Tag: Love God

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1st Thessalonians 4

1 Thess 4 1 

This is one of my favorite chapters.  I will explain why shortly; first,  I want to point out that this chapter talks about living to please God. Verse 1 not only asks, but urges us in the Lord Jesus to please God more and more. It says to control our bodies in a way that is holy and honorable. We are told to love each other. It seems like I have heard that before?  How about in Mark 12:30-31 New International Version (NIV) where it says:

30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

 

If we follow those commandments, we will please God. And if it is mentioned more than once, it must be important.

 

Now the reason this is one of my favorite chapters is because it speaks about the sleep of the dead. It says that one day Jesus will return and those who have fallen asleep have hope. We have HOPE! Hope of what you ask? Hope of meeting the Lord in the air and being with Him and God FOREVER! Verse 18 says to encourage each other with these words.  So I tell you encourage each other that we will be able to live for eternity with not only other believers but also God and Jesus.

 

Tomorrow we will talk about the last chapter of 1st Thessalonians, Chapter 5.

 

-The Ransoms

Love God First

1 John 2

1 John 2 15

I love cats, ice cream, and succulents. I love big, comfy sweatshirts and the smell of old books. I love a lot of things.

You’re probably thinking, “Ok, that’s nice I guess… But what do old books and weird plants have to do with anything?”

We all have things that we love. Maybe you love coffee, sports, or your phone. Fill in the blank! Loving those things is not a bad thing. In fact, many of those things can be extremely helpful in our day to day lives – until they become worldly distractions and priorities.

When repotting my succulent becomes higher on my priority list than homework, there’s a problem. When I am engulfed in a book and lose sleep to read “one more chapter,” there’s a problem. When I eat massive amounts of ice cream every day, there’s a problem.

God should be the priority – not your facebook status, not repotting your succulent, not watching a football game. Those things are nice, and it’s great that you like them, but we find that when they are higher on our list of priorities than God, there is a MAJOR issue.

I mean, God can give us immortality. He, through Jesus, forgave us despite all of our imperfections, shortcomings, and sins. He loves us, and we, as Christians, love Him. But then we go and kill two days of our life on the couch binge watching a season on Netflix instead of using that time to pray, read the Bible, or glorify Him in general.

Catch my drift?

We need to strive to make God a priority in our lives and to love Him first. Because our stuff will break, get old, wear out, be replaced – but God will never break, get old, wear out, or be replaced. When we put God as our number one priority, everything else falls into place. So love Him first.

– Madison Cisler

1 John 2 17

Keep Learning and Growing

I John

1-john-3-21-22

Saturday, July 15

As many of you head to FUEL either tonight or tomorrow, I challenge you to make new relationships with other Christians and enjoy the lifelong fellowship that follows. These new friends will help maintain your faith through encouragement, prayer, and love. FUEL is my favorite week of the year, when I can attend, and I always enjoy the lessons I learn through classes, family group, and each session that is offered. However, the sad thing that happens once the week of FUEL ends, is that we start to become complacent and fall back into our old habits.

The apostle John warns us to not love the sinful ways of the world and warns against people who deny that Jesus is the Christ. 1st John 3:9-10 states that “no one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.” Luckily, all we must do is confess our sins and ask for forgiveness and “he will forgive us and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1st John 1:9 NIV).

To show that we love God, we need to obey his commands. According to 1st John 3:23-24, God instructs us “to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.” We are to lay down our lives for our brothers so that they may not falter. 1st John 3:18 tells us to “not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” If you know somebody who is struggling with anything- family matters, sickness, relationship issues, etcetera—pray for them or have a conversation with them and let them know that you are there if they need anything.

During this week at FUEL, at work, or wherever you may be, remember that God loves you so much that “he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him and that he sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1stJohn 4:9-10 NIV). It is a wonderful feeling to know that we are tremendously loved because Jesus Christ laid down his life for everyone in the world. 1st John 5:14-15 says “that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” I ask that God teaches the life lessons that you need to learn this week through whatever outlet possible—a song, class, general session, prayer, conversation, or while reading the Bible. I know that I always learn something about myself in this process while at FUEL and feel a lot better afterwards.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Please keep everyone safe as they travel to FUEL from wherever they may be coming from. I ask that you guide them through whatever life issues they may be facing and heal them from those obstacles. I ask that everyone meets someone new and makes a new lifelong friend. Please be with all participants as they learn how much you love them while studying your word. I love you, Lord, and cannot wait until you return.

In Jesus’ Glorious Name, I pray, Amen.

-Cynthia Fyfe

 

(Photo Credit: https://dailyverses.net/1-john/3/21-22)