Lavishing Love

How often do you stop to think about how much God really loves you?  Most of us believe God loves us but do we understand how much?

Today’s Verses:
1 John 3:1-3

Wow!  Did you catch that?  God has given us the right to become Children of God through the blood of Jesus!  I absolutely love my children.  I’m crazy about them.  That love cannot even compare to the amount of love our God has for us.  His love is not based on what we do for Him.  His love for us isn’t determined by our performance.  His love is 100% unconditional.  That means no conditions, no strings attached.  Just simple, untainted love.  I’m not sure what you are going through today, but please know this…God is madly in love with you!  Why don’t you spend some time right now thanking Him for all the ways He loves you and share with Him how much you love Him.

Discussion Questions:
1.  Have there been times when you felt like God did not love you?

2.  Do you believe that your feelings can lie to you?

3.  How has God shown His love to you recently?

4.  How have you shown your love for God recently?

5.  Who do you know that needs to hear about this love?

Are you ready?

Have you ever stopped to think about the return of Christ?  Jesus promised that He would come again and that it would be soon.  What if He chose to come back right now?  Would you be ready to meet Him?

Today’s Verses:
1 John 2:28-29

The Bible is clear that each one of us will give an account before God when we die or when He comes again (whichever comes first).  If you were to stand before God, would you be proud of the life that you lived?  Is it a life that has reflected the love of Christ to others?  Is it a life dedicated to seeking the Lord and His will for your life?  Or would you be ashamed of the way that you have lived, ashamed to stand before His presence?  John says that we need to continue in Christ so that when He does come, we can stand before Him confident and unashamed.

Discussion Questions:
1.  If you could change one thing, maybe one decision, or one action from your past, what would it be?

2.  Knowing that you can never go back and undo your past, how does it affect how you live your future?

3.  Would you be ready if God came back today?

4.  Would you be able to stand before Him unashamed and confident?

Remain in Him

From the beginning of time, God has given each of us free will.  In other words, we have the freedom to choose to follow Him, to obey, to rebel, and to reject.

Today’s Verses:
1 John 2:24-27

It is a shame when I see someone that was raised in church to one day, turn away and rebel against the very things they were taught as a child.  John encourages us to make sure that the truths that we have been taught “remain in us”.  The reward for doing so is eternal life.  There are friends and even family members that sometimes try to lead us astray from the truths of the Bible.  The way that we can stand firm is to make sure the Word of God remains in us and that we remain in Christ.

Discussion Questions:
1.  What does it mean to remain in Christ?

2.  What role does the Holy Spirit play in helping us to remain in Christ?

3.  Have you ever rebelled from the truth that you have been taught?

4.  Did you ever come back to the truth?  What helped you get back to where you needed to be?

The Antichrist

People claim that the end times is near but do we really believe it?  Throughout Scripture, we read this very truth, even James says, “this is the last hour”.  Some believe that since people have been saying this since 2000 years ago, that it isn’t going to happen.  I believe the opposite is true.  Since it has been proclaimed for 2000 years, we are closer now than we have ever been to the end times!

Today’s Verses:
1 John 2:18-23

John says that the time is near for the return of Christ and that the Antichrist is soon to arrive on the scene. The Antichrist denies the Father and the Son and will mislead the people away from Biblical truth.  In fact, he says that there have already been many Antichrists.  Who could he be referring to?  What about Adolf Hitler?  How about Osama Bin Laden?  These are not “the Antichrist” but they were definitely anti-God.  We need to know the Word so that we can recognize Antichrists.  It is extremely important that we study the Word of God so that we can identify false teachings when they arise.  When the Antichrist steps on the scene, the Bible says that many will follow him and be deceived.  He will have the appearance of a godly person but will be ungodly.  Beware of wolves in sheep clothing.

Discussion Questions:
1.  What does the Bible say about the Antichrist?

2.  How can we recognize false teachings?

3.  Should we be concerned about the Antichrist?

The Disease called Stuffitis

The world is a beautiful place.  God has blessed us tremendously with the things we have and the gifts that He has given.  But sometimes we get too attached to this world.

