The Rose of Sharon is Jesus

Bearing witness in heaven and on earth
In most cases I normally do a general analysis of the passage that I am going over but due to the complication of these verses it would be much better if I just let you read the words of the Apostle John penned by the Holy Spirit and then break it down in a very simple way for your understanding and edification.
(6) "This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is truth. (7) For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. (8) And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. (9) If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He hath testified of His Son." 1 John 5: 6-9. 
A Christian especially in this time period of history has to hav…

Our vertical and horizontal relationship is unique

God wants our love made perfect inside of us and that is not easy when we battle the world, flesh and the devil everyday because temptations are constantly popping up in our life. The primary reason Jesus Christ desires this for us as His children is because our judge wants us to have boldness on the day of judgment. When I quote the passage you will see the phrase ... "Because as He is, so are we in this world." Jesus Christ desires us to be conformed to His image in our travels down here on earth.

The love that the Holy Spirit sheds upon our hearts is so strong that it casteth away all fear in our spirit. Did you ever notice that this type of fear has torment so I hope we can all understand why God wants our love made perfect in His Son?

As I reviewed in the last article we are able to do this because God first loved us so more specifically if we do have affection for God we can not hate our brother. If our vertical relations…

Attention with love but to who?
Whenever the Bible uses the term "They" the word of God is almost always referring to a group of people that has not accepted Jesus Christ into their heart. In 1 John 4:5 the Apostle John is referring to an unbeliever in Jesus Christ who does not know the Lord. They speak of the world and the world is very receptive to what they are saying.
We are of God and know His Son Jesus Christ but if somebody is listening to you they will not hear you unless you convert him or her to Jesus Christ. This is the test that John is showing us that because of this response or lack of response we will know the spirit of truth or the spirit of error. 
John once again reinstates his point that we are to love one another. Do you think the Apostle is trying to tell us something? How many times has John repeated himself on this issue? Here is the truth of the matter, if we love one another this is proof that we are born of God and we know Jesus Christ in a personal wa…

The two courtrooms of our heart and conscience


I will be going over 1 John 3: 20 - 24 and also including 1 John 4: 1 - 3. John starts out for all practical purposes at least for this article writing about the heart. The one place we do not want to be is our heart condemning us which does involve the conscience.
The Apostle also gives the alternative solution to the problem. If our heart does not condemn us then he goes on to say we will have confidence with God. This is not an easy place to be because we constantly have to do a self evaluation on ourselves with honestly. This practice is not a one time thing but an ongoing process in our lives.
It is kind of interesting to me that in verse 20 God reminds us He is greater than our heart and knows all things. We can not get anything past Jesus Christ. This should be comforting if we are living right because we serve a good and perfect God who does acknowledge our righteous living. He sees our heart even if we fall short and promises to wor…

Loving God and other people in a cynical world

This is perhaps one of the most difficult articles I ever had to write because John is dealing with much sin and hatred in the early church. If a Christian reads 1 John 3: 9-19 and does not squirm and struggle with these verses something is wrong somewhere. As this writing progresses you will see exactly what I mean.

In verse nine the Apostle mentions three times that we are born of God and two times that sin is not in that nature. One out of the three times he uses the term ... "His seed remaineth in him." ... but this is just another way to describe our born again position before God through His Son Jesus Christ. There were many farmers in that day so he wanted to bring this message to their world so they understood what he (the Apostle John) was saying to them.  

In verse ten John is basically saying that if we are true Christians we will be living a righteous life and of course John goes on to say you heard this message from th…

Abiding in Jesus Christ, living holy and the rapture


God the Father has bestowed a strong matter of love toward us as His children because this is part of our adoption as children of God through His Son Jesus Christ. It is the delight of God to call us His sons. We are to love God because this is a two way relationship but that is not what the Apostle John is keying on here in this passage.
We can not comprehend how much Jesus Christ loves us but I can say this is the main reason the world does not recognize us because they do not know Jesus Christ Himself. They may understand us as the carpenter, the hairdresser or the single Mom but not as a born again Christian. Read through this article and I will explain what I mean.
In this passage John talks about the rapture of the church. He says it does not yet appear what we shall be (unless of course you died, went to heaven and were brought back to life as a believer in Jesus Christ) but when He does appear we shall be like Him and see Jesus…