Last week, we looked at the first of two reasons that Jesus had to come. First, he came to die for our sins. That our behavior and lives are sinful, and that Jesus came to replace that nature with His nature so that we can live in righteousness. So as we find ourselves grounded in […]
As we continue in our study of 1 John, the theme we will see over and over is the power of God’s love. His love is amazing in the fact that it is broad enough to encompass everyone, but the nature of that love is specific enough that we don’t have to seek it out or […]
Last week we looked at the false teachers that would try and influence God’s people. So we are going to move to the end of . The problem with false teachers is that they did not stay as a part of the people. When we saw the discussion of Jesus in , we saw where […]
In our previous conversations through the first letter of John, we have certainly seen how significant the discussion of love is to the apostle John. In fact, we have already been introduced to the topic in terms of God’s love for us through Christ and then our love for others as we walk/live in the […]
December 17 – In the previous section of John’s letter () we saw the deceit that accompanies our attempts to “cover” our sin. The deceit starts with the claim that we have fellowship with God but refuse to acknowledge the sin we harbor in our lives and John says this makes our claim a […]
As we continue to study through 1 John, we will see how John will speak against those who might reject God’s standard for some worldly desire. And it is interesting to think of the “shades of gray” that the world tries to push into those places God doesn’t desire for us. Paul spoke of the […]
As we continue through 1 John, we have seen that John is very precise about his meaning. And today that is important, because there are those critics that will say that the Bible was written for some power or prestige. But this is not what we see. The Bible speaks to the failures of the […]
Today we are going into a new study of 1 John. When I look into a new study like this, I want to first read through the letter. And as I read through, it is interesting that the things relevant to the readers then is very relevant now. John speaks to us that if we are […]
Next week we will start a new series working through the book of 1 John. So as we finish our series on Unity and Diversity, I want to have a final conversation on our triangle of unity. Please note that this is a core philosophy of ministry here at First Brethren. The bottom three segments […]
As we look at the pyramid of unity, we have covered the bottom three foundational areas that define unity. We have to be together and unified around the person of Jesus, the authority of the Bible, and God’s principles. Today we begin discussing the top two sections of the pyramid. And these two areas are […]