1 John 4:18, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear..." (NIV)

Most of my life I was plagued with fear. During my early Christian walk, when I would read the above verse, I would think that I had to work on my "love" walk in order to be healed from every fear that came along. And if I was feeling fearful about anything, I would think that somewhere I had gotten out of "love" and then rack my brain trying to find out where I went wrong. I did everything I knew how to do like trying to be kind to those who were unkind, doing nice things for people and not speaking evil of anyone no matter how much I felt hurt by them. And all those things are good to do, but I completely missed the context of 1 John 4:18. My focus was on myself and what I thought I was supposed to do, but the key word in this scripture is "perfect."

You see, no matter what we do, we will never be perfect in this life and therefore cannot exhibit perfect love. We can try and come close and of course, God the Father sees us perfect through the Blood of Jesus Christ, but we're still in this earthly body. Perfect love can only be from One, and that is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are One. God is perfect and has perfect love.

The light bulbs went on when I had this revelation, and then I realized that Perfect love is in me because I am in Christ who again is perfect love and He is in me. With this revelation, the torment of fear left me, which confirms the last part of verse 18, "...the one who fears is not made perfect in love." I know that I am made perfect in love when I know that Christ is in me and I am in Him.

There can be no fear when we understand that Christ is in us for perfect (God who is love) drives out all fear. I am not the one who drives it out, but God. And I love the fact that 1 John 4:18 is not written in past tense, but present, meaning as fear arises or comes to torment, He continues to drive it out.

It's not about us and our works, it's about Jesus Christ and His works. Lifting Up Jesus, Perfect Love!



I've been preaching on Sunday's how God blesses us out of our bitterness. And He is really showing that to be true. I saw how all the patriarchs in the Old Testament that went through such bitter times were blessed so much more than they could ever have imagined or thought to be and that was how they overcame being bitter. Like Joseph in Genesis 37. Imagine that young man of 17 years of age was only doing what his father told him to do by going to check on his brothers and then he gets sold into slavery! I'm sure he kept looking behind him for the first few years expecting to see his daddy, Jacob come and rescue him. Imagine the bitterness when that did not happen.

And then! He gets sold to Potiphar and makes Potiphar rich, but there is no appreciation because when Potiphar's wife lies about Joseph, he gets thrown into a prison dungeon (Genesis 39).  Imagine the bitterness there! He is completely innocent of all charges.

But what I saw when I read Joseph's life's story, it was after 13 years in slavery, overnight God took him from the pit to the palace and in a moment of time, Joseph was promoted to being the governor of an empire (Genesis 41). At that time, Pharoah in Egypt ruled the world.  All the countries came to Egypt to buy grain (Genesis 41:57).  By God's great design, which He planned before Joseph was even born, lifted Joseph up to be the most powerful man in Egypt with only Pharoah being over him. Imagine that!

And I saw that being so powerful, Joseph could have sent an envoy to look for his dad and brothers, but he did not.  In fact, he never looked for them.  It was they who came to him after experiencing the severe famine. So Joseph was at least 37-40 years of age before he saw his brothers again.  We know that because after he was delivered from prison at the age of 30 (Genesis 41:46), there was 7 years of abundance (Genesis 41:53-54) and then came the famine.  He hadn't seen them since he was 17.   Joseph didn't look for his dad or brothers because he was so blessed that he forgot his bitterness (Genesis 41:51).  And then when he did see them again, all the sting of the bitterness was gone and that is why he didn't seek revenge. Instead, his heart was so overwhelmed with forgiveness and because of God blessing him out of his bitterness, he became a blessing to them and blessed them too (Genesis 45)!   Imagine that!

Then there was the Queen of Sheba. She actually fainted when she saw how blessed Solomon was (1 Kings 10). It isn't recorded in the scriptures, but I believe that because Solomon was the second child of King David and Bathsheba's union, he bore this stigma through his childhood over their sin (2 Samuel 11-12). And what is recorded in scripture is that one of his brothers, Adonijah tried to usurp his right to the throne upon David's death (1 Kings 1). God so blessed Solomon out of his bitterness that he was the weathiest man to ever live (1 Kings 3:10-13), and one of the most benevolent kings recorded in the bloodline of Judah.  There was peace throughout his entire reign.  It is not a coincidence that His name is from the Hebrew root word Shalom, which means peace. Amazing!

Wherever Jesus is, there is abundance.  Twelve basketfuls of leftovers were taken up when Jesus got ahold of only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish (Matthew 14:13-20)! 

And what about Peter.  He had been fishing all night and Jesus came to him in the morning and told him to cast his net where he had already been.  When it came up it was so heavy with fish that Peter had to call his other partners in another boat to come help and both their boats began to sink from the weight of the fish (Luke 5)!

Jesus said, "...I come to give you life and more abundant life."  (John 10:10)  Yep, Jesus blesses us out of our bitterness!

April 15, 2009

Yesterday in my Tuesday Bible Study class, I mentioned that when God created the stars, He created them to play music or what the Bible describes as sing.  I explained that before Noah and the flood, man could actually hear the stars sing because according to scripture, there was a great canopy of water surrounding the earth ( Genesis 1:7 and Psalm 148:4 ).  Water reflects sound.  That ability was hindered when the Great Flood came over the earth.  The waters of the deep were broken up and came up with such torrential violent force that they destroyed the canopy causing the waters above ( aka windows of heaven ) to come raining down ( Genesis 7:11 ).  Up until this time, man had never seen rain ( Genesis 2:5-6 ).  I can just imagine Adam and Eve laying back on a velvety carpet of emerald green grass being lulled to sleep by the great symphony above. 
 
For all you Bible scholars and those who are curious, as promised I said I would back this up in scripture.  :)
 
Job 38:4-8, "Where were you ( Job ) when I ( God ) laid the foundations of the earth?  Tell Me, if you have understanding.  Who determined its measurements?  Surely you know!  Or who stretched the line upon it?  To what were its foundations fastened?  Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy ?"
 
Not only is this scriptural, but modern science has also confirmed once again that God's Word is true.  Please see the following web link.  http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060809_spheres.htm   It explains what the Bible told us 5,000 years ago, and it has downloadable star sounds.  The last star sound "first piece of music" is a brilliant symphony of all the star sounds scientists have discovered.  I am truly amazed.  We have so much to learn.
 
Have a great and awesome day in our Lord Jesus Christ!  
 
Pastor Sandy