Month: November 2020

The Kitchen Table            1 John 5       Day 21

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments 1 John 5:2

This is about us, the believers.  “By this we know…”  If we don’t know that we know, how will anyone else, including the devil, know that we know Jesus?  We must know in our hearts, in our conscience, that we know God if we want to walk in victory.  Only we know who and what we believe.  If we love Him, we will love what He loves.  We will love His word, His wants, and His will.  Love, His love, will touch us and teach us what love is.  There will be a love for the brothers and sisters who also love God.  It is this love that overcomes the world.  If we know that He loves us and that we love Him, then His love will cause us to love who and what He loves. Only we can know who and what we love and until we get honest with ourselves, we won’t be honest with anyone else.  Remember,  Love wins.

The Kitchen Table            1 John 4       Day 20

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love 1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love.  The ultimate work of love is to cast out fear.  The one thing not created in the garden, now broken in this life, is fear.  Just think of all the things we think, feel, and do just because of fear.  Those thoughts, emotions, and habits can all be overcome by love.  We are now free to love and be loved.  Valued and valuing others, love frees us to know both.  And we find that love by falling in love with God, receiving His love and responding in love to Him.  This Christian life is about falling in love with the One who loves us perfectly.  He proved that on the cross and He proves it by His Spirit living in us.  In His love we find the liberty to love and be loved.  Fall in love with God by faith

The Kitchen Table            1 John 4       Day 19

So, we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 1 John 4:16

Love wins!  And love is not only the secret to life but the secret to living life.  Love creates life and love is the secret to living this life.  Our greatest challenge will be learning to live in God’s love.  We will know God’s love as we learn to abide in God’s love.  The faith to moves mountains is anchored in the love of God.  We become anchored in that love as we recognize, receive, and rest in that love.  From that love we learn to respond to life from that love.  We learn that and that is what we come to know.  God is love and those who live for God live in and from and for God loves in this life.  Let God’s love motivate everything and everyone we meet in this life.  Love wins!

The Kitchen Table            1 Jn 4 Day 18

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him 1 John 4:9

God is love and you’ll know you know His love because His love will give you Life.  In fact, love creates life.  It’s what love does and God is love (1 Jn 4:8).  God sent His only Son in this world to give us life; it’s what He does.  The life you’re living right now reveals the love you are believing in right now.  If what you’re calling “love” isn’t producing “life” then it’s not true love.  True love produces true life and while we humans are imperfect in life and love, God is perfect.  His love never fails.  To know God’s love is to trust in that love.  That’s how you know what love you’re believing in.  The love you’re believing in you will trust in.  That is the Christian life, receiving and resting in God’s love knowing that He loves us and wants us to live. 

The Kitchen Table Devotions                1 John4 Day 17

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

 1 John 4:4

Love changes life because life is changed by love.  Live is certainly influenced by what we learn, look at, and lust but life is changed by love.  That’s what makes the love of God so important to this life.  Understand that the antichrist operates from the outside in by what we learn, see, and feel.  The Holy Spirit operates from the inside out through love.  Let the love of God motivate and migrate through you in this life and you will live.  The power of the love of God, the Holy Spirit, within us is greater than any love you can find in this world.  Don’t be impressed by what you see but by what you know in Jesus.  What you know is that you have the love of God because you live with the Spirit of God.  He is greater!  Love wins!

The Kitchen Table            1 John 4       Day 16

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. 1 John 4:1

Do not believe every spirit.  One secret to living this life in the love of God is to know what the love of God looks and lives like.  We miss out on the love of God because we don’t understand the motivation of man or the spirit behind the one that’s talking to us.  There is always a motivation and sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s bad.  A spirit world doesn’t have a body and a mouth so it operates in the mind to motivate the man who will listen.  And the spirit of the anti-Christ operates to dominate by deception.  Test the spirits.  If they sound like Jesus but don’t look like Jesus, beware.  Know the original and you won’t be fooled by the counterfeit.  We are made for worship, so the enemy won’t come as denial but as deception because deception leads to denial.  Know Jesus and you’ll find there is no other.

The Kitchen Table            1 John 3       Day 15

By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; ²⁰ for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. ²¹ Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; ²² and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 1 John 3:19-22

Those who know God know that His love is great for us than our own love for ourselves.  God’s love is greater than our condemnation.  We know in when we have sinned, our heart screams injustice.  But God loves us more than we can love ourselves and His love brings mercy.  God’s word is greater than our own thoughts, bringing us hope and help.  We’re grabbing onto His words.  If we can overcome the condemnation of our own hearts we can live in the confidence of God, and we can.  And we will go to Him in prayer because we know that He loves us and wants to show us the depths and lengths of that love.  Believe it!

The Kitchen Table            1 John 3       Day 14

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 1 John 3:16

True love lives!  It shows up wherever it goes.  We can’t hide love or what we love, it shows up, spilling out, slopping over, and even seeping through our words and actions.  In fact, love is the life of the believer revealing what the believer believes.  Jesus is love, the epitome of love.  He didn’t and couldn’t hide it and He laid down His life in love for us so that we could know what it is to be loved and to love.  Love wins!  Once we know that love, we can’t help but show it.  Love lives.  Love shows up in our words, walk, will and worship.  John goes on to write, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:18  Here’s the funny thing about love.  It operates in truth.  We cannot walk in love and not operate in truth.  Truth lives in love.  The truth is that we are living the life we love and that love is either for self or the Savior.  We can know love by its words, walk, will and worship.  The love of God will permeate the heart and life of every person who believes in Him and His love for us.

The Kitchen Table            1 John 3       Day 13

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.

1 John 3:14

Love is the light that liberates the heart.  The heart that knows it is loved is liberated to live.  Hate is what hounds the corridors of the unloved heart.  And we hate because we fear because what else can an unloved heart live in but fear?  Love liberates us from the death of fear.  To trust in love, God’s love, is to get a new release on life.  God loves me and always will love me.  No more living in the death of jealousy, greed, resentment or regret.  Faith is believing in the love of God and it’s that faith that overcomes the hate and death of fear.  I am loved and today I will live in the truth of that love.  It’s His love that sets my heart free to love.

The Kitchen Table            1 John 3       Day 12

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

1 John 3:8

We practice what we love and so it’s no secret who we love.  Jesus came to destroy the work of the devil and He did that through love.  That habit with that sin is a heart issue not a head issue.  The devil is defeated but he is not dead; Jesus defeated him on and through the cross.  The works of the devil are destroyed by love, by receiving the love of Jesus and responding in the love of Jesus.  All the enemy has now are lies and it’s those lies that destroy life.  The secret to life is love and where we find love, we will find life.  Love creates life.  The life we’re living out reflects the love we’re living in right now.  The secret to destroying the lies of the enemy is to live in the love of our Savior, Jesus.  Love creates hope that inspires faith; let your faith put your hope in God’s love and live there.