God Wants Us To Know We Have Eternal Life - 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 5:13,

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

I hold to a conviction that what we read in Scripture is what God wants us to know. All Scripture is intentional.

As Paul points out in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” I believe it is God communicating to us through the differing individuals who penned the Scriptures.

As Peter says, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:20-21.

Given that as a deeply held belief, when John says “I write these things to you… so that you may know you have eternal life”, I understand it is God himself who wants us to know we have eternal life. By my count, in at least 26 passages in this short five-chapter letter, we read of how we can know we are saved. It is the same criteria John provides to know who false teachers are as well.

My thoughts this morning center on how our loving heavenly Father seeks to help us in our weaknesses. Although he has provided his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and enabled us through one way or another to get the message of this atonement applied to us through our embracing him in faith, we still struggle with doubts and uncertainties at times.

Our God has done all the heavy lifting. All we need to do is grasp it by faith, and yet we still struggle at times. God knows this, and rather than just shaking his head and rolling his eyes (which to me would seem appropriate), in love, he continues to encourage us with the words of this wonderful letter.

We can know we are saved… our God has told us how we can know in this letter in a number of ways. Check them out!

It is just like our God to care for us in this way…

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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The Excitement Of Eternal Life! - 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 5:11-12,

“This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

This testimony that John speaks of is the testimony that God the Father has given about his Son. We who have embraced Jesus Christ in faith have eternal life, and this eternal life is in his Son, Jesus Christ. In verse one of this chapter John says that “everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God". And, as John quotes Jesus in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

As I attempt to meditate on this wonderful gift of eternal life afresh, I find it somewhat difficult to wrap my mind around all that is implied with the notion that I have eternal life as my own possession today! As all others (accept those who are here when the Lord returns), I will pass through physical death. But on the other side of physical death there will be a loving Savior waiting to receive me into his presence, together with all those believers who have preceded me. And then at the appointed time, on the day of the resurrection of life, I will be united with my transformed body for an eternal existence.

Will I have the same or similar talents and abilities in the resurrection that I have in this life? What kind of projects and purposes will I be engaged in? Will I be doing some kind of work for a living? What might that be? What kind of language will we all be speaking and will there be different languages? How much of our past will be reflected in eternal life? Will there still be gender and race? Will we all be in our biological prime for all eternity? Will it be impossible to skin my knee? Will I get to go fishing? Will we play Hearts or Monopoly? What kinds of holidays will we have on our calendars? Will we have family identity? Will I have a checkbook to balance?

There are just all kinds of questions that can be asked about eternal life, life in the resurrection. I could take a stab at answering a few of them but I myself don’t know much with certainty. One thing I am certain of though is that I do now possess eternal life and that life is in Jesus Christ. I know with certainty that life in the resurrection is going to be wonderful as we will be communing with our God. It is the presence of Jesus Christ that makes eternal life the wonder and fascination it will be!

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 Will Condemn All Unbelievers - 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 5:10b,

“Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.”

Here is a horrific reality: those who reject the gospel outright, and even agnostics, who struggle with knowing what to believe, have made their Creator out to be a liar! When confronted with the claims of the gospel message that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that he died for our sins, everyone has a choice to make. There are those who believe it, and then there is everyone else. Those who don’t embrace the gospel message in faith sit in judgment of our loving heavenly Father as a liar.

John does not seem to provide any middle ground here. He speaks of anyone who does not believe what God says about his Son. For one to place himself/herself in this position, it is a fearful position to be in. In Revelation 19:15b we read, “He [Jesus Christ] treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.” And in the following chapter, 20:15, “If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” I would not want to face God on judgment day when I have attempted to make him out to be a liar!

In this letter John tells us several times our God is love. Paul speaks of God’s kindness and love, “But 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.” Titus 3:4,5b. In Romans 2:4 he points to this kindness of God as a motivation for people to repent, “Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?”

But there are other aspects to the many-faceted jewel that comprises God’s character and nature. Nahum tell us, “The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies.” Nahum 1:2. As the writer of Hebrews observes, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Hebrews 10:31.

Sobering, isn’t it?!

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.

The Spirit Is The Truth! - 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 5:6b,

“And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.”

John tells us the Holy Spirit testifies to the truth of Jesus Christ. It is this very truth our faith rests in that John says is the “victory that overcomes the world", verse 4. It is our faith in this truth that brings about our new birth by God, making us his children.

This morning my thoughts are drawn to the sometimes-asked question, “what is truth?” Where many shy away from being so bold as to claim to having ascertained truth, and living in a day where many reject the very notion that any truth can be grasped, or that it even exists, (with claims of “truth is whatever you want it to be…”) John declares with the piercing brilliance of truth: the Holy Spirit is the truth!

I am sometimes astonished with the befuddled thinking of so many today as they grope for understanding the world around them. Whether the practical aspects of child-rearing, what passes today for notions of liability/responsibility in courts of law, the basis on which we elect our leaders, and so on, demonstrates to me that truth couched in clarity of thinking has taken a back seat.

It seems as though anyone with even a faint imagination can put forward anything and it has as much of a chance at being embraced and held as accepted “truth” as anything else out there. Just listen to the news: a multitude of concepts, thoughts and ideas express the reality that truth has been abandoned in favor of something else, anything else.

In the clarity of the truth within Scripture, we find truth is not only present but available to be had by all! John tells us the Holy Spirit is truth and he leads us into all truth. Jesus Christ declares that he himself is truth in possibly the most intolerant statement history has ever recorded: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6.

Truth is always intolerant, as it not only defines that which is true but it also clarifies that which is not.

Today I worship our God of truth. How wonderful we have a source of truth that is reliable, consistent, and always provides for clarity of thought!

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.