Category / Growth

by Chad

Living in the Darkness

If you find it difficult to love someone when they stab you in the back, offend you, lie about you, curse you, hate you, or worse… then consider 1 John 1:7-11. You may already be in the darkness apart from God.

PLEASE HEAR ME ON THIS!!!

If we are in the light as He is in the light, then we will see others as Christ sees them AND us!

Often times we think that hating someone will lead us down a dark path, but that’s mixing up the cause and the effect. Hating someone is actually the result of our life being in darkness. John wrote chapter 1 as a warning sign that hating a brother is evidence of us living in darkness.

Yes, this truth hurts. We’ve all been guilty of hating someone even though we may not actually want to call it hate.  If we truly are Christians, then we will love those who offend us just as Christ loved those who stood at the foot of the cross mocking him, cursing him, and hating him while he plead for God to forgive them.

Do you plead for those who hurt you that God will forgive them? Do you desire to do good to those who hurt you? Do you truly want them to get blessings from God instead of getting what they deserve? If you’re like me, the truth stings. The action of loving our neighbor as ourselves means that we pray for them just like we pray for ourselves. We truly don’t deserve the forgiveness, blessings, and life that God gives us, yet the love of God is so GREAT that He forgives us, gives us life, and provides for our needs. It’s good that we don’t receive what we deserve. Can you see that, pray that, and be used to accomplish that in the lives of those who have hurt you?

John is warning us that hatred is a sign that WE are in darkness. There is NO darkness in God. If we are in darkness, we are not in God. 

There are no extenuating circumstances of justifiably hating someone for what they have done to you. Christ loves us so much that while we were still sinners, He died for us. We are called to be in that same light as He was and love those who are still even now offending us. When we are in the light as Christ is in the light, we will see those who offend us, those who hurt us, those who even hate us as Christ sees them: not as enemies, but as people loved so deeply by God that Jesus died for them. Don’t wait for them to repent and apologize. Love them NOW.

We know that our battle is not with those who have offended us. Our battle is spiritual and we are at war with the evil spirits that fuel hatred, jealousy, enmity, strife, and a host of other sinful behaviors that cause people to offend each other. In the light, we can see to fight the enemy that binds up people that are precious to God.

In the Light we CAN and WILL LOVE EVERYONE as Christ LOVES US, and we will fight for their freedom as hard as we fight for our own!

by Chad

Meat and Potatoes

I spent a few minutes studying the Bible this morning asking the Holy Spirit to clear the junk out of my mind and allow me to hear what He wanted me to hear, and I came across a few treasures. They’re treasures that lead to even greater wealths of knowledge in God.

So allow me to execute one of these treasures right here and now.

Hebrews 3:12-15 warns each of us to be careful and diligent to prevent any one of us from falling victim to an evil, unbelieving heart that will lead us to fall away from the Living God. We are instructed in verse 13 to exhort (strongly encourage or urge someone to do something) each other EVERY DAY. This is to keep us from hardening our hearts by the deceitfulness of sin. The Holy Spirit is saying, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

This is my exhortation for you and myself today.

Stop focusing on the basics of Christianity to the point of wasting time! Why do so many people, myself included, spend years just studying and playing around with the elementary teachings of Christ? Hebrews 5:12 – 6:12 address this very issue. (Read it) For many of us it is far past time to move on from basic Christianity and on to answering the call that God has placed on our lives! The message of salvation, repentance from dead works, faith in God, how to live, healing, prayer, etc… All of these have been clearly written about in God’s Word. The author of Hebrews (likely Paul) calls these things the “elementary doctrine of Christ.” Learn it quickly and move on to the meat and potatoes that God has for you.

If you’re wondering what God has in store for the mature, you’ll find it in verse 14. It is the very embodiment of living a Spirit filled life. Those who recognize that the Holy Spirit is living in them and follow him accordingly are the ones who “have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”

So what does all of this mean? God’s Word is showing us that spiritual maturity goes beyond basic knowledge of the Bible and into a life where the Holy Spirit, not just the Bible, becomes our guide. God’s Word is the starting point for our spiritual growth. It is full of the milk that we need to begin growing, but we can’t stop there. God’s Word leads us to the Holy Spirit and teaches us to live and follow the Spirit. Use the Bible and the Holy Spirit to train your powers of discernment constantly to distinguish good from evil. Like it or not, if you want to grow strong in your faith and abilities in God, you have to move on from the milk of just reading the Bible and on to the solid food of conversations with the Holy Spirit.

Meat and potatoes.