Tag Archives: eternal life

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – YOUR KIND OF KNOWING

Bible Study, ,

YOUR KIND OF KNOWING

“You’ll protest; ‘But we’ve known you all our lives!’ only to be interrupted with this abrupt, ‘Your kind of knowing can hardly be called knowing. You don’t know the first thing about me.'” Luke 13:26, 27.

Jesus defined eternal life in this way: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3(NIV).

There are at least three ideas in the word ‘know’. We can know about someone by having a nodding acquaintance with him; we can know a person by spending time with him and getting to know his nature and personality; we can know someone by living in an intimate union with him and reproducing through that union.

The ‘knowing’ of the people to which Jesus was referring belonged to the first group. They lived in Jesus’ ‘neighbourhood’ implying that they knew He was around and perhaps even took an interest in what He was doing but never became personally involved with Him or committed to Him in any kind of personal relationship.

These are the people who say they ‘believe’ in God, but that belief is the same as saying, ‘I believe in the sea, or the sky, or the stars.’ Sure, these things are there, but they make no difference to their lives (unless of course they are foolish enough to believe that these ‘things’ can affect their lives in some mysterious way!). They might even tip their hats to God by going to church at Christmas and Easter.

The second group of people’s ‘believing’ moves them a step further. They go to church every Sunday, sometimes read the Bible, seldom pray except in emergencies, and give money to the church when their conscience pricks (this is not an accusation but an observation). They know quite a lot about God. They have a working knowledge of His nature and ways but it is purely academic. They call themselves Christians, but when the chips are down, their behaviour resembles the rest of mankind rather than the Master they profess to ‘know’.

Jesus’ response to these two groups who protested at being shut out of the wedding banquet was shocking to them, ‘You don’t know the first thing about me.’  Why did He talk like this? Not to shock but to awaken them from a false assumption before it was too late. When the verdict was given and the door was shut in their faces, it would be too late to do anything about it.

So what is the ‘knowing’ that gives us access into the eternal presence of God? There are two aspects to this knowing. The first is a personal, permanent and passionate commitment to Jesus Christ as Teacher and Master. This involves relinquishing all rights to ourselves and moving out of the control centre. Because He created us and bought us back from slavery to Satan, He has the right to be in the command centre of our lives.

This is not a coup de etat; it is both a relief and a delight because He takes over responsibility for guiding us unerringly to our destiny. He is always good. His love is non-negotiable and we are eternally safe in His care.

The second step to knowing Him is developing the intimacy with Him and becoming one with Him through His Word, fellowship (prayer), submission and obedience which transforms us into His likeness and issues in generosity of attitude and action towards all people. The more time we spend with Him, the more sensitive we become to the needs of those around us. God can then use us to show His love to them when we love, forgive, and give of our resources to bless them.

This is a lifetime commitment to knowing and growing like the God we worship. And once again…

The choice is yours…

Keep Yourselves From Idols

Bible Study, , ,

KEEP YOURSELVES FROM IDOLS

We know that we are children of God and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true by being in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Dear children, keep yourselves from idols (1 John 5: 19-21).

John lived in a world full of idols. Both Greek and Roman religion centred in the worship of idols which the people practised through sensual and sexual “pleasures”.

Jesus had taught His disciples that there were two kingdoms, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. Everyone is born into the kingdom of Satan and is under his influence. God supernaturally transfers those who recognise Jesus as the Son of God and give allegiance to Him as Lord from the dominion of darkness to the kingdom of light.

God’s kingdom is both among us and within us. Jesus came to restore God’s rule in the earth. He made this possible by paying sin’s debt and removing the barrier which separated us from God. The Holy Spirit brings us back to life so that we can have fellowship with the Father and the Son. The devil no longer has the power to deceive us. He is not Lord; Jesus is, and we have given our allegiance to Him and acknowledge His authority over us.

