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Articles from Pastor Jon's Blog

1 John 3:23-24 2007-11-25 00:00:00 1 John 3 - The Love of God and the Life of Love 5. (23-24) The commandment of Jesus. And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. a. The idea of keeping His commandments in the previous verse has led John to speak specifically about what His commandment is.  Simply, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another. i. Here, John does not refer to these two aspects of obedience as two commandments, but as one commandment.  Grammatically, he may not be officially correct, but spiritually, he is right on.  These two are one.  When Jesus spoke of the greatest commandment, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, He added another saying: And the seco ...

1 John 3:22 2007-11-24 00:00:00 1 John 3 - The Love of God and the Life of Love 4. (22) Fellowship in God’s love means the assurance of answered prayer. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. a. Whatever we ask: The person who walks in the kind of obedience and love John speaks of will also experience answered prayer; not because their love and obedience has earned them what they ask, but their love and obedience comes from fellowship - the key to answered prayer. i. John seems to be quoting Jesus’ idea from John 15:7 - If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. b. Keeping God’s commandments is important to answered prayer.  But we should make a distinction between the prayer of the man who is saved, and the cry of the heart seeking mercy from God in Jesus.  For the sinner who comes to Jesus in prayer, seeking mercy, the only requirement is since ...

The Bifocals of Faith 2007-11-23 23:30:00 The Bifocals of Faith Perhaps it was his Scottish accent. Perhaps his playful smile. Perhaps the simplicity of his preaching, or maybe it was his prayers with their pungent twists of boldness. For whatever reason, Peter Marshall is remembered as one of the most beloved Senate Chaplains in American history. Marshall immigrated to the United States, arriving at Ellis Island in 1927, only 19 years before being named Senate Chaplain. He pastored in Georgia, then at Washington's New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. On January 5, 1947 he was named Senate Chaplain, and his prayers immediately touched the nation. Here is his "Bifocals of Faith" prayer, offered before the United States Senate on November 24, 1947:God of our fathers and our God, give us the faith to believe in the ultimate triumph of righteousness, no matter how dark and uncertain are the skies of today. We pray for the bifocals of faith-that see the despair and the need of the hour but also see, further on, the p ...

1 John 3:19-21 2007-11-23 00:00:00 1 John 3 - The Love of God and the Life of Love 3. (19-21) The assurance this love brings. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. a. Assure our hearts: When we see this love at work in our lives, we can know that we are of the truth - and this brings assurance to our hearts before God, that we are standing in Him. i. Gayle Erwin tells a wonderful story about a man he knew when he was a boy.  The man’s name was Jake, and he was the meanest, drunkest, man in town.  He would come to church from time to time, but that was only to beat up the elders.  One Wednesday night, Jake came to church - but not to beat anybody up.  Remarkably, Jake gave his life to Jesus.  He walked down the aisle of the little church and kneeled down at the altar.  The next night ...

Thanksgiving Day 2007 2007-11-22 01:00:00   FIRST PROCLAMATION AFTER PLYMOUTH Governor Bradford of Massachusetts made this first Thanksgiving Proclamation three years after the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth: "Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November 29th, of the year of our Lord, one thousand six hundred and twenty-three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to y ...

1 John 3:17-18 2007-11-22 00:00:00 1 John 3 - The Love of God and the Life of Love 2. (17-18) What it means to love in real life. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. a. Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth: John will not allow us to merely talk about love; real love is demonstrated in actions (though it is also often evident in our feelings). b. If you have the capability to meet a brother’s needs, and do nothing to meet that need, then how can you say you love that brother?  How does the love of God abide in you? i. What is the limit?  The only limit is the one that love itself imposes.  When giving to a person, meeting their perceived or immediate need, does them harm instead of good - then the loving thing to do is to not give them what they ask for, but to give them what they really ...

What Kind Of Love Is His? 2007-11-21 19:30:47 The audio from this past Sunday's teaching is posted at Springfield Calvary. This message covers 1 John 3:11-24. It is an amazing, supernatural love. His love is in you as well!<:))))><< ...

1 John 3:16 2007-11-21 00:00:00 1 John 3 - The Love of God and the Life of Love D. What love is and how we should love one another. 1. (16) The objective reality of love and how it shows in our life. By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. a. By this we know love: What is love? How we define love is important.  If we define love the wrong way, everyone passes, or no one passes, the love test.  Can you hear Dean Martin singing, “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime”?  Is this what love is about? The ancient Greeks had four different words we translate love. i. Eros was one word for love.  It described, as we might guess from the word itself, erotic love.  It refers to sexual love. ii. Storge was the second word for love.  It refers to family love, the kind of love there is between a parent and child, or between family members in general. iii. Philia is the third word for love.  It speaks of a bro ...

