Posted on

The Word of God – Showing us that God is Loving

The-Word-of-God-Showing-us-that-God-is-Loving

Verses for Today

1 John 4:8 He who does not love has not known God, because God is love.

1 John 4:9 In this the love of God was manifested among us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might have life and live through Him.

1 John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God has loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.

Fellowship

The 10 commandments are found in chapter 20 of Exodus. In verse 12 God commands us to honor our father and mother. In verse 13, that we shall not kill, in verse 14, that we shall not commit adultery, and in verse 15, that we shall not steal. Look through all the rest of the commandments. You will see that they strongly testify that our God is loving.

[Exodus 20,] verses 12 through 14 reveal that God is a God of love. If we do not honor our parents, it means that we do not love them. Likewise, if we love others, we shall not steal from them. In Matthew 22:37-40 the Lord Jesus answered His opposers by implying that the whole law is fulfilled in loving God and man. We must not only love the Lord with our whole being, but we must also love others as we love ourselves. In Galatians 5:14 Paul says, “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If we consider the Ten Commandments in depth, we shall see that God’s love is revealed in them (Life Study of Exodus, p. 598).

If the whole law is fulfilled in loving God and man, then this really is telling us that God’s law testifies that our God is a God of love.

God’s nature is love, and therefore His love is unconditional. God loves everyone, even the unlovable ones… We love those who love us but what about those who are mean to us or different from us? God loves everyone including those who are not like us or those who do not always obey Him. (Church in Irvine, Lessons, God is Love).

The highest expression of God’s love is revealed in the New testament. God loves us and does not want us to suffer the punishment for sin. It was out of His love that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to die for us. We should all realize the following three things. 

1) We are all sinners; this means that there is something in us that causes us to do the evil that we don’t want to do. The commandments show us a high standard and expose our fallen condition.

2) Jesus paid the price for our sins. When we believe in Him, He forgives us and takes away all our sins (1 John 4:10). Furthermore, He gives His eternal life to us (1 John 4:9). This is the love of God and it is real love. No other love compares to this. 

3) God does not require the sinner to become sinless before coming to Him. God loved the sinners first and took the first step in coming to them. When we consider our close family, our relatives, friends, and even our enemies, we have to realize that God loves them. He loves every human being and even came to be a man to die for them. Keeping God’s love in mind and enjoying and experiencing God’s love affects the way we see and treat others.

With a heart full of respect, honor, and worship for God’s love, you can sing hymn 30. Stanzas 1 and 3 are included here.

1
What love Thou hast bestowed on us,

We thank Thee from our heart;

Our Father, we would worship Thee

And praise for all Thou art.

3
Thou gavest Thy beloved Son

In love to come and die,

That we may be Thy many sons,

As heirs with Him, made nigh.

Posted on

New School Year Welcome and The Meaning of Human Life

A-Life-full-of-meaning-and-without-anxiety-cropped

Our guest speaker addressed this important question:
What is the Meaning of Human Life?

New-School-Year-Welcome-The-Meaning-of-Human-Life

Below you will find some of the lyrics to the songs and the verses that were read in the meeting.

Seek-ye-first-the-kingdom-of-God-Song-Sheet Ecclesiastes-3-11-and-12-1-verses

Posted on

About the Believers – Regenerated

1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

1 Peter 1:23 Having been regenerated not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding word of God.

1 John 5:1a Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten of God

Fellowship to help us know Christ and pursue Him

From these verses, we can see that regeneration is to receive Christ, who is the life-giving Spirit, into us as our life. To receive this life, we need to repent to God and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

To say that Christ is our life now is not a figurative statement. Christ being our life does not merely mean that we are now completely focused on Him. Rather, this means that we have literally another life, a new life, which we didn’t have before. Humans have the human life, dogs have the dog life, cats have the cat life, and believers have God’s life! The following short quotation emphasizes that by regeneration, we obtain God’s life.

Regeneration is having God enter into us as life—having the life of God in addition to our human life. This is the second life, the second birth; hence, it is called regeneration. In man’s first birth he is born of his parents, thereby receiving Adam’s life. In his second birth he is born of the Spirit and of God, thereby obtaining God’s life. Regeneration is to be born of God. (Lessons for New Believers, Lesson 1, published by Living Stream Ministry)

With this in mind, enjoy reading afresh the following passage from the gospel of John.

John 3:1-8 But there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This one came to Him by night and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him. 3 Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4 Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?

5 Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born anew. 8 The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it goes; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.

With the human life, if you take away the life from the person, you take away that person. In other words, you cannot separate the life from the person. We also then realize, that just as one cannot be unborn of their human life, a believer cannot be unborn of their new life from God. We cannot be un-regenerated. This is good news! You believed in the Lord Jesus Christ; you have a new life, the life of God, and this life can never be taken away from you. This is what John 3:16 means when it says, “have eternal life”.  

