Tag Archive: 1 John

Love Or Hate ?

https://pixabay.com/en/masks-feelings-state-of-mind-701837/1st John 4:7-8  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

Dearly Beloved:  May God’s grace, peace, love and glory be ever upon you.  I want to talk to you about the oldest and most lethal disease known to mankind.  Hate!  It is a disease that is both deadly and highly contagious.  Hate and evil are one.  If we embrace hate, then we embrace evil.  When we allow hate to take over our minds, we become accomplices to evil.  The very act of hating invokes evil in us and gives us license to condone the darkness of this world.  Hate turns us into instruments of evil.  We become mindless tools and pawns.  As if black clay, we can be shaped, molded and ultimately malformed by hate.  I have been faced with so much hate these past three and some odd years.  Only love can shield us from hate.  If it were not for the love of Christ, I may have been consumed by hate; enveloped in the total darkness of evil.  I may have become spiteful and devoid of light; angry and full of pain.  My heart may have been a sub-zero slab of stone.  Let me tell you, my beloved, it is so easy for any one of us to fall victim to hate; so easy to succumb to the darkness – especially when we are faced with such great adversity such as I am now.   (more…)

Friends Don’t Let Friends Behave Badly

https://static.pexels.com/photos/5362/restaurant-hands-people-coffee.jpgProverbs 27:5-6  Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed.  Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Dear Friends,  Peace, love, grace and the joy of Christ be upon you.  I want to ask you all to please pray for my dear brother, pastor, friend and mentor, Tom Shuford.  Tom has been in and out of the hospital lately.  Both Tom and those of us who love him so dearly could really use your prayers as this is very hard on all of us.  The above passage is very, very deep and as I have been sitting and praying for Tom, I realize how much it relates to he and I.  You see, Tom has always rebuked me, but it has always been non-judgmental and out of love.  And, only when I truly needed it.  I am so grateful for that.  You see, my old group of so-called friends rarely did that.  The ones who truly loved me did and my family did, but people that I associated with that were criminals never did, nor did my frienemies.  You know, the ones pretend to love you, but really hate you and want to see you fail.  Those types encouraged my poor choices.  Most used me for their own personal gain and discarded me when I had no more value to them.  Not a single one has ever written me or showed any love; Nor am I complaining.  You know the old adage: “With friends like that, who needs enemies?”  Only the ones who truly love me have been here for me.  Chief among them is Jesus.  He has never left or forsaken me.   (more…)

Let The Lord Be Your Armor

Ephesians 6:10-12  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Randall Daluz _ Armor Of GodDear Readers:
We all face trials and tribulations in our lives.  Sometimes the odds seem insurmountable.  We feel defeated and lost.  Well, let me tell you something in case you didn’t know; Our God is greater than any problem we have.  He is mightier than any pressure we experience.  I want to let you in on a secret.  If you are saved, if you believe in the Lord God with all your heart and soul, you can never be defeated ever by anything… especially not man or the devil.  Hebrews 13:6 says:  So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (more…)

Faith-Based Works

James 2:14-26  What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them,file000536039901 “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. (NKJV)

These, my brothers and sisters, are powerfully real verses.  They are a wake-up call to all Christians.  When I think about how much my Lord has done for me, I can’t help but want to serve Him in any way I can.  We cannot go to heaven because of our works.  That is a fact.   (more…)