Recent reminders...

1 John 3:9-10

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

I love these verses. I am going to start referencing them a lot when I am working with my boys. I know that the word "brother" means our brothers in Christ, however, there is a special emphatic "umph" that will work to my advantage when I encourage them that some particular act wasn't very loving.

It's often easy for my sons to see that what they did wasn't loving at all...and repent. Since they are young and there aren't many outside influences, repentance comes quickly to them. It's such an encouragement to see the Lord working in their life that, since they have professed the Lord Jesus as their savior, they are born of God and are practicing this very verse. No Christian will ever be perfect until the Lord makes us that way. But, we, as believers, should not "make a practice of sinning'. The Spirit works within us and leads us to repentance.

I recently read a book called "What he must be if he wants to marry my daughter" by Voddie Bauchum. I learned a lot about what a young man needs to be to even come to call on my daughter...things that 1) I fall way short of 2) want to become myself... But, I think the most important thing in the whole book was helping me understand even more what a Christian actually is. Many people know the sweet little catch phrases that aren't even scripture per se...like, "I invited Jesus in my heart", or "I walked the aisle"... That's not what a Christian is though. Voddie did a great job using the typical pastoral teaching alliteration with the letter "R"...

Regenerate

Repentant

Renewed

Regenerate - born again. The mercy and free gift that no man can acquire on his own - God's grace. It's simply unattainable with out God giving it to us. We must be born again.

Repentant - we are sinners - we know that...but like the passage I lead this email with, "he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God" No bad tree gives off good fruit, no good tree gives bad fruit. What fruit are we bearing? When, not if, we bear the bad fruit, is there repentance...do we even know what that means?

Renewed - We are a new creation - Sometimes we forget that and get caught up in the "stuff" of this world. The distractions...Pastor Dale Thompson refers to it as the devil's World System. We need to do the things to refresh us and reinforce our new creation. We have to "feed" that which we want to be evident to all....stay in your bad habits, etc if you want to feed the old sinful self. Join a bible study, be accountable to someone, etc. if you want to feed your newly created, mercifully given self.

What an encouragement to know that the mighty creator reminds me of my shortcomings in such a loving and caring way. That, through other believers like Voddie Bauchum, He reminds me of His timeless truths and perfect precepts. Just more evidence that He loves me...