How do I know that I know God and His Son?

There are three “tests” that John put forth for a person, a believer, to know that they know God without a doubt. These tests are that we keep His commandments, to walk as Jesus walked in obedience to the Father and to show unconditional love toward our brothers. The first one is usually the hardest for some to understand. It is to keep or obey His commands. Not just the ten commandments, but the two which Jesus put forth in Matthew 22:34-40. Jesus said, “Love God with all of your heart, and with all your strength, and with all your soul and love your neighbor as yourself, on these two commandments hang all of the Law and the Prophets”.

Those who say that they know God, but do not keep his commandments are liars and the truth is not in them. Belief is not enough, reading the Bible, God’s Word is not enough, your life has to show beyond a doubt that you belong to Him. We are put where we are to be “salty” and to be reflections of Him, not of ourselves or our personal views. Our mission, if we are Christians as we claim to be, is to be the best reflection of Jesus that our lives can be. How we live our faith on a daily basis shows what is in our heart, not what may be on our minds at the time. At least, that is what the world should see.

To walk as Jesus walked, in total obedience to God’s will, is our goal and purpose. As Christians, we are to submit to the Spirit’s leading influence in our life on a daily basis. This does not mean to give up entirely, but we are to give Jesus and His Spirit control of our lives daily. This is a hard concept for us because we do not like to give up control of our lives.

How can we, mere humans, accomplish this? The only way that we can do this is through Him and His Spiritual control of our lives. The only way that we can be truly effective for Him is by the power of His Spirit in our life. If we did good things (works) for others before becoming a Christian, how much more could we do with Him in our life? Those works that we did before becoming Christians may have been good but they did nothing more than to make us look good in other people’s eyes. What about the ones we are led to do or accomplish after becoming Christians? As long as we obey Him and accomplish them, we are doing His will and fulfilling His purpose in our lives.

Even though we are not bound by Jewish law, are we required to act as if we are regarding the Ten Commandments, as well as the commandments Jesus gave in Matthew 22? If we are truly His, yes! Our life is to reflect that His spirit lives in us and that we live through Him. If our lives do not reflect what is in our hearts as the truth of God, we need to re-examine our faith and our beliefs. We can only pass the test when we are led by the Spirit on a daily basis.

Is there a broken relationship in your life? Is there any prejudice or animosity toward any particular group of people? Do you fail to demonstrate love for others through tangible actions, not just  giving people “stuff” ? Is there a way we can fix these failures? Yes! Come to Jesus and show that you truly love those who love you and those who don’t.

As followers of Christ, we are to love Him so that we can resist the attraction of the world and all that it tries to offer us. To serve Him in whatever we do, regardless of how insignificant it may seem to us is our calling and purpose. In that way the light of God and His Son, Jesus, should shine through us so that everyone we come in contact with will see that we have something that they need and in doing so we will be the true followers of God that we were called to be.

Should we look for signs of God today?

No, the signs some of us seek are all around us. We should not test God to see if He will give us a sign when there is none needed. The air we breathe, the earth we stand upon, the sunrise, and the fact that we are alive are all the signs we should need. God gave us everything that we have to live our lives in service to Him and to others. He loves us all enough to give us everything we need daily, we can’t do it on our own.

 

No one can make themselves young again or change the color of their skin, why should we think that we could possibly live our lives without His grace. God loves us all, there is no denying that. I know many people don’t believe it, but if He did not we would not be here now. Our lives are mere shadows, smoke in the wind. We do not live long enough to decide that we are gods or even to believe that we may become gods because it is not possible. There is only one God, the Creator of the Universe and everything in it. It has always been this way, regardless of what some may want to believe.

Jesus came to save us from our own limited beliefs and from ourselves. To believe in Him is to have eternal life, to serve Him is a joy beyond what we could imagine in our mortal bodies. God loves us all and sent His Son to pay the price for all of our sins as the perfect and sinless Lamb of God. He was the only one that could pay the price and free the captives from Satan.

