And John speaks specifically toward that today in what we read. And I quote, “you are from God, little children, and you have conquered them because the one who is in you, is greater than the one who was in the world.” So, John is telling his readers, like look, there’s lots of swirl. There’s lots of things to think about. There’s lots of ways to become distant and think of the Holy Spirit or Jesus work as esoteric and spiritual. And some of the false teachings are separating us from the reality that the spirit of God lives inside those who believe. And so, the spirit of God is in you and will lead you away from the deception of the world. But John’s not just trying like parse theology and have a theological debate. He’s trying to get the readers, and that’s us friends, to get our minds around what we cannot possibly comprehend. A reality that the spirit of God is within us. Because of Jesus, the human and the divine can be in collaboration like we see Jesus doing. And what would be the evidence that we are walking this path, love. John says it like this, “dear friends let us love one another. Because love is from God. And everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love, does not know God, because God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way, God sent his one and only son into the world, so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this, not that we’d love God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is made complete in us.” That is, that is very powerful. Jesus is the physical human embodiment of God’s love for us. A love we could see in action. He wasn’t an apparition, demonstrating these things. He was God offering Himself in the flesh, coming to be among us, Emmanual. God with us. And when we love one another, we are making that same love visible in the flesh, in our flesh. God dwells within us and loves the world through our flesh, just like Jesus did. John says it like this, “We have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love and the one who remains in love, remains in God and God remains in him. In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, instead perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So, the one who fears, is not complete in love.” So, the implications are pretty huge. We can’t see God, as John said, but we can see each other. And when we live inside the reality that the spirit of God is in us, we begin to understand that being part of the body of Christ is not just like this nice metaphor. We are physically bringing the love of God to the world, like Jesus did, because Jesus is within us. The same spirit is animating and guiding our lives. And God’s love is made perfect in us, as we live into this, and perfect love casts out all fear. In all of the Bible there are plenty of references to love. We obviously know that, but if there were a case in the Scriptures about why we must live in love, this is it, in First John. When we love, we know that the spirit of God is within us. When we love, we are the physical demonstration of God’s love to the world, the hands and feet. When we love, we are being perfected. When we love, we’re being like Christ. And so, let’s heed and take into our hearts, the council the John gives us today. Let us continue to love one another, because love comes from God.
Prayer:
Father, so often we think that we do love each other, we…we…we love, really well. And that’s because we love people who are easy to love and ignore others often. You’re asking us to be your hands and feet and we watched You in this world touch the broken and be among the people that no one else would hang around. We watched you go to the bottom because the Gospel is for those at the bottom. And we all find ourselves at the bottom. Your love conquers all and we are instructed to live in that love and not just remain in it for our own benefit but understand that we become a conduit of Your love, as we surrender to Your will, in our lives. And love casts out fear. So, Holy Spirit and show us how to love. We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com, that’s home base, it is where you find out what’s going on around here. It’s Christmas time around here. Everybody knows that. It’s hard to miss anywhere in the world. So, Christmas time around Daily Audio Bible, around the Global Campfire, consists of a couple of things. We are preparing for our annual Daily Audio Bible Christmas party. And you can participate in that by calling in your Christmas wishes or greetings to the community, your brothers and sisters who have been traveling each and every day through the Scriptures this year. You can do that by hitting the Hotline button in the app or by dialing 877-942-4253. That probably sounds familiar since I say it most every day. That’s the prayer and encouragement line. Right now, it’s also the holiday greeting line, just for a brief amount of time, probably till the end of this week. So, don’t delay. And yeah, the only thing is, it’s the prayer requests and encouragement line. So, don’t like, if you have a prayer request and encouragement, and a holiday greeting, don’t mix them all up. Call in your holiday greeting and then call in your prayer request or encouragement separately. This is the one time that you can do that. So, we can keep things separate and make a really lovely time. I love our Christmas party, virtual as it might be, I love it, I love it, I love it. I every year, it brings tears to my eyes just the journey that we have been…been on and all of the voices. It’s just touch points, all the different stories, so make sure you participate in the… in the Christmas party this year.
