PJ's Journal

As I sit at the computer and type I am contemplating the things that I am thankful for! I am thankful for so many things. First of all, I am thankful that God has given me life and breath! I am thankful for a wife that truly loves God and is dedicated to investing in our kids. I am thankful for Tori and Caleb! God has blessed me with two children whom I have the honor of raising and investing myself into! I am thankful for a great church...a community of loving people who genuinely care! I am thankful for the ministry God has given me! An opportunity to serve Him by investing myself into the lives of so many students. I am thankful for so much that I would bore everyone if I wrote it down! God has been and will always be good, let us recognize those good things and give thanks where thanks is due!

"This is how we can recognize the Spirit of God:  Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.  This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world."  1 John 4:2-3 You cannot even begin to understand this statement apart from the historical context of that day.  John is refuting Gnostic teaching which says the spirit or non-material is good and the flesh is bad.  They denied that Jesus came in the flesh because the flesh is evil.  John is simply stating that those influenced by spirits outside of the Holy Spirit will not acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh.  It is significant to atonement that Jesus come in the flesh.  He was made like us in "every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people." (Hebrew

"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have come into the world."  1 John 4:1 John encourages us to be careful when it comes to being led by the spiritual world.  Many have and will continue to make claims that the Spirit of God has directed them in a certain way or have told them certain things.  John basically tells the reader to not be so naive.  We are to test the spirits to see if it is from God or not.  This is a very important process that does not need to be taken lightly.  If it is from God... then it should move you to action, and if it is not... you should distance yourself from it.  Most of the time when something doesn't feel right to us we immediately label it as something not of God.  While that may be true some if not most of the time, it is possible for us to miss out on what God is doing due to the enemies influence.  We need to put these things to the test, both the

"Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from Him anything we ask, because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him. And this is His command: to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us. Those who obey His commands live in Him, and He in them. And this is how we know that He lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us." 1 John 3:21-24 Have you ever been asked to pray when you were rebelling against God on an issue? I have and it's so empty! When I am gratifying the desires of my sinful nature...struggling with such things as pride, selfishness, or lust...I find it difficult at best to pray. I feel shame in my relationship with God because I know I have dishonored Him! In those times, I have quenched the Holy Spirit's ministry in my life and have turned a deaf ear to His voice. I do not live by the Spirit during these battles, I live in the flesh. It affe

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words and tongue but with actions and in truth. This is how we know we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything." 1 John 3:16-20 Truth leads to a love for people! Jesus, who embodies truth, set the example by laying down His life for us, and we are to follow His example. We don't self-sacrifice for the sake of being right with God, but we lay down our lives for others as a result of being in the truth. If you belong to Christ, then you will actively love others. There is a peace before God during times of doubt when you are engaging your faith in a love for oth

"This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in Him." 1 John 3:11-15 I can just hear Cain saying to himself, "That brother of mine thinks he's better than me. What a brown noser, holy roller, and religious fanatic! His relationship with God sickens me!" Of course I don't know what Cain was saying, but it seems clear that his issue, relative to Abel's relationship with God, was a one of jealousy. How did he respond to this jealousy? He eliminated the very thing that made h

I am answering this question from last week's blog. It's an interesting one that, honestly, I am struggling with. At face value, the Apostle John seems very clear when he says such things as... "No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning" (1 John 3:6) or "No one who is born of God continues to sin." (1 John 3:9) What is he saying? Earlier in this same letter he writes... "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if you anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One." (1 John 2:10) This verse makes it clear that a Christian can sin, but evidently sin was a big issue in the church at the time. Many scholars agree that this letter was written in response to Gnostic teachings which promoted sin. They believed that the flesh was evil and the spirit was good, so it didn't matter what you did in the body. In other words, do what ever you want in the flesh bec

"God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."  2 Cor. 5:21 What a glorious exchange talked about here in this verse.  I've been thinking about this exchange for awhile now and cannot get enough of it!  To think that God sent His only Son into this world as a baby, and living into His early thirties.  Having never sinned, thus being totally righteous.  He willingly laid down His life so that He might take my sin in exchange for His righteousness.  You see sin is what destroyed our right relationship with God.  We are unrighteous because of sin and that has completely separated us from God because God is righteous!  A righteous God requires us to be righteous in order to have a right relationship with Him.  The only way that God could make us righteous and not violate His character was to offer a payment for sin that would make us righteous as well.  The answer...Jesus, God's only Son!  He took my place!  He pai

"Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." Romans 13:1 "...the Most High God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he wishes." Daniel 5:21 As I write this morning, I find myself at more peace than I expected to find myself. Certainly, I am disappointed in the results of the election and have real fears about where our country is headed and how it might affect the church. I realize that most people do not share my value system, but that is OK. Worst case scenario, how will this effect me? Certainly, a absolute moral compass is quickly fading from the thinking of the majority. Issues such as the design and make up of the family could be totally changed, the acceptance of what is morally wrong will become more prevalent, the rights of those lives yet unborn may be stripped even more, and the list c

"Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray.  He who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous.  He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.  The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.  No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.  This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother."  1 John 3:7-10 Wow!  This is pretty heavy stuff!  I am going to do something different today.  I am not going to address this passage until tomorrow and let you all read these verses and comment on what you think John is saying.  At face value, if you sin then you aren't a child of God!  Is this what John means?  I look forward to reading your comments.

"Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.  But you know that He appeared so that He might take away our sins.  And in Him is no sin.  No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning.  No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or know Him."  1 John 3:4-6 I read a few verses like this and say, "What!  Does this mean that if I sin, I am not a follower of Christ?"  These verses can be very confusing.  What is John saying?  First, remember that John already affirms that a Christian can sin in 1 John 1:8-10 and 2:1.  I doubt if John is contradicting himself.  John is dealing with the tension a follower of Christ has between sin and holiness.  God is holy and without sin, and we were saved and empowered to move in that direction.  The words in the Greek seem to indicate an ongoing habitual rebellion.  Its highly unlikely that John is meaning "one sin" but rather a habitual rebellion against God.  This passage challenges me, because it emphasi