BibleTrekToday.com

Year: 2015

  • Jesus speaks plainly to His Bride!

    Scripture reading for December 3rd:  Revelation 3

    Not many people love to be corrected.  Yet the Bible teaches that “the Lord disciplines those He loves and punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” (Hebrews 12:6)  In “this prophecy received by John from Jesus Christ, the Lord gives strong words to His Bride, the Church.  We all would be wise to listen and heed what He has to say!

    “To the angel of the church in Sardis write: . . “I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.  Wake up!  Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of My God.  Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it and repent.  But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.””  (Revelation 3:1-3)

    Jesus knew the true condition of the hearts of those in this church.  They had reputations and an image that they were trusting in, but they had been and were asleep and dead spiritually!  Jesus told them plainly, not to condemn them but to warn them to repent!  A change of mind was needed and a return to the original Gospel message and passion of trusting in Christ would put them back on track!  Failure to respond would bring great disappointment when Christ returned.  They would not be ready and their inheritance would be in jeopardy.

    But there were a few in Sardis that were not asleep or dead!  “They will walk with Me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.  He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white.  I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before My Father and His angels.”  (Revelation 3:4-5)  Spiritual ears are required to hear the loving words of Jesus!

  • To He who has an ear!

    Scripture reading for December 2nd:  Revelation 2

    John was told to write down what he heard and saw and to send letters to the seven churches of Asia.  Jesus, Himself, dictated the letters to each church.  The letters generally contain a personal revelation of Jesus, commendation for good works, corrections needed  along with warnings, and promises to those who would overcome.

    “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.  I know your deeds. . . .”  (Revelation 2:1-2)   Jesus introduced Himself as the One holding all the messengers (angels or possibly pastors) in His hand.  He also walked among the churches and knew about the light that was coming from their “lampstand.”   He knew their deeds that were inspired by faith and commended them for them.

    “Yet I hold this against you:  You have forsaken your first love.  Remember the height from which you have fallen.  Repent and do the things you did at first.  If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.   But you have this in your favor:  You hate the practices of the Nicolatians which I also hate.  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.”  (Revelation 2:4-7)  Jesus also had honest correction.  This church had left its first love–a love of Christ that sparked obedience and acts of love to others.  Repentance was required.  Only the humble have ears that will hear and heed!  Overcomers will be rewarded!

  • An unveiling of Jesus Christ!

    Scripture reading for December 1st:  Revelation 1

    “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show His servants what must soon take place.  He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John, who testifies to everything he saw–that is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.  Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it because the time is near.”  (Revelation 1:1-3)

    John wrote down this prophesy to the Church given to him by Christ’s angelic messenger.  This prophecy is a revelation of Jesus Christ, the living Word of God.  Jesus is the Faithful Witness and First-born from the dead.  When He comes again, every eye will see Him.  This is the only letter of the New Testament that promises a blessing to those who read and take to heart what is written.  The letter closes with a warning against adding to this or taking away from it!  (Revelation 22:18-19)  A key truth is that the time is near for the fulfillment of a literal revelation of Jesus from heaven.

    John was imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos because of preaching the Word of God.  While worshiping alone on that rocky island, Jesus appeared to him and he was overcome with His presence.  “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead.  Then He placed His right hand on me and said:  Do not be afraid.  I am the First and Last.  I am the Living One; I was dead and behold I am alive for ever and ever!  And I hold the keys of Death and Hades.”   (Revelation 1:17-19)  Jesus is alive and victorious!  His people are now free from fear of death or punishment! He is aware of each of His servants and with them to encourage them!  The best is yet to come!  Amen!

     

  • Contend for the faith!

    Scripture reading for November 30th:  Jude

    Jude was a half-brother to Jesus Christ and the brother of James.  His short letter mirrors some of the same issues that Peter dealt with in his second letter:  false teachers and apostasy.  His letter speaks to the church of today.

    “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.  For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you.  They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”  (Jude 3-4)

    The main issue that Jude felt compelled to address was the infiltration of false teachers into the church.  These men were slipping in and teaching destructive doctrines.  They believed in a cheap grace that taught that believers could keep on living in sin and Jesus would forgive them.  In doing so, they were denying the true work of Jesus Christ to do away with sin and deliver the sinner from its power.  This cheap grace is also in the church today!  It is a false doctrine that divides the church and is devoid of the Holy Spirit.  (vs. 19)

    “But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.  Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life.  Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear–hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.”  (Jude 20-22)  The best defense is a good offense of actively doing God’s will!

  • Imitate what is good!

    Scripture reading for November 27th:  3rd John

    It has been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  Our lives as Christians are always examples to those close to us and in our sphere of influence.  We are teaching others by our example what following God looks like.  If you were to be prosecuted for following Jesus, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

    “To my dear friend, Gaius, whom I love in the truth.  Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul  is getting along well.  It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell me of your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth.”  (3 John 2-3)  John wrote to an elder and personal friend to encourage him.  John had been encouraged and filled with joy to hear a good report of hospitality shown to preachers of the gospel by this elder.  He was setting a good example and was commended.

    “I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, would have nothing to do with us.  So, if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us.  Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers.  He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.  Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good.”   (3 John 8-11)  In contrast to Gaius, Diotrephes was a bad example.  He was not showing hospitality and was tearing down the brotherhood and church unity through gossip.  He was an abusive church leader who needed to be exposed and corrected!  Bad examples often spread their evil!  Imitate what is good!