The Holy Spirit gives us the power to live new lives, and to follow Jesus as our Master. He teaches us to obey God’s Word and to walk in the light of His truth. He has reunited us with Jesus in a union so close that Jesus called it being “in Him” and He “in us”. Just as a branch is connected to the vine and receives its nourishment from the vine, so we are connected to Him by faith and receive His life through the Holy Spirit in us.

Since we are citizens of God’s kingdom and come under His authority, we have nothing to do with the beliefs and practices of Satan’s dominion. He claims worship from those who worship idols because, though idols are nothing, Satan uses images as a shopfront to get unsuspecting people to worship him.

Therefore, dear friends, flee from idolatry . . . the sacrifices or pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons (1 Cor. 10: 14; 20).

Christians can inadvertently worship idols in many different ways without offering sacrifices to pagan gods, or bowing down to idols. Perhaps one of the most subtle forms of idolatry is the god we have created in our imagination from our experience of our earthly fathers.

The Book of Hebrews contains a profound statement, the meaning of which we often miss:

And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him (Heb. 11: 6).

“. . . Must believe that He exists” has to ask the question, “Who is this who exists?” We must not look for the answer in our imagination, or from our experience of our human fathers but from the Bible. Who is the God to whom we pray? He is, first of all, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. If the Father to whom we pray is not identical to the Son who came to reveal the Father, we have created an idol in our imagination.

Unfortunately, many of God’s children have developed a distorted picture of God the Father, because their human fathers have represented a god who is harsh, abusive, uncaring or even absent.

John urged his readers to stay away from the pagan gods around them because these were the shopfront for demons. Whoever worshipped these evil creations became like them in character and behaviour. Believers were tempted to pay homage to them so that they could buy and sell in the market to survive. John said, “Don’t do it, even if you are forbidden access to the markets for food.”

Many of us in the western world are not tempted to worship idols, but what about the “things” to which we give allegiance by putting our trust in them, for example, our money, our assets, our investments, our income, our spouse, our families, even our church or our pastor. We give time to unimportant things which reveals what we value more than our fellowship with God.

We need John’s encouragement just as much as his readers in the first century. Keep yourselves from idols. There is not higher calling in life than to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbour as ourselves.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

God Answers Prayer

Bible Study, , , ,

GOD ANSWERS PRAYER

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence that we have in approaching God: 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 ask of Him (1 John 5: 13-15).

Arrogance or assurance? Unbelievers accuse believers in Jesus of being arrogant because we claim to know that we have eternal life. Is it arrogant to know that we have eternal life when Jesus said . . . ?

God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3: 16).

In John’s day, in the midst of severe persecution, it was dangerous to be a Christian. The Roman government, during the reign of Nero and those who succeeded him, launched a vicious campaign to exterminate believers because they refused to confess that Caesar was Lord. The Caesars made outrageous claims for themselves, titles which belonged to Jesus alone – Son of God, Prince of Peace, Saviour and Lord.

Domitian, who succeeded Nero on AD 81, was so cruel that he earned the nickname “the beast”. He demanded worship, and those who worshipped him received a mark by which they had access to the local market. Those who refused to worship his image were denied access to the market and could not buy or sell anything. Without the “mark of the beast” to protect them, they suffered for their faith in Jesus.

John wrote many things in this letter to encourage his readers to stand firm in the face of persecution. They had to be sure that they based their faith in Jesus on a solid foundation. John wrote to them from personal experience because he had known Jesus as a human being who had lived, died and risen from the dead.

The Holy Spirit lived in them. He had changed them from self-centred people to those who loved God and showed their love by obeying His commands and loving people. He reassured them that, if they had Jesus, they had eternal life despite the threats against them and the persecution which took many of their lives.

Just as God had saved them, given them His Spirit and showed them His love in the midst of suffering, so also He promised to answer their prayers. Unlike Domitian who demanded worship as a god, or the plethora of idols the Greeks and Romans worshipped, the one they worshipped was the true God. Jesus said He would answer their prayers if they asked “in His name”.

I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. (John 14:13-14).

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given you (john 15: 7).