Today’s Verses:
1 John 2:15-17

Have you ever been infected with Stuffitis?  It is a disease that starts with lusting after something that you do not have and eventually consumes your thoughts and dictates your actions towards an endless pursuit of stuff.  If not treated properly, it can lead to pride by boasting about what you have or have achieved.   If we are honest, we all have chased after worldly desires only to find ourselves wanting more.  That is because what the world has to offer, never fully satisfies.  You will always end up empty if you pursue the world.  On the contrast, if you pursue God’s righteousness and the will of God, you will be completely satisfied.

Discussion Questions:
1.  Do you ever find yourself wanting the things of this world instead of really seeking the will of God?

2.  Why is it that the things of this world never truly satisfy?

3.  Why is boasting about what you have or what you have accomplished not of God?

More than overcomers

Have you ever thought of yourself as a failure?  Maybe you asked a girl out and she rejected you.  Maybe you dropped in on a half pipe and did a face plant in front of everyone.  Not very pretty huh?  What about sin?  Have you ever fell there?  Sure, we all have.

Today’s Verses:
1 John 2:12-14

John says that we have overcome the evil one.  This is in the present tense, not future tense.  This means that right now, while Satan still roams the earth we are overcomers.  John says we are overcomers for three reasons:

1) Our sins have been forgiven.  Satan has no victory when a person’s sins have been forgiven. He can no longer accuse, no longer condemn because those sins are paid for by the blood of Jesus.

2.  We know Him who is from the beginning.  As a child of God, we know Him and He knows us because we have a relationship with Him.  Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God…”.  That’s right.  Satan is not mentioned here, only God.  That’s because God was not created, but Satan is a creation of God.  Therefore, God is supreme over Satan.

3.  The Word of God lives in us.  If we try to live victoriously in our own strength, we will fail.  But if we rely and depend on the Word of God, we are more than conquerors.  Trust me, I’ve read the end of the book and WE WIN!

Discussion Questions:
1.  Do you ever feel like a failure?

2.  Does this line up with what God says about you?

3.  What area in your life do you need victory over?

4.  How can the Word of God help you acheive this?

Do you love your brother?

Do you ever wonder why God sometimes repeats Himself in the Bible?  Being a parent, I’m beginning to understand why.  Many times, we have to tell our own children something to do because either they are not paying attention or they are simply stubborn and hard headed.  We as children of God are no different.

Today’s Verses:
1 John 2:7-11

John says the command to love your brother is not something new.  He is reinforcing this command because apparently we are not getting it.  The Bible teaches that if we hate our brother, we are a murderer in our hearts.  God takes our emotions and thoughts very seriously.  He says that if we hate our brother, we walk in darkness and we know that there is no place in heaven for darkness.  Hatred is not of God and has no place in a believers life…none.  When we speak against someone, we speak against God because He created them.

Discussion Questions:
1.  Have you ever said that you hated someone?

2.  Do you think there is ever a time that it is ok to hate someone?

3.  How does hatred in our heart affect our relationship with God?

4.  Who do you need to forgive in order to get past the hatred in your heart?

A Changed Life

Is there a way that you can tell if someone is a Christian?  I realize that only God knows our heart but are their signs we can look for to see if someone’s salvation is real?

Today’s Verses:
1 John 2:3-6

John says yes we can know.  I find it difficult for someone that states they are a Christian but lives like the devil.  The Bible teaches that this cannot be.  Through our study in the book of James, we found that our works prove our faith.  We are lying to ourselves if we live in sin and say we are a Christian.  No we are not perfect, far from it.  But we are commanded to walk in the Light, to live by the truth and to be obedient to His work.  This is how we know that God is real in our lives.  If Jesus lives within us, how can we not be changed.  This change does not happen overnight, it is a process called discipleship where be become more and more like Christ each day of our lives.

Discussion Questions:
1.  Does your obedience to scripture show that you are a Christian?

