AUTHENTIC, COMPLETE AND PERFECT LOVE

Posted on July 2, 2016 by randscallawayffm

1, 2, &3 John – God and Love

From the beginning John tells us that God IS love and that love comes from God. God created Love, Perfect Love. So, now we dive into a perfectly clear explanation that no one can misunderstand about this Perfect Love of God.

When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we accept a Love Contract that cannot be broken. God loved the world so much He gave (to us, you and me) His only Son (a part of Him) to stand in our place and accept the punishment for our sin (forever). Jesus Christ willing laid down His life so that we might know and love God back, freely, without sin that would block us from God for God cannot and will not have sin where He is.

Without Jesus, we cannot see or hear God. So we cannot love perfectly for God is love. Yes, God love the whole world (those inside and outside the church) so much He gave…His Love. That Perfect Love is the act of giving of Himself so that we who believe would have the right to be called His children and live with Him forever and ever. Amen.

The world is full of sayings about love. The media blares that love is about chocolate, diamonds, and getaways with intimacies without commitments or responsibilities. It all sounds good, looks good and even tempting. But it is not what God had in mind with His Perfect Love. His love begins with Him. God IS love. We cannot love others like He loves until we understand the love of God and love Him first. THEN our love for others takes on a deeper meaning and is more authentic…which is really what the world is desperately searching for as they search to be loved. God created this hunger for His love within all of us. Take hold of it. Seriously love God back and learn to love completely…like His loves us…Perfectly.

1 John 4, The Message
God Is Love
7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.

11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!

13-16 This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He’s given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.

What do we learn?
–God is love. Embrace it heart and soul. We will love others more authentically and perfectly as we learn to love like God loves us.
–The more we realize the love God has for us, the more deeply and intimately we will love others.
–When we Spiritually look into the eyes of God and His love, we see others in a different Light and love more.
–Love is laying down our life for others.

amazing love

Dear Heavenly Father, No one can fathom the depths of Your love but we do understand even more this morning as we read and meditate on Your Perfect Love for us. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for laying down Your life for us, dear Jesus. Thank you for the joy and peace that comes from loving You back. I do love You with all my heart, mind and soul!
In Jesus Name, Amen

And I’m singing…

Amazing love, how can it be
That You, my King, would die for me?…

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TO TELL THE TRUTH TEST!

Posted on July 1, 2016 by randscallawayffm

1, 2, &3 John – God and Love To Tell the Truth was a game show that was aired many years ago. I was just a kid, so that’s how many years ago it was! This was a classic game show in …

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TO TELL THE TRUTH TEST!

Posted on July 1, 2016 by randscallawayffm

1, 2, &3 John – God and Love

To Tell the Truth was a game show that was aired many years ago. I was just a kid, so that’s how many years ago it was! This was a classic game show in which a person of some notoriety and two impostors try to match wits with a panel of four celebrities. The object of the game is to try to fool the celebrities into voting for the two impostors. Each wrong vote would be worth $250 ($100 in the daytime version). It aired from 1956-1968. It was very popular for it’s day. Our family would sit around the TV and together try to guess who the person of truth was. Mm.

That’s what John is giving us today in his letter to the church. How to spot the person who is telling the Truth…in the Person of Jesus Christ. Like a great preacher, he not only gives us a “should”, he gives us a “how”. Read on and use this test daily, and remember…”Greater is HE who is in you than he that is in the world”. Key verse to life in His Spirit, living Truth.

1 John 4, The Message
Don’t Believe Everything You Hear
4 My dear friends, don’t believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.

2-3 Here’s how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ—the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person—comes from God and belongs to God. And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought!

4-6 My dear children, you come from God and belong to God. You have already won a big victory over those false teachers, for the Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world. These people belong to the Christ-denying world. They talk the world’s language and the world eats it up. But we come from God and belong to God. Anyone who knows God understands us and listens. The person who has nothing to do with God will, of course, not listen to us. This is another test for telling the Spirit of Truth from the spirit of deception.

What do we learn?
–DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR!
–Run everything through the filter of Truth as the Person of Jesus Christ.

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Dear Heavenly Father, It is amazing the flashbacks to childhood and past experiences come to mind when we read Your Word and recall our successes and our failures to see Truth. We seek Truth but sometimes fall for lies. Help us to always know the difference and seek the Truth. May we always remember that greater is You in us that evil that wants to bring us down. Help to lean into the power you give us to overcome. We are over comers because of Your Truth! Thank you, Lord.
In Jesus Name, Amen

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DEBILITATING SELF-CRITICISM

Posted on June 30, 2016 by randscallawayffm

1, 2, &3 John – God and Love I am that person who is harder on me than everyone else combined. If I make a mistake, I will punish myself before anyone else even notices a mistake was made…

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DEBILITATING SELF-CRITICISM

Posted on June 30, 2016 by randscallawayffm

1, 2, &3 John – God and Love

I am that person who is harder on me than everyone else combined. If I make a mistake, I will punish myself before anyone else even notices a mistake was made. It is good to stay alert, to admit when you are wrong, but…to continue to criticize ourselves over the same mistakes in our past is debilitating to our future. That future begins today!

