to that one. You are either a super outgoing person who loves to be around people or you're a little shy and like to keep to yourself. One isn't better than the other, it is just how we are wired and there really isn't any changing it.

Not the you care, but last time I took the Myers-Briggs I was 51/49. 51% extrovert and 49% introvert. Which seems fairly accurate, but I think I have become way more extroverted since last summer.

I know that sometimes, the introvert part of me envy's those who are extremely extroverted. I observe those who can carry on a conversation with anybody and I wish able to do that. Those of you who are introverted might feel the same way. You have a desire to love people, get to know them, and talk to them, but you don't know how to do it. And let me tell you, that is totally fine!

Check out this verse:

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:12)

Some people just simply enjoy being with others. They make friends with strangers easily and are always surrounded by friends. Other people are shy or reserved. They have few friends, but are frequently uncomfortable talking with people they don't know or mingling in crowds. Shy people don't need to become extroverts in order to love others. John isn't telling us how many people to love, but how much to love the people we already know. Our job is to love faithfully the people God has given us to love, whether there are two or two hundred of them. If God sees that we are ready to love others, he will bring them to us. No matter how shy we are, we don't need to be afraid of the love commandment. God provides us strength to do what he asks.

What I really want to push you to remember from this post is that shy people don't need to become extroverts to love one another. I hope that is encouraging to so many people because not everyone is an extrovert. There are a ton of shy people out there, some who might struggle with it. It's totally okay! It's never about how many people we love, it's about how much we love the people we already know.

God > Conscience

This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him everything we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. (1 John 3:19-22)

God is greater than our conscience. Have you ever thought about that? All of those things your conscience tells you throughout the day, God is greater than those things. The feelings of doubt, the feelings that you aren't loving others, the feelings that you aren't living as Jesus did...those all come from your conscience and God is greater than that.

I know I have been in a places before where I had good motives and reasons behind what I was trying to do but I just kept on failing at living this way that I knew God wanted me to. Like when I tell myself I am going to love everyone and still let some of the feelings I have get in the way. It's easy to get down on yourself because you aren't following through with what you wanted to do. Remember this though, God is greater than your conscience. God knows my heart and understood the motives I had.

Same thing in your lives on a daily basis. You might have a goal of getting to know somebody better every day. You do well the first couple of days and are thrilled by the excitement and fulfillment of this process, but after a few more days you become tired and your daily goal because a goal you try to reach every couple of days. When something like that happens, it's easy to think that you are slacking off, but God remembers your motives and knows your heart and that is what matters.

Our conscience can be something that is hard to escape. How do we escape the gnawing accusations of ourconsicnecs? Not by ignoring them or rationalizing our behavior, but by setting our hearts on God's love. When we feel guilty, we should remind ourselves that God knows our motives as well as our actions, like I mentioned above. His voice of assurance is stronger than the accusing words of our conscience. If we are in Christ, he will not condemn us.

When we have a clear conscience, the power that we have is pretty amazing. With a clear conscience we can come to God without fear, and confident that your requests will be herd. John reaffirms Jesus' promise that whatever we ask for will be given to us. We will receive if we obey and do what pleases him because we will then be asking in line with God's will.

Loving is a choice

There are billions of people who walk on this earth every day. I wanted to know what the average was for people you know in the United States and in a test conducted in 2013, the average American knew about 600 people. This was 7 years ago and I would like to think that number has increased with our increasing technology. 

Think about the roughly 600 people you know. Most likely you don't like all of them. Which is totally okay. We don't have to like everybody, we just can't hate. 

"Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them. (1 John 2:9-11)

Does this mean that if you dislike someone you aren't a Christian? Some might think that after reading through this scripture. But there will always be people like we will not like as well as others. John's words focus more on the attitude that causes us to ignore or despise others, to treat them like irritants, competitions, or enemies. Christian love is not a feeling, but a choice. Every single day we can choose to be concerned with people's well-being and treat them with respect, whether or not we feel affection towards them. If we choose to love others, God will help us express our love. 

Make the decision today. Be a Christian who is loving others because you want to. We can't just feel love, we have to choose it. We are blessed to live a life where we have that choice. Having that choice makes loving others that much more important and significant.

I also never want you to fear. Don't have the fear that you don't know how to express love to others. When we choose to love others, God will help us express our love. It's one of the most amazing things ever. God will help us express our love. I love that. 

I encourage you today, to starting loving others because you have chosen to do so. When you shift your mindset to that, you will begin to live in the light, and Christ Jesus' love will shine brightly. 

The light helps you reveal your sins

I want to try my best to draw this illustration for you. I wan you to think of day and night time.

Also, remember this. You were given a map telling you where your tent is that you have to find. You have also found this tent hundreds of times before.

But...

You've fallen into the darkness:

It's the middle of the night and the moon is nowhere to be found. You are walking through a woods in the middle of nowhere trying to find where you had your tent set up for the night. You are terrified because you cannot see anything.You also don't have a flashlight, a candle, or a phone. It's just you and the darkness and you are so confused. What happened to you?  You've found the tent in the dark hundreds of times...but I guess that is what happens when you fall into darkness.

The crazy thing was that when the sun came up, you were able to find the tent right away. The light that the sun brought was so amazing that it wasn't going to be soon forgotten. The light also reminded of the light that was experienced the day before. You were so happy to be able to see everything again.

The next night rolls around and you're tasked with finding the tent again. The moon is nowhere to be found the second consecutive night. You start to become worried and think that you are about to be up all night trying to find the tent. Then all of a sudden you remember the light from the previous day. You suddenly remember which way to go because the light had been revealed to you.

