TO KNOW: TRUEHEART; IT IS PERSONAL

TO KNOW: TRUEHEART; IT IS PERSONAL

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Psalm [CEV] 119:102-106 You [Jehovah] have been my teacher, and I won't reject your instructions. Your teachings are sweeter than honey. They give me understanding and make me hate all lies. Your word is a lamp that gives light wherever I walk. Your laws are fair, and I have given my word to respect them all.

Proverbs 4:18-23 The lifestyle of good people is like sunlight at dawn that keeps getting brighter until broad daylight. The lifestyle of the wicked is like total darkness, and they will never know what makes them stumble. My child, listen carefully to everything I say. Don't forget a single word, but think about it all. Knowing these teachings will mean true life and good health for you. Carefully guard your thoughts because they are the source of true life.

1John 2:1-11 My children, I am writing this so that you won't sin. But if you do sin, Jesus Christ always does the right thing, and he will speak to the Father for us. Christ is the sacrifice that takes away our sins and the sins of all the world's people. When we obey God, we are sure that we know him. But if we claim to know him and don't obey him, we are lying and the truth isn't in our hearts. We truly love God only when we obey him as we should, and then we know that we belong to him. If we say we are his, we must follow the example of Christ. My dear friends, I am not writing to give you a new commandment. It is the same one that you were first given, and it is the message you heard. But it really is a new commandment, and you know its true meaning, just as Christ does. You can see the darkness fading away and the true light already shining. If we claim to be in the light and hate someone, we are still in the dark. But if we love others, we are in the light, and we don't cause problems for them. If we hate others, we are living and walking in the dark. We don't know where we are going, because we can't see in the dark.

  God alone truly saves. Trust Jesus and His gift of present and everlasting redemption is ours with absolute guarantee. (Rom.5:15-18; 6:23; Eph.1:13-14; 4:30) Follow Him and we enjoy and rejoice in surety of heart. Don’t follow Him, refusing light, and we stumble in darkness. This stumbling includes worrisome heartfelt uncertainty about salvation, a troubling emotional faltering. (James 1:8)

  All Scripture speaks clearly on this topic. John does so with clarity, including example and illustration; contrasting love and hate in today’s selected passage. I especially appreciate the evaluator’s authentic measure of lovers of others. I hear John speaking of a number of related evident actions. An unregulated contentious ego-reactive spirit for one, something that Paul includes in his letter to the Galatians; dark life not being limited to what humanity traditionally considers the worst of sins.  

  “Now the works of the flesh are clearly revealed, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, fightings, jealousies, angers, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkennesses, revelings, and things like these; of which I tell you before, as I also said before, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control; against such things there is no law. But those belonging to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become glory-seeking, provoking one another, envying one another.” (MKJV Gal.5:19-26 Underlining mine. Take note that all involve passionate heartfelt emotion.)

  Is this to say that we as believers will never ever commit these sins? No, and for John to state thusly would be to contradict himself and God. (1Jn.1:8-10) What it does say is “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not continue to sin.” (1Jn.5:18a; note 2Cor.5:14-21) In my machinist’s and DIY mind, this means that we, God’s children, are no longer occupied with design, engineering, construction and maintenance of sin; Spirit contrary to spirit.

  Thank God for a new true heart that includes well-lighted enablement.  EBB4