Sunday, July 31, 2016
AFWIS TV # 16 I am Glad to go to the house of the Lord:
Published on Sep 28, 2014
AFWIS TV # 16 I am Glad to go to the house of the Lord
September 28, 2014 07:44 AM
September 28, 2014 07:44 AM
Saturday, July 30, 2016
1st John ~ The Christian Life as Divine Sonship (2:29;4:6)
1 John 2 NLT
29 Since we know that
Christ is righteous, we also know that all who do what is right are God’s
children.
1 John 3 NLT
1 See how very much our Father loves
us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who
belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they
don’t know him.
2 Dear friends, we are already God’s
children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears.
But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really
is.
3 And all who have this eager
expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.
4 Everyone who sins is breaking God’s
law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.
5 And you know that Jesus came to take
away our sins, and there is no sin in him.
6 Anyone who continues to live in him
will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand
who he is.
7 Dear children, don’t let anyone
deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are
righteous, even as Christ is righteous.
8But when people keep on sinning, it shows
that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But
the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.
9Those who have been born into God’s family
do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t
keep on sinning, because they are children of God.
10So now we can tell who are children of God
and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and
does not love other believers does not belong to God.
11 This is the message you have heard
from the beginning: We should love one another.
12 We must not be like Cain, who
belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him?
Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what
was righteous.
13 So don’t be surprised, dear brothers
and sisters, if the world hates you.
14 If we love our brothers and sisters
who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a
person who has no love is still dead.
15 Anyone who hates another brother or
sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have
eternal life within them.
16 We know what real love is because
Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our
brothers and sisters.
17 If someone has enough money to live
well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s
love be in that person?
18Dear children, let’s not merely say that we
love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.
19 Our actions will show that we belong
to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God.
20 Even if we feel guilty, God is
greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.
21 Dear friends, if we don’t feel
guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence.
22 And we will receive from him whatever
we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.
23 And this is his commandment: We must
believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he
commanded us.
24 Those who obey
God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know
he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.
1 John 4 NLT
1 Dear friends, do not believe everyone
who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they
have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.
2 This is how we know if they have the
Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus
Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God.
3 But if someone claims to be a prophet
and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God.
Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into
the world and indeed is already here.
4 But you belong to God, my dear
children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit
who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.
5 Those people belong to this world, so
they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them.
6 But we belong to God, and those who
know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us.
That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of
deception.
Friday, July 29, 2016
1st John ~ Introduction: The Reality of the Incarnation (1:1-4) ~ The Christian Life as Fellowship with the Father and the Son (1:5;2:28)
1 John 1 NLT
1 We proclaim to you the one who
existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our
own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life.
2 This one who is life itself was
revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you
that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was
revealed to us.
3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves
have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our
fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
4 We are writing these things so that
you may fully share our joy.
5 This is the message we heard from
Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at
all.
6 So we are lying if we say we have
fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not
practicing the truth.
7 But if we are living in the light, as God
is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of
Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we claim we have no sin, we are
only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.
9But if we confess our sins to him, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
10 If we claim we have
not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in
our hearts.
1 John 2 NLT
1 My dear children, I am writing this
to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate
who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly
righteous.
2 He himself is the sacrifice that
atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.
3 And we can be sure that we know him
if we obey his commandments.
4 If someone claims, “I know God,” but
doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the
truth.
5 But those who obey God’s word truly
show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in
him.
6 Those who say they live in God should
live their lives as Jesus did.
7 Dear friends, I am not writing a new
commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very
beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you
heard before.
8 Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the
truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is
disappearing, and the true light is already shining.
9 If anyone claims, “I am living in the
light,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness.
10 Anyone who loves a fellow believer is
living in the light and does not cause others to stumble.
11 But anyone who hates a fellow
believer is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know
the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness.
12 I am writing to you who are God’s
children because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus.
13 I am writing to you who are mature in
the faith because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning. I am writing
to you who are young in the faith because you have won your battle with the
evil one.
14 I have written to you who are God’s
children because you know the Father. I have written to you who are mature in
the faith because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning. I have
written to you who are young in the faith because you are strong. God’s word
lives in your hearts, and you have won your battle with the evil one.
15 Do not love this world nor the things
it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the
Father in you.
16 For the world offers only a craving
for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our
achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this
world.
17 And this world is fading away, along
with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will
live forever.
18 Dear children, the last hour is here.
You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists
have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come.
19 These people left our churches, but
they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us.
When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.
20 But you are not like that, for the Holy
One has given you his Spirit, and all of you know the truth.
21 So I am writing to you not because
you don’t know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and
lies.
22 And who is a liar? Anyone who says
that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an
antichrist.
23 Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t
have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father
also.
24 So you must remain faithful to what
you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in
fellowship with the Son and with the Father.
25 And in this fellowship we enjoy the
eternal life he promised us.
26 I am writing these things to warn you
about those who want to lead you astray.
27But you have received the Holy Spirit, and
he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For
the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is
true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with
Christ.
28 And now, dear children, remain in
fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and
not shrink back from him in shame.
Thursday, July 28, 2016
2nd Peter ~ The Fact of Christ's Return (3:1-16), Conclusion and Doxology (3:17-18)
2 Peter 3 NLT
1 This is my second letter to you, dear
friends, and in both of them I have tried to stimulate your wholesome thinking
and refresh your memory.
2 I want you to remember what the holy
prophets said long ago and what our Lord and Savior commanded through your
apostles.
3 Most importantly, I want to remind
you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following
their own desires.
4 They will say, “What happened to the
promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors,
everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”
5 They deliberately forget that God
made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth
out from the water and surrounded it with water.
6 Then he used the water to destroy the
ancient world with a mighty flood.
