If it’s been a long week, and you are tired; here are words of comfort; God lavishes love on us; (what a great word of excess); so much so that we are called children of God. In Scripture, we are called servants of God, worshippers and followers. But children! John invites us to wonder at this. The word lavish prompts me to think of a celebration where everything is made of gold. But how much more has God’s love been lavished on us, to include us in His family.

As a parent, at best I try to do what is right for my children. How much more does God love and protect and provide for me! As a child, I trust in my parents. How much more, as a child of God, can I trust in God and trust that He is working in my life. Just trust. God is your father. Think of the glory and grandeur of God. Then think of how He reached down, in the cross, to make us His children.

Now that we have realized this love of God, lavished on us, we are to use this knowledge to live in purity. In our dealings with others, we can see them as Christ sees them and treat them as Christ would treat them. Let us continually draw on the knowledge that God is our loving Father as we depend on Him for strength to purify ourselves.

Today’s reading begins by talking about “antichrists”. This is a term found only in the letters of John, and here refers to false teachers marked by at least three characteristics. First, “they went out from us”. That is, they pursued their own ends and purposes (ie, making a name for themselves, getting rich, inflaming people to serve a personal cause or agenda)instead of staying faithful to the mission of the local church.

Second, they deny the faith. They deny that Jesus is the Christ, teaching instead that he is merely a good man, a great teacher, a wonderful example for us all. That Jesus is the Christ can be denied in deeds as well as words, of course, when we fail to live in humble obedience to him.

And finally, they seek to deceive the faithful. It is a sobering thing to think that there are those who, consciously or unconsciously, are seeking to deceive us. To think, for instance, that we can be faithful to Jesus but not live sacrificially for the sake of those in need is to be deceived. It is to be deceived by those who have made the standard of living we enjoy in America today their standard, and not the Gospel of Christ. There are many ways to be deceived, and we all face them on a regular basis.

So what do we do?

We abide in Christ by living in harmony with his teachings as they are found in Scripture. We abide in Christ by loving others as he has loved us, and allowing them to love us as well. So to abide in Christ means we can’t go it on our own; we must stay in fellowship with a local church.

We look to Christ’s appearing, and remember that in a world of people seeking to do their own thing, we are those who are called to do God’s will on earth as it is in heaven.

We live in faithfulness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in such a way that we will not be ashamed on the day of his appearing.

Perhaps we can sum all of this up by saying that a person who claims to be a Christian but who does not live in obedience, love, and truth, is either deceived or a deceiver. It’s probably worth our asking ourselves, “Could that be me?”

At first glance 1 John 2:15 may seem like a contradiction. As we all know, Jesus tells us that the two great commandments are to love God and to love our neighbor. Now here in 1 John 2:15 we see, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." But how can we love God and our neighbors and not the world? Aren't our neighbors in the world?

The Greek word for world, in this case, is kosmos, which refers to the attitudes and values that disregard God or are blatantly against God. It does not mean, or refer to, God's natural creation or humanity. In other words, this message is consistent with Jesus' teachings - we are to love the people of the world but not the sinful attitudes and values those same people may embrace.

The last verse of today's reading is extremely powerful. If any of us truly believes that there is an opportunity to live forever, for all eternity, in the presence of God, in a place with a peace beyond our understanding, then all of us would do anything to fulfill verse 17, "The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."

I saw a documentary on Jim Elliot and the movie about his missionary work call, "End of The Spear", perhaps you saw it too. A quote of Jim Elliot's sticks with me and I feel is appropriate to today's reading. "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to get what he cannot lose."

Are you faithful to Jesus Christ? Am I?

Only you and I know. And we do know, don’t we? In the privacy of our own hearts, there is no kidding ourselves about the honest answer to this question.

If you are faithful to Jesus, you will value different things than someone who does not share that commitment. You will spend your time differently. Quite understandably, you will make very different decisions.

And so, for the Christian who is serious about their relationship with Christ, there is no “going along with the crowd.” It only makes sense that our lives would look very different from the lives of the world around us. If they don’t, something is wrong.I love how Eugene Peterson translates verses 20-24:

But that [following the crowd] is no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.

The following verses give very practical ways we are to put on this new life in Christ. Speak only the truth. Care enough to be angry, but without sin (I think this probably has a lot to do with how attached our anger is to our ego.) Have integrity. Work in order to share, not just for personal gain. Speak only gracious words that build others up. Don’t break God’s heart. Be kind, tender-hearted, forgiving.Any one of these is potentially revolutionary.

