Spiritual Transformation! - 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 3:5-6,

“You know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.”

John tells us here that Jesus Christ came to take away our sins. Jesus said in Luke 19:10, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” As such he became the “sacrifice of atonement” we read of in Romans 3:25, 1 John 2:2, 1 John 4:10 and other places. So we see that Jesus Christ takes away the penalty of our sins. This is how I understand John the Baptist’s exclamation, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”, John 1:29.

But clearly in this passage, John is recognizing more than a judicial pardon for our sins, that removal of the condemnation we stood under as members of a lost and fallen race. Here John says none of us who have embraced Jesus Christ in faith keep on sinning! To make sure he is understood, he gets more specific, “No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.”

John is not saying we lack the ability to sin, that we have somehow lost our own free will to sin. In the previous chapter he recognizes this, “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.” 1 John 2:1.

What would the point be for Jesus Christ advocating for believers (if they happen to sin) before the Father if the potential for that occasion didn’t arise? When John says, “No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him” he is speaking of living a lifestyle of sin. We are no longer dominated by our sin nature. As Paul says, “Thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” Romans 6:17-18. Now as a “new creation” we are freed to live differently, no longer enslaved to our sin natures, set free to live our lives in the Spirit.

Here is my theme of worship for today: God set me free to live a new kind of life here in this world today. As I am reminded of what the old life was, dominated by my sin nature, things like “hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy” Galatians 5:20-21, and as I see what life in the Holy Spirit is that I have been set free to experience, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”, Galatians 5:22-23, how can I not worship my Lord who has made this possible?

Spiritual transformation, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17, is a wonderful thing that our loving Lord brings about in each of our lives when we turn to him!

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.

Our God: Not Like Us! - 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 3:5,

“You know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.”

From time to time, as many do, I attempt to think of what God could have been like, and set that against what he really is like as I read of him in the pages of Scripture. As a brief activity I always find it a refreshingly wonderful spiritual exercise that helps me appreciate him for who he is and what he is like.

As one of those counted “among the redeemed”, I come from the fallen race of a lost world estranged from God and quite different from those many-splendored qualities that make up God’s character and nature. Cast against what I find in myself and the world around me, he shines in a glorious splendor and majesty this world is clearly unable to comprehend, grasp, understand or deal with. Certainly, the transcendence of glory that reflects his character is breathtaking.

In what we know as Paul’s first letter to Timothy, 6:15-16 we read, “God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.” Our God lives in an “unapproachable light”! Paul should know as one who had true visions of the things of heaven, 2 Corinthians 12:1-6. Just exactly what this “unapproachable light” is, I don’t know for certain, but I suspect it has everything to do with the manifestation of God’s glory and that which is expressed in his wonderful qualities.

One such quality is that he is perfectly consistent with himself!

If we define sin as that which is un-godlike, whether thoughts, words and deeds, etc. then, from my verse today, I understand God as perfectly consistent with himself, “in him is no sin.” What might it be like to serve a god who shifted, who had shadows in his character, who changed from time to time? What if God was like us, expressing that which is good and right and then did something else from time to time? What might an eternal existence be like spent with a god like that?

But not our God! All of the law we read of, in the pages of Scripture, reflect his character and nature. The love, the mercy, the kindness, the compassion we see of him in Scripture reflect his character and nature. The judgments, the devastating execution of his justice reflects his character and nature. And he is always, and always will be, eternally consistent with what we see of his character and nature in the pages of Scripture.

So unlike me. So unlike what we find in the world! As I say, what a refreshingly wonderful spiritual exercise to consider just how different our God is from us! “In him is no sin”!

How wonderful that is!

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.

Why Christians Are Viewed As "Odd Balls" - 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 3:1b,

"The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him."

Have you ever wondered why Christians seem to be often portrayed as weirdos and wackos by the entertainment community in movies, television shows, and (although I don't subscribe to it) social media, etc.?

Of course, not always, and occasionally we do find some great pieces of entertainment that do not misrepresent who and what we are. But from my perspective, all too often, the character in a movie that is a weird nut-job is also somebody that quotes their Bible as a Bible thumper, is hostile and judgmental to all around them and generally a grade-A jerk. I'll often turn to my wife and say, "Here we go again", as the "Christian" is portrayed as someone you want to hate in the movie.