Why could you find the tent? Because of the light. God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 

I hope that illustration made sense to you. Why did I use it? Our lives are so much like that story after we experience that God is light. That is the power and beauty of it.

We experience highs and lows along with light and darkness. Over and over again.

One of the things that have helped me the most with that is how you view your life. Are you looking at everything you experience on a daily basis as if it's a high or a low...light or darkness?

How you think about things is everything. If you know me at all, I would like to think that you think of me as an optimistic and outgoing people person. It takes a lot for me to get down and to show that I am down. I am so happy all of the time because of God's love for me and for you. There are too many things to be thankful in this life to be sad and down all of the time. It takes more muscles to frown than to smile right? Well it takes a lot more out of you to be down on yourself than it does for you to be happy. LIFE IS JUST SO GOOD.

"If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1:6-7)

If we claim to have fellowship and walk in darkness we lie and do not live out the truth. Just like when I told you to find the tent in the darkness. You thought that you were going to be able to find that tent with no problem. But it was too dark. You couldn't live out what you wanted to because of the darkness.

When you woke up the next morning and remembered/experienced the light, you remembered that you had to walk in the light. When you walked in the light you found the tent!

When we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another. How beautiful is that?

Light represents what is good, pure, true, holy, and reliable. Darkness represents what is sinful and evil. The statement "God is light" means that God is perfectly holy and true and that he alone can provide us out of the darkness and sin. Light is also related to truth in that light exposes whatever exists, whether it is good or bad. In the dark, good and evil look alike; in the light, they can be distinguished. Just as the darkness cannot exist in the presence of light, sin cannot exist in the presence of a holy God. If we want to have a relationship with God, we must put aside out sinful ways of living. To claim that we belong to him but then to go out and live for ourselves is hypocrisy. Christ will expose and judge the deceit.

Bear with me now, I want relate the light to us confessing our sins. I whole heartily believe that when you live your life in the light, have fellowship with others and are continually growing relationship with God, it is easier to see where you sin and because you are more aware of your sins it is easier to confess your sins.

"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not is us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinner, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:8-10)

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Think about that. Are you ever in a place where you are denying that you are sinful? Because if you are, you are saying that God didn't die for your sins.

On the other hand, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us. When we confess our sins, God draws us to himself. When we sin we should never want to try and hide it because that doesn't get your anywhere.

Remember this: All people are sinners by nature and practice. At conversion all of our sins are forgiven-past, present, and future. Even after we become Christians, we still sin and still need to confess. This kind of confession is not offered to gain God's acceptance, but to remove the barrier to fellowship that our sin has put between us and him. It is difficult, however , for many people to admit their faults and shortcomings, even to God. It takes humility and honesty to recognize our weaknesses, and most of us would rather pretend that we are strong. But we need not fear revealing our sins to God-he knows them already. He will not push us away, not matter what we've done. Instead he will draw us to himself.

When we begin to live in the light on a daily basis, it becomes easier for us to reveal our sins. I hope that makes some sense to whoever reads this post. I also hope and pray that this post made sense as a whole. I felt led to touch on a few different things and I really don't know if it all connected well but that is okay. Like I have said before, as long as one person is encouraged, that is enough for me.

God's not slow

Think that God is slow in his timing and the things that he does for us? Sometimes it might seem like that. We ask God for something and we wait and wait for that something to happen. It's difficult sometimes to be patient and wait, because God is faithful. God is always faithful no matter what. We just sometimes lack and struggle with patience. In a time where we can get anything we want at the tap of a button I think sometimes we place that expectation on God. We tend to think...if I get order these shoes by my phone scanning my finger print, God should be able to answer my prayer when I ask it.

God isn't slow, he is patient. 

Say that over and over again and it'll make more sense to you. God is patient. God is patient. God is patient. 

God isn't slow. 

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousands years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient, with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:8-9)

God may seem slow to us because we are impatient and we put up with a lot of things on a daily basis. But God is not slow, like I mentioned above; he just is not on our time table. Jesus is waiting so that more sinners will repent and turn to him. We must not sit and wait for Christ to return, but we should live with the realization that time is short and that we have important work to do. Be ready to meet Christ anytime, even today; yet plan your course of service as though he may not return for many years. 

Next time we question what is taking God so long, remember that he is patient. Remember that God is waiting for other sinners to repent. It's never about yourself. God wants as many people to repent as possible and that is what he is waiting for. 

Remember friends, God is patient. 

False teachers

There are two types of teachers, those who are truthful and those who are false and our world is filled with both. In your head I want you to think of the truthful teachers and the false teachers? What are some of those things that make the two types of teachers easily distinguishable?

I just want to briefly touch on the idea of false teachers and a couple of ways that you can tell when somebody is in fact, a false teacher or not.

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them-bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you, with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. (2 Peter 2:1-3) 

When I read through that the first time tonight there were a couple of things that I highlighted. These  things jumped off the page:

- secretly introduce destructive heresies
- depraved conduct will bring the truth to dispute
- in their greed they will exploit you
- their condemnation has long been hanging over them
- their destruction has not been sleeping

I read a study bible so every verse has a little write-up in the margins at the bottom. The summary about verses 1-3 talked about the three warning signs that Peter was writing about for identifying false teachers.

I thought it was pretty amazing that the things I highlighted directly correlated to what Peter was talking about when identifying false leaders.

1. Depraved Conduct. Do they lives contain or condone immoral practices?

2. Greed. Teachers have a right for financial support but is money the teacher's or group's prime motivation?
3. Lying. In the leader offended when you ask for scriptural backing behind his/her statements? Does he/she judge on the facts when asked for evidence?

The danger to follow these false leaders is great. I hope that you can not pick out these things a little differently next time you evaluate the leaders in your life.