I originally posted this on my blog,Linda Kruschke’s Blog, for a “Thankful Thursday” post. But I really feel like the Lord wrote such a wonderful poem through me that I wanted to share it here at Broken Believers, also.
God With Us
Glory of the Holy One, robed in majesty Omnipresent King of kings, deserving pageantry Deity incarnate be, because of love for you and me
Willingly He came to earth, left His throne behind Immanuel, Son of God, seeking to redeem mankind To leave mankind dead in sin was not what He designed His love and mercy, on the cross, there with grace combined
Understanding His great love is for us what Christ desires Sinners to trust in Him alone is all our God requires
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”
Linda and I hope, and pray that Jesus will direct and keep you in His care.
I’m looking to a Christmas a thousand years from today, when He will bring us all together. I think that we’ll all kick back, and we will try to remember Christmas, 2021. We will most likely say, “But that was so long ago, it feels like a dream, I’m not so sure now…”
Like me, I trust your deepest hopes are pinned on an incredible grace.
The gifts that are for me, under the tree are good. But we have been given a gift– of gifts. It is something that ‘rocks our world’. It’s called ‘eternal life’. It has been given to us freely, and without any stipulations. We’ve been ‘cut-loose’ from the tangled mass of sin. We are now very much free.
I know I need to learn to live like a free man.
My physical and mental illness often trips me up. I’m saddened by my weaknesses. But I reach out and touch this grace, I pull it in and take and make it my own. Jesus has freed me, and I want to walk in truth, with Him—and with you.
I’ve recently been diagnosed with a disease that’s terminal. I’m grateful for my doctors, they’re definitely a blessing. But I must keep looking to my rose–my Jesus who is my Savior. I covet your prayers especially now.
Our Lord Jesus is truly a “rose in the snow.” He has come to this hostile environment, and is precious and beautiful in the eyes of the faithful. Linda and I pray that you find Him flourishing in your heart.
My favorite of all the apostles is John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”
Some people give him a bad rap for calling himself that, saying it’s arrogant. I disagree. I don’t believe this title for himself is any indication he thought he was the only one. Rather, I believe it reveals how certain he was that Jesus loved him and everyone else, including you.
I love John’s Gospel, his three epistles, and Revelation.
One of my favorite passages is from 1 John 4:7-21. It’s all about God’s love for all of His children and how we should love each other in the same way. There’s not a hint of arrogance here.
There are a number of things I love about John’s writings:
He reminds his readers that he was an eye witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. That means he writes with truth and authority of what he knows to be true.
He clearly sets out the evidence for Jesus’ divinity. Especially in the Gospel, where we see the “I am” statements of Jesus.
He focuses, particularly in the epistles, on the love of God. In fact, he says “God is love” twice in 1 John 4.
He reveals the power and purpose of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. It is by the Spirit that we overcome sin and know we are God’s children.
He provides believers with an assurance of salvation.
It is this last point that I’m focusing on today. Early in the history of the Christian faith, deceivers had come into the church who taught that one had to achieve sinless perfection to be saved. John wrote his first epistle to combat this heresy. The same type of heresy has crept into many legalistic denominations even today. By outwardly following the rules, such people claim to be without sin. But as John writes:
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.”
1 John 1:8-10 (NIV).
John here provides assurance that the fact that the believer sometimes sins does not negate their salvation, because Jesus is faithful and forgives our sin. One dictionary definition of assurance is “full confidence; freedom from doubt; certainty.” Throughout this epistle, John provides further assurance that those who trust in Jesus can be certain of their salvation even though they are not sinless and perfect.
The word know appears 42 times in this short epistle.
John wants to make sure believers know that God loves them and that they can rely on His promise of salvation. In each of the chapters of the epistle, John includes his assurance:
“Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.”
1 John 3:21-24 (NIV).
“If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.”
1 John 4:15-16 (NIV).
“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”
1 John 5:13-14 (NIV).
None of us is perfect and completely sinless. If we were, we would not need a savior. But we do need Him, and we thrive best knowing that He is faithful in His promise of salvation for those who believe.
Now don’t get me wrong. John does not advocate living a life in which we sin willy-nilly simply because we know we can be forgiven. Those who truly believe in Jesus, and trust in Him for salvation, will desire to keep God’s commands. His Spirit living in our hearts will help us to overcome the temptations of the world and to love as He has commanded.
Are you struggling today with worries that you are not good enough, that you’ve sinned too much, or that God will give up on you and you will lose your salvation? Meditate on John’s words, inspired by God, and know that these worries are unfounded. It is the struggle itself that proves you are alive in Christ.
Remember, God is faithful in His promises. He has promised eternal life to all who believe in Jesus and allow His love to live in them. He has not hidden the truth from us, but has made Himself known through His Son and the witness of the apostles so that we can be assured of our place in His Kingdom.
Linda L. Kruschke is the author of My Name Is Beloved, winner of the Unpublished Memoir category of the Oregon Christian Writers Cascade Writing Contest, as well as self-published author of two poetry books. She is a wife, mother, active member of her church, and former Bible Study Fellowship leader. After struggling through years of major clinical depression and finding God’s healing grace, she is now a fearless follower of Christ, living in the assurance of her salvation and God’s love. She is an overseer of this blog–brokenbelievers.com.
“Loving Father God, my heart is filled upon rethinking the greatness of your love and the completeness of your plan. I want to please you, but how often my flesh folds under the pressure of temptation. I thank you that you know my frame, and you remember that I am but dust. And I thank you for the abundance of Grace and the gift of righteousness that you have made available to me through the cross of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for receiving me back, my gracious Lord. Amen. ”
When my children do wrong I ache inside. As a father I so want to hear their confession and see their repentance. But I cannot imagine disowning them. Never, ever! How much more is our Heavenly Father ready to receive us back, and hold us close to his heart.
This profound love turns us back to Himself. The very fact you feel the Holy Spirit’s tug is evidence enough that you haven’t been permanently forsaken and ‘cast aside.’ You’ll need to take a step of faith however. Always remember— proximity to Jesus is always a good thing. Stay close, and watch the enemy flee. He will, but only if you make a stand Satan.
Become brutally real with yourself, but never despairingly.
Confess your sin to the real God who loves you unconditionally. Let Him fill you with His Spirit again. Sin is not the ultimate place or condition of the true believer in Jesus–his love has the incredible power to bust through all of our disobedience and rebellion. And he is the only one who can do it–you can’t.
66 At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. 67 Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?”
68 Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life.
John 6:66-68
Who else would take us in after all the evil we have done?
Jesus loves each one of us as if there were only one of us. Sink into that love, and have the assurance that He alone has the power to save us- We’re his; even when we’re rascals. And he has decided that we are now his friends. Isn’t that wild!
God is not against us because of our sin. He is with us against our sin. Let’s remember that.
Bryan Lowe
I’ve got another site for you–alaskabibleteacher.com.
Broken Believers 