Again, when we believe in Jesus Christ, we receive Him who is the very life of God into us, to be our new life. We are regenerated! The realization of such a fact led the author of hymn 1174 to praise unceasingly.

How mysterious! Yet how real!
Such a man now lives in me.
Into all my heart He’s spreading—
He, my human life, to be.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
I will praise unceasingly.

(see the whole hymn here: https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/nt/1174)

Download the MP3 of this post  or play it below

Posted on

Confessing

1 John 1:8-9 If we say that we do not have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Continue reading

Posted on

Forgiven

Acts 10:43 To this One all the prophets testify that through His name everyone who believes into Him will receive forgiveness of sins.

1 John 2:12 I write to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you because of His name.

Continue reading

Posted on

About the Believers – Called

Eph-4-1-I-beseech-you-therefore

Romans 8:30 And those whom He predestinated, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He also justified; and those whom He justified, these He also glorified.

Ephesians 1:18 The eyes of your heart having been enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

Ephesians 4:1 I beseech you therefore, I, the prisoner in the Lord, to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called,

Fellowship to help us know Christ and pursue Him

Every believer is a called one. I grew up knowing that certain ones served God because at a certain point in their lives, God would call them. They received “a calling”, I had been taught. Little did I realize that one day, I myself would also be called. What we find in God’s word is that every believer is a called one – “those whom He predestinated, these He also called.” (Romans 8:30) If it weren’t for God Himself calling us, we wouldn’t be saved.

When God called us, we were in the middle of our own pursuits. Why did He call us? It was not just to leave us there. He has a purpose and His calling has a purpose. When God called Saul of Tarsus, he answered, “Who are You, Lord?” (Acts 9:5) He also asked, “What do you want me to do?” (Acts 22:10). As the called ones, we must be like Saul who became the apostle Paul. The Lord has called us. We should likewise ask Him, “Who are You, Lord?” and “What do you want me to do?”.  We can fully trust in the Lord our God, who has called us. We can put our life in His hands. This One who has created all things and predestinated us and called us has a purpose and a plan. Why not open ourselves to Him in faith?

Download MP3 of this post or play it below…

Posted on

Gospel Meeting: A World in Crisis

This next hour may change your life. It’s all about Jesus Christ.

He is the fountain that never runs dry. When we believe in Him, He comes to live in us and satisfies our deepest thirst. He really does!

For My people have committed two evils: / They have forsaken Me, / The fountain of living waters, / To hew out for themselves cisterns, / Broken cisterns, / Which hold no water.  – Jeremiah 2:13

We are pleased to share this good-news-video with you! It comes from the church in Irvine, California. Watch, Open your Heart, and See how Jesus Christ is such a fountain, and how He can be yours, too!

Posted on

The Revelation, Appreciation, & Application of Christ as Our Sin Offering

August 31, 2018 Gospel Meeting

Him-who-did-not-know-sin-He-made-sin-on-our-behalf

Many came together for this gospel meeting on campus. We had a Barbecue dinner, sang a hymn, and heard the good news of Christ as our sin offering.

In order to know, see, and even love the wonderful person of Jesus Christ, we must see that we are sinners. Furthermore, we need to see that Christ died for us as the sin offering, as typified in Leviticus chapter 4 and revealed throughout the Bible. By Believing in what Christ has done for us, our sins are forgiven and we receive His life!

The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! – John 1:29

Him who did not know sin He made sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. – 2 Corinthians 5:21

The gospel message was based on a training outline produced by Living Stream Ministry for the Winter Training of 2017. A link to the outline of the original message is below:

The Revelation, Appreciation, and Application of Christ as Our Sin Offering

Posted on

I met Jesus

My testimony.

I met Jesus Christ as a freshman. Christians invited me to read the Bible with them. We read on campus during lunch time. When I read the verses in John chapter 3, I was very touched by God’s love and God’s plan.

Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. – John 3:3-6

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life. – John 3:16

My new Christian friends asked if I wanted to pray to receive Jesus into my life. How could I refuse! Jesus Himself was speaking to me from the Bible, telling me that I needed to receive a new life, His life!
I prayed,

“Lord Jesus, I believe into You. Forgive me of all my sins. Thank you for dying for me. Come into my heart.”

I was instantly filled with joy. All I could think at that moment is that I wanted everyone in my family to also receive Jesus Christ into their heart. The rest of my day, I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. That began my Christian life and I thank God that He’s given me companions all these years to help me to continue to pursue this wonderful and loving person, Jesus Christ our Lord.

– Daniel