1 John 3:13-15 2007-11-20 00:00:00 1 John 3 - The Love of God and the Life of Love 4. (13-15) Love as the evidence of the new birth. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. a. Do not marvel: We shouldn’t be surprised when the world hates us; but we should be surprised when there is hatred among the body of Christ. b. We know that we have passed from death to life: A love for the people of God is a basic sign of being born again.  If this love is not evident in our lives, our salvation can be questioned.  If it is present, it gives us assurance! i. We can know we have passed from death to life by our love for other Christians.  The place of hatred, of jealousy, of bitterness you find yourself in is a place of death. You need to pass from death to life! ii ...

1 John 3:12 2007-11-19 00:04:00 1 John 3 - The Love of God and the Life of Love 3. (12) An example of hatred: Cain. Not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous. a. As a negative example, John presents Cain, who was not right with God (his works were evil), and who hated his brother.  When there are two children of God who are both right with God, there will be love. b. Cain is a good example of the failure to love. i. We can presume that Cain had a godly upbringing that should have equipped him to love, but he chose not to. ii. Cain’s disobedience came from a lack of faith (Hebrews 11:4), which resulted in first disobedience, then hatred. iii. Cain’s disobedience and hatred was based in pride (Genesis 4:5). iv. Cain’s disobedience and hatred made him miserable (Genesis 4:5). v. Cain refused the warning God gave him, and gave into the sin of hatred (Genesis 4:6-7). vi. Cain’s sin of hatred l ...

Sunday Quotes 11.18.07 2007-11-18 01:00:00 From the Keswick hymn book, words by F. Brook: My goal is God, Himself. Not joy or peace or even blessing, but Himself, my God. 'Tis His to lead me there -- not mine, but His. By any road, dear Lord, at any cost. Lighthouses don't make noises-they just shine. – Unknown Come needy, come guilty, come loathsome and bare; You can't come too filthy--come just as you are. – Charles Spurgeon Many folks want to serve God, but only as advisors. – Unknown God will hold it together until you get it together. – Unknown In the kingdom of God the surest way to lose something is to try to protect it, and the best way to keep it is to let it go. -- A. W. Tozer, "Born After Midnight, p. 96  <:))))><< ...

1 John 3:11 2007-11-18 00:00:00 1 John 3 - The Love of God and the Life of Love 2. (11) The need to love one another. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. a. This is the message that you heard from the beginning: John has already emphasized the command to love as being the word which you heard from the beginning (1 John 2:7).  In remembering this message to love one another, he is remembering the command of Jesus in John 13:34. b. The basic Christian message has not changed: that we should love one another.  Perhaps some have thought that because Christians talk about a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ” that it is only us and Jesus who matter.  But how we treat others - how we love one another - really matters before God. Unless otherwise noted all Scripture is taken from the New King James translation of the Bible.<:))))><< ...

1 John 3:10 2007-11-17 00:00:00 1 John 3 - The Love of God and the Life of Love C. Hatred: An Attack on Relationship. 1. (10) Two essentials: righteous conduct and love for the brethren. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. a. The children of God and the children of the devil: John has already introduced the idea of being a child of God (1 John 3:1, that we should be called the children of God, and 1 John 3:9, born of God). He has already written of some being of the devil (1 John 3:8). But here, he makes it plain: some are children of God and some are children of the devil. i. John doesn’t spend time trying to prove or explain the existence of the devil. He knows the reality of the devil is a Biblical fact.  Some lack John’s wisdom, and either deny the devil’s existence, or are obsessed with the devil. ii. Some might think John is far too harsh in saying some are chi ...

1 John 3:7-9 2007-11-16 00:00:00 1 John 3 - The Love of God and the Life of Love 3. (7) Righteousness will show in a person’s life. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. a. Let no one deceive you: This tells us that John was speaking against a deception threatening the Christians of his day. b. He who practices righteousness is righteous: John will not allow us to divorce a religious righteousness from a life of righteousness.  If we are made righteous by our faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:22), it will be seen by our righteous lives.  i. The most important thing a person can ever do is make sure they are righteous before God.  This simply means they are held in right standing before God.  It’s more that saying, “not guilty.”  It is more like saying, “Not guilty and in right standing.”  It speaks of the presence of good, not just the absence of evil. ii. John is not saying that we are made righ ...

Money, Money, Money, Money 2007-11-15 10:57:37 If you are a regular reader of this blog, I have a request. Would you please go to one of my other blogs, Laboring In The Fields, read the post entitled Money, Money, Money, Money, and give me your opinion in the form of a comment? Essentially, the question is this; is it acceptable to place some advertising on Pastor Jon's Blog? I would sincerely appreciate your comment. Thanks! Jon ClaytonPastor Jon's Blog ...