Morning Musings-Life and Health Through Repentance

   Morning Musings with the boys at breakfast...





"A more excellent way" to live, according to a fellow named Henry W. Wright, is when we are willing to confess and repent of sins such as unforgiveness; bitterness and/or fears (cuz this thing you fear has become an idol [god]; people will fear many and various things and that fear controls them--fearing the things instead of having a proper fear of God).  These confessions can then bring life, and health.  Just don't make 'good health' your idol either.

The focus here is not so much on the good health but on trust in God.  Make sure it is to God and His Son Jesus Christ that we live our lives.  Use our good health to show and tell others of God's message of love through Jesus Christ.

Be In Health (by Henry W. Wright), God's way, as opposed to just "disease management" by getting docs' diagnosis based on symptoms and tests and filling out of prescriptions to take.  Look to God in Jesus's name.  

Don't get me wrong, I still believe that God does provide doctors with great knowledge and ways in which we can help our health, but let the first move towards good health be towards God.  James 5:13-16 asks the sick person to call the elders, confess any sin (confessions that either the sick or the elders may have, repenting of their respective sins), and have the elders anoint and pray for the sick person.

But, and that is a big BUT, the "more excellent way," according to Henry W. Wright in his book Be In Health that deals with spiritual roots of disease, would be to be obedient to God and His Word in the first place and so avoid getting sick at all.  This is a radical idea to many, I suppose.
  
According to Henry's research, there are many diseases that spring from unforgiveness, bitterness, fear, anxiety and etc.  These sins, more often than not, can bring slow, debilitating sicknesses and diseases.   BUT, these diseases do not have to be if only we would follow God's simple commands.

In our main portion of Scripture today, 1 John 5:16-17 we see there is sin, that when a person confesses it, that leads to repentance, prayer and life.  On the other hand, when there is NO repentance and no prayer, there is death.

Growing up I'd often hear my father and other preachers repeat, "Keep short accounts with God".  This is good advice.  Let God search your heart and mind for that which is not of Christ nor Christ-like:  the bitterness, slander; phobias, etc that rule your life.  Yes, you may think I am oblivious to severe abuse many folks suffer from young or experience, through no fault of their own, even as adults; I'd like to beg to differ.  I know that people suffer so much in this life.  God knows it more.  He cares more.  That's why He offers His all encompassing antidote for you.  I just want to pass on this information.  May you find rest for your spirit, soul and body.

When we repent of our own sins, seeking forgiveness from God through our repentance, God does forgive and purifies (1 John 1:9).  God brings healing to us as individuals, in our hearts and minds and to our relationships and He may even bring health to our bodies as He sees fit.  

If you can get a copy of Henry W. Wright's book, he explains this much better than I and you will see amazing testimonies to this.  As we clear up our spiritual problems, our health problems often clear as well.  You will see.  God gives life through repentance.  Will you believe it?

Sin  > repentance  >  prayer  >  life

Sin  > no repentance  >  no prayer  >  death

 Father, God, may we each come to you and humbly confess the cares and sin of our lives which are burdening and controlling us.  May we each allow You, oh Father, to be in control and to bring Your healing into our lives.  I thank You in Jesus' Name. 

                                                                ~ERC  2016~

Moring Musings-Confidence to Approach

   Morning Musings with the boys at breakfast...




Grab your Bible and read 1 John 5:13-15.   Who is John writing this epistle to?  To those who believe in the name of the Son of God.  Why is John writing to them?  So the believers will know that they have eternal life.

The believers belief and knowledge then filter along to having "confidence to approach God".   We can have the confidence to approach, and the confidence to then ask God for anything according to certain criteria...that is, "according to His will".  He hears us and we will "have what we ask for".  This is assurance of prayers being answered. 

This "according to His will" begs the questions...What is His will?  How do we get to know His will?

