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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Day 334 Bible Reading

1 John 1: 5-6

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”

1 John 2: 9-11

“Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

These two passages from 1 John 1 and 2 caught my eye today. “God is light” and with him, we live in the light. Living in the “light” means for me that I do not get caught up in the “dark” emotions and thoughts of depression, envy, anger, paranoia, etc. But sometimes I do walk in darkness, and I feel that it cannot be helped because this is life and “stuff” happens.

But then I feel the whisper of the Holy Spirit in my ear saying “Look up, there is a light to guide your way. Jesus is there to light your way out of the darkness.” The blinders are then dropped from my eyes, and the dark tunnel that I dove into head first doesn’t seem so dark. I slowly climb my way out of the darkness, I see solutions I wouldn’t have seen in the darkness, a different way of looking at things, and gratitude appears like steps that I can climb out of the darkness and into the light. Having faith is like having an emergency light that you can turn on to find your way out of the darkness, if you remember that you have that light. And even if you forget, Holy Spirit is always there to remind you, that Jesus Christ is the light you need to find your way out of the darkness. 

 Day 333 Bible Reading

Psalm 135: 15-18 (ESV)

“The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands.

They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths.

Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.”

I love this passage from Psalm 135 as it gives us such a poetic description of money, which was silver and gold at the time this Psalm was written. We sometime worship money as idols, and treat them like they are like people, but they aren’t. But what is very interesting is how the Psalmist says that those who make “money” and those who trust in “money” become like them. So nations and people cannot speak, do not see, do not hear, nor are they alive. Does this sound like people and nations you know? I know when I’ve become obsessed with money, I did so the exclusion of all else. I thought I was living, but I think deep down inside I knew I was literally dead. Money never made me happy for long, and I found that out the hard way. I have only found lasting happiness in my faith and Jesus Christ.