So many people claim to be believers following Jesus,
but they continue to
ignore the truth and the Light of the World. This is
nearly impossible considering if they truly were following Christ they would be
following the Light Himself. Those who are walking in the Light are exuding the
light of the world, they are producing good fruit, they are loving one another
as Christ loves us.
In the past I was guilty
of not knowing who God really was, is and will be, just like many people. I
decided who the Creator was and what He
was like. I was way off base with most of my ideas!
Even though my great grandmother
had sent kids Bible related magazines throughout my life I still did not know
who He was really, I watched a lot of t.v. movies about who Jesus Christ was,
and I knew Him as the baby at Christmas, but I did not follow His commands as I learned in the Ten Commandments
movie. I walked in fear. I was afraid of the dark, I was afraid of getting hurt.
I was afraid of ‘being bad’ , in fact many
things gave me fear. I was even afraid that there was really a place called
hell. I thought I could be good enough to get to heaven if I just loved everyone
and obeyed my parents.
Well, fortunately I did
love people, but not unconditionally as Christ loves me. I made friends and
really cared about them, so much that it hurt when they or I moved away. I felt
it when someone said a mean thing, and tried to unto others as I wanted them to
do to me. All of this I failed at because of my humanness. I walked in darkness
until I realized that yes God was real and that I needed Him to get to heaven
someday. Sure, that’s a simple reason to seek Him, but it was what God saw in
me that would draw me to Him.
I was always trying to
find Peace, Love, and Joy as a child growing up but as an adult once I realized
who God was and listened to His voice I found all three!
We are writing these things so that you may fully
share our joy. This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you:
God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So, we are lying if we
say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are
not practicing the truth.1 John 1:4-6
I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that we
should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one we have had
from the beginning. Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has
commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning.2 John 1:4-6
So now we can tell who are children of God and who
are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not
love other believers does not belong to God. This is the message you have heard
from the beginning: We should love one another. We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the
evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been
doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous. 1 John
3:10-12
In today’s world there are a ton of religions, and I
thank God that He lead me to the right way to find Him. I did not go to a
church and listen to a preacher until I was grounded in my faith. I actually
read my Bible for a year for one hour a day and two hours on Sunday. I did this
because once again I was trying to do what was right. I believed that was what
Christians did. I had heard it somewhere. We cannot always follow what the
worldly people claiming to be following Christ tell us. We need to read the
Word of God for ourselves, the whole Word. I recommend taking notes each day in
a journal about what you read. Go back to the chapter and re read it too! Then
see if you heard or read it right.
If you are attending a church you should listen close
to the preachers and be sure that they are speaking the Truth of the Word. This
is because sometimes our humanness can get into our teacher or our preaching.
Check my words out too! See that they line up with the Word.
Though I walk in the Light of the Lord, I know that I
need to walk in the strength of the Word in my heart as well. Psalm 119:11
tells us this will keep us from sinning in weakness if we hide the Word in our
hearts.
Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling
reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity All that I know now is partial and incomplete,
but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me
completely.
Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and
love—and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:12-13.
When we walk trying to figure it out ourselves without the Holy Spirit guiding us we will never get this, even as Christians we sometimes see things imperfectly, but we can continue to seek Him and know that eventually we will see things clearly. He will give our eyes light to see and open our hearing to hear the things of God and the direction to follow.
He will
show us how to love one another as He loves us, then we will be walking In His
Love,