Reading and reading and reading God's Word to know what His will and ways are, is a start towards that knowledge of what  His will is.   Remaining in Jesus by obeying/following/doing God's will and ways is how we get to solidify that knowledge not only in our minds but in our hearts and will lead us into an ever closer relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

As we do this, we develop a better understanding of what pleases God, what His passions are, what He wants us to do for Him as we also become more sensitive to His Holy Spirit guidance and counsel.  Therefore we are more able to ask "according to His will" with greater wisdom and confidence of approach.


    You belong to God  >  He's your Heavenly Father

Jesus is Your Savior  >  He has become your Friend

The Holy Spirit indwells you  >  He's your Comforter, Counselor and Guide who leads you into all truth.  He also empowers you to obey God's will and ways and to serve Him.

Let us go forth then with confidence to approach Him, our Father, Savior, Friend and  Guide.  Praise Him and thank Him.

                                                    ~ERC  2016~

Morning Musings-Do You Get It?

   Morning Musings with the boys at breakfast...





"Did you get it?" pleads John.  If you missed it from the beginning of John's first letter, then perhaps in these closing remarks of 1 John 5:1-5, you will catch it.  John is making sure his readers really get his point.  He repeats it and refreshes this emphasis several times.  He  wants them all to know, and know for sure, how to detect a true child of God for there are so many deceivers milling about ready to pounce on their mind and heart and sway them away.  A true child of God "believes Jesus is the Son of God".

John lists it all out, adding little tidbits more of discernment "tools".  So far he's said if a "person is born of God, they believe in Jesus Christ and His Father (God); they will love His child (Jesus); they will love His children (believers in Jesus Christ); they will carry out/obey His commands and not feel that the commands are  burdensome.

John adds:  when we are born of God, out of faith in Jesus and His salvation, we overcome the world.  I believe that part of that means we have the potential to resist temptations and not get ensnared in a worldly life.  Our desires will, instead, be for God and following His will and way as we live life.  And just so we don't forget it, he reminds again, "he who believes Jesus is the Son of God overcomes the world".  That is the natural character of a believer.  Do you believe it?  Do you get it?

This too is a test to detect the spirit of truth in a person.  This is what characterizes a child of God.  may we show our true colors for the glory, honor, and praise of our loving Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, His Son.

Be an overcomer.

Read John 1:1-15; John 5:31-32, 36-47 in conjunction with 1 John 5:6-12.

These are four testimonies that Jesus is who He says He is.

John drives home his point of Jesus being the Son of God.  When we have Jesus in our life, we have Him through the Holy Spirit's indwelling.  The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.  The Holy Spirit of Truth "testifies" that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

If, as human beings, we will accept testimonies from other human beings then we should be willing and able to accept God's testimony which is infinitely, immeasurably greater than anything a man, woman or child could testify to. 

When we believe God, when we believe in the Son of God, even our heart will be able to attest to the truth.  When we believe, when we accept, God gives us eternal life which is only found in His Son, Jesus.  When we have Him (Jesus) "we have life".  When we "don't have Him (the Son of God), then we don't have that eternal". People crave longevity and immortality so they can avoid death and horrors of the unknown afterlife in Hell.  Not believing is not the way of avoidance.

What is there after life on earth?  Either eternal life with Christ in Heaven or an eternal death with Satan and his minions in Hell.

I choose to believe that Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God, exactly whom He said He was --and whom He still is!  Which will you choose to believe?

Believe in Jesus Christ             >  Born of God

Believe in the Father (God)     >  Love His Child  (Jesus) too

Love God                                   >  Love His children (believers in Jesus Christ)

Love God                                   >  Carry out His commands

Love God                                   >  Obeying His commands won't be burdensome

Born of God                               >  Overcome the world

In faith                                        >  Overcome the world

Whoever overcomes the world  >  He who believes Jesus is the Son of God


                                                        ~ERC~

Morning Musings-Confidence on the Day of Judgment

   

 Morning Musings with the boys at breakfast...