Any one of these can change a life and cause it to stand out in bold relief from the world around us. These are the kind of things that happen when a person really does pay attention to Jesus Christ.

Are you faithful to Jesus Christ? Am I?

Boy, we have another great passage from one of Paul's letters as our reading today. Come to think of it, they all are great passages.

For today, let's focus on the first part of the reading. In verse 1 Paul urges all of us to live a life worthy of God's calling. With God's help we are His representatives on earth. As His representatives, as outlined in verse 2, we are to be humble, gentle, patient, understanding, and peaceful. People watch the way we live our lives. When they watch can they see Christ in you? Can they see Christ in me? Do we demonstrate the characteristics of a representative of Christ? Do others see in us a life that they want to lead? This is an awesome responsibility but one we should undertake with our whole heart.

Paul goes on to say, "there is one body". Of course Paul is talking about unity among Christians. Unity does not just happen, we have to work at it. Differences among people can lead to division, but this should not happen in the church. Instead of focusing on our differences, we should focus on what unites us - one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. This is extremely hard to do, but we are called to learn to appreciate people who are different. We are called to see their different gifts, talents, and abilities, and encourage them to use their attributes to strengthen God's church. It is very easy to hang out with people who are like you. If we learn to appreciate people who are different, we will find hanging out with them is rewarding too, and as we all know, it is difficult to encourage someone you don't hang out with.

Paul turns in this second chapter of Ephesians from the “big picture” to the “smaller picture.” That is, in the first chapter of Ephesians Paul wrote about the great purpose of God, which culminates in Christ being head of all. Now, in Chapter 2 Paul turns to address us; “As for you…”.

Paul discusses what God has done for us. We are to imitate God, and the phrases which stand out for me in this passage are ways in which I would love to be able to imitate God. God is “rich in mercy,” (v. 4) so He made us alive even though we were dead in sin, Paul says. God is rich is grace (v. 7) and that grace is expressed in God’s kindness to us in Jesus.

Of all the things I want more of, how can I be rich in mercy, rich in kindness? Paul says that God will in the coming ages show us “the incomparable riches of His grace” (v. 7). Wow, that’s a lot of grace and kindness. It’s a mystery to me why God would desire to shower us so with these blessings. But of course, it is not because of what we’ve done, but because of who God is. May we humbly thank God and imitate Him today.

Today is Ascension Day. It’s a day that doesn’t get as much attention as some of the bigger holy days like, say, Christmas or Easter. But that doesn’t mean it’s not important. Here’s why: “To embrace the ascension is to heave a sigh of relief, to give up the struggle to be God (and with it the inevitable despair at our constant failure), and to enjoy our status as creatures: image-bearing creatures, but creatures nonetheless" (NT Wright, Surprised by Hope, p. 114).

For some, the Ascension is just a clever way of saying that after Jesus’ death he became “spiritually present” with his followers much like I might say that my grandfather, for instance, continues to be present in the world even after his death as he lives on in me. When my family gets together and enjoys big servings of ice cream, we might even say his spirit is present with us. But the truth we all know is that no one literally lives on in this sense of the word, and neither is their “spirit” really present in the world.

And sadly, this is what some people, even in the church, believe as well. Jesus the man who lived 2000 years ago is dead and buried. He longer exists except in so far as we live in the spirit of his teachings and continue on in his mission and vision for the world.

What does exist, however, is the church, which in this view then becomes synonymous with Jesus. To quote Wright once again, “If Jesus is more or less identical with the church—if, that is, talk about Jesus can be reduced to talk about his presence within his people rather than his standing over them and addressing them from elsewhere as their Lord… then the church effectively presents itself…instead of presenting Jesus…”

This has resulted in what many have called the “Social Gospel”; or the idea that Christianity is all about good works. The problem is that far too much of what the church says and does and even is is NOT good. It hardly serves as an adequate or satisfying substitute for Jesus.

Of course good works will inevitably and dramatically flow from a life devoted to Jesus. And yes, those good works are vitally important. But the heart of our faith as Christians isn’t about the good things we do; it’s about our relationship with Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who has ascended into Heaven and is still very much alive in the fullest and realest sense of the word possible. That is the starting point, the foundation upon which everything else is built. And this is the truth that the Ascension affirms.

Jesus is alive. Have you talked with him today? Have you listened for his voice? Have you followed his leading? Have I?