John – God and Love
We can easily be fooled by great illusionists who cause our brains to see what isn’t really there or to see it from a different perspective. An illusion, by definition, is seeing something that is or is likely to be wrongly perceived or interpreted by the senses. There are some, John says, that know of Jesus, but are only impressed with him…as an illusion.
There are many in the world and inside God’s church who are merely impressed with Jesus, do good deeds, but do not know the realty of Jesus as Savior AND Lord of their lives. They are merely impressed with what he did a long time ago. They can even quote some of his teachings. Some confuse wives’ tales with scripture causing all kinds of confusion. What they are missing, most of all is the realty of eternal life offered by God through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. Our response is repentance of our sin. Done. We are then forgiven forever.The reality is this, John writes, “that you who believe in God’s Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion.”
DO you know beyond doubt? Good question for meditation so that we evaluate the realty of who we are in Jesus. Merely impressed? OR Deeply devoted?
1 John 5, The Message
Part Two
The Reality, Not the Illusion13-15 My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God’s Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion. And how bold and free we then become in his presence, freely asking according to his will, sure that he’s listening. And if we’re confident that he’s listening, we know that what we’ve asked for is as good as ours.
16-17 For instance, if we see a Christian believer sinning (clearly I’m not talking about those who make a practice of sin in a way that is “fatal,” leading to eternal death), we ask for God’s help and he gladly gives it, gives life to the sinner whose sin is not fatal. There is such a thing as a fatal sin, and I’m not urging you to pray about that. Everything we do wrong is sin, but not all sin is fatal.
18-21 We know that none of the God-begotten makes a practice of sin—fatal sin. The God-begotten are also the God-protected. The Evil One can’t lay a hand on them. We know that we are held firm by God; it’s only the people of the world who continue in the grip of the Evil One. And we know that the Son of God came so we could recognize and understand the truth of God—what a gift!—and we are living in the Truth itself, in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. This Jesus is both True God and Real Life. Dear children, be on guard against all clever facsimiles.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for Your Son, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for Your Holy Spirit that is real and active in our lives, who clarifies all Truth. Thank you for all you have done, are doing and will do in our lives to make Your Presence known to us. You are amazing, real, steady and unchanging in Your love and actions. Yes, I believe. I am not merely impressed the more I think of the reality of You. Help us to be on guard for copies of you that the devil tries to put in front of us. Help us to only have eyes for you! You never let me down!
In Jesus Name, Amen. I believe.
To Love, to Be Loved
God Is Love
1 John 4, The Message
Dear Heavenly Father, 
What is love? A little first grader thought she knew the answer. She innocently came up to the new teacher and began a serious conversation with, “I know how to make love…my dad taught me.” The new teacher panicked and immediately stopped the conversation to run and get her mentor across the hall, me…”I think Mrs. Callaway needs to hear this, too.” 
The first year teacher told me what her student revealed. As a veteran, I calmed down the ruffled newbee and asked the girl to step into the hall. I asked her to tell us again what dad said. The little girl was so happy to relate her big news. “Dad taught me how to make love by making a heart where love goes like this, (she made a heart with her hands.) Instead of writing the word “love” you draw a heart and it still says, I (heart) love you!” Ah, now we get it. A very happy new teacher went about teaching her little students. I returned to my classroom with a giggle and a praise to God. “I (heart) you”.
Let us pray for opened eyes to God’s reality for all of us. Let us love like God loves us. AND here is the greatest bonus of all…“God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.” AND He still loves us!! Seriously.
21-24 And friends, once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re bold and free before God! We’re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we’re doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God’s command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.
Sometimes we live our lives without the aid of clear focus on Christ. We get frustrated at people who do not agree with us or hurt us with their words and we shut them out of our lives. Love becomes focused only on the hurt. We become more unfocused on God’s love. Since God IS love, we lose focus of who God is. We lose focus of God. God and love are the same. We are his “kids” if we love God, accept His love for us and then love others the way He loves us. It is a “simple test” to see the difference between God’s children and the Devil’s children. It takes focus. Need help? Ask God. He will help us see others through the lens of God and His love.
16-17 This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
We are reminded of John’s earlier statement that saves those who believe…“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NLT) In The Message paraphrase, this familiar verse is explained followed by two more verses, 
22-23 So who is lying here? It’s the person who denies that Jesus is the Divine Christ, that’s who. This is what makes an antichrist: denying the Father, denying the Son. No one who denies the Son has any part with the Father, but affirming the Son is an embrace of the Father as well.
The Only Way to Know We’re in Him
REFLECT…
TRUTH