2.  What do you think about the verse 4 where Johns says, “The man who says, I know him, but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

3.  If your salvation is real, how should that change the way you live your life?

Without Sin

Sin is not something we like to talk about but it is a reality of all of our lives.  Sometimes we try to convince ourselves that we are better than what we really are.  The Bible says that there is “None righteous, no not one”.  It is only through Christ that we have any value and are made holy.

Today’s Verses:
1 John 1:8-2:2

In my life, I have made countless mistakes and have failed the Lord.  If it were not for the grace of God we would have no hope.  John says that when we sin, we should not try to deny it, hide from it but instead run to God and confess it.  There is power in confession.  When we can tell God specifically what we have done, we experience freedom.  Satan wants us to believe that if we tell God what we did, He will be mad or He will not forgive us.  That is because Satan is a liar.  The Bible says if we confess our sins to God, He is faithful and just to forgive us from ALL unrighteousness.  This is because we have Jesus “speaking to the Father in our defense”.  He’s telling God, “Please forgive them, I paid for that”.  Experiencing God’s grace and forgiveness should encourage us to “go and sin no more”.

Discussion Questions:
1.  Have you ever sinned and were scared to tell God about it?

2.  What did you think would happen if you confessed it to Him?

3.  How does it make you feel knowing all the times the Lord has forgiven you?

4.  How has God’s grace brought freedom in your life?

Now to Him who is able

I want to share with you what the Lord has been doing in our family.  My wife and I have been married for 11 years.  We have four wonderful children (9, 7, 5 and 2yrs old).  We have never owned a home.  We have always rented and when we lived in Alabama, the Lord blessed us with the church parsonage.  When we moved back to Florida 2 1/2 years ago, we had the desire to buy or build a home that we could call our own.  Over the past year, we decided to build our dream home and began making plans to do so.  Last May, we purchased 1 acre of vacant land in hopes to build on that land in May of this year.  We had the plans drawn, signed and stamped.  In May of this year, we began seeking financing for a construction loan but door after door began to close.  We didn’t know what to do so I did what most men would do…I began trying to knock down doors and trying to pry those doors that had closed open.  It wasn’t working.  After the final door had closed on us being able to build our dream home, we gave up and turned it over to the Lord.

We decided to look at the possibility of buying instead of building.  This past Sunday, Jessica found a few homes online that she liked and we made an appointment the next day to go see them.  On Monday we looked at two homes but they were two story and we would prefer a one story.  The third home we looked at blew us away.  It has almost the exact floorplan that we had designed for our custom home, it even had a theater room that I have been dreaming about for the past year. The home is a little over 1 month away from being finished built.  They still have to add flooring, lighting, carpet and appliances.  We went back on Tuesday to look at the home one more time as well as looking at two other floorplans that they had.

We prayed about it that night and made a phone call to the lender to get pre-approved for the loan.  Upon approval, we made an offer on the house around 6pm.  The agent submitted the offer on Wednesday morning.  By 1:30pm, we had a counter offer.  At 2:00pm we made a counter offer.  Around 4pm, they made a counter offer.  At 5:30pm, we accepted the offer and are buying our first home!!! We meet today to sign the contract, pick out flooring and lighting fixtures.   We have to get all of the paperwork in by this Friday and must close by Sept 30th.

My prayer was that God would do something so big that only He could do so that He would get the glory.  From start to finish, I see the hand of God working in our life.  Through all of this, God has once again proven His faithfulness.  He knows what is best for His children.  Sometimes we just have to get out of His way and let Him do what He does best…provide for His children.  A good friend emailed me today about what God is teaching him that says exactly what I feel about what God is teaching me.

Chris says, “this has been a time to trust God and know that He will provide according to our needs.  This is a constant lesson I think we often learn over and over again.  Our human nature wants to fight against the inclination to do things on our own, to achieve greatness in our self, and self-reliance.  I fight this everyday thinking that it is me who will provide…I am reminded as I write this that it is God and God alone who will provide.”  Thanks Chris.  I’m praying for you.

Today’s Verses:
Ephesians 3:20-21

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

Proverbs 3:5-6

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”