1 John 5:1-12

¹Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. ²This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. ³This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, ⁴for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. ⁵Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

⁶This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷For there are three that testify: ⁸the^[a] Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. ⁹We accept man’s testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. ¹⁰Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. ¹¹And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹²He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (NIV)

God came down to earth as a child. God has shown himself to us throug his son, and his word. It is our responsibility to tell the world.

The story of the baby Jesus, is in our hands.

In this final part of the love and respect series, Minister in Training Dave Jackson talks about the “Reward Cycle” and that even when our spouse treats us poorly, we can respond with love and respect out of love and respect for Christ.

When we think of Moses, many of us have a mental picture of Moses with the 10 commandments, or the movie with his arms out parting the red sea.

The thing is Moses wasn’t always this confident leader. In fact, Moses was a murderer.  He was slow of speech, and really argued with God when God chose him to lead his people out of Egypt.  God didn’t call him because he had awesome presentation skills, was dynamic and was loved by his people. It was quite the opposite. However, we need to keep in mind

GOD DOESN’T CALL THE EQUIPPED – HE EQUIPS THE CALLED

Take some time and look at your life and where you are right now, and look at how you got to where you are. When I did this exercise, I was amazed at all the things that happened to me, and to people in my life. I didn’t always give credit to God when they happened, but looking back I can see how my entire life God has been putting me into positions, bringing people into my life, etc that lead me to where I am today. God doesn’t call the equipped, he equips the called.

Scripture: Exodus 3:7 – chapter 4.