Thursday, August 15, 2013, 9:02 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me with the song “I Pray for Them” playing in my mind this morning. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read 3 John (ESV): http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=3+John+1&version=ESV
No Greater Joy!
Amen! I agree wholeheartedly! I have no greater joy than to know that those whom I love are walking in the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. So, what does it mean to “walk in the truth”? To “walk” in this sense has to do with conducting our lives in a particular way or manner (Encarta Dictionary). Truth is light, it is love, it is God, it is Jesus Christ, it is the word of God, it is the gospel of salvation, and it is the opposite of darkness, lies, deceptions, manipulations, half-truths and evil and sinful deeds of the flesh. So, to walk in the truth is to conduct our lives (our lifestyles) in the way of truth – in action, deed, thought and in speech. And, it is to live our lives in every way by the truth of God’s word, the teachings of Christ, and the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, God the Son, laid down his life for us on the cross in taking upon himself the sins of the entire world so that we could be free from eternal damnation, free from bondage to (the control of) sin and Satan daily, and so we could be free to live and to walk in Christ’s righteousness, truth and holiness, in his power and strength within us. When he died, our sins died with him. When he rose from the dead, our sins remained buried in the ground. Yet, not everyone is saved from their sins.
Jesus said we have to repent of (turn from; have a change of mind and heart with regard to) sin if we want to have eternal life with God. He said we have to obey him and his teachings if we want to have him and the Father living within us, and if we want to have a home with them in eternity and to be in genuine relationship with God/Jesus. He said that if we want to come after him, we must deny (disallow) ourselves (our self-lives) and we must take up our cross daily (die daily to sin and self) and follow (obey) him. He said if we want to live, we have to die first. That is the crux of the gospel. Jesus died so we would be free from slavery to sin, so how can we live in it any longer? He said the two don’t mix.
So, to walk in truth means to turn from our lives of sin and living for self and self-pleasure, to be transformed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God in regeneration (new birth; new life), and to put on (apply to our daily lives) our new lives in Christ Jesus, “created to be like Christ in true righteousness and holiness” (See Eph. 4:17-24). It means to walk in obedience to Christ and to his teachings. It does not mean sinless perfection, but it does mean a change in attitude and purpose and will of mind and heart away from a life of sin toward living for Jesus Christ in obedience to his will and purposes for our lives. It means cooperating with God in his work of regeneration and sanctification in our lives, humbly submitting to and doing his will. It means, too, that we share this new life with others through personal testimony and through the sharing of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ so that others may be saved. As well, it means living and speaking the truth.
A Faithful Thing
We are commended by God not only for walking in the truth, but also for how we treat his true servants and messengers. I am not speaking here of everyone who calls himself a minister of the gospel or a prophet of God, for there are many deceivers, hypocrites, liars and fakers out there, as well as there are those who are followers of humans and humanistic philosophy more than they are followers of God and the teachings of his word. And, there are many of those who are diluting the gospel of Jesus Christ and are thus giving people a false hope, which is a lie, and which condemns them to hell. We are warned against such people in scripture, and we are called upon to be discerning, to test everything we hear against scripture (against the teachings of Christ and of the apostles), and to not follow those or support those who are not teaching what is in line with the truth.
These “brothers” on the other hand were commended for their faithfulness and their adherence to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to truth in general, as well as were Gaius and Demetrius. They were messengers of the Lord Jesus and of his gospel, and they “went out” for the sake of His Name. They may have been missionaries, or they may have been traveling messengers of God sent to the churches to give words of prophecy and exhortation. They may have gone out due to persecution and so they fled to other places. They appear to have reported back to John, so he may have sent them to check on the churches and their progress and to report back to him, since he could not be there personally in every location. Whatever their duty or their calling is not exactly stated other than that went out for the sake of the Name of Jesus and his gospel of truth. We should thus support and encourage such people as these who are true ministers of the gospel.
Puts Himself First
There are many who call themselves ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ who give the name of Christ a bad rep. Diotrephes was one such leader. He was self-centered, self-focused, driven by personal goals and visions, perhaps; unsubmissive to God’s authority, a gossip and slanderer, a worker of iniquity, a persecutor of God’s true servants and messengers, a disunifier, a troublemaker, and one who likes to stir up dissension for his own advantage. There are many such leaders in our churches in America today, I believe.
The church in America, for the most part, has become a business just like any other business, and is marketed much in the same way. The goal is to please the customer, i.e. the people of the world, so the customer will keep coming back for more. Meetings are often very entertainment focused and driven, and the gospel is diluted in order to make it more appealing and acceptable to the world. The church has become so much like the world, it is barely distinguishable any more. So many church leaders follow the gospel according to man, marketing schemes and business techniques over and above the teachings of Christ and the truth of the gospel.