I'm sure there may be many reasons for it. Maybe the script writer was verbally abused (or otherwise) by someone, maybe even an elder or pastor, in the church they attended as a child. Maybe there are misguided and overzealous "Christians" in their orbit who have yet to learn Peter's words, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander." 1 Peter 3:15-16.

We ran in to some of these misguided and overzealous "Christians" in New Orleans this past Mardi Gras when we went to share the gospel message to the revelers there. While handing out tracts and sharing the gospel with those who would listen (and there were many who did!), we would hear some obnoxious person nearby on a bull horn excoriating the crowds for every conceivable infraction that came to mind, as his cohorts pushed their oversized "protest" signs in their faces - certainly not done in the spirit Peter exhorts us to.

However, John here offers another perspective. The people of the world cannot know us, cannot understand us, cannot figure out what we are up to, simply because they don't know God, they cannot understand God, and cannot figure out what he is up to.

The fault for this is entirely on their part. God has gone well beyond meeting mankind more than half way. He has reached out to all, he has drawn all (John 6:44, John 12:32), he has provided mankind with his prophets, with his word. He is clearly manifested within the creation we live in. Yet for all this there are many who will not come to him.

They don't know him, and consequently, they have absolutely no idea why the rest of us have embraced him. They don't know us because they do not know God.

John says, "Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you." 1 John 3:13.

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.

Jesus Christ Impacts Our Lives! - 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 3:4-6,

“Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.”

John tells us here that, in spite of the fact that we used to be sinners, when we have seen Jesus Christ or have known him we no longer continue to live a sinful lifestyle, “No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.”

Why is this? Is there some kind of switch the Lord throws in our lives as we become his child that reprograms us? Do we lose our free-will ability to make bad choices?

I suspect there is some reprogramming of our lives when we become children of God. In verse 9 John tells us that we will not continue to live a sinful lifestyle because, having become a child of God, we are born of God and his seed courses through our veins and permeates our lives. We learn elsewhere that when we are born of God his Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us, “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” Romans 8:9.

But this morning I am struck by something else that John points to here. He speaks of seeing or knowing Jesus Christ. Those who have seen him or known him have a life-altering experience. Having an encounter with Jesus Christ is life-transforming.

There are those who have an impact in our lives. I can recall some teachers I have had that have had an impact on my life. When I was a boy in Boy Scouts I encountered people who made quite an impression on me and impacted me in such a way that I was determined to emulate them in my life. Even my drill sergeant in the army! A professor I had in college who had an infectious wonderful excitement in the Scriptures. My parents. All these have had an impact on my life and left their mark within me. Having experienced these people in my life, each left me a changed person to some extent or another.

But, then there is Jesus Christ! One perfect in majestic splendor! The One who loved me enough to die for me that I might have life in him! Here is One whose compassion for others sweeps you off your feet! In breath-taking fascination we see him command the wind and the waves, stilling a storm, we see him raise a dead man back to life, we see him walk on water and change water to wine! We see this same One submitting himself to the cruel tortures of those who would take his life… “The Lion of the tribe of Judah… a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain…” on my behalf!

As I read John this morning I ask myself the question, how can anyone who has had an encounter with Jesus Christ not be a changed person?

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.

We Are Going To Be Changed! - 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 3:2-3,

“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

Here is a fascinating thought! We shall be like Jesus Christ! What does that mean?

John tells us that we are now children of God. Not later, but now. Our family affiliation has changed. In verse 10 John talks of two families of children, the children of God and the children of the devil. For those of us who have embraced Jesus Christ in faith, we have changed families. This is something that took place the moment we turned to the Lord and is the permanent status we have now: today and forever.

Later, however, when he appears we will be “like him”. John tells us what we will be has not been made known yet, but we do have some clues in the pages of Scripture. We read in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

This will take place when the Lord returns for us as we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, “According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

We see that we will be “changed” when the Lord returns for us. A part of this has to do with our bodies. Paul points out that today we wait eagerly for the “redemption of our bodies”. In Romans 8:23-25 we read, “Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Paul’s introduction to Romans 8 is found in Romans 7:24, a chapter where he talks of the hopeless condition we are born into with a sinful nature, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

It is through Jesus Christ that we will be changed. We will finally leave this sin nature of ours behind as the Lord comes for us and our bodies are changed like his glorious body. We read of this in more detail in 1 Corinthians 15.

As for me, I can’t wait. We have a wonderful future ahead of us that the Lord has made us for!

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.