As you grow in grace, you will grow in knowledge and power. False teaching and false profits are so subtle and so hidden in pop culture that spiritual warfare is welling up unnoticed by many faithful Christians. Well intended believers are creating safe zones around their faith. Worship services and small group meetings have become a place to hide from the antichrists. John wrote to believers who didn’t have a written form of God’s Word. These believers were taught through the spoken word of men. The early days in the revolution of Jesus Christ required deep dependence on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Have we allowed a subtle deception to cause us to doubt the Spirit in us and to believe only what we see with our own eyes?

^[4:1] Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. ^[2] By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ^[3] and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. ^[4] Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. ^[5] They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. ^[6] We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.  (1 John 4:1-6 ESV)

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As you grow in grace, confidence in your salvation develops, and you can begin to trust your heart. Jesus won the battle for your heart from the origins of sin. These battles are fought in a religious context. The battle is waged against the religious.

^[11 ]For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. ^[12] We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. (1 John 3:11,12 ESV)

John takes us back to one of these early battles against sin; contrasting the children of the devil and the children of God. Cain sinned against God with an act of religion, while Abel’s sacrifice was pleasing to God as an act of gratitude.

^[3] In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, ^[4] and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, ^[5] but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. (Genesis 4:3-5 ESV)

 Cain’s offering was a testament to his own work, an act of religion. Satan’s children are “religious”. Cain worshiped at an altar, and the Pharisees were the most, over the top, religious figures of their day. The ultimate religious battle of Christ against the Antichrist is coming. So, as Christians are we religious, or not?   Continue Reading…

As you grow in grace you will begin to define yourself less and less in terms of who you are not, and more by who you are becoming in Christ. Have you noticed that when non-believers describe Christians they tend to point out what we shouldn’t do anymore. Why is that, and what should we do about it? Why do we make it look so hard?

 ²⁸ Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” [Matthew 11:28-30 NLT]

 Being yoked together with Jesus implies movement. Spiritual movement in Christ is growth in grace. Grace shows up in our lives as gratitude in action. The “rest for your souls” Jesus spoke of is not inactivity, as we commonly think of rest.

 ”It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for a bird to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.” – C.S. Lewis

When you contemplate the return of Jesus Christ, do your thoughts race to what you will be doing, or what you hope you will not be doing?   Continue Reading…

Around 9pm on Friday November 11, 2011, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez fired a Romanian Cugir semiautomatic rifle from his car parked on Constitution Avenue. Nine rounds were fired, one of which was found lodged in a window of the first family’s living quarters. He was arrested five days later in a hotel in Pennsylvania. Obama was not at the White House at the time of the shooting, but Federal prosecutors launched an investigation to determine if Hernandez acted out of hatred for Obama. Subsequently, writings by Hernandez and testimony from those who knew him showed that he believed President Obama was the antichrist and the “devil”. Hernandez, now 22 years old, believes he is Jesus Christ. He said on a video tape he intended to send to Oprah, “I am the modern day Jesus Christ that everyone has been waiting for”.

There are many, professing to be Christians, that are obsessed with rooting out the Antichrist. Barack Obama is a common target. The term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to a leader who fulfills Biblical prophecies concerning an adversary of Christ, while resembling him in a deceptive manner. The antichrist will seemingly provide for the needs of the people but deny them ultimate salvation. What is your current understanding of the antichrist?

 ¹⁸ Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard, “Antichrist is coming,” even now many antichrists have come. We know from this that it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us. ²⁰ But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge. ²¹ I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth. ²² Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son. ²³ No one who denies the Son can have the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well.   [1 John 2:18-23 HCSB]

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An important part of growing in grace is growing. In our series “How to Love Well” we learned that in order to move forward we must “break the power of our past”. Maybe you are paralyzed in your present trials and troubles. John uses an interesting writing style here to double emphasize truth and grace that exist because of who Jesus is and nothing else.

 ¹² I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven because of Jesus’  name. ¹³ I am writing to you, fathers, because you have come to know the One who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have had victory over the evil one. 

¹⁴ I have written to you, children, because you have come to know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have come to know the One who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, God’s word remains in you, and you have had victory over the evil one. [1 John 2:12-14 HCSB]

Living in freedom is summed up beautifully in verse 12. First John refers to saints (believers) as “little children”, then lifts the weight of any darkness (verse 11) by reminding them that their “sins have been forgiven because of Jesus’ name”. John was focused on what was already true, not on selling a reward for good behavior based on their effort. Have you ever struggled with replacing grace with good works because you didn’t feel God’s presence?    Continue Reading…