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...

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Dear friends, now we are the children of God, and what we will be has not yet 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." 1 John 3:1-3 From Enemy to Child! That should be the front page news of our lives! God's love is greater than anything we can compare it to. Though we have offended a Holy God who must judge sin, He still pursued us at the expense of His Son, so that He could reconcile us with Himself and make us His children! What an intimate term. I have two children, and both of them are very dear to me. I can't imagine how I would respond if something happened to them. They are my children. I would protect them at all costs. I nurt...

"And now, dear children, continue in Him, so that when He appears we may be confident and unashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of Him." 1 John 2:28-29 Have you ever said something bad about someone and the person found out about it? Suppose you had to meet them the next day for lunch. How would you go into that lunch? I would imagine you would go with a little bit of anxiety and a tad bit shameful. You certainly wouldn't go in confident and unashamed. Yet we are encouraged to continue in Christ (that is...not be lead astray by false teaching), so that when He appears, we will be confident and unashamed. In Christ, we have nothing to fear when He returns. Our confidence comes from the reality that we are declared righteous by God through Christ. He sees us through the eyes of grace and truth! If we try to be good enough for God apart from Christ (false teaching), then we...

"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." 1 John 2:26-27 Wow! God has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the Holy Spirit's ministry in our life. Certainly this is the anointing that John is referring to, after all, the Holy Spirit is our teacher and guide. It is true that God has gifted individuals to teach others about the faith through the Scriptures, but the Holy Spirit is all you need to direct your attention to truth. The Holy Spirit teaches you that Jesus is the Son of God and the only way to the Father. The Holy Spirit can keep you from being lead astray from this very foundational truth. John emphasizes the reader to remain or continue in Christ...to ...

"See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what He promised us - even eternal life." 1 John 2:24-25 What they heard from the beginning was that salvation was found through Christ alone by His gift of righteousness, but that message had been distorted to a point where Christ was no longer in the picture or at best had a minimal part. The teachings of the Gnostics, which attempted to replace Christ with an "awakened conscience", had reduced the Gospel to a way instead of the way to eternal life. Christ was just one of the ways people could wake up the conscience and experience spiritual light (or truth). Of course John fights back! He is assuring true followers of Jesus that what they had heard from the beginning was the truth and the only way to eternal life. He encourages them to remain (or to continue) in the Gospel. This is the message that brings a relationsh...

"But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you don't know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist - he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also." 1 John 2:20-23 John affirms that he is writing to those who know Christ, those who have been set free by the truth, but is warns about those among them who deny the truth about Jesus. They may be religious and have fervor for "the Father" but they deny the Son. John makes the point that true faith has to acknowledge Jesus. If you deny Jesus, then you have denied the Father no matter how devout you might be toward God. The opposite is true as well, that if you acknowledge the Jesus then you have the Father. This is one of many litmus...

Today was an early morning start and I didn't plan well enough to do my morning Bible Study and blog, and I now have 20 minutes before I am gone for the rest of the day. Instead of trying to cram in my quiet time during a time frame that would be difficult to meditate on the Scriptures, I thought I would throw out a question. Today in my staff meeting we discussed prayer. What is prayer and why do we pray? We were talking about the benefits of prayer, which there are many, but why do we pray? Do we pray because of the benefits we receive? Or do we pray because we recognize our absolute need and dependence upon God? I fear that we often pray with the wrong motives. We pray expecting God to see things the way we see things and fix it. We pray because it helps relieve our stress or makes us feel new. Why is it that we pray? I long for the day when individuals, families, and churches pray, not because of the benefits or out of expectation, but because we recognize our absolu...

"Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard 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. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us." 1 John 2:18-19 John is speaking in urgent terms. No one knows the time when Jesus will return, but John wrote and lived as if it were the last hour. This hour is not a literal 60 minute time period, it refers to a moment in time. We are living in that moment, the moment when Jesus could return. I love how Jesus addresses the timeline of His return in Revelation. He said He was coming "soon." We need to live with a since of urgency, especially as we see those who have turned the gospel into something its not and promoted themselves to be the "christ". It interesting that these false teachers are called ...

"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of the eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." 1 John 2:15-17 John gives us a command to not love the world or anything in the world. What does this mean? He qualifies what he means by "anything in the world" in verse 16. He is talking about the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, the boasting of what he has and does. All three of these come from the world and all three are self focused. When I think of a craving, I think of something I have to have at the time to satisfy me. Sometimes I walk into the convenient store and walk around looking for something to satisfy my hunger. I carefully search for that one thing that I am c...

"I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of His Name. I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one." 1 John 2:12-14 These are a few interesting verses. I seems as if John is repeating himself, but it is interesting to note that verses 12 and 13 are written in the present tense and verse 14 is written in the aorist tense in the Greek language. This is why the NASB says "I am writing..." in verses 12 and 13, and "I have written" in verse 14. The aorist tense generally refers to past tense. Why did John do this? I am not sure! It could be because he ...