Thursday, July 28, 2011

He is Light

We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
This is the message we heard from Jesust and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
1 John 1 (NLT)

Okay, so the whole Bible is about the Trinity (God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit) and proclaiming the good news.  Right? Right.  So, He is the only way we can get eternal life and He IS LIFE. So, without God, there is no life.  Because (In  the Beginning God made the heavens and the earth..Gen 1:1)  I often say that God is the only reason I am on this earth, and this is the verse that shows why! Without God, there is no earth, there is no life.  Yet, we often "don't have time" for Him.  He could very easily end our glamorous lives at any moment, either by snapping us out of our "perfect life" and making us poor, or even ending our life.
There is no darkness in God at all, because He is light.  In Revelation, it says that there will be no light (sun/moon) because God is/will be the only light we need.  We cannot have fellowship with darkness, as well.  This is a touchy subject because we are supposed to reach those in the dark.  Funny thing is, many people go "into" the dark to reach those people. The problem that presents itself, is there is now no visible difference between Christians and nonbelievers.  If Christians drink, party, swear and sleep around, why would nonbelievers have any interest in becoming a Christian?  Also, once we realize that we are sinners, we cannot just go on living and think we are saved, we have to repent, not only when we ask Jesus into our lives, but when we sin, we need to ask God to forgive us.  The cool thing?  He is faithful and just (fairly doing the same to everyone) to forgive us! 

Just remember, even if you are a Christian, you can't live a different life away from church. 


Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?  What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.

2 Corinthians 6

-K

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

All Scripture is useful...in righteousness

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
-2 Timothy 3:16

I can't remember if I've blogged my thoughts on this verse yet, or not...if so, here it is again :)
Okay.  So, at the surface, this verse says that we can use Scripture to teach, rebuke, correct and train...
Well, if you think about it, there are so many different passages that just 'appear' right when you need them; whether you're looking for a random verse or reading your daily plan. 
Another cool thing is, all Scripture is useful IN righteousness. That doesn't mean you can rebuke someone with Scripture unfairly.  The cool thing is, God judges with righteousness.  Although we cannot judge others, only God can do that, we can correct them justly (the definition of righteousness).  Pretty cool task given by and through God, hm?

-K

Thursday, July 21, 2011

He restores my soul

He restores my soul. -Psalm 23:3a

Wow. A simple verse with SO much meaning.  Lately I've found myself not nearly as close to God as I have been in the past.  The world teaches us that everyday life just 'gets in the way' of reading the Bible, and taking time to strengthen a relationship with God.  The really amazing thing is, no matter what the world says, once God gets your attention again, you are always welcome right where you were. 
When I hear the word 'Restore' I think of a computer or iPhone (yes...this is a major geek sign...)
In computer language, it really means to erase everything and begin anew. All of the distorted files are wiped away, everything is gone and you get clean slate. When you think about that happening to your soul, it is overwhelming. I, a sinner, get a clean slate when I mess up. Granted, God does not love that people walk away from Him, but it doesn't matter what you've done.  God searches for you, well for all of us. (Matthew 18:12)  He is so greatful when we come back (as told in the parable of the prodigal son)  He forgets that you ever went away, and you start anew.  I am so grateful that nothing matters except for the present and the future.  My past has been forgotten and yours has too!

God bless.

-K