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Reading for December 3rd is 1 John 3... My thoughts on this reading... I love how Chapter 3 begins... we what kind of love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God. It really is remarkable isn't it that we are God's children. It changes our understanding of who we are and what value we have before the Lord. I also like how it says what we will be like has not yet appeared... but we will be like Him. Won't that be wonderful. And when we think to ourselves that the Lord is finished with us, He says no, you are still a work in progress, wait until you see what I have in store for you! We then get some discussion about making a habit of sinning, which of course I must admit is humbling, because I don't want to do so, and yet I know I do. I'm guessing you are probably feeling the same way. I am so grateful for God's grace and forgiveness and have to daily wage the battle to fight against the sin in my life, because I am wanting to make sure that my actions portray who my Father is... and not that I am a child of the devil. That's why we are to love one another John says, and as we love others, we should not be surprised that the world does not like it. Can't help but love verse 16... by this we know love, that He laid down His life for us. You want to know what love is? Look to Jesus who loved us with an everlasting love and proved it by dying for us! So we are called to love, not just in words, but in our actions. Here we again get some focus on the importance of truth, and the need to abide and keep the commandments, not out of a desire to save ourselves or by obligation, but rather in response to the love He has shown us, so we are to love and keep His commands. The chapter closes with the encouraging words that He abides in us, by the Spirit He has given us!

Reading for December 2nd is 1 John 2... My thoughts on this reading... My little children... you can hear the term of endearment in John's writing, he cares for his readers as for his own children or grand children, and as fellow believers, he looked on them that way. So, he wants them not to sin, but if they do so (and who doesn't!), he lets them know they have an advocate with the Father. He then speaks of the importance of keeping the Lord's commandments. Throughout the rest of 1 John 1, he's going to come back again and again to some common themes... one is seeking to keep the commandments, another is truth. The final two themes that you will see are related to love and abiding. Already in the first six verses of Chapter 2 you can see all but love mentioned and as we move into the rest of the chapter, we see the idea of a new commandment, which of course is what Jesus told the disciples in the Upper Room on that last night, and which I'm sure had to have echoed in John's heart through the years of his ministry and he takes the time to share them. He does so specifically to the church (his little children), to fathers and to young men. He calls on them not to love the world or the things of this world, that will eventually fade away, for the world and its desires will pass away, but those who do God will will abide forever. We then get the warning about the antichrist, of which John says that many have come. By that he means that any who deny the Christ and lead away from Him and the Father are those who are antichrist (opposed to Christ). One's confession of Christ and the Father is how we have eternal life and we are called to abide in the Son and Father. This theme of abiding is also another that I am sure John remembered from the words of Jesus which he includes in John 15 as he speaks of the vine and branch and abiding in the Lord Jesus. As those who are righteous, we are to abide in Him!

Reading for December 1st is 1 John 1... My thoughts on this reading... By the time that John wrote this series of three letters, we believe that he was a very old man, possibly as old as 90. It's why he speaks of those he is writing to as his little children at times. He's at this point kind of that grandfatherly figure writing to those believers in the Christian Church. In his Gospel he starts out with the account of creation and the Word, who was Christ being present and that through Him all things were created. He does much the same in 1 John, speaking of that which was from the beginning. So John says that the things he has seen and heard, he is now making known to his readers, so that they too may be part of the fellowship of believers, and that it will complete his joy. If you read the end of John's Gospel, he gives the reason he is writing, so that they may believe and it is offered here in a little different way, but the message is the same. He then goes on to speak of the light and darkness and walking in the light, which is also something that he speaks of in the first chapter of his Gospel. It' good to know the blood of Jesus cleanses us from our sin. He then begins in verse 8 and 9 to offer familiar words because they are a part of confession that we use in our liturgy for some of our worship service. So, don't say you don't have any sin John says, because you're fooling yourself if you think so, and the truth in not in you! But confess it and God will forgive! Don't after all try to make God out as a liar by saying you haven't sinned.

Reading for November is 2 Peter 3... My thoughts on this reading... Peter states that in this second letter he wants them to remember that the Lord says that He will be coming back for them, even though there are those who ridicule believers and say where is this Jesus who's going to come back for them. As the Lord created the world with water and later used water during the time of the flood to bring destruction because of the evil in the world, so as He has promised that a time will come when He will return and sweep away evil in the day of judgement. I love verses 8-9 because of the promise that the Lord is returning and don't interpret the delay as a sign he won't but rather what it truly is, a patient waiting Lord, so that more might be saved. A long time ago I had an album from a Christian artist by the name of Charlie Peacock that had a song inspired by these two verses. In the song it tells the story of a bride waiting for a bridegroom, which is of course the Church waiting for her bridegroom, the Lord Jesus. It's a beautiful song and I'm linking it here in case you want to listen to it and see how it describes what Peter is telling us in these verses. https://youtu.be/Ftbuk3NWgjg?si=gZLZTOjqz0JaClAQ Don't doubt it, the Lord will return! We have been promised a new heaven and a new earth, and He will usher it in. As Peter closes out this letter he encourages waiting patiently for the Lord and even makes an interesting reference to the things Paul has also written. What is interesting about them is how he makes it clear that he sees Paul's writings as Scripture, as he notes there are some to try to twist what Paul has written like they try to twist other Scriptures. His final encouragement is that they grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, giving glory to the Lord!

Reading for November 29 is 2 Peter 2... My thoughts on this reading... While Peter urges his readers to grow in their faith and progressing in their knowledge of the Lord, in Chapter 2 he turns to a word of warning against false prophets that will rise up and seek to lead them away from the truth. He rehearses some of the past accounts of evil and ungodly things like the story of Noah or Sodom and Gomorrah, pointing out that the Lord can also rescue them from the trials that may be ahead for believers. He points out how the ones who are seeking to lead them astray have no regret in leading believers astray. He makes the kind of sad and tragic point that for those who know the way of truth in the Lord but have now forsaken it and been lost, it would have been better for them to have not known righteousness now that they have lost it. They find themselves wallowing in their filth and sin, much like a pig wallows in the mud Peter says. To be honest, this chapter is not a very hopeful or heartening chapter if you think about what it warns believers about, and points to what is lost.