Devotionary

Latest Episodes:

Ep 232 – 1 John 5:1-5 PT 1 Aug 10, 2017

Show notes

This is the first of seven episodes on 1 John, chapter five, verses 1-5. This first one is called, "Proof Positive" and will deal with a topic that should be of concern for each and every Christ-follower: The assurance of our salvation. While that is not necessarily the primary thought John was trying to get across in these verses, it comes out loud and clear. The real issue is that of belief. Belief in Jesus Christ as the Savior, sent by God to die for the sins of men. It is our belief in Him that provides us with assurance of our salvation. Not only that, John writes in his gospel, "that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." If we believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior, we can know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we are saved. And when we find ourselves loving our brothers and sisters in Christ, we are doubly assured, because that capacity to love comes from God. It is His Spirit living within us, made possible by Christ's death on the cross, that allows us to love selflessly and sacrificially. And to know that we are sons and daughters of God.

Ep 231 – 1 John 4:7-21 PT 7 Aug 09, 2017

Show notes

This is our seventh episode on 1 John, chapter four, verses 7-21. It's called, "Love Like God Loves" and in it, we will attempt to differentiate what John means when he says we are to love as we have been loved. The standard for our love is heavenly, not earthly. It is not of this world. And we don't get to determine what that love looks like or how we get to express it. God's brand of love is different than ours. His love is eternal, not temporal. It doesn't fade with time or fluctuate based on the actions of the one being loved. God's love is transformative in nature. It is out to change the one being loved. To improve their life. To give them eternal life. God's kind of love is redemptive and restorative. And ours should be as well. Our love, like His, should have the best interest of others in mind. We love them, not so they will love us in return, but so that they might know the love of God through us. We want them to know what it feels like to be loved by God as we have been loved by Him. Selflessly, sacrificially, and sanctifyingly.

Ep 230 – 1 John 4:7-21 PT 6 Aug 08, 2017

Show notes

This is episode six on 1 John, chapter four, verses 7-21. I've entitled it, "Love Is of God" because, once again, John is going to stress love as an outflow of the very character of God. Love is not some arbitrary, subjective feeling we conjure up. We don't even get to define the nature of love. Because as John has already told us, God is love. He is the ultimate definition or expression of love. And John makes it quite clear that we will never fully understand who God is until we come to grips with just how much God loved us – in spite of us. God's love is directly tied to His holiness and justice. These qualities are not in conflict with one another within the nature of God. He can be loving and just at the same time. He can discipline in love. He can judge sin in love. And nowhere is this better expressed than at the cross. The crucifixion was the focal point on which the love and wrath of God met. He sent His Son to die for us, as an expression of His love. He crucified Christ as an expression of His hatred for sin. The love and wrath of God met at the cross. And had it not happened, we would all be lost.

Ep 229 – 1 John 4:7-21 PT 5 Aug 07, 2017

Show notes

This is our fifth episode on 1 John, chapter four, verses 7-21 and is entitled, "God Loved." The love of God is an oft misunderstood topic. Part of the problem is that we bring our own definitions of love to the equation, attempting to force on God our preconceived notions of what it means to show and receive love. But the Bible tells us that God is love. In other words, it is God who gets to define love and it is His very nature that provides the meaning. If God is love, then all that He does is done in love. Love is the permeating quality behind all His actions, whether we see it or not. So, when God tells us to love one another as He has loved us, we need to stop and think about what He is saying. How did He love us? What was the primary way in which He expressed His love to us? God sent His Son to die for us. And while that may appear to us to be a strange way of expressing love, it does not change the fact love is exactly what it was. As John wrote in His gospel, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." God loved. Sacrificially. Selflessly. And redemptively.

Ep 228 – 1 John 4:7-21 PT 4 Aug 06, 2017

Show notes

This is episode four on 1 John, chapter four, verses 7-21 and is entitled, "Real Love." There is a lot of confusion about love these days. So, it is essential that we listen closely to what the apostle John has to say about the topic. He is going to provide us with a vastly different definition of love than what we hear being proclaimed today. The three verses we are going to concentrate our attention on today will give the impression that true love is best expressed through actions. After all, John will remind us: "let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth." So, our love is to be tangible. Talk is cheap. Actions speak louder than words. But is meeting the physical needs of others the only legitimate expression of our love? Is there more that we should be doing? John will talk about Jesus laying down His life for us. And he will challenge us to do the same for others. This isn't about writing a check, providing a handout, or meeting a temporal need. John is calling us to a greater kind of love, a love that the world cannot offer. It's a real love that does far more than meet worldly needs or provide temporary relief from pain and suffering.