These verses teach us that we must fulfil the conditions if we want God to answer our prayers.

  1. We must ask according to God’s will. It is always the will of God to do what brings glory to Him. We can be sure that God will answer us if what we ask for reveals His character. He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness, forgiving sins.
  2. We must ask in Jesus’ name. We know that He will answer us if our request is in line with the character of Jesus and the Word of God. God will never give us what falls outside of His righteousness, goodness and mercy.
  3. We must remain in Jesus and in His Word. We must keep trusting Him and doing what His Words requires of us. We will receive what we ask for if we keep Him in the centre of our lives.

We sometimes treat God as though He is obliged to answer our prayers because we quote His Word to Him. We almost hold up, “You said” to Him as a threat. You said it and, therefore, you must it otherwise you are a liar.

Many of God’s promises are conditional and the response depends on our willingness to do what He wants. Yes, God does answer prayer, but His answers always fit into the bigger picture and He always answers for our good. When He does not answer exactly according to our demand, we will see, in the end that what He did was the best possible answer for us,

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

No Thumb-suck

Bible Study, , , ,

NO THUMB-SUCK

The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. (1 John 1: 2)

This was no thumb-suck. John was proclaiming to his readers what had actually happened. What if John were making it up as he went along? What if he were pulling off the greatest hoax in history?

But he wasn’t. There were many witnesses to the real Jesus who would ratify what John was proclaiming. If he were making it up, many would have stepped up to declare that he was talking nonsense and spinning lies. Although John wrote his letters years after the other New Testament writers, he was expanding on and recording the truths that had already been disseminated by them.

John equated Jesus with eternal life. No other figure in human history would dare to call himself that – eternal life. Jesus did not give those words to Himself as a title but as a function. He came from the Father to bring life to the world, not only endless life but a new quality of life that belonged to the realm of the eternal.

We humans equate the word “eternal” with “never ending” as though we will just keep on living the same sort of lives we are living now but with no death at the end of it. Our imagination does not stretch far enough to conjure up a real picture of the eternal realm. Eternal life is much more than never-ending. It has to do with a quality of life in a realm that is not ravaged by sin or time, or limited by the limitations of this present world.

What did Jesus mean by “eternal”? He also used the term, “the age to come”. This present age is the age in which we live now, an age of imperfection where everyone and everything in the world is influenced by Adam’s sin. Even the natural world was corrupted by sin and awaits an age when all corruption will be removed and the earth with its plants and creatures will be restored to its original perfection.

For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation is groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (Rom. 8: 19-22)

It was sin that brought death to the world. Jesus’ death removed sin and restored the life which God intended for His children from the beginning. When we receive by faith the forgiveness of sin, God removes the penalty, death, and restores us to the realm where there is no death. Although we are still a part of this fallen world and subject to the death of our physical bodies, we are already the recipients of eternal life. When we shed these mortal bodies, we enter the eternal realm where there is no more death.

It is Jesus who brought us the gift of eternal live by removing the penalty of death from us; therefore we can say the Jesus is eternal life.

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5: 11-12)

The perpetrators of false religions can say what they like and teach what they like but they can never make or prove the claim that those who believe and follow what they teach have the indisputable promise of eternal life. How do we know that Jesus, and those who proclaimed what He taught, was telling the truth? The resurrection!

He claimed to have the authority to lay down His life and to take it up again.

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father. (John. 10: 17-18)

These are either the words of a madman or the sober words of truth from the Son of God. He proved He was no madman by doing what He said He would do!  Eternal life in Jesus Christ if a free gift on offer to those who believe that He is the Son of God and that God raised Him from the dead and who confess that Jesus is Lord. It’s as simple as that.

If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Rom. 10: 9)

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

Jesus Did Not Say That We Must Give Our Money And Possessions Away

Apologetics, , , ,

JESUS DID NOT SAY THAT WE MUST GIVE OUR MONEY AND POSSESSIONS AWAY

As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up to Him and fell on His knees before Him. ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good – except God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honour you father and mother.’ ‘Teacher,’ he declared, ‘all these I have kept since I was a boy.’

Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ He said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth. (Mark 10: 17-22)

Well, didn’t Jesus tell this young man to give everything away? Sure he did, but Jesus was addressing a specific individual in a specific situation, not telling everyone who follows Him to get rid of their money.

We have no idea who this young man was and how he came to acquire his wealth. He could possibly have been his father’s eldest son who had inherited a double portions of his father’s wealth as the firstborn in the family. There is no evidence that he was a tax collector who had acquired his money through dishonest means. He was quick to tell Jesus that he had not defrauded anyone. He seems to have been an honest and upright young Jew who did all the right things.

In spite of his law-abiding life, he still felt that there was something missing. What did he recognise in Jesus that brought him to Him and not to his own religious teachers? Perhaps he recognised that they were no further than he in their religious lives and practices. Perhaps he even saw through their phoney “holiness” and knew that they had nothing to offer him. How long had he observed Jesus and seen in Him a quality that he longed to have in his own life – a humility and genuineness that showed up the “holy” ones for what they were.

Whatever his reasons for seeking Jesus out, he presented a golden opportunity for Jesus to explain the “gospel” to him.  Why did Jesus begin with the Ten Commandments? Is this a model for evangelism? Get people to admit that they have broken the commandments and are going to hell? Jesus did not even mention hell, or contradict the young man when he declared that he had observed the commandments from his childhood. What was His intention? Was it to find out where this man stood in his understanding and attitude towards God?

From his response it was obvious that this man was a devout Jew. He did all the right things, even fasting, praying and doing his tsidaqahs, his acts of righteousness which were his duty – his first-fruits offering, and his tithes to the temple, and giving to the poor. He did everything by the book. What did he lack? He must have had an emptiness somewhere in his heart, a sense of unfulfilment that niggled at him, and became more urgent when he was near Jesus.

He desperately wanted the assurance that he would “go to heaven when he died”. Is that the conviction that he lacked? Perhaps he thought that one good deed, one thing above everything else he could do would do it so that he would never have to worry about it again.

Do, do, do! That was what hammered in his brain. All he wanted was to do something special to have his future secured.

What was his understanding about eternal life? Was he aware that eternal life is not something you “get” when you die; that is it a quality of life that begins now when you embrace God’s instructions for living in the kingdom of God?

Why did Jesus love him? Was Luke saying that Jesus did not love everyone else? I don’t think so. I think Jesus saw the potential in him and longed to see him fully involved in God’s kingdom. He also saw something else in this man; a huge barrier to his becoming a genuine citizen of God’s kingdom – his wealth. In one quick instruction, Jesus uncovered his heart. “Give it all away,” He said, “and come, follow me.”

There is an important principle in Jesus’ words. It’s not necessarily about money. It’s about who or what we love more than Him. He said that whatever stands between us and Him must go or we cannot be His disciples. Why is it so imperative that we follow Him without any baggage? He came to show us the Father and to take us to the Father. We can only ever experience eternal life when we are reunited with and completely one with the Father.

Jesus said that a branch has no life outside the vine. There is no life in us when we are disconnected from Him because He and the Father are one, and to be one with Him is to be one with the Father. Jesus is the way, the only way and, apart from Him we have no life.

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (Matt. 6: 24)

The bottom line is; who do you love? You will serve the one you love. This rich man obviously loved his money too much to let it go. He chose to forfeit life in union with Jesus and to become whole again and one with the Father because money held his heart.

What holds yours?

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

To order your 0wn copy of either book, contact

Toll free – 0800 990 914 (South Africa)

orders.africa@partridgepublishing.com

www.partridgepublishing.com/africa  or

+44 20 314 3997 (outside South Africa)

ISBN: Hardcover – 978-1-4828-0891-9                                                                                     Softcover 978-1-4828-0890-2                                                                                                              eBook 978-1-4828-0889-6

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