Our lives and our service to Him are a reasonable sacrifice on our part because it is all that we can do through Him and the strength He gives us. The life that we have after accepting Him we truly live through Him. That is our purpose, to live our lives through faith in Him so that we can be His voice, and His presence in this world today.

If someone were to give you your life back due to an organ donation, what would you do for them? If they were still alive would you be willing to work for them if they asked you to? Would you do it out of gratitude or out of love? If they did not ask anything of you and yet you wanted to give them something in return for a second chance at life, what could you possibly give that would be worthy of the gift that you were given?

In light of these questions, what could we possibly do for God that would compare with the salvation which was provided through Jesus? The only acceptable gift or service that we can offer is our life through Jesus and the service that we can provide through faith in Him. Even if we only have faith that could be compared to a mustard seed, anything is possible if we place that faith in Christ.

Scientists have proven that everything in the universe is there in precise amounts to provide for the sustaining of life. Nothing has happened due to random chance, it was all planned out by God in the beginning just as He said in the Bible. He named all of the stars that we can see and the Bible names them too. The Pleiades, Orion the Hunter, Leo, etc. In His word God said that He hung Orion’s belt and placed the Pleiades in their place. There is nothing that has happened that was not appointed by Him in the past nor will it happen in the future without His knowledge.

Your life was chosen in precise detail by Him long before you were born. Who your parents would be, where you would live, who you will marry, how many children you may have if any, and when you will die. God knew these things and many more about you at the beginning, each person on earth is known by Him in great detail. Regardless of the religion that you claim or which “god” that you pray to, the creator of all things who is the true God of the universe, knows and has known you, all of you who may read this, since the beginning of time.

Signs are not needed for us to know that there is a God because we can see His handiwork and the care that He designed into everything about our world and into each one of us. What we choose to do with our life is still our choice, whether we use it for good or for evil. He doesn’t control us, He only provides for us a place to be born to live and to die. Our life and the meaning that it could have is dictated only by our choice to give our lives to Him or not.

Faith, Hope, and Love: Which is greater?

There have been men of great faith in the past like Moses, Abraham, and Noah. They all had faith in God and in His power, but that wouldn’t have been enough to get them into Heaven. Hope for a better life and better world is a good thing but hope alone won’t get you much, especially nowadays. Hope may help when you are suffering, but you truly need something or someone to hope for or to place your hope in.

Love is a word that is over-used today and has come to mean very little compared to what it meant in the past. Jesus said that the greatest of these is love but He was speaking about the love that He and the Father have for us and the love that we should show toward our fellow Christians and non-Christians too. Which is an unconditional love, one that you don’t expect anything in return for. It has become very scarce in the world we live in today to find a love that fits that description except in a loving home between parents and their children and between husband and wife.

When we ask Jesus into our hearts, He comes in and cleans our hearts. We should take a look at our lives and what has been in our lives and check it against Jesus and His way. Would you want Him to look at the books and magazines that you have in your home? How about the television programs that you watch? Would you feel comfortable with Jesus in your living room during the week?

Our devotion to Jesus is supposed to take precedence over every area in our lives whether it is our family or our work or finances, even the little things that most people don’t think God could possibly be interested in. But He is interested in all aspects of our lives, like a parent, He cares for and is interested in everything that you are. He may not like some of them, but He is taking notice of even the little things.

There are many temptations in our world today which can draw us away toward other so-called “faiths” or religions. Regarding religious behavior or religions, many things can be made into a religion. But, none of them will get you into Heaven except placing your faith in Jesus and His love for you. So, to answer the question in the title: Love is the greatest of these.

There has never been a greater love than the love that God has shown and shows today for all of us, than the giving of His Son as a sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins. If we can accept the grace that was extended to us and ask Jesus into our hearts, nothing else is required. Though, you will want to serve Him after He has come into your life, even if you only serve Him by walking as He would it is enough.  DeColores.

Science, God, Jesus, faith....can they co-exist?

