God's Commands Are Not Burdensome! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in 1 John 5:3-4a,

“This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.”

From time to time I hear someone talk about what a challenge it is to live “a Christian lifestyle”. Simply or nearly impossible to do what should be done to live life as a dedicated disciple of Jesus Christ. All of the challenges, all of the difficulties, “the things I ought to be doing”, etc. But here John claims that the commands of God are not burdensome. He makes it sound like it is our birthright as children of God to be enabled to obey God in “overcoming the world”.

What John says here reminds me of what the Lord Jesus Christ had to say, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” This certainly doesn’t sound like our new life in Jesus Christ should be an overwhelming challenge.

So why do so many among us feel like living a life pleasing to God is such a challenge, so difficult? John makes clear in this letter that it is inevitable that we, as believers, will see changes in our lives. We will not continue in sin as a lifestyle, 3:6,9; 5:18, we will do what is right and we will love our brothers, 3:10,14, we will obey God’s commands and do what is pleasing to him, 3:21,22.

Sometimes I wonder if we might bring various expectations on ourselves that God doesn’t intend. Sometimes I wonder if we have really done our homework in the Scriptures to know accurately what it is the Lord expects of us and what the lifestyle of a disciple of Jesus Christ really looks like. Sometimes I wonder if a number of us live under an illusion fostered by religiosity and the do-gooders amongst us. (I consider “do-gooders” as those who lay burdens on the rest of us like the religious elites that Jesus Christ castigated, “You experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.” Luke 11:46.)

I certainly wouldn’t say life isn’t difficult. It is as we live in a world under the curse of God for the sin of Adam and Eve and of all mankind. We struggle with our sin nature and we are subject to the discipline of our loving heavenly Father. “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons… God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:7-11.

Life in this world is difficult. It is difficult for everyone, believers and non-believers alike. But for believers, we find in our God that his commands, that is, what he requires, are not burdensome. Our Savior Jesus Christ who did all the heavy lifting himself on the cross invites us to himself with the understanding that we will find rest for our souls as his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

God's commands are not burdensome.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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Believers Are Children Of God! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in 1 John 5:1,

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God…”

What grips my heart this morning is that we become children of God when we embrace Jesus Christ in faith. Not just disciples or followers or students or “devotees” but his children! Nothing new here, but to consider it afresh never ceases to amaze me.

Having had daughters I know what it is to have children. I will never forget the moment I picked up and held my first baby daughter, Amy. Feelings of love, protection, delight, a sense of caring and concern for a little life that was entirely dependent on her mother and me… a lot of love there. When Becky and Beth were born I had the same feelings as I picked each of them up for the first time (and many times after that). These are moments that a parent just never forgets.

What does our heavenly Father feel as he brings us into his family? Does he feel these same emotions? My perspective is that the feelings we have as parents, the love we have for our children comes from God as we are made in his image. Shattered and tattered as we have become in our sinful condition, these are still the vestiges that remain within us as we are created in God’s image. I suspect us parents feel these things we do for our children because they mirror what our loving heavenly Father feels for us. And this is why he calls us his children.

I sense John’s astonishment as he considers this same thing in his mind as he writes, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1. From what I glean in the pages of Scripture, God’s emotions just may be stirred in a similar way as ours when we embrace our children.

It was in his love for us that he made it possible for us to be born into his family. In 1 John 4:10 we read, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” As his children, we bring delight to him, “The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.” Psalm 147:11. “For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.” Psalm 149:4. Particularly interesting to me is a comment in Proverbs 3:12, “The Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.” And as we face death we are told, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” Psalms 116:15.

As I say, I stand amazed and astonished that our Creator God holds us in his heart as we hold our children in our own hearts. This is why he calls us his children. How wonderful and what grace this is that we should be called children of God and to have such a place in his heart!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.

God Only Asks That We Believe In Him - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in 1 John 5:1a,

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God…”

This is really astonishing to me as I look at things from a "bird’s eye” perspective!

In Genesis three I read of Adam and Eve, our progenitors, turning their backs on the God who created them. God told them if they ate from the tree in the garden or even touched it they would die. Rather than taking God at his word, Eve, and then Adam, rejected what God had to say and followed the serpent’s temptation.

Paul’s observation on this act is found in Romans 5:12, 16b, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned… The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation…” As Adam’s offspring, we are now under condemnation as we all face death in the judgment of God. Adam and Eve were given fair warning by God, they turned their backs on him in spite of it, and that resulted in death for them as well as all their offspring.

“But…” as Paul wrote Titus, in 3:4-5, “when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.”

And just what does he require of us to be saved from our eventual certain eternal death? To simply believe in him! To just acknowledge his existence (imagine that!) and what he has to say. As John puts it in his gospel, 1:12, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

As I say, to me this is just astonishing! Look at it from God’s perspective… having given us existence, he now asks those he has created to acknowledge his existence! Having provided truth and light in his creation he now asks us to believe in him! Having sent his Son to die a miserable death to pay for the penalty of our sins, that is, to satisfy his own sense of justice, he asks us to believe in him!

