Make Sure!!!!   

Take the Test

In the short story by Hans Christian Andersen, "The Emperor's New Clothes" a whole society is duped because no-one had the courage and temerity to differ from popular opinion until one small child cried out the obvious. I am sure the Emperor appreciated the child's candor.  Just like this there are many walking around in the church naked. In Revelation 3 a congregation is rebuked for their hypocrisy, pride and arrogance. 

Many have been deceived into thinking they can meander into the Kingdom of God. They can just become part of a Body of believers, learn the language and do the stuff and they are a child of God. Some may have said a prayer after someone or have grown up in the church. You may think these things have given you some ticket into heaven and/or a relationship with God. Yet, Jesus tells of a group of people who comes to a door in Matthew 25 and knocked and asked to be let in but the voice from the inside said: " Go away, I do not know you." 

So how do you know if you are truly a child of God? Can you know? Can you actually be sure that you have been born into the family of God and that He is now your Father?

There is a test. Yip, there is.

It is the 1 John Test. You can just open your Bible and read through the book of first John and see if it indeed rings true to you. Is it true for your life? Personally, this has always been one of my favorite letters in the Bible since it uses the phrase: " by this we know" often. I do not want to presume. I do not want to follow a crowd to some never-never land. I want to be sure. I want to know. 

Reading through 1 John I consolidated the test like this:

The 1 John Test

1.  Do you adhere, observe, follow  to the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and abide, live in it? 2 John 1:9 Do you say that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah or Savior of the world? 1 John 2:22-23 and 1 John 5:1 Do you confess and believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh? 1 John 4:2-3 Do you believe and confess that Jesus is the Son of God? 1 John 4:15 and 1 John 5:10

2. Do you walk, behave, conduct yourself in the Light, doing good deeds, righteous deeds like Jesus did ? 1 John 1:6, 3 John 1:11, 1 John 2:6, 1 John 2:29 and 1 John 3:7

3. Do you habitually sin and tolerate sin and live comfortably in sin? 1 John 1:8, 1 John 1:10, 1 John 3:8 and 1 John 5:18

4. Do you keep the commandments of God to have faith in Jesus Christ and to love fellow believers? 1 John 2:4,  Do we obey God's Word 1 John 2:5, 1 John 3:22-23 and 1 John 5:2-3

5. Do you love fellow believers, do you love one another and not hate one another? 1 John 2:9-11, 1 John 3:10, 1 John 3:11,  1 John 3:14-15, 1 John 3:16-18, 1 John 4:7-8, 1 John 4:11-12, 1 John 4:16 and 1 John 4:20-21

6. Do you love, adore and cherish the things of this world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life? 1 John 2:15-17 and 1 John 5:4

7. Do you have an inner confidence, testimony or witness in His presence? 1 John 3:19-21, 1 John 3:24, 1 John 4:13, 1 John 5:7 and 1 John 5:10

8. Have you ever had your prayers answered? 1 John 3:22-23, 1 John 5:14-15

Harvest of a Culture gone Awry.

During the revolution of the sixties a spirit of rebellion was released upon the Western culture. In particular on countries like America. We can actually trace a lot of what is wrong with this culture back to the lawlessness released during this time.

"Rebellion is as witchcraft." 1 Samuel 15:23. The music, the drugs all had one aim: a lifestyle of irresponsibility. Drugs and even music can be manipulation and control. I once heard it said that if your rent is past due and all your bills behind, and you get high to get away from it all, you still have to pay up once you sober up.
We have thousands of people who were basically comatosed via drugs and sex and music now running the country in all it's facets.  Many of these individuals never learned to live for others because all they cared about was the next high, the next thrill. They never matured in their personalities and although they occupy adult bodies, they are children, demanding their own way. Ecc 10 :16

The things that America now have to deal with in politics, education, entertainment and even in the church are direct fruit of the seed of rebellion. Think about the utter selfishness of living for the next high, the next party the next thrill. Now we have adults that are still living for themselves. Still demanding to be entertained, thrilled and placated. Many have no work ethic, no sense of providing for the future generations. Their motto seems to be: "Don't mess with my high." When you confront them with the truth of their behavior you are accused of loveless-ness.

An entire culture has been led to the worship of  "FUN".  Is it any wonder that entertainment is the biggest source of revenue in many states and scores of young people never get a real education because all they want is to be entertained.

Even in the church we see the rotten fruit. Preachers scare away from preaching the whole gospel so that they may not offend anyone. The bad news about that is that the gospel, the true gospel, is an offense to those who reject it. Some in the church have now made for themselves a god who looks like one of those 60 flower children. I suppose that is why they equate God to drugs. They have some hippie god who never say: "No", judge anyone and have changed his mind about sin.  His main message is: "It's all good, dude, it's all good."

I don't know what it will take to turn this around. Can the smoke from a fire be recovered?