Yes, they can! Our creator intimately and meticulously put your DNA and all of the cells which make up your body together to do mainly one thing, serve Him. Every atom in the universe was created by God. It doesn’t matter if it is in the air which you and I breathe or if it is in a cloud of hydrogen gas light years away from earth. Each being, sentient (meaning us) or instinctual (the animals) was created by Him to serve a purpose in their lives for Him. The animals don’t have a choice in their service, they do what their instinct tells them to do, no questions asked. Humans have a choice to serve or not, to follow Jesus or to follow their own ways and the way the world says is the “right” way because it feels good.

God created all of the laws of physics, thermodynamics, chemical reactions and every other “discovered” law that we have found to be immutable in the way of things and how things work. Light only goes a certain speed, no slower and no faster. There is an absolute temperature at which all molecular motion stops, there is also a temperature at which every nuclear force breaks down and molecules will fly apart. God knows these because He created them to work that way. Our cells were created to work for a certain period of time, although in the beginning we were designed as perfect and would have been immortal had we only obeyed God’s commands.

Science, no matter which one is being discussed, is an extension of the Creator Himself. Every created thing on earth now and in the past was put here by Him for a reason. We cannot know that reason, but it is there nonetheless. God’s will for us is to know Him and to serve Him, not because we are forced to do so but because He loved us enough to create us and to send His Son to die for us as payment for the sin in our lives. We all sin, even though some have covered up their sins or glossed them over with less sinful names. In some cases, our media (news, radio, television) has made us so used to them until we hardly notice them unless we are following Him and our spirit lets us know that what we are seeing or hearing is wrong.

The coexistence of God and science is not something which has to be worked on, it has been happening for hundreds of years. Until the latter part of the 19th century and the 20th century, no scientist questioned how the universe was brought into being. They just wanted to understand His ways and processes in the creation of it all and how things worked. There is nothing wrong with that. But, when your categorically dispute that there is an intelligent designer behind everything that is in the universe, you are denying the existence of God at all levels! God will not be mocked, He knows your heart and your mind more intimately than even you do. Give Him a chance in your life. Read the Bible and pray that He will show Himself to you through it while you read. You will truly be amazed at what and who you will find. Decolores!

So many challenges, can we meet them all?

Yes and no. Our lives, as Christians, are under scrutiny on a daily basis. Not only to walk the walk that we claim in Jesus, but to do it without complaint and in some people’s eyes without stumbling. Unfortunately, we are not made perfect enough for that. In and through Christ’s spirit, we are able to do all that He commanded us to do. The real challenge is to be connected to Him, in Spirit, daily.

By that I don’t mean prayer time in the morning or at night, although that is part of it. There are too many people who only get in touch with Him in that way and many who do, do it only once a day. God wants us to be in touch with Him on a continuing and constant basis. In our society today many would say that that kind of communication is impossible because of how stressed our lives are and how many other things we have on our plates.

Through His spirit and by submitting our lives to Him daily, we can do all things. Even our jobs and the job that He has commanded us to do can be done at the same time, if we will allow Him to work through us. Our walk with Christ and through Him, can reflect His holiness and His attributes in and through our lives. I am not implying that we are holy, but His holiness is what others should see in our lives.

Your life in this world is temporary and our lives are not long enough to attempt to do things our way all the time. The sad fact is that when our earthly lives are over, our eternal life begins. I say that is sad because for some, they will be separated from God and Jesus forever. For humans, it is impossible for us to comprehend time as more than our lives provide for us. We can understand one hundred years, we can, in theory, understand how long one thousand years is. Any amount of time that goes beyond that cannot be understood by us.

We have been taught about millions and billions of years in high school “history” and science classes but we cannot wrap our finite minds around those numbers. Even our imagination is incapable of grasping time in such huge amounts, but even those pale in comparison to the prospect of eternity. You will either spend it serving and praising God or in torment and agony because you rejected Him. Which would you rather do? Choose Jesus and service to Him. The rewards following your life on earth will far outweigh any amount of wealth that can be amassed during your lifetime.