By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment…there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment (1 John 4:17-18 ESV). Love and fear can they exist together? Some people say no that they are mutually exclusive. Scripture often pairs them together. God is love, and we are to fear Him far above all gods. The fear of God acquaints us with our sister wisdom. Without such fear, we will fail to meet her and lack the pleasure of her company. If love and fear do not oppose one another then why does the Apostle John teach us that perfect love casts out all fear? My principal in elementary school called me into
My loved one is gone down into his garden…I am for my loved one, and my loved one is for me; he takes food among the lilies (Song of Songs 6:2-3). Jesus has come down into His garden to browse among His lilies. He lives in a high and lofty place, and at the right hand of His Father, He sits. But yet Jesus comes down to where you are because He loves you. He desires for you to know His love for you. The lilies are His children who do not worry or carry weights too heavy for them to bear. The burden of their Lord is light. These are the sons and daughters of God who know the Lord comes down from heaven to visit them. The Holy Spirit lives in them, and they walk in the Spirit because He a
…and the house that is to be built for the LORD must be exceedingly magnificent (1Chronicles 22:5). The House of God is magnificent. It is not made of brick and mortar but of souls that are precious living stones, which will withstand both the pressure and fire of God. When you surrender your life to Christ, He plants you into His house. Growing up in the Father’s House will cleanse you of idolatry. For He alone is your Creator and ever present help in trouble. Idols in your life are very familiar and are as close to you as your right hand. So remember when you are going through the weight of a fiery trial do not think it’s strange or that God has forgotten you. In reality, God your Fa
…the sons of God, without rebuke, in the middle of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world (Phil. 2:15). God is a builder. He uses living stones to build His house. Like Jesus, these stones are sons too which He chooses and calls precious. God, our rock is higher than we are. But we are rocks as well shaped from the spiritual DNA we inherit from our Father through His Son Jesus Christ. In essence, we are “chips off the old block” resembling our Father in His character and shining disposition. When the time is right, God takes us from the noisy quarry of conflicts and strife to the palace of the King. Through the fire, He leads us, polishes and makes us
…for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith (Gal. 3:26). As a man thinks in his heart, so He is. What you believe about yourself determines how you will treat yourself and how you will treat others. In Christ, through faith, we are all sons of God. When we are born again, God becomes our Father, and Jesus becomes our brother. We become a joint heir with Christ to an inheritance we will possess because the Holy Spirit within us guarantees that we will obtain it. The Holy Spirit seals us and works in us even when we are not aware of His work He is forming us into the image of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Step over into son-ship. If God calls us sons, we must respond to
