4 Tests of a real Christian - 1 John 5:1-12

These verses are quite amazing. Read them and think about them. There are proof texts in this chapter so that a person can know if they truly are a Christian.

Test 1 - If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the one sent by God and the one chosen by God then you are in God's family. You will only understand this when God opens your eyes to see and understand the truth about Jesus (verse 1). You cannot accept this truth while holding on to your sin. You need forgiveness which can only come when you repent (turn) and trust Christ for salvation.

Test 2 - Love for our fellow believer is evidenced in the fact that we love God and do his commandments (verse 2)

Test 3 - People who are born of God (i.e. in God's family) overcome the world. This means that they don't love the pleasures of world or fall under it's spell. Believers live to please God and not the world around them (verse 5,6)

Test 4 - The person who believes in the Son of God has an internal witness in themselves. This is as a result of the Holy Spirit of God indwelling them.

The internal witness teaches you that God has given eternal life and that life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he does not have the Son of God does not have life.

How does this match up to your life!

1 John 5King James Version (KJV)

5 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.

2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.

7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.

10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

To access podcasts and videos explaining the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ visit www.seekthetruth.org.uk

this site will give you access to Bible Teaching Audio's and Video's as well.

Is there evidence for an historical Jesus?

Please read this blog.


Daily Mail - Is there evidence for an historical Jesus
http://goodnews4liverpool.wordpress.com/2014/10/02/is-there-evidence-for-the-historical-jesus/

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Eavesdropping!

I was sitting in a shop listening to two shop assistants chat as they sort out the clothes on the display racks.

Eavesdropping is good fun sometimes; especially when it is harmless. You can learn a lot by just listening. I've had just been reading about how upset the FBI and the various security agencies in United States are about the highly secure encryption system of the new iPhone 6. Eavesdropping will be very difficult for them when it comes to these types of phones.

Did you realise that God is always able to eavesdrop on everything that you and I think and say. There is a little verse in the bible which seemed to be seriously scary when I was a child. It is this "Thou God seest me". This verse is found in the Bible, in the book of Genesis chapter 16 verse 13. It is really a statement describing the all seeing eye of God. In the calamities of life when we think the one else notices; God does. It was a relief to the lady in this story in Genesis to understand that God saw her and her circumstances even when she thought everybody had forgotten.

Maybe you find it a relief to know that God notices and understands your circumstances even though others seem to be unaware of them.

It could also be quite a frightening thing to realise that God is aware of everything that is going on in our lives. In a slightly different context it says in the gospel of John (John 2:25) that Jesus did not commit himself unto people because he knew exactly the way men operate and the way they think.

Again there is a passage in the Old Testament that is very very frightening. Frightening in the sense that God knows me inside out and knows everything about me (yet He still loves me - see ROMANS 5:8). David, the Shepherd King writes in Psalm 139 about his awareness of God's knowledge. He actually bares his soul to God and says "search me O God, and know my heart, try me, and know my thoughts". It is a brave man who invites God to analyse the depths of his mind and to determine and understand his thoughts. But David realises that God already knows his heart and he is willing to submit to God's scrutiny.

It is because of God's knowledge and awareness that he planned the scheme of salvation through the death of his own dear Son the Lord Jesus Christ.

Before the world began God had already ordained that his Son would pay the price for sin upon the cross outside Jerusalem.

Christ died for sins, He was buried and on the third day He rose from the dead (1 Cor 15).

It is my privilege is to tell you that through this man, Jesus, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. If you turn from your sin, turning to God and confessing that you are guilty he will not turn you away.

Please get in touch if we can help you further through our website www.seekthetruth.org.uk.

Stephen


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Location:General Drive,Liverpool,United Kingdom

The sacrificing of infants

William Carey and fellow missionary John Thomas were riding near Malda, India, in 1794 when they saw “a basket hung in a tree, in which an infant had been exposed; the skull remained, the rest having been devoured by ants.” This “holy” act of infanticide had been committed with religious fervor by a Hindu mother.

Infanticide was not uncommon in India in Carey’s day. But the British government in India ignored such sacrifice of infants—it didn’t want to interfere in religious matters of the people. The Indian masses were ready to sacrifice their lives (and their infants’) for the sake of salvation and to escape the karma-samsara cycle. The people were intensely religious and were following (though sometimes misinterpreting) written religious laws.


William Carey strongly protested these crimes against humanity. He was one of many who prodded the apparently passive government to halt or regulate a variety of harmful social practices.

You may argue that we don't do these types of things these days but I am not so sure. The level of pro choice abortions across the world is exorbitantly high and this fact would beg the truthfulness of our claim.

God doesn't ask us to sacrifice our children (pre-birth or post-birth) and He doesn't ask us to give our own lives in martyrdom to procure salvation. In fact God 'spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all'. You may say - is God not doing what we have been told we should not do? That's a valid point but the truth is that not only does he Bible say that "the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world" but it states that Jesus, the Son of God, willingly gave his life so that we might be free from the penalty of sin and know salvation (see John chapter three and chapter twelve).  

Please consider this as the only hope for this life and the next is to be found by trusting the crucified and risen, Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ. 

More info through www.seekthetruth.org.uk