Day 337 Bible Reading

1 John 4: 2-3

“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.”

I like this passage from 1 John 4 because I am sometimes reminded that the friends whom I can rely on the most have the same love of Christ that I have. There always seems to be a sympatico between myself and another person who believes in Christ. We speak the same the same language, have the same values, and look at life in similar ways. I do have friends who do not follow Christ, but our friendship does not seem to go as deep as with my friends who do believe in Jesus Christ. Belief in Jesus Christ adds a very deep and profound layer to any friendship and maybe it has something to do with the Bible passage from Matthew 18:20; “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” When there is a friendship between two believers of Christ, he is always there between them.

 Day 336 Bible Reading

1 John 3: 17-18 (ESV)

“But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

I like this passage from 1 John 3 because it says to the believer that actions speak louder than words, and if we have Christ in our heart then our behavior must reflect the presence of God within us. But we must constantly pray to God about actions to make sure they are correct, because we are asked to love in truth. To love in truth means that our actions must also reflect the truth of the situation we are in at every given moment. Because in some cases, to give to someone om need might not be the right thing to do because that person needs to hear the truth. An example of this might be when we don’t want to lend someone money because that money is being used for an addiction. The way to love the person who is an addict is to tell them the truth that the person needs help to get over the addiction and not money to fuel the addiction. So prayer to God for every action must always be a part of our lives, because only God will know that right kind of “love’ an individual person needs.

 Day 335 Bible Reading

1 John 3: 6 and 9 (ESV)

“No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.”

“No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.”

What struck me about these two lines from 1 John 3 is the word “abide”. From the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word “abide” has these meanings:

As an Intransitive verb (no direct object needed

 -      to remain stable or fixed in a state

 -   to continue in a place - SOJOURN

Using these definitions, the lines would read “No one who [is fixed] on God can keep on sinning” and “For God’s seed is [stable] in a believer, and they cannot keep on sinning because they have been born of God.”

I like the idea that as a believer “God’s seed” is stable and fixed on me, so even when I sin or dwell in darkness, God will help me to come to the light. But as a believer, I have to do my part and be “fixed” on God by reading his words and the Bible, by meditating and praying to him, and keeping him always at the forefront of my mind in all my decisions. The seed of God is within me to help me, but like any plant that seed needs to be watered to grow and thrive.

Tentative ending for my next novel

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