John

john!

http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/62-3/certainties-of-the-word-of-life-part-2

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/eternal-life-has-appeared-in-christ

http://preceptaustin.org/spurgeon_on_1John-pt1.htm#fwtfats

1 John 3

I really like this chapter. I just have to figure out how to blog about it.

So far this is what I picked up on today:

1. I really need to have more of a compassionate heart. Not be so stingy and give more without hesitation.

2. I need to trust God more. With full confidence. I have no reason not too.

3. I need to obey His commands fully.

1 John 1:5-10

1:5 "God is light" = God is the Revealer of His holiness. Both aspects of the divine nature figure in the discussion of sin and fellowship in 1 John 1:6-10. As Light, God both exposes man's sin and condemns it. If anyone walks in darkness he is hiding form the truth which the Light reveals.

1:6 - A Christian cannot truly claim communion with Him while living in darkness because He is Light. Christians sometimes feign (pretend to be affected by) spirituality while engaging in acts of disobedience.

1:7 - There can be only one sphere of real communion with God - the light itself. "with one another" isn't between other Christians, but between ourselves and God. If Christians live in the light where God is, there there is mutual fellowship between Himself and them. - The light is the fundamental reality which they share: True communion with God is living in the sphere where one's experience is illumined by the truth of what God is. It is ti love open to His revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ. - This entails believers acknowledging whatever the light reveals is wrong in their lives.

- John talks about walking IN the light, not ACCORDING TO the light because that would rewuire sinless perfection and would make fellowship with God impossible. To walk IN it, however, suggests openness and responsiveness to the light.

- Believers who walk in the light 1) have fellowship with God and 2) are being cleansed from every sin. So long as there is true openness to the light, our failures are under the cleansing power of Christ's blood shed for us.

1:8 - The heart is full of depravity. The Truth may be "in" us as a controlling, motivating influence, but until heaven, this claim will always be false. We should always be ready and willing to confess whatever sins/failures that God's light exposes.

1:9 - "Our" is not in the Greek txt. Paraphrased, it should be more like "If we confess our sins, He will forgive the sins we confess and moreover will even cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
- Each Christian is responsible to acknowledge (the meaning of confess cf 2:23 and 4:3) whatever the light makes him aware of,and when he does so a complete and perfect cleansing is granted him.
- He is Faithful = forgiveness is assured.
- He is just = it does not go against His character.

Rethinking

I'm used to rewriting my commentary on here, but the past 3 days it's been the part I dread the most. I like reading it for info, but reposting it doesn't make too much sense and I think has taken the spirit out of the letter sotospeak.

I don't really know what to do now to be honest. I think I'll still read it, and still write anything I connect with, but for the most part, I want to focus on my RELATIONSHIP with Jesus.

That being said, in 1st John I'm on chapter 2 and it seems . . . . weird. I LOVE the beginning verse about Jesus interceeding for us. And the ones about not loving the world, but I don't really care for the rest.

I'm still fixated on what it means/would look like to "be in the light" like Jesus was. I want cummunion with God and I know if I love Him I have to keep His commands. My commentary also said a lot of it is confessing sin when the light exposses it. Which I did this morning. I know of one in paticular that I'm somewhat ashamed of at the moment but trying to make right. *Sigh*

I want to fall in love with Jesus. Knowing the background/history is cool and defnintely benifical, but I don't want that to be my goal. I want to talk with Him, walk with Him, sing to Him, enjoy being with Him. I want my life on earth to be as close as what it must have been like to be in the Garden as possible. - minus the fall of humanity that is ; )

There's such a hussle and bussle to our everyday lives. Right now it's school, working out, homework, dinner, chores, trying to spend time with Nate, tv shows, facebook. I don't want to exclude any of those, but I do want to invite Jesus into each of them. I'm still learning how our relationship works. I talk to Him a lot more and I'm not going to worry about talking to much (not listening) b/c I beleive I listen when I obey what I know He's telling me.

Anyway, 2nd john seems somewhat dry (Sorry God!:( ) beyond the verses I said I liked. We'll see if my heart/head will change on that.

1 John 1:1-4 (Day 11)

Prologue 1:1-4
John affirms the tangible reality of the incarnation of Christ and announced that the goals of this letter were fellowship and joy.

1:1 - Some think "That which was from the beginning" means more like Genesis timing, but from the rest of John's letter it would make more sense for it to mean from the beginning of the gospel: he was with God's Son and originally witnessed by the apostles who had direct contact with Him. 
- "concerning the Word of life" = "the message about Life" like Phil 2:16. Jesus is Life and this is a message about Him.

1:2 - The Life (Jesus) is intensely personal, He has appeared, He is the eternal life, and He was with the Father.

1:3 - This letter was written to Christians. Not people John was hoping to convert; They were already saved but they needed this letter if they were to enjoy real fellowship with the apostolic circle to which John belonged.
- If we doubt, as Christians, if we really have eternal life, it will jeprodize the fellowship we share with the Father and Son. Not our salvation - Once a believer has the give of life they can never loose it (John 4:4; 6:32; 37-40), but their fellowship depended on them walking in the light (1 John 1:7).
= My fellowship with Jesus, Spirit and Father depends on me walking in the light. I'm excited to see what the commentary has to say on verse 7 tomorrow, but I want to get it in my thinking right now: My fellowship depends on my walk. And I can't walk in the light without Jesus guiding my steps. It's like a weird paradox almost: I need to have fellowship with Jesus to be able to walk in the light, and if I'm not walking in the light it will weaken the fellowship I have with Him. Jesus, stay close to me, be near me. Help me to love You and grasp even deeper how great Your love is for me. 

1:4 - John so shared the heart of Christ for His people that their own joy was bound up in the spiritual well-being of those whom they ministered.

I pray that You give me this same heart. I do care about them, and would be upset if they turned from You but I want them to see my heart in the way I care for them. I want them to know that I'm trying to snatch them from the fire because I love them. I care about them. And I want them to know the Truth - to know You.