Hello dear sisters!
Here are a few of my reflections on these verses:
"No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." I remember reading in one of those 365-day reusable Christian calendars the following phrase - Remember that men judge your Lord by you. As we go about our daily lives, our reactions to unexpected circumstances and simply the way in which we treat those we run into - all of this is our unspoken witness, telling others about what kind of a God we have. Oh, that He would help us to reflect Him rightly!
"God is love." It's easy to acknowledge this when life is rolling smoothly. But when the car breaks down during a financially tough time or we get sick and the projects keep mounting up...it is much more difficult to recognize God's loving hand in permitting these trials. And yet ALL that he sends us is to strengthen us, or to draw us closer to Him, or to equip us to comfort others (or all of the above :)). Until heaven, we simply keep trusting Him and that amazing love that wouldn't spare His own Son. We can assure one another in tough times - our God does all things well!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
Beautiful!!
One more video. This is amazing. My heart longs to do something like this even for a day. What a great and sincere example of living a life of love and service to God and our neighbor. Enjoy :) (It's a tear-jerker!)
1 John 4:1-6 - Greater Is He That Is In You
I don't know about the rest of you, but I really gain a lot from some of the Reflections videos posted at the original Good Morning Girls site. This one is from Week 8, last week, regarding verse 4 that I really love. :) It IS truly amazing how great and loving our God is! We are so blessed that we are his! Listen to this great Old Testament Bible story. It's awesome.
I John 4:4-10 Catch Up
7 verses about the power we have through Christ and again the unmistakable link between faith and a life of love..
I love verse 4. It's always been a reminder verse to me of what's really going on. The devil and all temptations are real and strong in the world and always waging on our hearts, but God who lives in our hearts is stronger than all of it! He permits his power to assist us in our weakness, making our faith real and strong against all of it! It's never a losing battle, ultimately, "through Christ who is our strength" (Philippians 4:13). It's so encouraging to know that whatever hardship, or hatred, misunderstanding or temptation we face at any given time is not too much for us because we have God backing us up. He is aware of all of it and always guiding and helping us to maneuver around or through it. He won't ever give us more than he knows we can handle, as hard as that is to believe sometimes!
God will always overcome Satan and his helpers in the end. Hallelujah, right!? :)
Some other focus points I got from this section:
-We can't expect the world to understand us or listen to us and like us. If truth and Biblical principals aren't popular in our world, then we who live by such truth and principals won't be popular either. It's one of those "you probably can't have it both ways" things. It's the life of a Christian. Unpopular, hard sometimes, but peaceful. We know we're on the right side, the eternal side..
-Love - faith - God: linked, always, only. One can't stand apart from the other in our lives, they all naturally flow into each other. "They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love..." Remember that song? :)
-The best and most perfect example of how to love is and always will be God sending Jesus for us. He sent him from perfect blissful heaven to sin-sick, lonely, cold earth to save those that were indifferent to him (that's us!) and didn't love him back. It's indescribable and impossible to comprehend, but we want to remember & appreciate it - and often.
What a beautiful portion of Scripture ladies! I know I played catch up and read a few days' worth at once, but I hope you were/are able to spend some quiet moments on these verses also. They are comfort and guidance and glimmers of hope in the midst of busy schedules, stress, misunderstanding and sickness.
Through our Lord, everything is righted. I pray you all enjoy the newness of another week and take today as a fresh opportunity to love him with your lives and shine His light!
Love to you all,
~Cait
I love verse 4. It's always been a reminder verse to me of what's really going on. The devil and all temptations are real and strong in the world and always waging on our hearts, but God who lives in our hearts is stronger than all of it! He permits his power to assist us in our weakness, making our faith real and strong against all of it! It's never a losing battle, ultimately, "through Christ who is our strength" (Philippians 4:13). It's so encouraging to know that whatever hardship, or hatred, misunderstanding or temptation we face at any given time is not too much for us because we have God backing us up. He is aware of all of it and always guiding and helping us to maneuver around or through it. He won't ever give us more than he knows we can handle, as hard as that is to believe sometimes!
God will always overcome Satan and his helpers in the end. Hallelujah, right!? :)
Some other focus points I got from this section:
-We can't expect the world to understand us or listen to us and like us. If truth and Biblical principals aren't popular in our world, then we who live by such truth and principals won't be popular either. It's one of those "you probably can't have it both ways" things. It's the life of a Christian. Unpopular, hard sometimes, but peaceful. We know we're on the right side, the eternal side..