So, in some cases, the church actually becomes the greatest persecutor of those who are Christ’s true servants and witnesses, for some church leaders do kick these servants of Christ out of their churches - because they are trained to do so, and because these true servants of the Lord serve as a threat to these leaders’ positions of power and control, and they serve as a threat to their man-made institutions, visions, goals and watered-down gospel, i.e. to their lies, manipulations and deceptions. Not only do these leaders in today’s church, like Diotrephes, mistreat God’s true servants and witnesses, and not only do they put them out of the church, but they encourage their people to treat them in like manner. This sounds just like what happened to Jesus Christ, and at the hand of his own people, of his own faith, and coming from and encouraged by his faith’s own hypocritical leaders.
Imitate the Good
So, the encouragement to us here is first of all to be discerning about what is evil and what is good. So many present evil as good and good as evil, and so many Christians and church people are following their lead, and that breaks God’s heart (he grieves over this). We need to study the word of God and know what it says so we can discern error and lies for what they are. And, we need to walk in the truth and not give our support and loyalty to those who are not walking in the truth, but who are like Diotrephes, and are actually opposing those who are walking in the truth. We need to be careful about what we are imitating and make sure we know the truth so that we can truly walk in (follow) the truth.
I Pray for Them / An Original Work / June 4, 2013
Based off John 17
“Glorify Your Son, that Your Son
May glorify our God in heav’n.
Father, You granted Him all power
And all authority over men,
That He might give eternal life
To all those whom now
You have given Him.”
“This now then is eternal life:
That they may know You,
Father, and Your Son;
That they may know the only true God,
And Jesus Christ whom the Father sent.
I have brought You the glory by
Finishing the work that You’ve given Me.”
“I have shown You to those whom
You gave to Me out of the world;
They were Yours. You gave them to Me
And they have obeyed Your words
And they accepted them. They knew
That I came from You, and they believed
With certainty, I was sent.”
“Holy Father, I pray for them by the
Power of Your name: Protect them,
So that they may be one as we are,
For they are still living in this world.
I have given them Your word;
Because of Your word, the world
Has hated them.”
“I pray they may have the full measure of
My joy now living within them.
Father, I pray You sanctify them
By Your word; truly Your word is truth.
As You sent Me into the world,
I send them to tell the world to repent.”
http://originalworks.info/i-pray-for-them/
No Greater Joy!
Amen! I agree wholeheartedly! I have no greater joy than to know that those whom I love are walking in the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. So, what does it mean to “walk in the truth”? To “walk” in this sense has to do with conducting our lives in a particular way or manner (Encarta Dictionary). Truth is light, it is love, it is God, it is Jesus Christ, it is the word of God, it is the gospel of salvation, and it is the opposite of darkness, lies, deceptions, manipulations, half-truths and evil and sinful deeds of the flesh. So, to walk in the truth is to conduct our lives (our lifestyles) in the way of truth – in action, deed, thought and in speech. And, it is to live our lives in every way by the truth of God’s word, the teachings of Christ, and the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, God the Son, laid down his life for us on the cross in taking upon himself the sins of the entire world so that we could be free from eternal damnation, free from bondage to (the control of) sin and Satan daily, and so we could be free to live and to walk in Christ’s righteousness, truth and holiness, in his power and strength within us. When he died, our sins died with him. When he rose from the dead, our sins remained buried in the ground. Yet, not everyone is saved from their sins.
Jesus said we have to repent of (turn from; have a change of mind and heart with regard to) sin if we want to have eternal life with God. He said we have to obey him and his teachings if we want to have him and the Father living within us, and if we want to have a home with them in eternity and to be in genuine relationship with God/Jesus. He said that if we want to come after him, we must deny (disallow) ourselves (our self-lives) and we must take up our cross daily (die daily to sin and self) and follow (obey) him. He said if we want to live, we have to die first. That is the crux of the gospel. Jesus died so we would be free from slavery to sin, so how can we live in it any longer? He said the two don’t mix.
So, to walk in truth means to turn from our lives of sin and living for self and self-pleasure, to be transformed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God in regeneration (new birth; new life), and to put on (apply to our daily lives) our new lives in Christ Jesus, “created to be like Christ in true righteousness and holiness” (See Eph. 4:17-24). It means to walk in obedience to Christ and to his teachings. It does not mean sinless perfection, but it does mean a change in attitude and purpose and will of mind and heart away from a life of sin toward living for Jesus Christ in obedience to his will and purposes for our lives. It means cooperating with God in his work of regeneration and sanctification in our lives, humbly submitting to and doing his will. It means, too, that we share this new life with others through personal testimony and through the sharing of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ so that others may be saved. As well, it means living and speaking the truth.
