Today in the Word for January 15-25
Today in the Word
Friday Jan 15 2021
What kind of command is the Lord making of us? Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. I John 2:7-8 reads:
“…I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command, its truth is seen in him and in you…”
So, is it a new command or an old one? Is John confused? No. Jesus explains in John 13:34:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
Jesus tells us more than once that the greatest Old Testament command is to love God and to love one another. Loving each other is an ancient command. But Jesus makes it new through his Incarnation. He showed God’s love ‘in-person’. He gave us the full example of what love is. “…As I have loved you, so you must love…” is a new command with ancient roots. It is the ‘not new, but old, yet new’ command. And it is the most important one for us to follow.
And that’s the Word. Tune in Sundays at 10:30 on the Deer Lodge Assembly Facebook page for our Livestreamed service or join us at the corner of 5th and Montana.
Today in The Word
Monday Jan 18 2021
Is the Great Command of the Old Testament and New Testament similar? Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. Jesus tells us the Old Testament command in Matthew 22:37-39:
“…Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
In I John 3:23-24, John gives us the New Testament command:
“And this is his command: to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them…”
The Old Testament command to love God wholeheartedly, and consequently obey his commands is filled out in the New Testament command to wholeheartedly believe that Jesus is God’s Son. God the Father makes it clear that we are to trust in and show our love to the Son.
The second part of both Testaments is to love each other. The Old Testament called us to love like we would like to be loved. The New Testament calls us to love others the same way Jesus loves us. (John 13:34-35) The command is new in the revelation of God’s perfect love through Jesus.
The Old Testament starts and the New Testament completes the command: love God and place your trust in Jesus, and love each other the same way Jesus loves us.
And that’s The Word from Pastor David of Deer Lodge Assembly on the corner of 5th and Montana.
Today in The Word
Tuesday Jan 19 2021
People make many different claims about their spiritual state. Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. In I John, the Bible deals with several of these claims. One is found in I John 1:5-6:
“…God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.”
This claim goes something like this: ‘God and I are good.’ Or, ‘I’m OK with the Man Upstairs.’ The claim is that we are in a good relationship with God. Yet how are we living? Are we walking in the light of his words and commands as found in the Bible? Or do we live however we like, yet think we are all square with the Big Guy?
The next verse (I John 1:7) states:
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light…”
If we are going to claim relationship with God, we must walk the talk. Our actions of seeking to follow his commands with our whole heart are how we will walk in the light. And if we walk in the light, we will be in relationship with the One who is the Light.
And that’s The Word from Pastor David of Deer Lodge Assembly on the corner of 5th and Montana.
Today in The Word
Tuesday Jan 20 2021
People make many different claims about their spiritual state. Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. In I John, the Bible deals with several of these claims. One is found in I John 1:8:
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
This is a claim that I have heard many times: ‘I’m not a bad person.’ People compare themselves to a murderer and they feel pretty good about themselves. People claim to have good intentions, so they expect their bad behavior to be excused. But the Word says the claim to be without sin is a statement of self-deception. We delude ourselves if we claim to never act selfishly, speak unfairly, or treat the other guy as a means to our own ends. Everybody sins. If our plan to please God is to claim we never make any mistakes, the only person we are fooling is ourselves—certainly not God.
Sin really happens and it is found in my heart. It is not just ‘out there’, it is in here. Is it time to drop the claim that you are the exception to the universal human rule?
And that’s The Word from Pastor David of Deer Lodge Assembly on the corner of 5th and Montana.
Today in the Word
Thursday Jan 21 2021
People make many different claims about their spiritual state. Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. In I John, the Bible deals with several of these claims. One is found in I John 1:10:
“If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.”
The person who claims to be an essentially good person is parroting a common statement in our culture, but this passage says we have a problem with the claim to not sin. We have failed to internalize the Word of God. Paul refers to no less than 8 different Old Testament passages about this in Romans 3:10-18. Verses 10-12 report a few of them:
“As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no feel one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.””
The Word makes it clear over and over that everyone sins. When we claim to be the exception to that rule, we are calling God a liar, for he states in his Word the exact opposite. Rather, embrace I John 1:9:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
And that’s The Word from Pastor David of Deer Lodge Assembly on the corner of 5th and Montana.
Today in the Word
Friday Jan 22 2021
People make many different claims about their spiritual state. Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. In I John, the Bible deals with several of these claims. One is found in I John 2:9-11:
“Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister …walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.”
Some people claim, ‘I’m a Christian, I just have anger issues.’ I have heard some people say their anger focuses them. But the word says our anger and hate blinds us. Hatred sends us stumbling in the dark.
No matter how frustrating, or wrong-headed, or hurtful your fellow believer is to you, don’t give in to the juices of hatred. If you do, you are the one in danger of stumbling in the dark.
And that’s the Word. Tune in Sundays at 10:30 on the Deer Lodge Assembly Facebook page for our Livestreamed service or join us at the corner of 5th and Montana.
Today in the Word
Monday Jan 25 2021
People make many different claims about their spiritual state. Welcome to The Word with Pastor David. In I John, the Bible deals with several of these claims. One is found in I John 4:20-21:
“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”
We have a tendency to claim, ‘I love God, it’s just his people I can’t stand.’ We think loving God is easy, but loving people is the hard part. This passage turns our thinking right side up. People are actually in front of us day to day, and they often seem unlovable. God seems ‘way out there’ and we love him in theory.
Real love happens when the object of our love is unlovable and disagreeable. Loving people who already love us and act perfectly isn’t really doing much. We are simply agreeing to their agreeableness. Self-sacrificing love starts when things are difficult.
And that is why loving people is the pathway to genuine love of God. We are now acting like the One who ‘while we were yet sinners’ died for us. Our love for God grows up into something more than theory.
And that’s The Word from Pastor David of Deer Lodge Assembly on the corner of 5th and Montana.