-Love - faith - God: linked, always, only. One can't stand apart from the other in our lives, they all naturally flow into each other. "They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love..." Remember that song? :)
-The best and most perfect example of how to love is and always will be God sending Jesus for us. He sent him from perfect blissful heaven to sin-sick, lonely, cold earth to save those that were indifferent to him (that's us!) and didn't love him back. It's indescribable and impossible to comprehend, but we want to remember & appreciate it - and often.
What a beautiful portion of Scripture ladies! I know I played catch up and read a few days' worth at once, but I hope you were/are able to spend some quiet moments on these verses also. They are comfort and guidance and glimmers of hope in the midst of busy schedules, stress, misunderstanding and sickness.
Through our Lord, everything is righted. I pray you all enjoy the newness of another week and take today as a fresh opportunity to love him with your lives and shine His light!
Love to you all,
~Cait
Friday, November 11, 2011
1 John 4:4-6
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
First and foremost, I am ultimately comforted knowing in Christ all false prophets, antichrists, and the devil himself find their defeat. If God is with us, who can be against us? We have nothing left to fear.
On a practical note, I was pondering how we can ensure we are listening to the right Voice in our the midst of our daily living and moving. The answer is really to know God better, to know Him so well that all other voices clang false in our ears. To be like the Bereans, examining the Scriptures every day. His Word is the only Truth in this world.
God bless your weekends, dear girls!
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
1 John 4:2-3
Good morning women of God! :)
How we can test those who teach, preach, and minister in our lives:
If they believe Jesus came as a real man, in flesh to live and die for our sins.
If they believe Jesus is the only way of salvation, and that there is nothing we can do to save ourselves.
Any other core beliefs or claims other than those are sure signs that those men/women are not truly Christ-followers. It is hard, but necessary, to understand that there is a real possibility more and more these days that we may find this to be the case. The devil and his workers are always more numerous and we can't be too naive to think they will all stay out of our circles forever.
This reading today reminds me why exactly we read the Creeds at church most Sundays - it helps us remember what EXACTLY we believe in a world filled with so much grey space of "anything goes" and a "little bit of this, little bit of that" kind of Christians. Next time we recite one of the Creeds in a church service, I am making a point to really think through each line - and be thankful Christ has worked the faith in me to believe those statements without a hint of a doubt.
We can do nothing without him! Don't let anyone convince you the contrary!
Have a beautiful day,
Love, Cait
How we can test those who teach, preach, and minister in our lives:
If they believe Jesus came as a real man, in flesh to live and die for our sins.
If they believe Jesus is the only way of salvation, and that there is nothing we can do to save ourselves.
Any other core beliefs or claims other than those are sure signs that those men/women are not truly Christ-followers. It is hard, but necessary, to understand that there is a real possibility more and more these days that we may find this to be the case. The devil and his workers are always more numerous and we can't be too naive to think they will all stay out of our circles forever.
This reading today reminds me why exactly we read the Creeds at church most Sundays - it helps us remember what EXACTLY we believe in a world filled with so much grey space of "anything goes" and a "little bit of this, little bit of that" kind of Christians. Next time we recite one of the Creeds in a church service, I am making a point to really think through each line - and be thankful Christ has worked the faith in me to believe those statements without a hint of a doubt.
We can do nothing without him! Don't let anyone convince you the contrary!
Have a beautiful day,
Love, Cait
Monday, November 7, 2011
I John 4:1
One of my footnotes took me to Matthew 7:15, another warning against false prophets:
"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves."
I found an old note written on the margin-- "pretenders of the flock." As I read on in Matthew, I read, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven." False prophets, it appears, are people who may wear the title of "Christian," but they are not moved by the Spirit and by the motivation of Christ's love to speak of his promises. They may belong to a church, lead a church, etc., and be dressed in "sheep's clothing." A person who, sadly, comes to mind is a rather famous pastor who was featured in Time magazine recently. He is a pastor here in Grand Rapids, where we live, and his beliefs have plummeted to no longer recognizing Christ as our only hope. I know some people who attend, or have attended the church he leads. I don't think he started out this way. Writing about this reminds me that I should pray for him. My prayer, also, will be that God will guard our hearts against any "pretenders of the flock" and any false teachings, that he will point us back to his truth and give us courage to stand for what we've been shown, to teach the truth in love. He gives us the strength to do all things through Christ.
I pray that all of you women have a great week and know better, each day, how cherished and loved you are. When we are weak, he is strong. He is waiting for us to lean on him in our struggles. Please pray for me, too, that I will trust in these promises and not be bogged down by life's schedule in a demanding season....this too shall pass!
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