PJ's Journal

"If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that does lead to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death." 1 John 5:16-17 Have you ever heard someone make a comment in the context of your conversation with them and you had to ask, "What do you mean by that? Explain yourself!" That's what I feel like right now. I would love to have a conversation with the Apostle John and ask him to explain, because I am not sure what this means. Here is my best stab at it, but honestly I don't know! Here is what I know John to have said: 1. There is a (singular) sin that leads to death 2. There is sin (plural) that does not lead to death 3. We are encouraged to pray for a fellow believer if their sin does not lead to death 4. All wrongdoing is sin He

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we have asked 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 asked of Him." 1 John 5:14-15 Prayer is one of those things I am trying to understand. It certainly demonstrates our dependence upon God and our helplessness without Him. Prayer is a humbling discipline in the life of a believer. To genuinely pray, one has to come to an end of himself and recognize their place before God, this however, is no easy task. We generally function as independent people who are sufficient in and of ourselves. If we want something done, we buckle down and get it done! Hard work and outside the box thinking seem to rule our lives. "We can do anything, if we put our minds to it", is what we often think, but this is not true when it comes to Kingdom living. In a Kingdom there is a King and servants. The goal of the servant is to carry out

"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." 1 John 5:13 I often ask the question to folks, "Can you know that you have eternal life?", and the response I get is almost 100 percent, "No, no one can really know!" While I understand where they are coming from, I also have to disagree. What is my disagreement based upon? Well, its based on the testimony of one who walked with Jesus, seen Jesus after the resurrection, and was privileged to write about things that are yet to come which he has seen with his own eyes. Could John be crazy? Highly unlikely! We cannot think of John without thinking of the other eye witnesses of Jesus. Here is a group of men and women who turned the world upside down based on their belief that Jesus was God's promised Messiah! They were so convinced that they dedicated their very lives to spread the news of what they saw! A very high percentage

What does it mean to glorify God? That is a question that seems to have many different responses from incredibly smart and God-fearing men. John Piper might say that God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him! While I agree that God is glorified when we find our satisfaction in Him, I often think about what brings the most glory to God. I am going to throw out a concept. God is most glorified when we are most like Jesus. If there was anyone who gave glory to the Father, it was Jesus. He is the perfect example of what it means to glorify God, and it seems to make sense to me that the more like Jesus we become, the more glory we bring to the Father! What does it mean to become like Him? I don't know if I have a perfectly formulated answer for that question, but I think about it in terms that I get. I want to love the things that He loves, hate the things that He hates, be broken over the things that He is broken over, excited about the things He is excited abou

"We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is much greater because it is the testimony of God, which He has given about His Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God 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." 1 John 5:9-12 I love apologetics, but the one thing that I find hard to reason with people, who want no part of Christ, about is this confirmation in my Spirit about the things of God. I know that I know that I know that Jesus is the Son of God and has given me life! I know this testimony to be real because I live with this reality in my heart! God has testified about His Son in my heart through the working of the Holy Spirit, but how do you explain this to

" We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Cor. 10:5 I woke up this morning around 3am with many thoughts running through my head. I have been thinking about this verse for some time now and want to write out some of what my thinking is. We are told to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. I often wondered what in the world that meant! It was a bit confusing to me, because I take things very literally. I often wondered how you took a thought and made it obedient. I treated my thoughts as if they had a mind of their own (no pun intended). What does it mean? I have always heard the phrase, but never within its context. Paul is warning the people about false teaching and explains to us how he and his companions deal with teachings or thoughts that do not conform to the truth. He says that they demolish arguments and every pretens