Proof of our belonging to God, of being on God's side, is that we have His Holy Spirit in us.  When we acknowledge what John writes about in 1 John 4:13-18, that "Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in us and we in Him."  We will "know and rely on the love God has for us" (vs 15, 16).

In turn, we can have confidence on the day of judgment.  Confidence to know we don't have to fear that day since we are "made complete" by God's love in us; by our acknowledging Jesus is the Son of God and that the Holy Spirit is in us.

This love that comes from God drives out any fear we may have of that day.  Fear of punishment and of many other things, no doubt.  If we do have any fear that means the love is not yet perfected.  So let's learn to appropriate God's love more fully.  There's no lack of love on God's part; only on our degree of trust in Him and our understanding of how great God and His love is and of what that love has accomplished for us.

Let's get this information into our being....we do not have to fear judgment nor punishment because we belong to God now through Jesus our Savior and the proof or seal or guarantee is His Holy Spirit indwelling each and every believer in Jesus Christ.  Get this into your minds and hearts.  Trust in Him.  Revel in His love.  Know you are loved by him.  Have that confidence in God and His love, and be at peace; perfect peace perfected in and by God's love for us.  We can rely on Him and His Word.

When we have the confidence to have confidence in God and His Word; to rely on His love; and gain that peace and assurance that God is in us, we, in turn, can, and should, then show this love to others.  As we see in 1 John 4:19-21, we need to show this love to our brothers and sisters-in-Christ.  If we do not, we are called "liars".  How is it a person could love someone, in this case, God, whom he can't see, yet hate someone he can see?  Even in natural human connections this would seem crazy.  However, this is a good test of which 'spirit' we have; that spirit of falsehood, or our loving heavenly Father, God's Spirit whom we call the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit of Love and Grace

There are many difficult people, even among our own brothers and sisters-in-Christ, I can assure you and agree with you.  Yet, when we love as our heavenly Father loves and follow His example to love "whosoever" (John 3:16), it will stretch us to show God's love, even to them.  This is how God's love works to activate His grace going out beyond ourselves and our own desires.  May we be stretched and grown in our God-like love and grow to be ever more like Him as our confidence in Him increases in ever increasing measure.  In this we will gain greater "perfection" of God's love within us and when the Day of Judgment arrives, we will have nothing to fear.

                                                       ~ERC  2016~

Morning Musings-The Measure of the Spirit of God

   Morning Musings with the boys at breakfast...




Speaking of measures...how must we measure whether a spirit is the Spirit of God or not?  There are many spirits out there and in 1 John 4:1-6, we are warned to "test the spirits" and to "not believe every spirit".

There are many different kinds of spirits.  There is the holy Spirit of God; the spirit of man; angels who are "ministering spirits" (Hebrews 11:14); demons which are unclean, evil spirits with the spirit of fear being one of them; there is the spirit of truth vs the spirit of error (1 John 4:6); there's a spirit of grace; an excellent spirit as seen in the book of Daniel; a contrite and humble spirit (Psalm 51); there's the spirit of Tilgath-pileser; and  the spirit of wisdom, to name a few. 

From this short list above you can get indications of the spirits that are of God and those which are not.  But due to Satan often masquerading as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), John is inspired by God through the Holy Spirit to give us a way of discerning the truth about a spirit.  He tells his readers that the Spirit of God, the True Spirit, will be known when we test the spirits.  When the spirit being tested "acknowledges that Jesus Christ [who] is come in the flesh is from God", then this spirit is truly from God and a true spirit--one to be trusted.  Whoever listens to God can be recognized as being from the true Spirit of God; the Spirit of truth.  Those who don't listen are from the spirit of falsehood.

These two points give us wondrous tools of detecting a true spirit:  acknowledge Jesus come in the flesh and is from God, and the one who listens to God.  This is how we "test the spirits" to see if they be of God.  Satan is a big liar and full of deceit but he will not acknowledge Jesus Christ as being God, no siree!  That is one thing he will not lie about.  He wants to claim the title of God for himself!  

