The Love and Freedom in the Truth of John 1:1-10
/If you grew up
Anglican,
in both the A.C. (Anglican, Anglo-Catholic) and attended R.C.
(Roman Catholic)
schools and, thus, Churches, you have likely heard
1 John 1:8-10
every Sunday before you shared in Communion over the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, by faith.
Before I comment on these verses, and color your opinion,
I want you to read them
and listen to what God says to you, in these verses.
First John, Chapter 1, Verses 1-10
First John, chapter 1, verses 1-10, in the English Standard Version of the Bible (
):
The Word of Life
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our[a] joy may be complete.
Walking in the Light
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
This is the Word of the LORD, our God in Christ Jesus, through the intercession of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Source:
http://lovecoversall-godislove.blogspot.ca/ by Crystal-Marie S.
Setting the Stage, My Morning Thus Far
Maybe I woke up high on God. No. I woke up worried, repenting, asking for forgiveness, faith and provision. Then, thanking God for His Love and mercy. I opened the biblegateway.com app. on my phone, and saw
1 John 1:9.
That verse swept over me with such peace, that I decided to read it in context.
I woke up at 7-something this morning, it's now 8:31 AM, and
I'm still high on God.
In fact, I woke up praying, read these verses and got high on Christ in the Holy Spirit and found out that
someone else was surprised to have woken up praying today
(on www.instapray.com). Lol. She was a bit freaked, but then she said "I'm not complaining, God, just saying this is new" and she thanked Him for loving her that much. All I know is that "God is in the air" in a big way, today -
she's in another country
and I don't know her - and great things will happen today.
[
Disclaimer:
the founder of
told me that he is not a Christian and wanted to create a forum where anyone from any religion could pray. Christians dominate the forum, but not everyone is Christian. If you join, you have been notified.]
What I Get from 1 John 1:1-10, Today
Continuing from deciding to read it in context, one of the joys of living alone is that
you can read the Word out loud
without bothering anyone. So, I decided to read out loud - reading as John must have thought it as he wrote it (no, I wasn't there). Suddenly, my eyes were opened to the experience of
hearing about this Messiah from childhood, then being able to know Him,
clear in your very being that this is the Messiah they spoke of!
Can you imagine being clear in the knowledge that God sent His only Son to save us, and that
you get to be chosen to walk alongside Him?
Even now my heart swells! You wouldn't be able to contain all of that JOY - you too would automatically
walk out the Great Commission
(
) - you would run and tell everyone! Anyone who would listen! And you'd be bubbling over. Yours actions would be
driven by nothing but awe and Love.
Wouldn't they? Not by judgement, fear and foreboding.
And that was just in verses 1-4! Reading verses 5-10 out loud, after that, I'd already been consumed by the Love of Christ, so to me these verses sounded like
"come to me, pour out all that you're hiding within and hiding from, so that I may forgive you and set you free"
(much like
). It truly was like living water refreshing every cell of my body. Have you ever felt that reading God's Word? I pray you do, because He is the ONLY reason we can have Joy and Peace regardless of circumstances.
I knew God was up to something, though. :) LOL (literally). God has taken hold of me, but this year, I have opened my eyes to see it. I know He's up to something because ALL my life I've heard that verse, 1 John 1:9, I only ever heard
"woe to you, bad child and sinner - you hurt Jesus with every bad thought"
, but Today, even before reading the entire context, I saw it differently. I saw it as
"stop worrying about your sin and give it to me. I need you whole, confident in my Love for you, so that you will want to pursue relationship with Me (God in Christ) instead of feeling shame whenever you come."
My Understanding of God's Heart
I know this is long, but I hope you were inspired to read this far.
God does not want
our only conversation with Him to be
"Sorry, God, I'm bad, horrible, wretched, unworthy, please forgive me."
When He calls us into
relationship, He calls us to know His Love!
We repent, we leave our sin at His feet, in exchange for healing and deliverance from the things that make us sin - wrong beliefs, desires that stem from hurt, fear, doubt, shame, guilt -
things not of God!
God wants to see His children Joy-filled, and He knows that we can only do that in
Freedom!
The freedom His son died and then conquered the grave to give us!
God wants a joyful, peaceful and adventurous relationship with us, and He is pursuing us to give it to us.
Stop running and let Him.
