3 Dec 10
            Good afternoon, dear people.
            It sure is a pretty day here.  I already did a business run into Portland. It sure is a terrible day to have to do work when I can occasionally look across to the East to big beautiful Mount Hood all dressed up in white. Oh well…
            Do you agree that there are times when you have to do what you have to do?—even though it may be very difficult and emotionally painful.  Yesterday morning, I had to muster a lot of internal fortitude and do one of the most difficult things in my entire career as a people—I put down our wonderful dog, Daisy.  Tough assignment.  She was definitely a gift from the Lord.  We knew that to engage a vet would call for big bucks—beyond our resource bucks.  She developed an abscess of some kind on the joint near the place where she broke her leg a year ago.  It got so big and she became so miserable, we felt we had little reasonable alternative but to…
            Well…on with the rest of the day.  The Lord is good—all the time.
                        Love, Dad/Ray
 
3 December 2010
Passage: 1 John 3:11-24
Focus: “We know we have passed from death to life, because…” 1 John 3:14.
            What does it mean to pass “from death to life?”  John gives amplification of this wonderful transition opportunity from several angles.  As I go over his presentation in today’s that deals with that question, I think I have come up with a pretty decent sermon outline of 6 main points.  Are you ready for a sermon?
            Passing from death to life involves LOVE.  “This is the message you heard from the beginning:  We should love one another” (v. 11).  “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.  Anyone who does not love remains in death” (v. 14).  And that love is displayed in two ways:  (A) Expending one’s life for others.  “This is how we know what love is:  Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers” (v. 16).  (B) Sharing in a material way with those in need.  “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth” (vv. 17-18).
            Passing from death to life involves OWNERSHIP.  “Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother.  And why did he murder him?  Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous” (v. 12).  “He who does what is sinful is of the devil” (v. 8).  “This then is how we know that we belong to the truth” (v. 19).
            Passing from death to life involves BEING HATED BY THE WORLD.  “Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you” (v. 16) Add to this the words of Jesus in John 15:18-19: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.  That is why the world hates you.”
            Passing from death to life involves OBEDIENCE.  “And this is his command:  to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.  Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. (vv. 23-24).
            Passing from death to life involves PEACE (CLEAR CONSCIENCE).  “This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us.  For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.  Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him” (vv. 19-22).
            Passing from death to life involves THE WITNESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.  “And this is how we know that he lives in us:  We know it by the Spirit he gave us” (v. 24).  Maybe I’ll add here Romans 8:16 for good measure:  “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
 
“The man who says he is just as good as half the folk in the church seldom specifies which half.”