If we can’t see it, it doesn’t exist. To one degree or another, we all have that mentality. UFOs, ghosts, hobbits and vampires are examples of things we tend to disbelieve because we have not seen them. The fact that something cannot be seen does not mean that it is fantasy. Gravity can’t be seen directly but we know it exists because we can see its effects. We jump up, we fall down. Even though we can’t see gravity, we can measure it.
Some, mostly older folks now, were punished so severely by one or both of their parents that they became afraid to do anything. They never associated the punishment with their parent’s love for them to keep them from danger (and for many, there was no love, just punishment). Even as adults, they fear failure and often will not start something new rather than to face failure. Their whole lives are paralyzed from doing anything great. Fear of punishment stops them from living.
I went through a period when I could barely walk. I used a walking stick in part because it helped relieve some of the pain in my feet and legs. But the bigger reason was because it helped me keep my balance. Without it, I always felt like I was going to fall and often found myself going in the wrong direction. I leaned and relied on it to keep me standing and walking straight.
The apostle John surely had to have been present when Nicodemus came to Jesus and talked to him. He was most likely a young man, possibly even still a teenager. While sitting there, listening intently to everything Jesus said, he was transformed. John heard and later stood at the foot of the cross and understood deep down the message “For God so loved the world that he gave is one and only Son” (John 3:1-21).
Bart Wilkins explains how to accelerate your relationship with God and gravitate ever closer to Him.
Winter is coming up faster than we expect. There is always someone that looks in their radiator, sees the green color, that it is full and assumes that they are all ready for the cold. All too often we see them stuck at the side of the road with a busted radiator and what they thought was good anti-freeze leaking out all over the ground. You can’t just trust that a green color in the radiator means all is well. You have to test it, verify that the anti-freeze is good.
1John 3 – Summary
This is not the easiest chapter that we have ever studied. The Love of our Father strikes at the root of who we are, who Christ is and what the Holy Spirit is about in our day-to-day, minute-to-minute lives. Take a moment now and read through this third chapter of 1John. Jot down what it is that you see as important, the questions that come to mind as you read, what it is that you see as what John is trying to say and what it is that just doesn’t make any sense to you. This chapter is full of truth so don’t let yourself be overwhelmed by the enormity of it all; grasp what you can and go from there. 1John is a book that we will all return to again with renewed understanding as we grow in our walk with the Holy Spirit.
It is great to have confidence. For some, our confidence is in certain things only; others have a self assured confidence in themselves so that they can walk into any situation without fear. For most, ones confidence is based in ones knowledge of the subject or situation although some just “know” that they are just that good even if they have no clue what they are doing.
