From: December 3, 2023
“Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions” (1 John 3:18 NLT).
When we receive Christ, we receive the love of Christ. This is the love that moved Christ to die in our place, so that we might have eternal life. Real love takes action. The evidence that we have received Christ is that the love that goes beyond mere words and takes action is suddenly ours. Christian love communicates itself through word and deed. It’s love that both shows and tells.
As John wrote in his gospel, “God so loved the world that he gave…” God’s kind of love, what the Greeks called “agape” love, is unconditional and sacrificial. God’s kind of love is love that gives. So “let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Heb. 10:24) today!
PRAYER: Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for loving us and thank You for pouring Your love into us through our faith in Christ. The chief fruit of the Spirit is love and we ask You to increase our experience of this fruit in our lives. Make us more loving O Lord, we pray. In Jesus’ name, amen.
From: December 3, 2022
ABIDING WE NO LONGER MAKE A PRACTICE OF SINNING
John here describes the fruit of being born again, namely, that those with God’s life in them, no longer make a practice of sin. Sin is no longer their habit. This is not the precondition of salvation. For salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Yet, the fruit of having received this salvation is that the child of God is putting off the old nature with its sinful desires and putting on the new nature, which loves God and neighbor.
There is a positional truth and an experiential truth in view here. Positionally, the believer is already counted righteous before God in Christ. The righteousness of Christ has been credited unto the believer by faith. But experientially, that same believer is still working out their salvation in this world, putting off the old man and putting on the new.
So, perfection, complete sinlessness, will not be the believer’s experience until the glorified body is received. On that day, position and experience will be the same.
Yet until that day, let us work out what God is working in us (Phil. 2:12-13), knowing that Christ is our Advocate before the Father and depending on Him to complete that which He began in us until the Day of His return.
PRAYER: Dear Father, we confess our sins to You. We thank You that You are faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us. Fill us afresh with Your Spirit that we might abide in Christ today, putting off the flesh and walking in the Spirit. In Jesus’ name, amen.
From: December 3, 2017
A good reminder especially during the Christmas season. Don’t sit on your “worldly goods” while your brother is in need. If you have the love of God in you, then you will not “shut up your heart” and look away. You will give. Because love, God’s kind of “agape” love, always gives.
From: December 3, 2016
One of the most amazing prophesies concerning the future of human kingdoms was given to Daniel. Written around 530 BC, God revealed the rise and fall of kingdoms from the time of Daniel to the end times. The three kings predicted to “arise” in Persia was fulfilled by the reigns of Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius. The 4th and final king of Persia, the one “richer than all” before him, was fulfilled by Xerxes. As Daniel’s prophecy predicted over 200 years before it happened, Xerxes “stirred up” the Greeks which led to Persia being conquered by the “mighty king” (Dan. 11:3), Alexander the Great. The rest of the chapter goes on to describe kingdoms that have come and gone in the following centuries all the way up to the present and beyond. The Lord pulled back the veil of time to show Daniel the kingdoms to come before Christ would establish His everlasting kingdom. The future is in the Lord’s hands.
From: December 3, 2015
Love gives. That’s the proof of its authenticity. And those who claim to be children of God are to exhibit this proof. Do you see a brother in need? Don’t “shut up” your heart. Living in this world it’s easy to become hard hearted, but John tells us to live with open hearts and open hands towards those in need. Does the love of God “abide” in you?
From: December 3, 2014
When we receive Christ, we receive the love of Christ. This is the love that moved Christ to die in our place, so that we might have eternal life. Real love takes action. The evidence that we have received Christ is that the love that goes beyond mere words and takes action is suddenly ours. Christian love communicates itself through word and deed.