A partnership that is about the future not the past!

Scripture Read: 2 Jn 8 Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.

Application:  This verse is such a window into the heart of John and to You Lord. It cries out to us a warning, a hope and a plan. The whole concept should hit us and should become, if it is not already, a precious verse to us for the rest of our lives. Even though we may still find ourselves not where we want to be so much of the time You are even now in the process of encouraging us to take what has been accomplished and realize that we can finish with a full reward. This should put all regrets in their place. Regrets can paralyze a child of God. That is a tactic of the enemy. I have regrets, and wish I could have moments, decisions and even periods of time over. If I don’t have regrets it shows I have learned nothing from my life or the lessons You were trying to accomplish when You allowed me to live that way or make that decision. You could have stopped it – just with a thought You could bring me home. So of course we will have regrets, BUT we must ask ourselves how much time and energy should we spend in that state of mind? The Word teaches that we should spend only the time it takes to confess it and repent! Then get off the pity train, realize that spending time and energy trying to change the reality of the past is as profitable as looking in the mirror over and over again hoping you will see the face of the best looking person in the world! You won’t – too bad, you and I are stuck with our face! If you do think you see the best looking person in the world in the mirror besides encouraging you to get some serious counseling all I can say I hope you & you will be happy together! :)  

The point is regrets should be given only the time it takes to turn from those mistakes and focus on the future, which is not much time at all. The exciting part of this verse is how it points out that this whole thing called life has been a partnership! Though we do not hold up our end very well You have every intention of us finishing well. Forget the Past! Lets move into our future with You Lord planning to complete what we have accomplished in our partnership! Father help us to see all that You envision for us and allow us to focus and pursue that. Thanks for being in this with us – we want that full reward – Grant us Your strength and enable us to finish - not well – we want to finish GREAT!

* Meditation Questions: Do you ever think – If I only had done or not done __________? How much does that control you? Can you see that where you are NOW is where you are and God has allowed it? How does that make you feel? What from your past are you dragging into the future with you? Why won’t you let it go? Why not give it to Him right now?  

Jesus, by any other name?

Scripture Read: 2 Jn 6-7 And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it. 7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

Application: As long as people just call Jesus “Lord” we should all get along right? That’s the key isn’t it? Even if their Jesus is not exactly like our Jesus – we should just all work together and not argue over trivial things. We should not be “hung” up on little things, that don’t matter, after all God is love! Sounds reasonable …but is it? Can love, real love be lacking truth? Isn’t that what we have done with so much of life? Give the children condoms, pills, abortions because if we really love them we will protect their bodies from any consequences of loose sexual living, forget the TRUTH that we teach men to look at women as objects for their pleasure, or we teach women that they need to be sexually active to understand love. We teach both men and women that babies are to have because it is all about you and if that does not fit your lifestyle right now – kill it! Gracious, even animal lovers understand that a pregnant whale is two whales. We ignore the emotional, psychological and spiritual scars that sex without the commitment of lifetime love leaves. At the end of the day we have broken people – we produced – and a lot of them still get AIDS, VD, infertility, because we even lie about the so called protection. So yes, if we want to really love, truth must be the standard and a little untruth can do a lot of destruction. I have been attacked when I have refused to work with groups that claim they believe in Jesus, but their Jesus was not the one proclaimed in the Word of God. He was not the God/Man -100% God and 100% human. John makes it clear – it does matter: 

“Acknowledge - ὁμολογέω homologeō - (of one mind); to speak the same, to agree:—acknowledge(2), admit(1), assured(1), confess(6), confessed(4), confesses(6), confessing(1), declare(1), give thanks(1), made(1), profess(1), promised(1). ^[1]

This is stated in such a way that I believe it is stressing much more than the fact that Jesus came – John emphasizes the fact that He came in the flesh – I think this is exactly the issue – most are tired of the skeptic ever doubting that there was a historical Jesus – satan found he could not win that argument – so the key is to attack the incarnation – sure there was a really good MAN named Jesus that came but that’s all He was – a MAN – not God in the flesh. This is so wise – stop denying that Jesus was here – there have been other great humanitarians that have united people with “love” why not Jesus – Brilliant! Neutralize Him – make Him just another Gandhi – just a different stripe. John really had the wisdom of the Holy Spirit – We cannot lead people to believe in a generic jesus – It must be Jesus – God in the flesh. He who took on flesh and lived among us as one of us even though He was nothing like us in His essence – His humanity was just like us – but He was also 100% God which is nothing like us. 100% human & 100% God – it does not equate in math – but for True salvation it takes the 200% person to accomplish the impossible – satisfying a Holy God that hates sin and will punish all of it while extending the mercy and grace of a loving God that desires all sinners to be redeemed so they can spend eternity experiencing Him. Thanks Dad – You got it right! All our plans are feeble attempts to be You. Your grace amazes me!

