Skip to main content

 

1 John 2:15-17 

“Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 17 And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”

Jesus said, “If you love Me you will do what I command.” His commandments are not the impossible demands of a tyrant, but the Truth, that, if lived in the Holy Spirit’s power heal, protect, guide, rescue, restore and renew the life of anyone willing to take Jesus Christ at His Word. When God gives a command, in that command is a promise to empower us to do it.

Loving means obeying, actually submitting ourselves to the thing or one we obey in order to draw life, meaning and purpose from it. People try to draw a sense of significance, feeling loved, from physical pleasure. It seems to make them feel “alive” but for only a moment. It’s not lasting. Transient things and other flawed human beings don’t have the ability to define us or give us a sense of grounded-being. Trying to derive worth from what we might own or accomplish is so deeply flawed and fleeting that all it takes is a bank collapse or a fire that destroys all the worldly markers of success to dissolve one’s sense of self.

Being driven by “craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions” is actually the essence of idolatry. Life is sacrificed to try and obtain what we have been led to believe will fulfill and satisfy. It never does. If these things did what they promise, then we’d only have to do them once and then live satisfied lives. But the things the world advertised as ultimate only increase the cravings and make the hunger of human hearts more desperately ravenous.

1 John 1:1-4 reads…

“We proclaim to you the One who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw Him with our own eyes and touched Him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 2 This One who is Life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then He was revealed to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.”

Life, hope, peace and contentment are only found in one place: in Jesus Christ, Himself. When you believe Him, yield your whole life to Him (repentance), He cleanses your life from everything that could ever separate you from His life (forgiveness), and He come to life out His Life within you in the Power of the Holy Spirit. That is resurrection Power, eternal Life Power. You will find out what real life is all about, day by day as He leads you into His Truth. You can trust Him.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WHAT DO YOU BLESS? It would be an act of utter folly and disaster were I to choose to "bless" what God will not bless. God's wrath is set against anything and anyone that would try and hinder you becoming all He created you to be and to grow in by being united to Him through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is nothing arbitrary about the Word of God. He is very specific on what will make for life and what will not. Human life only becomes human life when the Holy Spirit becomes Life withing a believer. Being united to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the follower of Jesus becomes a new creation and begins to live Life as God intended. God begins the good work, and He is the One who will bring it to competition. Somethings will NEVER make for life. What God calls sin, missing the mark of what will make for life, is always sin regardless of what culture anywhere and anytime say to the contrary. Sin cannot save, heal, redeem, restore or remake...
Post a Comment
Read more
BEWARE DECEPTION   Deuteronomy 18:9 “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. Deuteronomy 12:29-30 “When the Lord your God goes ahead of you and destroys the nations and you drive them out and live in their land, do not fall into the trap of following their customs and worshiping their gods. Do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations worship their gods? I want to follow their example.’ Pragmatics was the downfall of Israel when they took possession of the Promised Land. To the unredeemed eye, it seemed that the fertility gods and agricultural gods of the pagan nations actually were helping the indigenous peoples. Just because something works does not make it right or good.  God promised to prosper His people if they would trust Him to the point of obeying His Word. God's Word is not empty. When He directs and commands, it is always for...
Post a Comment
Read more
 THE FOLLY OF IDOLATRY Martin Luther said that the human heart is an idol factory. The truth is that we were created to know and live by the gracious rule of and in the Presence of God who created us. Our peace, our understanding of meaning and purpose can only be truly grounded in God who created us for that meaning and purpose. The rebellion of Adam and Eve, their decision to do the opposite of what God said would make for life, resulted in spiritual and ultimately physical death. They chose to believe they needed something more than what God had provided. Their doomed attempt to try and live life without reference to God as the ground of meaning and purpose did not make life fuller, but emptied it. They wanted to decide what was good and what was evil without God and the disintegration of human life was the consequence. Rather than living in the Presence of God and by the gracious rule of God all around them, they turned from wholeness to brokenness, from fulfilment to scarc...
Post a Comment
Read more