Category: Thoughts and Meditations

“O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.”
– Psalm 139:1-2

Consider two things about these verses… First, they’re true! God knows you more completely than you know yourself. He knows every action you take AND every thought you think. ALL OF THEM! God hears the thoughts and conversations of your inner mind. He understands your motives for doing things better than you do. He knows your personal mix of selflessness, love, kindness, generosity, comfort, pride, selfishness, need for attention, guilt, fear, insecurity, and shame at any given moment. He knows why you do the very best things you do and the very worst things you do. He sees all that is good, bad, selfless, selfish, holy, and profane about you.

Second, He loves you anyway! Romans 5:8 proclaims, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Despite that swirl of good, bad, and indifferent in your heart and mind, God took the initiative to restore you to His love. He sent His Son into this world to die as an atoning sacrifice for your sin. Jesus took all the punishment that a just and righteous God should rightly give you in light of everything He knows about you. There is no wrath, punishment, or condemnation left for you if Jesus is your Lord. Thank you Jesus!

Nobody has ever loved you as fully, completely, and sacrificially as God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit! You are perfectly known and perfectly loved in Christ. There is nothing you need to do to earn, rebuild, or increase God’s love for you. All that was already done for you by Jesus on the cross. You simply need to repent of your sins and believe in Him to receive God’s gracious gift of unending love you don’t deserve. Believe, receive God’s love, rejoice in it, and then take up your cross today and #FollowJesus!

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” – 1 John 4:10

Our culture has come to have a pathetically shallow, limited, inadequate, and degraded definition of love. We’ve let love be redefined by Hollywood movies, steamy novels, and sinful cultural norms. Love isn’t a rush of feeling, quickly ignited and ultimately disappearing like a mist over time. Love isn’t about raging hormones and the fulfillment of our lusts and desires. True love doesn’t start with us. It starts with God.

True love flows from God but it isn’t what we’ve come to think of as love. True love is far greater! God revealed what true love is when He responded to our hateful rebellion and scorn for Him by sending His precious Son, Jesus, into the world to pay the penalty for our sins. True love is rooted in God’s essential nature. It’s sacrificial. It’s gracious. It’s merciful. It seeks to elevate the recipient.

True love is more deeply and eternally satisfying than our culture’s parody of love but true love is costly. It sees the best in others even when they’re at their worst. It meets them where they are but doesn’t endorse or celebrate their situation or seek to leave them there. True love brings healing and transformation, not in order to receive it but because it has been received. True love isn’t about what’s in it for us. It requires us to be vulnerable in order to bless and heal the broken soul of the other person. That’s real love! #FollowJesus

“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.” – 1 John 4:3

Many Christians are interested in teachings and speculations about “the” Antichrist (singular, with a capital “A”). Certainly, that is good to understand. But don’t lose sight of an important truth that John emphasizes repeatedly throughout this letter… The spirit of antichrist has already been at work in our world for twenty centuries! The spirit of the antichrist is at work right now, so pay attention to protect yourself from being deceived!

The spirit of antichrist is the spirit that teaches falsely about Jesus Christ while claiming to be spiritual. This spirit denies essential truths about Jesus (His divinity, His humanity, His Sonship, His sacrificial death, His resurrection, etc.) The spirit of antichrist distracts and deceives those who would follow Jesus, getting them focused on worldly things like political power, financial gain, social status, comfort, and entertainment rather than the hard work of taking up their cross every day to follow Jesus.

The spirit of antichrist is at work in churches that point believers away from gritty, Spirit-filled, disciple-making obedience to Jesus. It’s at work in influencers, evangelists, “prophets”, “apostles”, and preachers who promote false gospels of health and wealth. The spirit of antichrist is at work in theologians, pastors, and scholars who teach falsely about Jesus while making excuses to indulge your flesh in sin forbidden by God’s Word. Don’t be so concerned about “The Antichrist” that you fall under the growing influence of the spirit of antichrist that’s powerfully at work in our culture today! #FollowJesus

“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” – 1 John 1:6

This one’s pretty blunt, isn’t it??? If we call ourselves a Christian or say we follow Jesus while we’re still fully engaged with sin in our lives, we’re lying! We’re lying to ourselves and lying to the world. It’s impossible to be a true follower of Jesus saved by God’s grace AND comfortable with ongoing sin in our lives.

Every Christian will slip into sin from time to time. That happens and there is limitless grace to forgive and cleanse us when we repent. Some Christians continue to walk in sin because they simply don’t know better. But if you know what you’re supposed to do (or not do) and keep on your old path, then the life of Jesus Christ probably isn’t in you. It doesn’t matter if you’ve walked an aisle, gotten baptized at some point in the past, or attend church every week. If you’re comfortably, happily, or defiantly walking in the darkness of sin, you’re almost certainly lying to yourself and others.

So, if you believe you’re a blood-bought child of God by grace through faith in Jesus, examine your life prayerfully and carefully. How closely do your thoughts, words, and actions align to the example and commands of Jesus? Is your life better aligned now than it was a few months ago? Is it increasingly aligning to Him? Are you purging sin from your life? Are you fighting against those ongoing temptations that call to you? Is there some area of your secret (or public) life that you haven’t yet turned over to Jesus to transform? If so, repent of that sin – God will forgive! Don’t continue to walk in darkness, #FollowJesus

“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you” – Colossians 1:3

As we celebrate and give thanks today, let’s change the classic Thanksgiving question… Instead of asking “What are you thankful for?” reflect instead on “WHO are you thankful for?” Make time right now to figure that out and thank God for those individuals. Be specific. Give thanks for them by name and for what you’re specifically grateful for about them. Then, if possible, find a way to tell them that you thanked God for them today.

We thank God for you! May God abundantly bless you today and every day! Happy Thanksgiving from Lake Ridge Baptist Church!