7 Dec 10
            Good day, dear people.
            Well—we did the trip to Sunnyside, had lunch with Louis and Ilene, then ran north to Yakima and had a good visit with Bill Dawson who just turned 90 yesterday. Several of his 8 kids were there too.  Good to reconnect.  The trip went much better than expected insofar as weather and driving conditions were concerned.  We clocked close to 500 miles in one day.
             May your day be blessed as you keep looking to Him.
             Love, Dad/Ray
 

7 December 2010
Passage: 3 John
Focus: “…your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth.”  3 John 3
            John has a lot to say about truth in all his writings.  While he uses the term in many ways, it all focuses on the truth that man is a sinner in need of a savior, and that God, in incredible love, has provided only ONE way for man’s rescue from his eternally hopeless state—Jesus. “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (I John 5:12).  You can’t state it more simply than that!
            In this tiny epistle, John presents five practical spins of this central theme.
            LOVE IN THE TRUTH (v. 1).  John begins his letter by saying, “To my dear friend, Gaius, whom I love in the truth.”  He is acknowledging that Gaius, by virtue of his embracing the same standard of truth, is on the same page with him—which offers the basis of a valuable friendship bond.  That’s the best kind of fellowship there is.
            FAITHFULNESS TO THE TRUTH (v. 3).  Of course, it all has to begin at the heart level.  Grappling with this theme and embracing it as valid truth is contained in the assignment for building an essential personal theology.
            WALK IN THE TRUTH (v. 3).  Heart-level belief in this truth must then be translated into lifestyle so that there is no contradiction between what a person says and what he does.
            WORK TOGETHER FOR THE TRUTH (v. 8).  It would be immoral to possess the absolute cure for cancer and not share it.  It is more immoral to possess the cure for sin and not want to do something about sharing it with others in need.
            REPUTATION BY THE TRUTH (v. 12).  Demetrius was a man who was a role model of the first four points and was awarded respect and recognition by others who live by this truth.  That’s the best kind of reputation.  John mentions an opposite example by the name of Diotrephes who was a demonstration of classical hypocrisy (v. 9).
 
“When the fox preaches, look to your geese.”  -- German proverb