* Meditation Questions: Do you believe the Word – even if you do not understand how, that Jesus was God incarnate in the flesh? Do you understand Jesus was fully human but did not have a sin nature? Do you understand that if you entrust your life to Him, you are invited Jesus to be your friend AND your God? Do you understand you have to accept Him as He is not as you may want Him?

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^[1] Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary : New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.

Love will always lead to truth

Scripture Read: 2 John 1-6 The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth; and not only I, but also all who know the truth, 2 for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever: 3 Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. 4 I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father. 5 Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. 6 And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.

Application: Why do so many books of the Bible repeat some of the same teachings? Does that show a poorly written book, or, perhaps, it exposes the problem of us, the readers. It is important to notes that throughout the scriptures the writers repeat again and again truths that we should already know. Why?  It proves that our hearts are fickle and for God’s principles to take hold we must continue to immerse ourselves into them – that is why we need to hear again and again the foundations of our faith. The history of the world and the Church stand as proof of that. So here John reminds the church to go back to her basic roots of all the commandments God has given the church. John emphasizes our need to love one another, even the world embraces the “golden rule” which is built on love. What is interesting is that truth and love are mentioned so many times throughout the Word. Many would believe that “truth” would be emphasized more, but the opposite is true. Love is found 529 times in the entire Bible, truth is found 206 times – over 2 to 1. John in his writings also talks so much about truth and love, and in the gospel of John and his 3 epistles the ratio is almost the same. Love used 110 times, truth is found 46 times. As we ponder this we must ask ourselves why would this be? It is clear it is because of the essence of each word. Truth is Truth – no matter what emotions are present. But love can be affected so easily by human emotions. We can hold it back because of anger, we can refuse tough love because we want to be liked. With truth you either accept it or reject it. Your emotions cannot change what it is. With love – even though in it’s essence it is a commitment, not an emotion, it is communicated through emotion. Due to that Father, You had to emphasize it because our emotions are affected by sin so much. We need Your enablement to express love the way You do. In the end these two words are tied together. There is no real love absent of truth – but Truth has it’s foundation in Your love! Teach us Oh Lord to love in truth!

* Meditation Questions: How much do I allow my emotions to affect what I believe? What I do? Do I have to “feel” love to express it? Do I have to agree or fully understand “truth” to stand on it? Do I allow my emotions to manipulate truth? Do I think I can love and live in a lie?

Truth can be ignored but not escaped.

Scripture Read: 2 John 1 The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth; and not only I, but also all who know the truth, 2 for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever: 3 Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. 4 I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father. 5 Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. 6 And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.

Application: What is truth? A question that has echoed down all of our history Lord – including the question Pilate used to avoid dealing with his responsibility as Governor to administer real justice. Fortunately Father you have not left that a mystery for us to deal with. Your Word is truth! The issue for us is are we willing to deal with it? John emphasis truth here and it is interesting what word carries in it’s meaning …Truth ἀλήθεια alḗtheia; Truth, reality; the unveiled reality^[1] - The idea of the “unveiled reality” is important here. All truth is truth, but not all truth is revealed, and even revealed truth is seen by us. That is really what Truth is, whether we see it or not, it is reality. That which God has not revealed, no man can unveil. The truth God has revealed is for us, but some still do not see it. We really are the ones that make it veiled or not. Once God has shed His light on anything, if we are willing we will see it. If we choose to remain blinded – it does not change what that reality is. We will still have to give an answer to You Lord, so we need to take this seriously. We all need to remember that it is Your stewardship of allowing us to be independent willed creatures Father that opens the door for us to ignore revealed truth. You could make all see what You have revealed, which You have stated will happen - Romans 14:11 (NASB95) For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall give praise to God.”
Philippians 2:9–10 (NASB95) For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

You choose not to do that right now allowing us time to come to repentance, growth, and maturity. Many times we choose to remain blind. Lord,  grant us Your grace to have the courage to see things the way they truly are. We love You Lord!

* Meditation Questions: Do you fear truth that may cause change in your life? Do you think truth can be relative? How? Why? Do you ask God to reveal His truth to you? Do you seek and study to learn the truth?

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^[1] Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary : New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.