  • Fully rewarded!

    Scripture reading for November 26th:  2nd John

    The second letter of John was written in the later years of his life to either a specific lady and her children or to a church family.  John wrote to encourage this family to continue to walk in the truth and to beware of false teachers and their destructive doctrines.  This simple letter encourages us today!

    “It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.  And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command, but one we have  had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.  And this is love:  that we walk in obedience to His commands.”  (2 John 4-6)  It gives great delight to pastors and church elders when people actually walk in the truth of God’s word.  It also brings pleasure to God when we walk in faith!  (Hebrews 11:6)  Faith works by love, and God is love!  We love God when we by faith trust in the goodness and blessedness of His commands and walk in loving obedience.

    “Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone into the world.  Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.  Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but will be fully rewarded.”  (2 John 7-8)  John wanted this lady and her children to be aware of the deceivers.  He wanted them to continue to live in obedience to the Lord and love each other.  The false teachers were trying to destroy their faith and get them into sin.  They were not to receive them or they would share in their wicked work and lose their reward!

  • Knowing you have Eternal Life!

    Scripture reading for November 25th:  1st John 5

    Many in our world and even in the Church are fearful for their ultimate acceptance by God and their actual future experience of eternal life.  John had told them that Christ’s perfect love drives out all fear. (1st John 4:18)  God wants His children confident of their salvation and able to boldly share the Gospel with others.  John closes his letter with strong encouragement and confidence in Christ!

    “Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart.  Anyone who does not believe has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about His Son.  And this is the testimony:  God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.  He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.  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.”  (1st John 4:10-13)

    Jesus Christ and the Apostle John want us to know that we have eternal life!  The test is simple:  If you have the Son of God, you have life; if not, you are lost!  Faith in Jesus Christ as God’s Son secures eternal life.  After we believe on Christ, God gives us a testimony in our hearts by His gift to us:  The Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we belong to God.  (Romans 8:15-17)  We know our new identity as a member of God’s family with God’s eternal life abiding in us through the down-payment of the Holy Spirit.  Thank God we can know this truth!

  • No fear in love!

    Scripture reading for November 24th:  1st John 4

    “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed His love among us:  He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.  This is love:  not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  (1st John 4:7-10)

    The call to love is constant throughout John’s letter to the church.  Love is a primary fruit of the Spirit of Christ.  God, Himself, is love!  Love is the choice of will and character to always do what is best for another, even if it costs everything!  God demonstrated this for us by sending His only Son into the world to give His life for us, sinners without love for God or others.  (Romans 5:8)  The source of all true love is God.  We can now love because He loved us!

    Scripture states that all people have ‘eternity in our hearts’ (Ecclesiastes 3:11)  We have a fear of death because of sin in our life.  (Hebrews 2:14-15)  We know that the judgment is coming and that we cannot stand before a holy God.  But God wants us to have confidence on the judgment day because of relationship with Him.   “Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.  In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like Him.  There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”  (1st John 4:16-18)

     

  • Love one another!

    Scripture reading for November 23rd:  1st John 3

    “See how great is the love that the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!  . . .Dear friend, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not been made known.  But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.  Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”  (1st John 3:1-3)

    John encouraged the Church with a revelation of their identity–children of God!  What great love that believers have had ‘lavished’ on them:  Adopted into God the Father’s family and given an inheritance in His eternal kingdom!   We don’t yet fully comprehend all that this means.  The full revelation will come when Jesus Christ appears again and we will be instantly changed to have glorious bodies like His body!  (1st Corinthians 15:51-54)  The hope of His appearing should result in an eager desire in each believer to be pure and holy when He comes.  “Without holiness, no one will see the Lord.”   (Hebrews 12:14)

    Practical holiness involves love.  “This is the message you heard from the beginning:  We should love one another.  . . . .We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.  Anyone who does not love remains in death.”  (1st John 3:11,14)  Love of our brothers is not an option in the kingdom of God and Christ.  We are deceiving ourselves if we say we love God and hate our brothers.  Jesus laid His life down for His brothers and we must do likewise.  We can test ourself:  Do I love my brother (or sister?)  Our identity leads to this response to Christ’s love: “Love one another!”

     

  • An anointing from the Holy One!

    Scripture reading for November 20th:  1st John 2

    John identified the false teachers of his day as ‘antichrists’.   An ‘antichrist’ was one who set their own teaching over and against what Christ taught.  In other words, Jesus proclaimed that He was the “Son of God”.  The antichrists would deny the deity of Jesus, also denying God the Father or our adoption into the Father’s family.  They claimed to be Christ-followers but were counterfeits!

    “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come.  This is how we know it is the last hour.  They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us.”  (1st John 2:18-19)  John taught the church that the appearance of these false teachers marked the time they were living in as the ‘last days’.  These teachers came from within the church but were not really part of the true church.  We must now be in the last minutes or seconds because these same types of teachers abound in our world today.

    “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.  . . I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.  As for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you.  But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit–just as it has taught you, remain in Him.”  (1st John 2:20, 26-27)  God our Father has equipped us with the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is a Spirit of Truth that lives in each believer to reveal truth and give discernment of false spirits.  We must remain in Jesus Christ and follow the Spirit and Word to avoid deception!