The other thing this year for Christmas is that we have released all of the…the different music from the Daily Audio Bible. We pressed those under five different vinyl album packages and they’re just very lovely, very commemorative. Something tangible to hold on from the Global Campfire. And anyone who picks up any number of these, we will send you the Christmas ornament from this year in the package as well. And all of the resources from these projects, from the music here is being sewn into what’s coming next year. Brand-new Daily Audio Bible app, brand-new Global Campfire home, brand-new place to move into and grow into and move forward into. So, thank you, humbly for your partnership there. You can find that in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. You’ll find a Christmas category and you’ll see them there. Thank you, thank you, humbly.
And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in these final days of the year 2023, thank you, humbly, humbly, we can’t be a Global Campfire if we’re not in this together, and so thank you. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.
And of course, if you have a prayer request or encouragement or holiday greeting you can hit the Hotline button in the app, you can dial 877-942-4253.
And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I will be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hi, this is Susan in Indiana. And I’m calling on behalf of Liza, Philippians 6:4. And I know she called in and asked us to pray for her family so often. So, I wanted to continue to do that. And I hope that others will with me. Dear Father, I pray for my sister warrior Liza’s family. I pray that in the wake of her passing that her family members will be drawn closer to You and come to Christ. Come to know Christ the way that Liza did and that they could all be together again at the end. I love you DAB family. And I pray this in the name of Jesus.
Good morning DAB, this is Romans 12:2, calling for Kristen, aka Christ in Me. You said that you were going through a period of grief, after losing, I believe it was two of your children, your former husband and just several people close to you. And you feel somewhat alone. I just want to encourage you today, knowing that many of us who have lost family members, particularly parents or children, feel your pain. And grief is a period that we must go through. Don’t try to go around it. Go through it. The Lord will be with you. He will hold your hand. I know Christmas season can be a difficult time, particularly when we have memories of the people we love and they’re no longer around. I want to encourage you today and I pray for you, that the Lord would be with you. There’s a Scripture that says, while we do not look at the things which are seen but of things that are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary. But the things which are not seen, are eternal. Let us hold onto that. That we have eternity and we are not living in the temporary. That God will be with you. He said He will never leave us, nor forsake us. Again, He said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you. Be encouraged today. Let us all be encouraged. Lord Father, would You be with everyone today, oh God, particularly during this season, who have lost spouses, children, parents, friends even, who are close to them, Lord. May we be reminded that You will never leave us, nor forsake us. And that we will keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Amen.
Good morning DAB family, this is QD from PA. I’m calling in to pray for Kristen, Christ in Me. Hey sister, I just heard your prayer request for yourself, on November 30th. And it really touched me. I just want to pray Psalm 34:18 over you, right now. That the Lord, is close to the broken hearted and he saves those that are crushed in spirit. Father God, I just pray that You are with Kristen and that she feels Your presence, Lord. That she knows You’re near. That You comfort her, Father God. And show her the love that only You can give, Father God, and the peace that only You can give during this time for her. And to let her know that she is not alone, You are with her, You see her. You gather every tear and that You love her so, so deeply and so perfectly, Father God. And I just pray for your presence that You bring people around her who extend Your love, who are a comfort to her, from You, Father God. And Lord, just fill her with Your peace during this time. And I pray this in the mighty, precious name of Your son, Jesus. Amen.
Hi, this is Crystal of Washington State, formerly of Texas. I was just hearing Kristen, aka Christ in Me. And oh my heart hurt so much when I heard what you had to say and how you feel like you’ve lost your entire family. And my heart just breaks for you. I can’t imagine dealing with that much loss. I will be sure to say a prayer for you. And I just want to encourage you to lean into your Daily Audio Bible family. I mean you, you’ve definitely lost a lot of members. But there are a lot of members here, that hear prayers and want to encourage you to lean into us, as your Christ family. And just please, please don’t lose heart. We’re here for you. God bless.