God loves us so much he sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to save us…from ourselves! Love, God’s Love shuts down debilitating self-criticism…even when there is cause, says John. Read and rejoice. May our joy be restored as we bask in the Light of His love for us. And move on.

1 John 3, The Message

18-20 My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.

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.

What do we learn?
–Don’t be so hard on ourselves. God’s love trumps all.
–Whew, I needed this today, how about you?

Love God. Love Others. Revolutionary.

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Dear Heavenly Father, You remind us of your love daily and we love that about You. We are harder on ourselves sometimes than You are. (Maybe always.) Thank you for your forgiveness because of your love without conditions. Thank you for your mercy and grace. By realizing Your love for me makes me freer to love others more deeply. Thank you, Lord for this lesson through Your Word and our conversation this morning.
In Jesus Name, Amen

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SIMPLE TEST

Posted on June 29, 2016 by randscallawayffm

1, 2, &3 John – God and Love My dad used to say, “If it walks, squawks and acts like a duck…it’s probably a duck.” Profound, right? But John tells us pretty much t…

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SIMPLE TEST

Posted on June 29, 2016 by randscallawayffm

1, 2, &3 John – God and Love

My dad used to say, “If it walks, squawks and acts like a duck…it’s probably a duck.” Profound, right? But John tells us pretty much the same thing this morning when trying to see Truth, as the Person of Jesus Christ, in each other, as children of God. Behavior counts.

1 John 3, The Message
4-6 All who indulge in a sinful life are dangerously lawless, for sin is a major disruption of God’s order. Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. There is no sin in him, and sin is not part of his program. No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. None of those who do practice sin have taken a good look at Christ. They’ve got him all backward.

7-8 So, my dear children, don’t let anyone divert you from the truth. It’s the person who acts right who is right, just as we see it lived out in our righteous Messiah. Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the practice of sin. The Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil’s ways.

9-10 People conceived and brought into life by God don’t make a practice of sin. How could they? God’s seed is deep within them, making them who they are. It’s not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin. Here’s how you tell the difference between God’s children and the Devil’s children: The one who won’t practice righteous ways isn’t from God, nor is the one who won’t love brother or sister. A simple test.

What do we learn?
–Like Jesus said to the woman accused of adultery, “Go and sin no more.” Confession is saying, “I’m sorry.” Repentance is turning around and doing the opposite of what we did before.
–God loves us, yes, but does not approve of our sin.
–As children of God..follow what Jesus taught us.
–Our actions don’t fool anyone.
–Behavior is the true, simple test.

saved

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for your word that reminds us to be alert and evaluate our own actions. Help us to see Your Truth in others, not looking and expecting perfection in each other for we are not You, but looking for hearts, minds and souls striving to be all you intended for us to be…then do. Over all, help us to love like you love.
In Jesus Name, Amen

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WE’RE HIS KIDS!

Posted on June 28, 2016 by randscallawayffm

1, 2, &3 John – God and Love What a joy it is to be known as someone’s mom, daughter, sister, aunt or even best friend. Isn’t it a great feeling when someone you admire introd…

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WE’RE HIS KIDS!

Posted on June 28, 2016 by randscallawayffm

1, 2, &3 John – God and Love

What a joy it is to be known as someone’s mom, daughter, sister, aunt or even best friend. Isn’t it a great feeling when someone you admire introduces you to others as one of their “own” with a smile on their face and light in their eyes? It makes you feel loved, accepted and of value and importance to them. Guess what? God does the same and better! He calls us His own children, willing to die for us, so that we could be together forever. Who are you? I am a child of the King! I am a child of God, Himself, thank you very much!

1 John 3, The Message
What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. But that’s also why the world doesn’t recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he’s up to.

2-3 But friends, that’s exactly who we are: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own.

children of God 2

Dear Heavenly Father,
You are, indeed, our Father who calls us by name. Thank you for accepting us with unconditional love, mercy and grace. Today, help us to be and then do all that please You. Help us to think more like You so we will behave instinctively more like You. Our hereditary is clear. It is sealed. Thank you, Lord.
In Jesus Name, Amen

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SINK IN!

Posted on June 27, 2016 by randscallawayffm

1,2 &3 John – God and Love It’s summertime! Time to go to the lake or beach! Time to go to the local pool! Or just enjoy a pool in your backyard. I do not have a pool in my back yar…

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