Morning Musings-Fellowship With Father and Son

   Morning Musings with the boys at breakfast...




In the opening verses of 1 John 1, the writer, the apostle John, uses the pronouns "we", "us" and "our" very often.  I take it that  he is referring to the other apostles as well as himself, that they are actually eyewitnesses to Jesus's humanity on earth.  They had seen Him with their eyes; their hands had touched Him;  they had heard Him with their very own ears; and they had had fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:1-4).  These are the 'credentials' then, that they have as eyewitnesses, to tell the readers about this Word of life, Jesus, to proclaim to us, boldly and confidently, about the eternal life we can have in Jesus Christ the Son of God.

 If someone has only heard about an accident from someone else, there is not as much reliability than if we hear about it directly from a person who has actually seen the accident happen, play by play.  So here, John the son of Zebedee is telling us he was directly in company with Jesus as He walked this earth.  These are his authorization and license; we can take his word for it, this message he wants to share.

This message which he's heard directly from Jesus, he "declares to" us...."God is light and in Him is no darkness at all."  This is important to John and he wants us to know it is important to each individual.  John wants us to be able to have this fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.  This fellowship we can have through the Holy Spirit who indwells all those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior.

John writes to tell us as he wishes us to have the same joy as he and the other apostles had with such fellowship.  I feel so blessed by this.  Blessed that John wanted us to know and I do know now.  I have experienced it; granted, nowadays, it is a more spiritual experience with the Father and Son but we also share with other brothers and sisters in Christ in a collective manner when we meet together.  I too, wish to impart this knowledge to you too; sharing and telling you what John has reported.  'You', meaning my sons and anyone else reading this.

After establishing his credentials, John declares his message (1 John 1:5-10).  "God is light; in Him is no darkness at all."  As followers of Jesus Christ we must also live by the truth (Jesus said in John 14:6 "I am the Way, the Truth...").  We find out about the Truth by reading God's Word.

As said above, "God is Light".  We are to "live by the truth" and "walk in the light".   Live with good conscience; open and sincerely before God and man, but especially before God as He sees our minds and hearts anyway--you can't fool Him.   Let His light shine on our hearts and minds to illuminate the places that need attention.  When we do so then we can have fellowship with God and subsequently with those who are our brothers and sisters-in-Christ. 

Another benefit is that the "blood of Jesus, God's Son, purifies us from all sin".  How can this be done?  By realizing and admitting that we do have sin and repent of them.  That we confess those sins to God.  What is God's response?  Well, because He is "faithful and just" (vs 9), He will forgive us those sins and "purify us from all".   Jesus always works thoroughly.  He purifies, from "all" sin, not just a few of them, but "all", from "all unrighteousness".

In Psalm 139:23, 24, we find that David wanted to live openly and honestly before God.  He invited God to "search his heart and his thoughts" to test and examine him to see "if there was any offensive way in" him.  He also wanted God to "lead him in the way everlasting"

Imagine you go to the doctor and the doctor gets out his stethoscope, listens to your heart and lungs; then with his other equipment he looks in your ears, eyes, down your throat; checks your knees' reflexes; then further checks with X-rays, and MRI's etc to "search your body" for disease and any other possible anomalies.

This is what David asks God to do for him spiritually.  Many diseases, by the way, have a spiritual root but I won't get into that here other than to say, we need to look for root causes.  This, a pastor named Henry W. Wright, has written lengthily about  in his book Be In Health.

Ask God to do this for you too.  When God searches and finds something and brings it to our attention through our reading of His Word and/or the conviction of the Holy Spirit indwelling us, or even through one of our brothers or sisters-in-Christ confronting us with such, what will we do about it?  

1 John 1:9 gives us our recourse; "confess it".  In so doing we gain God's forgiveness and His cleansing.

How well does God cleanse or purify?  Try this little experiment.  Grab a clean piece of white paper and a pencil.  Scribble on the paper to make a patch of pencil blot.  Now take an eraser and rub off those scribbles as best you can.  Peer at the paper.  Can you still see some of the scribble marks?  Most likely you can.

This is like us trying to hide our own sins.  Inevitably it can't be done; indications of those sins will pop up sooner of later.  This is why we need to confess those sins to God and gain His forgiveness and purification.  He says He'll "purify us from all unrighteousness".  There will NOT be a single jot of incriminating evidence to be detected in His sight.

The whole point of mentioning all this is so we can then, with a pure heart and mind, have fellowship with God the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, and with other members of His family; our very own brothers and sisters-in-Christ.  God has always wanted to commune with us.  Let's give Him the desire of His heart as we live by His Spirit Who indwells us.

Father God, thank You for your Word and your Holy Spirit who helps us, your children, to live openly and honestly before you so we may have fellowship with You and each other.  I praise You in Jesus' Name.

                                                     ~ERC 2016~