“I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”
John 14: 6
12 “Look, I AM coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Revelation 22: 12-13
Pastors Noreen & Henry Kevern
Whoever Claims to Live in Him Must Live as JESUS Did
1My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an Advocate with the FATHER—JESUS CHRIST, the Righteous One. 2He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
3We know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commands. 4Whoever says, “I know Him,” but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5But if anyone obeys His Word, love for GOD is truly made complete in this: This is how we know we are in Him: 6Whoever claims to live in Him must live as JESUS did.
1 John 2:1-11
Fear drives a lot of people from hearing truth. Truth can be scary to those who live in the darkness of the evil one. But God’s perfect love drives out all fear. When we come to accept JESUS as our LORD and Savior, often we come before GOD with fear because we have been convinced by the evil one that God cannot love us because of our sins. But that is a lie. God loves us and proves it to us every day. When we walk in sin, the devil controls us and we are ever so fearful of stepping out of fear and into the light of GOD. But God loves you. Always has, always will. Even in sin.
And God loves you too much to leave you in your sin. Every day, He speaks His love to you. But the devil and the world drowns out the softly spoken Words of God’s love. You have to listen closely to hear God. Recently I have lost most of my hearing so I have to listen closely to what people are saying. If there is a large crowd or a lot of noise, conversations go right over my head. But if it is quiet and I focus, I can hear what others are speaking. That is how we have to be with GOD. We have to come to Him in our storms of life and focus on Him and keeping our eyes of JESUS and our ears listening for Him so we can hear what GOD is saying. I have been praying to GOD to direct me into new areas and with my hearing loss, I am able to concentrate more on the things that GOD is speaking to me.
Often we are distracted by all the noise and confusion of life. We seem to always have some type of noise around us: people, machines, animals, TV, music, and so many other distractions seek to keep us from hearing God speak. It is as if we are being programed to have so much overload that we cannot focus on the One Who died for our sins.
We are all sinners. If we say we are not sinners, we are liars. But if we confess our sins and accept JESUS as our LORD and Savior and accept GOD’s forgiveness and listen to Him, I mean really listen and walk in the way of the LORD, we can overcome the devil and the world. We are to strive every day and every hour, minute, year, in fact our whole lives are to be lived putting GOD first and living as JESUS did.
Walking in His light as He is the light of the world is something that many people think is too hard. They are afraid that if they fail that GOD will leave them and not love them. As I have said before, GOD loves you no matter what. He does not love the sins that we do, but He loves you. And in His love, when we surrender to Him, He will speak to you and show you how you are to change in order to live as He does. There is nothing that you have done that can separate you from GOD’s love. Sin separates you from GOD but not from His love. JESUS died for the whole world. His death is our living proof of the love of GOD. Death could not contain JESUS. His life mission on this earth was to show us how to live as GOD wants us to live. GOD came to earth as a human, to save us from ourselves. It may be hard to imagine, but GOD willingly and lovingly chose to become one of His creations, in order to show us His way, His truth and His life.
Jesus is our soul defender. He placed Himself between the devil and our Father, took upon Himself our sins and gave His life as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.
Listen to that again. God gave His life for you.
He loves you so much that He did not leave us in our sins, but came at the right time to save us. His whole human life’s mission was to die, to be the perfect sacrifice in order to take away our sins. Only God could be the perfect sacrifice because He is perfect. We are not perfect but if we walk in the way of the LORD, we can overcome our sinful nature. Nothing is impossible for GOD. NOTHING! Not one of your sins is impossible to overcome.
But you have to commit your life to GOD and live life the way that He showed us. It always amazes me to think about how GOD, the Creator of all things, loves us so much that when we were not learning, and continued in sin, He fulfilled His promise that He would come back into the world and put a wall of separation between us and the devil. And that wall is HIS cross. He bridged the gap between GOD and humans. He made His life a gift of eternal life, of perfect love. God has committed His life to love us. He desires to have a perfect relationship with you and me.
There are many ways in the world but there is only one way to GOD. And that is through JESUS CHRIST. There is no other way. God is not being exclusive because we are all His children. He already has that love for us. And while we are still sinners, He has given His life. We just have to choose to believe in the One and only way. JESUS.
And even though we are to strive to live sin free, if we should sin, we can come to GOD and through believing and accepting that JESUS is the only way, the only truth and the only life we are to be in, we can come to GOD through JESUS and ask Him to forgive us for sinning.
God knows we are human. He knows we are flawed. He knows everything that we do, ever good thing and every bad thing.
