Over the past week filling in at the Gatehouse while my co-worker is on vacation. I've had a lot of time here in this little office to sit and spend time with the Father, ponder things, read, and of course check on facebook...Myself as well has many others in our church have been going throught the Life Journal by Wayne Cordeiro. It is something new to me that I really have never done before and one of my New Years resolutions. As much as I want to say that I have been really good and have Read my scriptures of the day and made journal entries everyday since January 1 I can't.... and lately I've been finding myself doing the reading and not even opening up the journal... UGH!But I found today's reading especially interesting and since I've been in the "blogging" mood, I thought I would share this with y'all! Today's reading was Jeremiah 31 & 32 and 1 John 4.In Jeremiah 31 & 32 God expresses his everlasting love for His people, Israel! And also his plan to rebuild Israel, for peace and joy and dancing in celebration! 3.Long ago the Lord said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.
7 Now this is what the Lord says: “Sing with joy for Israel.[
b] Shout for the greatest of nations! Shout out with praise and joy: ‘Save your people, O Lord, the remnant of Israel!’
This is great! 31 “The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord.
33 “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day,” says the Lord. “
I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 And they will not need to teach their neighbors,
nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
I'm thinking this happens after Jesus comes back... What do you think????I love this part...1 John 4
1 Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. 2 This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet[
a] acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. 3 But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.
4 But you belong to God, my dear children.
You have already won a victory over those people,
because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. 5 Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.
7 Dear friends, let us continue to
love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10
This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. 14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17
And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. 18 Such love has no fear,
because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. 19 We love each other[
b] because he loved us first.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister,[
c] that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? 21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters.
If you keep up with the news (which by the way I am in no way endorsing as it just adds fuel to fear) you probably know that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad just recently unveiled his new "peace keeping" bomber. He called it "a messenger of honor and human generosity" before also terming it a "messenger of death for the enemies of humanity." If you don't know anything about this guy you should know that his goal is to wipe Israel off of the planet. I don't know about you but my thoughts were "How is something that has the capability of flying a nuclear bomb with out a pilot on board supposed to keep peace?" In my opinion this man wants the exact opposite. The key to Peace is LOVE. God is love... If we all loved God and wanted to be like and spent more time with him there would be no cause for war... If you caught Jeremiah 31:33 God already has a plan for that to happen!!Now I know that age old saying that "you can't have peace with out war." NEWSFLASH! We already have the victory. The enemy has been defeated and Jesus lives today! Although there are a lot of things that have to happen and if you don't TRUST God it could get scary before He comes and creates His new Heaven and Earth (2 Peter 3).Don't let the news, society, the economy, or politics dictate how you live your life! Be like Christ! Love people, love what God loves, love and pray for the peace of Israel! There is no need to be afraid of the president of Iran, president Obama or anyone else for that matter. Perfect love casts out ALL fear. If His eye is on the sparrow, I know His heart is on me and He has a plan! He is my shield and fortress! Greater is HE that is in ME than he that is in the world!!It's God's loving kindness that draws men to repentance. So LOVE! If you claim to be a Christian ACT LIKE IT, don't live like the world does that's the last thing they need! Live a holy life set apart unto God. Live like Jesus did! Love~
