January 14th 2018
Freedom Is Never Free, But Salvation Is Free, And Only It Gives True Freedom!
1John 4:4-5 (NIV)
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.
John is referring to the spirits that are in this world, which John refers to as the antichrist(s). Please believe such entities do in fact exist, and are here to cause disruption and chaos, and cause people to lose their immortal soul. Only followers of Jesus Christ can always resist these evil spirits. Everyone who tries to dissuade you from following Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior is somehow being directed by Satan and his evil spirits in this world. John is telling us that as disciples of Jesus we can avoid or overcome such temptations, when he writes, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them.” Then John tells us why we can overcome the evil spirits in this world, “because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” You can be an overcomer of evil influences in your life!
John starts out with an assurance of the possibility of having joy in this evil world, because we have Christ/the Holy Spirit indwelling us. We write this to make our joy complete. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. (1John 1:4-5). Those who accept salvation through Jesus Christ are protected by the indwelling Holy Spirit, and because their salvation is assured, they need not worry about the future, and yes, even their own death. We can know that our immortal soul will live with Jesus forever in heaven, because Jesus already paid the price of our admittance into heaven for all eternity! Now that is a joyful promise, you can take to the immortal bank!
We must be careful listening to people today who present themselves as a prophet and claim they can see into the future to predict what will happen in your life. Most, if not all, such people are tapping into the spirits of this evil realm and their predictions will pull us away from God, and redirect us toward some evil pursuit not toward the truth. God is not speaking through human prophets now, as He did in the past. In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. (Hebrews 1:1-2). Jesus now communicates directly with those who have chosen to follow Him in this world. Anyone teaching a message other than salvation through Jesus Christ, is NOT giving valid truthful advice, and their worldly connection is not to Jesus, but instead to and through Satan.
Jesus told His disciples, if we chose to follow Him, that we can walk in the light, not stumble around in the darkness of this world! Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life." (John 8:12, NLT). Have you chosen to follow Jesus? Are you working out your salvation, as Paul wrote? Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed— not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence— continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13). Of course, this does not mean, we are trying to earn our salvation, but we MUST be changed by the fact that our salvation is assured, and we have been changed by becoming the children of God! Therefore, we want to do good works, because we have been freed from evil, and placed into the light of Jesus!
Jesus told us in many ways that we have been guaranteed the things of this world, at least the minimum requirements for sustaining life by God, which allows to not worry about the accumulation of such things, so we can devote more of our time to study the Scriptures, and to do good deeds in this troubled world. So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:31-33). This is a difficult thing to really identify with, and not worry so much about worldly things. Don’t worry be happy!
There is a lot of contention in this world today, related to differences in people groups, which is referred to as racial divisions. The Bible does not teach that there are different races of people, only that there a different people groups, we are all members of mankind! So Biblically, there is only one kind of people, we are all part of the group called mankind. The Bible relates how the people groups were originally formed. The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:6-9).
God confused their language at the tower of babel, because mankind was not spreading over the whole earth, as God had commanded them after the Flood. Therefore, all people groups emanated from the sons of Noah, and that is why there was only one language at that time. It was the language Noah and his family spoke. So, God caused groups of people to have the same language, and they left Babel as groups and spread across the earth, and formed communities and thus, genetic bottlenecks were created, which resulted in different skin types to occur. However, the people were all related to each other, as they all came from the families of Noah. As the Bible also teaches all men share one blood, thus enforcing the idea of all mankind being only part of the human race. "And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, "so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; "for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ (Acts 17:26-28 NKJV). We are all children of God!
It makes sense that in heaven there will again be only one language spoken, and understood by all! Remember at the original Pentecost Sunday, how people of different people groups could understand the disciples, as though they were speaking their language! Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. (Acts 2:5-6). That would be the language of God speaking to His children!
Your brother in life through Adam, your brother in eternity through Jesus,
Bob Moak
1John 4:4-5 (NIV)
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.
John is referring to the spirits that are in this world, which John refers to as the antichrist(s). Please believe such entities do in fact exist, and are here to cause disruption and chaos, and cause people to lose their immortal soul. Only followers of Jesus Christ can always resist these evil spirits. Everyone who tries to dissuade you from following Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior is somehow being directed by Satan and his evil spirits in this world. John is telling us that as disciples of Jesus we can avoid or overcome such temptations, when he writes, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them.” Then John tells us why we can overcome the evil spirits in this world, “because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” You can be an overcomer of evil influences in your life!
John starts out with an assurance of the possibility of having joy in this evil world, because we have Christ/the Holy Spirit indwelling us. We write this to make our joy complete. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. (1John 1:4-5). Those who accept salvation through Jesus Christ are protected by the indwelling Holy Spirit, and because their salvation is assured, they need not worry about the future, and yes, even their own death. We can know that our immortal soul will live with Jesus forever in heaven, because Jesus already paid the price of our admittance into heaven for all eternity! Now that is a joyful promise, you can take to the immortal bank!
We must be careful listening to people today who present themselves as a prophet and claim they can see into the future to predict what will happen in your life. Most, if not all, such people are tapping into the spirits of this evil realm and their predictions will pull us away from God, and redirect us toward some evil pursuit not toward the truth. God is not speaking through human prophets now, as He did in the past. In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. (Hebrews 1:1-2). Jesus now communicates directly with those who have chosen to follow Him in this world. Anyone teaching a message other than salvation through Jesus Christ, is NOT giving valid truthful advice, and their worldly connection is not to Jesus, but instead to and through Satan.
Jesus told His disciples, if we chose to follow Him, that we can walk in the light, not stumble around in the darkness of this world! Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life." (John 8:12, NLT). Have you chosen to follow Jesus? Are you working out your salvation, as Paul wrote? Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed— not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence— continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13). Of course, this does not mean, we are trying to earn our salvation, but we MUST be changed by the fact that our salvation is assured, and we have been changed by becoming the children of God! Therefore, we want to do good works, because we have been freed from evil, and placed into the light of Jesus!
Jesus told us in many ways that we have been guaranteed the things of this world, at least the minimum requirements for sustaining life by God, which allows to not worry about the accumulation of such things, so we can devote more of our time to study the Scriptures, and to do good deeds in this troubled world. So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:31-33). This is a difficult thing to really identify with, and not worry so much about worldly things. Don’t worry be happy!
There is a lot of contention in this world today, related to differences in people groups, which is referred to as racial divisions. The Bible does not teach that there are different races of people, only that there a different people groups, we are all members of mankind! So Biblically, there is only one kind of people, we are all part of the group called mankind. The Bible relates how the people groups were originally formed. The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:6-9).
God confused their language at the tower of babel, because mankind was not spreading over the whole earth, as God had commanded them after the Flood. Therefore, all people groups emanated from the sons of Noah, and that is why there was only one language at that time. It was the language Noah and his family spoke. So, God caused groups of people to have the same language, and they left Babel as groups and spread across the earth, and formed communities and thus, genetic bottlenecks were created, which resulted in different skin types to occur. However, the people were all related to each other, as they all came from the families of Noah. As the Bible also teaches all men share one blood, thus enforcing the idea of all mankind being only part of the human race. "And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, "so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; "for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ (Acts 17:26-28 NKJV). We are all children of God!
It makes sense that in heaven there will again be only one language spoken, and understood by all! Remember at the original Pentecost Sunday, how people of different people groups could understand the disciples, as though they were speaking their language! Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. (Acts 2:5-6). That would be the language of God speaking to His children!
Your brother in life through Adam, your brother in eternity through Jesus,
Bob Moak
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