Praise the Lord we do not have to be overcome by Satan.  Our Spirit of Truth Who indwells each believer in Jesus Christ, came to us as we received God's offer of salvation through Jesus's death and resurrection.  He indwells us and is greater than any other spirit; especially greater than Satan and any one of his demon minions included! 

Keep this always in mind, "our enemy [Satan], who is God's enemy first, has been defeated by Jesus's death and resurrection.  Jesus, therefore, is, and always has been, the greater power.  We, as His children, have also overcome this enemy.  Remember with God's Spirit, the Spirit of Truth in us, we can recognize this and discern that which is true and that which is not.

We are given a further measure of recognizing the Spirit of Truth as opposed to the spirit of falsehood (Read 1 John 4:7-12).  This has to do with love; God's love.  When we have "love one for another" it shows "God lives in us" and because of this our "love is made complete".  Why is this?  God is our source of love.  "Love comes from God" (vs7).  So whoever "has been born of God", loves.  And as that famous verse we often hear quoted says, "God is love" (vs 8).  This then is another way to "test the spirits" (4:1).  This is also a proof that when we "love one another" "God lives in us" through Jesus Christ's death and resurrection and the Holy Spirit of God who indwells each believer who has accepted God's gift of salvation.   Let us be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit; He is with us to help us and guide us and alert us to what is truth.

                                                           ~ERC  2016~

Morning Musings-A Measure of a Christian

   Morning Musings with the boys at breakfast...




Lavish Love introduced us to a gauge of observing who belongs to Christ.  We learned that those who deliberately  continued to sin are likely not of Christ.  Following, based on 1 John 3:11-15, we will be shown another measure of a Christian.

John appears to have recalled Jesus's words which seem to be a very natural part of him, so much so, that they just roll off his tongue; so to speak.  Jesus said, "This is how all will know you are my disciples, if you have love one for another" (John 13:35).  In 1 John 3:11, John reiterates it by saying, "We should love one another."

John says, "NOT like Cain who killed his brother".  He said Cain "belonged to the evil one and his actions were "evil".  The brother Abel's actions were "righteous". 

The true mark of being "brothers in Christ" will be that we love one another.  This is how we ourselves will know it and how others will know it.

That which characterizes the non-believer is that the action will be evil, hate, murder (even in the thoughts) will be manifested and these people "remain in death".  There will not be eternal life for such a person.  This is grievous and sad.

Verse 15 of 1 John 3:11-15, says that "no murderer has eternal life".  This is true whether a person murders another or themselves.  Committing suicide is still a felony. (I do not say this to judge anyone, more of a warning.  Know that God loves you very much.  He wants to give you eternal life and an abundant life in Him through Jesus.  Live.)

One of Jesus's commandments is "to love your neighbor as yourself" (Deuteronomy 10:12; Mark 12:31).

If you love yourself then you will love others so if you would kill yourself you would shew you do not love yourself.  This would also say you "hate your brother".  Even hating your brother is equated to murder, according to these verses.

It is noted that many shootings, such as in the case of Columbine School and similar other tragedies, the shooter (s) shot several others and ended up shooting themselves as well.

Could this not stem from hating themselves?  They did not know and/or understand God's love for them.  Conversely, when we love ourselves then we will love others and show we have God's love in us, be able to accept and love ourselves, not in a selfish way, and be able to then love others.  The contrast is startling. 

Someone by the name of Amy Carmichael, loved so much that she gave her life for many years to India and her peoples.  Many a girl child was rescued and cared for and brought to Christ. This was God's love shining out through Amy motivating her actions for the good and betterment of others.

The main thrust is the love of God needs to shine in our hearts first, then radiate out to others; to love them and to show it by our actions towards them.  do NOT  harbor hate against anyone as it is considered murder.  Love for our brother and sister-in-Christ is what should characterize us, and so show we have eternal life.