Ep 227 – 1 John 4:7-21 PT 3 Aug 05, 2017

Show notes

In this, our third episode on 1 John, chapter four, verses 7-21, we'll continue to explore John's definition of love. And he will make it quite clear that God is love. He is the ultimate definition of love. We don't get to define love on our terms. And we don't get to decide whether God is loving us the way we want to be loved. One of the major problems in our society today is that we have turned love into a self-centered, all-about-me kind of sentiment that begins and ends on us. We decide how we want to be loved and demand that everyone, including God, love us the way we expect. But John will demand that we abide in love – in other words, that we find comfort in the love of God as expressed in the sacrificial death of His Son. If we want to know if God loves us, all we have to do is look at the cross. God's love for us is not to be measured in the size of our checking account, the square footage of our home, the cost of our car, the absence of difficulties or any feelings of happiness we may enjoy. The love of God is to be found in the Son of God and His death on our behalf. God reconciled us to Himself by sending His Son to pay the penalty for our sins. And we are to remain in that love.

Ep 226 – 1 John 4:7-21 PT 2 Aug 04, 2017

Show notes

This is episode two on 1 John, chapter four, verses 7-21. It's entitled "God = Love." In our day and age, it has become increasingly popular to envision God as love. So much so, that many have made His love the only characteristic of God that really matters. The kind of love they speak of is a tolerant, all-accepting kind of love that is devoid of any trace of judgmentalism or punishment for sins committed. The 21st-Century God is all-loving and nothing but loving. But John would have us understand that God's love for us was best expressed in His own Son's death for us. God sent Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins. With His substitutionary death on the cross, Jesus paid our sin debt and satisfied the just demands of a holy God. Our sin required a payment. Someone had to die because the penalty for sin is death. But God showed us how much He loved us by sending His Son to die for us. The modern-day version of God has removed His wrath and judgment. It has painted Him as a one-dimensional God who only loves. But the biblical reality is that God is holy and righteous. He loves, but He hates sin. And His justice requires that He deal with sin and the sinner.

Ep 225 – 1 Johyn 4:7-21 PT 1 Aug 03, 2017

Show notes

This is the first of seven episodes on 1 John, chapter four, verses 7-21. I've entitled it "Perfect Love" because John is going to continue his discussion of the love we are to exhibit to all those around us. And it isn't just any kind of love we are to show. It's godly love. The perfect love of God as expressed through His Son's sacrificial death on the cross. Godly love is selfless in nature. It isn't based on the lovability of the one being loved. It isn't earned or deserved. And the kind of love God has showered on us is the same kind of love we are to share with all those around us. His love gets perfected or completed through us. We end up loving others as we have been loved. We become conduits of His love. And it begins within the body of Christ, but flows out to the lost with whom we live and interact every day. As John puts it so clearly, "We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19 ESV). In other words, our love for others is motivated by God's gracious love for us. We know what perfect love is. But God's love was not meant to stop with us. It is to be shared.

Ep 224 – 1 John 4:1-6 PT 7 Aug 02, 2017

Show notes

This is the final episode on 1 John, chapter four, verses 1-6 and it's called, "Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?" We live in an age of growing skepticism when it comes to the claims of the Bible and, specifically, the message of the gospel. People have no problem believing that Jesus existed as an historical figure. But they have difficulty accepting His deity and the idea of His being the sacrifice for the sins of mankind. So, they invent a different Jesus. They come up with a way to explain away His divinity, by stressing His humanity. And they downplay His role as a Savior by denying the reality of sin. For so many in John's day, Jesus was seen as a revolutionary who came to change the world, but they refused to see Him as the Savior of the world. And we face the same kind of resistance to the gospel message today. There are so many views about Jesus that it's hard to keep up with them all. And the greatest problem is that these false views find their way into the thinking of self-proclaimed Christ-followers. Their belief in Jesus becomes tainted by a worldly view of who He was and a human perspective that attempts explain away the sacrificial nature of His death and the need for salvation from sin.

Ep 223 – 1 John 4:1-6 PT 6 Aug 01, 2017

Show notes

This is episode six on 1 John, chapter four, verses 1-6 and it's entitled, "Ears to Hear." One of the things John stresses is the need for the people of God to be discerning. And there is no reason for us not to be. We have the Word of God available to us and the Spirit of God living within us. We have ample help in telling the difference between false teaching and the truth of God. But it requires that we listen carefully. We are not to accept what anyone says just because they claim to speak for God. We live in an age of tolerance and subjectivity. Everyone is free to have their own opinion. We are told not to judge others or to push our views on anyone else. But John would have us remember that there is truth and error, righteousness and unrighteousness. And we are to have nothing to do with those who would twist the truth of God or try to offer a different gospel. Listening to anyone and everything can be dangerous. As children of God, we are equipped to recognize and respond to the Word of God spoken by those who have been called by God.

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