When we come to GOD and ask Him to help us walk with Him, He will never leave us in our sin. He will help us to overcome the devil and the world in order that we may be changed into what God created us to be. We were created in love, to love. If we hate, then we are not walking in love. I always told my kids when they were growing up, that we always love people no matter what. We may not like them but we always love. And we are to forgive one another because GOD says so. Hate is from the devil. Sin is hate and from the devil. He has always been a liar. There is no truth in the devil. The only truth is GOD. If you do not know GOD, then you are walking in darkness and not in light. If you hate anyone, you are living in sin.
GOD loves us even when we are sinners. He loves us too much to leave us in our sins and gave His life to fulfill His law. Come to JESUS. Surrender to GOD and allow Him to wash you clean. His blood is our atoning sacrifice, our saving gift of life: He is the only way, the truth and the only life we are to live.
All of us need GOD. He placed inside of each of us a desire for Him. But we have to choose Him. He has already chosen us.
So my sisters and brothers let us not be afraid of GOD and continue in sin. We all need God. Throw off the chains of sin that the devil has trapped you in. Choose to trust in GOD and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path (Proverbs 3:5-6).
All of life is a choice. There are good choices that GOD wants of us and there are bad choices that the devil wants of us. But with all of our choices there are only truly two choices, GOD’s way or the devil’s way. We cannot walk in the middle as some do, with one foot in the world’s sin and one foot in GOD’s Spirit. GOD wants all of you. Every part of your life: every cell in your body. You cannot be walking with GOD if you are walking in the ways of this world. What GOD calls sin is sin. My brothers and sisters let us seek to be set on fire with GOD’s HOLY SPIRIT living in us and allow GOD to shine His light out of us. We need a revival in GOD’s way, His truth and His life. Focus on GOD. Cover your ears, put blinders on your eyes to the lies of the devil so that all you hear and all you see is GOD.
And for those who deny GOD even exists, GOD does not deny that you exist. He created you. He loves you. GOD is real and living and loving. HE is calling out to you, “Come to Me.” Make your foundation that of GOD: HIS way, HIS truth and HIS life. GOD has placed in you His love. Denying it does not make it go away. If you deny GOD, you are denying truth. Nothing you have done is a surprise to GOD. He knows your name and He knows your sins. Stop hating. Stop sinning. There is a better way than the hate and lies of the devil. Let GOD drive out the fear that the evil one has placed in you. Do not be afraid to confess your sins. He has already forgiven your sins with HIS cross. All you have to do is accept JESUS as your LORD and Savior. You can stop walking in the darkness. GOD does not want you to be excluded from Him. HE wants you to choose to be included. HE is not an exclusive GOD but GOD Who has made each of us and we are all HIS children. That is why JESUS came. To be the way to know GOD: to be the truth of GOD: for His life to be the life that we are to live.
Be honest with yourself. Are you enjoying hate, separation, anger, rage; do you really like hurting other people; does it make you feel better to keep on telling lies? No matter how often you tell the lies of the devil, they will never be truth. The only truth is GOD’s truth. Nothing can separate you from the love of GOD. But if you do not choose to walk in HIS light, as HE is the light, GOD will accept your choice when HE comes again. You will be excluded from paradise. GOD will never force you to accept HIM because HE is perfect love. And HIS perfect love will drive out all fear if you let Him.
My sisters and brothers, are you tired of the world and its empty promises? Are you tired of the hate, the violence, and the lies that are being spread? Come to JESUS and accept HIM as your LORD and Savior. Choose to be included in the truth. Cast off your fears and come to HIM and let HIM give you HIS rest. In all your ways place GOD first. Stop up your ears to listening to the lies of the devil and open your eyes to learn to walk in the light as HE is the light.
FATHER, we thank You for Your amazing love. Please break through our hardened hearts and help us.
GOD, I need You, in every way, in every truth and in all of my life. I am sorry for closing my eyes to YOUR light and living in the darkness of the devil. GOD, I am truly sorry for my sins. I need Your help to learn to walk with YOU. I am tired of the lies. I am tired of the hate. I want to live in YOU and through YOUR Word, learn from YOU, I accept YOU JESUS as my LORD and Savior. I give you my heart, my soul, my mind and my spirit. I want all of You in my life. Thank You for YOUR cross. Thank You for rising from the dead and for never having stopped loving me. I choose to walk in YOUR love and in YOUR light. No more do I want to live in darkness. Right now, I give You me. All of me. You are my King. YOU are my GOD. And I will ever praise YOU. And in Your Name JESUS, I pray.