7 And by the same word, the present
heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day
of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.
8 But you must not forget this one
thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand
years is like a day.
9 The Lord isn’t really being slow
about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake.
He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
10But the day of the Lord will come as
unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise,
and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and
everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.
11 Since everything around us is going
to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live,
12 looking forward to the day of God and
hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the
elements will melt away in the flames.
13 But we are looking forward to the new
heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.
14 And so, dear friends, while you are
waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living
peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.
15 And remember, our Lord’s patience
gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote
to you with the wisdom God gave him—
16speaking of these things in all of his
letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are
ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite
different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result
in their destruction.
17 You already know these things, dear
friends. So be on guard; then you will not be carried away by the errors of
these wicked people and lose your own secure footing.
18 Rather, you must
grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory
to him, both now and forever! Amen.
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
2nd Peter ~ Warning against False Teachers (ch. 2)
2 Peter 2 NLT
1 But there were also false prophets in
Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly
teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this
way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves.
2 Many will follow their evil teaching
and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will
be slandered.
3 In their greed they will make up
clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and
their destruction will not be delayed.
4 For God did not spare even the angels
who sinned. He threw them into hell, in gloomy pits of darkness, where they are
being held until the day of judgment.
5 And God did not spare the ancient
world—except for Noah and the seven others in his family. Noah warned the world
of God’s righteous judgment. So God protected Noah when he destroyed the world
of ungodly people with a vast flood.
6Later, God condemned the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes. He made them an example of
what will happen to ungodly people.
7 But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom
because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the
wicked people around him.
8 Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was
tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day.
9 So you see, the Lord knows how to
rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under
punishment until the day of final judgment.
10He is especially hard on those who follow
their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority. These people are
proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings without so much
as trembling.
11 But the angels, who are far greater
in power and strength, do not dare to bring from the Lord a charge of blasphemy
against those supernatural beings.
12 These false teachers are like
unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed.
They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals, they will be
destroyed.
13 Their destruction is their reward for
the harm they have done. They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad
daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you. They delight in deception
even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals.
14 They commit adultery with their eyes,
and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into
sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse.
15They have wandered off the right road and
followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing
wrong.
16 But Balaam was stopped from his mad
course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice.
17 These people are as useless as
dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest
darkness.
18 They brag about themselves with
empty, foolish boasting. With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure
back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception.
19 They promise freedom, but they
themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever
controls you.
20 And when people escape from the
wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then
get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before.
21 It would be better if they had never
known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they
were given to live a holy life.
22 They prove the
truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.” And another says, “A
washed pig returns to the mud.”
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
2nd Peter ~ Greetings (1:1-2), Exhortation to Growth in Christian Virtues (1:3-11), The Purpose and Authentication of Peter's Message (1:12-21)
2 Peter 1 NLT
1 This letter is from Simon Peter, a
slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to you who share the same
precious faith we have. This faith was given to you because of the justice and
fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.
2 May God give you more and more grace
and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
3 By his divine power, God has given us
everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by
coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous
glory and excellence.
4 And because of his glory and
excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises
that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption
caused by human desires.
5 In view of all this, make every
effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous
provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge,
6 and knowledge with self-control, and
self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness,
7 and godliness with brotherly
affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
8 The more you grow like this, the more
productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 But those who fail to develop in this
way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from
their old sins.
10 So, dear brothers and sisters, work
hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do
these things, and you will never fall away.
11 Then God will give you a grand
entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
12 Therefore, I will always remind you
about these things—even though you already know them and are standing firm in
the truth you have been taught.
13 And it is only right that I should
keep on reminding you as long as I live.
14 For our Lord Jesus Christ has shown
me that I must soon leave this earthly life,
15 so I will work hard to make sure you
always remember these things after I am gone.
16 For we were not making up clever
stories when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes
17 when he received honor and glory from
God the Father. The voice from the majestic glory of God said to him, “This is
my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”
18 We ourselves heard that voice from
heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.
19 Because of that experience, we have
even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. You must pay
close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a lamp shining in
a dark place—until the Day dawns, and Christ the Morning Star shines in your
hearts.
20 Above all, you must realize that no
prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding,
21 or from human
initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke
from God.
Monday, July 25, 2016
1st Peter ~ Conduct of Elders (5:1-4), Conduct of the Young (5:5-11), The Purpose of the Letter (5:12), Final Greetings and Benediction (5:13-14)
1 Peter 5 NLT
1 And now, a word to you who are elders
in the churches. I, too, am an elder and a witness to the sufferings of Christ.
And I, too, will share in his glory when he is revealed to the whole world. As
a fellow elder, I appeal to you:
2 Care for the flock that God has
entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will
get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God.
3 Don’t lord it over the people
assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example.
4 And when the Great Shepherd appears,
you will receive a crown of never-ending glory and honor.
5In the same way, you who are younger must
accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, dress yourselves in
humility as you relate to one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives
grace to the humble.”
6 So humble yourselves under the mighty
power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.
7 Give all your worries and cares to
God, for he cares about you.
8 Stay alert! Watch out for your great
enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to
devour.
9 Stand firm against him, and be strong
in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is
going through the same kind of suffering you are.
10 In his kindness God called you to
share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered
a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place
you on a firm foundation.
11 All power to him forever! Amen.
12I have written and sent this short letter
to you with the help of Silas, whom I commend to you as a faithful brother. My
purpose in writing is to encourage you and assure you that what you are
experiencing is truly part of God’s grace for you. Stand firm in this grace.
13 Your sister church here in Babylon
sends you greetings, and so does my son Mark.
14Greet each other with a
kiss of love. Peace be with all of you who are in Christ.
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