What is the quality or standard of our love for one another to be?  1 John 3:16-31 gives us the answer.  We are to love as Christ loved us.  How much did He love us?  He loved us enough to die for us.  That is to be the quality of our love for our brother and sister-in-Christ too.  Love them enough to die for them if need be; to go that extra mile for them; to help each other in whatever need we may have.  Have pity on each other, for pity's sake! 

We must learn to love with our actions as well as with our words and tongue.  In actions and in truth.  Genuine help to give not to get.  Pure motive behind the helping.  If we have the material possessions then have pity on that person in need and give the help needed.

We will know if we are loving with good action when our hearts don't condemn us; when they don't tell us something in the 'doing' is amiss.  God will know that degree of quality.  The rest of us looking on will be able to take measure of others but most importantly, to examine our own hearts and thoughts and actions whether or not they measure up to God's standard of Christian living.  Whether or not we belong to Christ in the first place.  God is our Judge.  Do you belong to Christ?  Let us show that we do.

                                                               ~ERC  2016~

Morning Musings-Lavish Love

Morning Musings with the boys at breakfast...





You want proof?  God proved His love toward us in that while we were still sinners, His Son, Jesus Christ, died for us (Romans 5:8).  We see in 1 John 3:1-3 that God's love was lavished upon us.  That means full and overflowing, like more than was actually necessary, so to speak.  He gave and gave and gave, and still gives His love to those of us who are also now His children.

We will one day "appear with Him" (Revelation 21:1-4).  The euphoria of that day to come can only be imagined in an earthly example which, of course, could never really measure up...

The Sultan of B, when he makes official public appearances often has, besides the crown prince and the crown prince's brother, and the Sultan's many nobles, two of his youngest children, a very young son and daughter.  They 'appear' with him and this is an honor.

There is a certain demeanor and decorum for these distinguished people to acquire if they expect to appear with His Majesty the Sultan.  So too, we who are the children of God, need to be circumspect.  If we have "this hope" of appearing with Jesus some day, we have to behave.  More than that, we must "purify ourselves as Jesus is pure" (see 1 John 5:18).

Our privilege of appearing with Jesus in all His glory in time to come, is all because of God's lavish love on us in the first place.  When we become God's child through faith in Jesus Christ and because of His love to us, He gave Jesus so that "whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).  This is what God's lavish love did for us!  Forgiveness of sins and everlasting life!!

Because of that lavish love, and our imminent appearance with Him in due time, we too have a "code of behavior" to be responsible to adhere to.  In Jesus is no sin.  If we are God's children we are to follow Jesus's example to be "holy as He is holy" and to stop sinning.  

We have the Holy Spirit to help convict us when and where necessary and have the power to overcome our sin bent nature (1 John 3:4-6).  Ask for such help to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's convictions of sin in our life and then repent, renounce and confess to God in Jesus's name.

When we deliberately keep on sinning it will show that we are not "living in Him".  Let us do what is right and be righteous as God our Heavenly Father is.  Those who keep on sinning are said to be from the devil who sinned from the beginning (1 John 3:7-10).  The Son of Man, Jesus, appeared to destroy the devil's work.  If a person is born of God, he or she will NOT continue to sin (vs 6).  We've been born again of God's seed, we cannot go on sinning (eg.  apple seeds produce apples, similarly God's righteous seed produces righteousness). 

The way to gauge if someone is born of God or born of the devil is if they keep on sinning or not.  (Of course God is the ultimate Judge of who is and isn't His child but we can get an idea of it.)  The devil's work is to cause us all to sin and to turn away from God and His holy standards.  As children of God, who have God's divine power and nature indwelling us, we are potentially enabled to choose to make every effort to live for God and to "be holy as He is holy" (1 Peter 1:15, 16).  When we are busy with these endeavors we can forestall Satan's wiles and so live for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Thank Him and God, your Heavenly Father, then, for His lavish love which empowers and triggers all this to happen from the 'get go'.

                                                           ~ERC  2016~