A Faithful Thing
We are commended by God not only for walking in the truth, but also for how we treat his true servants and messengers. I am not speaking here of everyone who calls himself a minister of the gospel or a prophet of God, for there are many deceivers, hypocrites, liars and fakers out there, as well as there are those who are followers of humans and humanistic philosophy more than they are followers of God and the teachings of his word. And, there are many of those who are diluting the gospel of Jesus Christ and are thus giving people a false hope, which is a lie, and which condemns them to hell. We are warned against such people in scripture, and we are called upon to be discerning, to test everything we hear against scripture (against the teachings of Christ and of the apostles), and to not follow those or support those who are not teaching what is in line with the truth.
These “brothers” on the other hand were commended for their faithfulness and their adherence to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to truth in general, as well as were Gaius and Demetrius. They were messengers of the Lord Jesus and of his gospel, and they “went out” for the sake of His Name. They may have been missionaries, or they may have been traveling messengers of God sent to the churches to give words of prophecy and exhortation. They may have gone out due to persecution and so they fled to other places. They appear to have reported back to John, so he may have sent them to check on the churches and their progress and to report back to him, since he could not be there personally in every location. Whatever their duty or their calling is not exactly stated other than that went out for the sake of the Name of Jesus and his gospel of truth. We should thus support and encourage such people as these who are true ministers of the gospel.
Puts Himself First
There are many who call themselves ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ who give the name of Christ a bad rep. Diotrephes was one such leader. He was self-centered, self-focused, driven by personal goals and visions, perhaps; unsubmissive to God’s authority, a gossip and slanderer, a worker of iniquity, a persecutor of God’s true servants and messengers, a disunifier, a troublemaker, and one who likes to stir up dissension for his own advantage. There are many such leaders in our churches in America today, I believe.
The church in America, for the most part, has become a business just like any other business, and is marketed much in the same way. The goal is to please the customer, i.e. the people of the world, so the customer will keep coming back for more. Meetings are often very entertainment focused and driven, and the gospel is diluted in order to make it more appealing and acceptable to the world. The church has become so much like the world, it is barely distinguishable any more. So many church leaders follow the gospel according to man, marketing schemes and business techniques over and above the teachings of Christ and the truth of the gospel.
So, in some cases, the church actually becomes the greatest persecutor of those who are Christ’s true servants and witnesses, for some church leaders do kick these servants of Christ out of their churches - because they are trained to do so, and because these true servants of the Lord serve as a threat to these leaders’ positions of power and control, and they serve as a threat to their man-made institutions, visions, goals and watered-down gospel, i.e. to their lies, manipulations and deceptions. Not only do these leaders in today’s church, like Diotrephes, mistreat God’s true servants and witnesses, and not only do they put them out of the church, but they encourage their people to treat them in like manner. This sounds just like what happened to Jesus Christ, and at the hand of his own people, of his own faith, and coming from and encouraged by his faith’s own hypocritical leaders.
Imitate the Good
So, the encouragement to us here is first of all to be discerning about what is evil and what is good. So many present evil as good and good as evil, and so many Christians and church people are following their lead, and that breaks God’s heart (he grieves over this). We need to study the word of God and know what it says so we can discern error and lies for what they are. And, we need to walk in the truth and not give our support and loyalty to those who are not walking in the truth, but who are like Diotrephes, and are actually opposing those who are walking in the truth. We need to be careful about what we are imitating and make sure we know the truth so that we can truly walk in (follow) the truth.
I Pray for Them / An Original Work / June 4, 2013
Based off John 17
“Glorify Your Son, that Your Son
May glorify our God in heav’n.
Father, You granted Him all power
And all authority over men,
That He might give eternal life
To all those whom now
You have given Him.”
“This now then is eternal life:
That they may know You,
Father, and Your Son;
That they may know the only true God,
And Jesus Christ whom the Father sent.
I have brought You the glory by
Finishing the work that You’ve given Me.”
“I have shown You to those whom
You gave to Me out of the world;
They were Yours. You gave them to Me
And they have obeyed Your words
And they accepted them. They knew
That I came from You, and they believed
With certainty, I was sent.”
“Holy Father, I pray for them by the
Power of Your name: Protect them,
So that they may be one as we are,
For they are still living in this world.
I have given them Your word;
Because of Your word, the world
Has hated them.”
“I pray they may have the full measure of
My joy now living within them.
Father, I pray You sanctify them
By Your word; truly Your word is truth.
As You sent Me into the world,
I send them to tell the world to repent.”
http://originalworks.info/i-pray-for-them/