I just find it truly remarkable! He could have asked us to measure up to certain standards, that he would take only the best, the brightest, the most beautiful, the most talented of us to be his. He might have established standards of behavior for us to earn our way into eternal life, to demonstrate we really “deserve” it. But he doesn’t. He holds his arms out to us and simply asks us to believe in him!

I don’t think that is too much for our creator to ask of us! What do you think?

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.

God Conforms Us To The Likeness Of His Son - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in 1 John 4:16b-17,

“Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.”

John says God's love is made complete in us “because in this world we are like him”! Fashion that! In the previous chapter John made the point that we live a different kind of lifestyle (we no longer continue in a lifestyle of sin) because God’s seed remains in us.

If we listen to what John is telling us, as opposed to a preconceived template of what we might expect to find as we read our Bibles, John is not telling us to love to be good Christians – he is telling us we love because we are Christians. God is love, therefore, because we are like God in this world, we love too!

“In this world we are like him.” Such an incredible thing! Paul tells us in Romans 8:29, “For those God foreknew [believers] he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Not just in the sweet bye and bye, but right here in the now! In this world we are like him!

My thought this morning is that since “in this world we are like him” and we love because he is love, Christians are the most interesting and fascinating people in the world. Our God certainly is interesting and fascinating and if we are like him in this life. it stands to reason. I’m not saying we take on deity as Christians, neither does John or Paul. What they say is that our character and nature conforms, over a period of spiritual growth, to that which is like God. It is his seed that remains in us and because God has foreordained we be conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ, we do just that.

John talks of the confidence we have in this verse. We have confidence as we look ahead to judgment day. Why? Because we know what lays ahead for us as believers. In this life we are the most confident of people. Because God knows the end from the beginning and has revealed some of that to us, we are confident. Our God we serve is a transcendent, sovereign, omniscient and all powerful God. He has no wrinkle of insecurity and as we mature in him, we grow in our confidence as well. Not because we are transcendent, sovereign, omniscient and all powerful, but because he is and we are his. We reflect the confidence our faith in God brings us.

In my mind there are so many other aspects of God that are reflected in his people here on earth today. Our God is a joyful and happy God, and so are his people. Our God is a kind, caring and merciful God, and so are his people. Our God is an honest and fair God, and so are his people. I challenge any believer to take a hard look in the mirror and honestly answer the question, “Since I have become a follower of Jesus Christ and now indwelt with the Holy Spirit do I not see these changes within me?”

As I say, I think Christians are the most interesting and fascinating people in the world because our God is interesting, fascinating and beautiful in character and nature.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.

Whoever Lives In Love Lives In God, And God In Him - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, and majestic in his radiant splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in ,

“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”

Just what is meant by “living in God”? John here is providing us an insight that only those who love know God, so “whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”

I suspect that many of us have differing perceptions of what it means to “live in God.” Some may view living in God as living a life that God finds acceptable, “good behavior” so to speak. Moral and ethical behavior, “victory” over the particular sins or temptations one finds himself beset with. Others may view living in God as having done a great work for God as in participating in establishing a mega-church sized fellowship complete with multimillion dollar facilities, a successful praise and worship band, etc. Or possibly establishing a missions board that fields workers in third world countries spreading the gospel message.

While these kinds of things might demonstrate hard work and zeal for the gospel and reflect efforts to do those things thought to be pleasing to God, my thoughts drift elsewhere this morning as I consider what it means to live in God. It seems to me that to live in God is life itself. Living in God to me carries the notion of living life in a “God-centric” framework as opposed to “me-centric” – what I accomplish, what I am doing. Life in God seems to me to be not so much about me, my accomplishments and what I do but more about God – who he is and what he does, his purposes, his desires, his joy. Not that what we do is not important. After all, it is the things we do that express what is in the heart. Heartfelt love and devotion to God finds its expression in the things we do for him.

To live in God also seems to me to be tuned into God himself. I suspect many of us have known those who have done things for God but for some reason don’t seem to experience an intimacy with him, even as they set themselves to a task for him. Maybe we have been that person at times in our own lives. I know I have. Living in God surely carries the idea of knowing what God is thinking as we immerse ourselves in his self-disclosure to us in the pages of Scripture. Communing with him in prayer in a way that we begin to sense, as we are guided by the Scriptures, what he might be feeling about things. We grieve when we sense God is grieved over something. We rejoice when we encounter that which we know brings joy to God’s heart. We desire what it is that God desires, not just for ourselves but for him and those around us.

John presents living in God as a fact, not a goal, not something to pursue. Either we live in God or we don’t. Either we belong to God or we don’t. From what John says here, we as believers do live in God and if we can take a break in beating ourselves up for a moment, I think we all would acknowledge that our hearts are drawn hopelessly to him. We love and adore our Savior and it is he we seek to please, it is his desires we are drawn to and his purposes we long to labor at.

Truly our lives are lived in him, we live in God and he lives in us!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.