{"id":494,"date":"2017-08-09T05:41:14","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T13:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=494"},"modified":"2017-08-09T05:41:14","modified_gmt":"2017-08-09T13:41:14","slug":"devotion-1-john-11-3-concrete-and-sure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=494","title":{"rendered":"Devotion\u00a0\u00a0 1 John 1:1-3\u00a0 Concrete and Sure"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 John 1:1-3 <\/strong>\u2013 That which was from the beginning,\u00a0which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,\u00a0which we have looked at and our hands have touched\u2014this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.\u00a02\u00a0The life appeared;\u00a0we have seen it and testify to it,\u00a0and we proclaim to you the eternal life,\u00a0which was with the Father and has appeared to us.\u00a03\u00a0We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard,\u00a0so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.\u00a0 4\u00a0We write this\u00a0to make our\u00a0joy complete.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is such a blessing that John wrote these words at the beginning of his letter.\u00a0 It aligns with Peter who wrote in 2 Peter 1:16<\/strong> \u201cFor we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power,\u00a0but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty<\/span>.\u201d\u00a0 The apostles did not hear stories about Jesus and then relate what they heard.\u00a0 John relates \u201cwe have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,\u00a0which we have looked at and our hands have touched.\u201d\u00a0 Family it is important to remember this. \u00a0As in the day of John, there are so many lies being presented by people who present themselves as intellectuals.\u00a0 Their degrees are paraded before us as cause for us to believe them.\u00a0 They speak to us in so called documentaries that seem so scholarly.\u00a0 They write their books. Phooey, a waste of our time to even watch or read the lies they write.\u00a0 They are today\u2019s representations of the Gnostics of John\u2019s time.\u00a0 They want to discuss if Jesus actually lived and they want to make themselves judges of the Word of God.\u00a0 In doing so they will find that it they are in fact being judged by it.\u00a0 Family, those who wrote the scriptures personally knew Jesus (let\u2019s not quibble about an amanuensis who wrote as dictated by an apostle).\u00a0 We must remember that the degrees only mean something is they know Jesus as their Savior and so have the Holy Spirit within.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit is the one who enables us to understand the Word of God (1 Corinthians 2:13-15<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

There are cults and false religions that claim that what we now have as the Bible has been changed often during history and has been adulterated.\u00a0 For any that would like to take an unbiased look into the documents that verify the Bible, there is plenty of evidence to show that what we read is what was originally written.\u00a0 The Bible is the most authenticated and well supported of all books of antiquity.\u00a0 I suggest reading Lee Strobel\u2019s \u201cThe Case for Christ\u201d, or Josh McDowell\u2019s \u201cMore Than A Carpenter\u201d and \u201cEvidence That Demands A Verdict.\u201d\u00a0 Another great Christian apologist is J. Warner Wallace who wrote \u201cCold Case Christianity.\u201d\u00a0 Adding to the power of their testimony that two were avowed atheists and one a skeptic and mocker of Christians.\u00a0 When these men looked into the evidence, they saw that the evidence pointed to the reliability of the scriptures we have.\u00a0 What we have is what was written.\u00a0 Written by men who walked with Jesus and by those whom the Holy Spirit gave the Words to write.\u00a0 Wow, oh wow!\u00a0 Praise God! How exciting!\u00a0 Family, we can have absolute trust in the Word of God that we read in the Bible!<\/p>\n

In V4<\/strong> John tells us that he, and the other authors of the book, wrote these words that our joy would be complete.\u00a0 In 1 John 5:13<\/strong> John wrote \u201c\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>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<\/span>.\u201d \u00a0Knowing that I have eternal life give a very complete joy!\u00a0 John, who personally knew Jesus wrote these words so that we might know the Word that we have is true and that the Gospel of our Lord Jesus truly brings us eternal life.<\/p>\n

Every morning we should take a moment to look into the mirror and say \u201cWow, you are a child of God!\u00a0 You are a disciple of the risen Savior!\u00a0 You are protected by God Almighty and are surely, beyond a doubt going to heaven!\u00a0 Whom, or what, shall you fear?\u201d\u00a0 That may sound silly, but it is powerful.\u00a0 We need to stop and consider who we are in Christ.\u00a0 We are the Chosen, the Redeemed of God whom He loves and zealously watches over.\u00a0 Because the victory of Jesus has been imputed onto us, we need only keep our eyes on the goal and smile.\u00a0 Life has its tough spots, but that is like getting a flat tire on the road to the dream vacation one always wanted.\u00a0 We put up with the trouble and when we are at the vacation, the flat tire becomes a distant memory no longer worth considering.\u00a0 Family, we are going to heaven\u2026really!\u00a0 We need to jump and shout about that!\u00a0 Try to remember to, every day, remind ourselves who we are because of the love of God expressed to the world through Jesus!\u00a0 Thank you Jesus!\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/strong> – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/strong> – But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/strong> – He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 John 1:1-3 \u2013 That which was from the beginning,\u00a0which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,\u00a0which we have looked at and our hands have touched\u2014this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.\u00a02\u00a0The life appeared;\u00a0we have seen it and testify to it,\u00a0and we proclaim to you the eternal life,\u00a0which was with the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[319,2199,2205,129,2200,23,2206,2152,743,14,62,2201,2204,180,100,2203,44,2202,232,94,727,90,182,17,561,769,24,1626,2132],"class_list":["post-494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-bible","tag-blessing-lord-jesus-christ","tag-chosen","tag-corinthians","tag-eyewitnesses","tag-father","tag-flat-tire","tag-god-almighty","tag-gospel","tag-heaven","tag-holy-spirit","tag-intellectuals","tag-j-warner-wallace","tag-jesus-christ","tag-john","tag-josh-mcdowell","tag-joy","tag-lee-strobel","tag-majesty","tag-micah","tag-mirror","tag-peter","tag-powerful","tag-psalm","tag-redeemed","tag-scriptures","tag-son","tag-vacation","tag-word-of-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494\/revisions\/495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}