"This is the one who came by water and blood - Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and by blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement." 1 John 5:6-8 This is a very confusing passage and I honestly can not say for sure what it is, but here is what I believe the Spirit is revealing to me as I sit here and meditate on this awhile. Through out the book of 1 John, John has been addressing false doctrine about the person of Jesus. This false doctrine taught that Jesus was not actual flesh and blood, but a spirit. In their view (the material is bad and the spiritual is good), there was no way that the Son of God could come in the flesh. He had to be spiritual. I believe John is affirming that Jesus came by water (born into this world through a birth process) and He physically died and rose again in the flesh. Jesus was

"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His child as well. This how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. This is love for God: to obey His commands. And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God." 1 John 5:1-5 So what are the evidences of a person who has genuinely surrender his life to Christ to be adopted as His child and conformed to His Son? Well, I believe John lays those things out. These are not requirements, but rather fruit of real faith. In some way you have to have benchmarks because there are many people who say "I believe", but belief is rooted in action. You will show your belief by what you do. Here are the evidences: 1. You believe that Jesu

"We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother." 1 John 4:19-21 John is speaking to motive in this passage. I do not believe John is saying that we have the capability to love now that we are followers of Christ, because I believe others, who don't know Christ, love all the time, but rather he is saying that the reason we love is because God first loved us. Our life is wrapped up in Christ, and we are called to become conformed to His likeness...to love like He loved in this case. Why is it that you cannot love God if you hate your brother? Because love is an essential fruit of a transformed life! In the context John is talking about loving your brother. I do not think he is not talking about a biological brother, but he is

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. 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." 1 John 4:16-18 This is the real freedom that we have as Christ followers! To know and embrace that God has loved us with a perfect love and has called us to live a life of love brings complete freedom. Jesus Christ was the perfect example of a human who lived a life of love. He had compassion on people when it wasn't convenient for Him, He healed the broken, had patient with His followers, and ultimately took upon Himself the punishment for sin that we deserved. "There is no greater love than a man that lays His life down for His friends!" We are cal

"We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in Him and He in God." 1 John 4:13-15 Sometimes I am envious of John because of his situation. He can testify first hand that Jesus came to be the Savior of the world. He was there when God spoke from heaven, "This is my Son, in Him I am well pleased." He was there to witness the incredible miracles of Jesus, and wrote them down. He was there at the transfiguration, and witnessed Jesus die on the cross. He saw the resurrected Jesus first hand and was a part of Pentecost. He knows the truth because He witnessed the truth. I was not there...I never saw Jesus in the flesh...I have never experienced a Pentecost type of experience, but I do understand the confirmation of the Holy Spirit. I know that I live in Christ because of

"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. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us." 1 John 4:7-12 John gives us clear direction in this passage to love another. By loving one another, we give people the best visible evidence of a loving God! Love is a benchmark in your relationship with Christ, as a matter of fact, John says clearly that if you don't love then you don't know God. Is John just blowing smoke? Of course not! We, who claim to be followers of Ch

"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood." 1 John 4:4-6 John is speaking about the influence of false teachers whose teaching are based on worldly ideas and not on truth. John encourages the reader by acknowledging that they have overcome the influence of the false teachers, because the Spirit of God who is in them is greater than the influence of the evil one. When we live by the Spirit of God as He interacts with the truth of the Word, we are readily able to recognize worldly philosophies and steer clear of them. The enemy seeks to distort truth, so that what is wrong seems right and what is righ

We live in a me centered world, where everything we do seems to be about us.  We look at our purpose in this world as becoming a better or more successful person.  We go to school for years to get smarter and to get ahead of the next person.  Sometimes we go to the extreme of railroading others to achieve the success that we desire.  Sadly this idea has been adopted by many who are Christ followers.  We make life about us.  Here is how it takes place... "I don't like to listen to so and so preach because his sermons are boring" "Traditional style of worship doesn't do much for me!" "I can't stand those new contemporary songs and by the way the drums are too loud!" "Why would I give 10 percent of my own money to the church!" "My life is too chaotic to spend time with God!" Life is all about God, after all he created us and desires us to glorify His Name, but we have made life more about us than about God.  You see, if God wer