1 John 3:1-2

For Reading and Meditation:     Deuteronomy 7:1-10

When the Bible says God is love, it is saying more than that God loves, or that God is loving, or even that God is lovely; it is saying that love is the power behind everything He does - love is not merely one of His attributes but His whole nature. God is not only the Author of loving acts; He is love in the very...

For Reading and Meditation:     1 John 2:28-3:11

Peacemaking is a positive attitude that produces good spiritual and mental health, and the one who has this attitude, according to Jesus, is to be envied and congratulated. The promise of the seventh Beatitude is that peacemakers "will be called sons of God". Why called? Because they are sons of God. This is their...

WHAT surprising grace is this! For what are we? Poor, vile, depraved, unworthy sinners. So base by nature that we had not one redeeming quality, and even now, apart from the work of the Spirit, there is in us no good thing. But we were predestinated to the adoption of children; we were born again of the Spirit; and grace has put us among the children, for its own glorification. Beloved, now, while we feel so much corruption, while despised by the world, harassed by Satan, tormented with...

LIKE whom? Like Jesus in His glorified humanity. As free from sin, as perfect in holiness, as completely happy. His likeness will appear in every Believer. What a contrast with the present! Now we appear to ourselves, at times, as like Satan as possible. O the depth of depravity we discover, the powerful corruptions we feel, the fearful opposition to God we sometimes experience! But we shall be like Him. God has purposed it, the Gospel plainly reveals it, and the Holy Spirit is engaged to...

"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us." Consider who we were, and what we feel ourselves to be even now when corruption is powerful in us, and you will wonder at our adoption. Yet we are called "the sons of God." What a high relationship is that of a son, and what privileges it brings! What care and tenderness the son expects from his father, and what love the father feels towards the son! But all that, and more than that, we now have through Christ. As for the...

It is quite normal and understandable for us as Christians to wonder if we will know our loved ones in heaven. While there is no Scripture that deals specifically with the subject, there are several lines of reasoning that lead us to a positive conclusion.

First of all, the disciples recognized Jesus in His resurrected, glorified body. His physical appearance was unchanged. There was no mistaking that it was "this same Jesus." This suggests that we too will have our own distinctive...

When by a divine rescript we are designated the sons of God, a pledge is given that the following petition of Christ shall be fulfilled in our behalf: " That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them." Christ is the Son of God; but we are to be exalted to his own height of glory and majesty; we are to sit with him upon his throne; and it is to be manifest to all the universe that we too are sons of God. He has this pre-eminence over all, that he is what he is by virtue of his own...

Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean. § Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. § [Hate] even the garment defiled by the flesh.Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is...

As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name. § By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.Since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, who acts for the one who waits for Him.Now we...

If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! § Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. § [God] predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may...