157 people in our community are currently praying with you.

Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

For a Cheerful Disposition in All I Do Today

Holy God, who has filled me with the joy of your grace and salvation, assist me this day that I may do all things I am called to do without grumbling or disputing. I call on your Spirit to assist me, that I may be blameless and innocent, a child of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.

Let me follow holy Christ and all his saints: Let me shine as a light, a beacon in a world where darkness seeks to overcome us in every thing and at every moment. And help me to hold fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ's return I may be proud that I did not strive in vain.

I pray this not for my own glory, but in all humility before you, to whom be all glory and honor,

RMB 1-25-14

Prayer for the Departed

Into your hands, O Lord, I commend the souls of your servants departed from this life and beseech you to grant them rest in the place of your rest, where all the blessed repose, and where the light of your countenance shines forever.

And I pray also to grant that my present life may be godly, sober, and blameless, that I too may be made worthy to enter into your heavenly Kingdom with those I love but see no longer: for you are the Resurrection, and the Life, and the Repose of your departed servants, O Christ our God, and unto you I ascribe all glory: to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; now and ever, and unto ages of ages.

Benediction

Now, to God the Father, who first loved us, and made us accepted in the Beloved; to God the Son, who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood; to God the Holy Ghost, who sheddeth the love of God abroad in our hearts, be all love and all glory in time and to all eternity.

Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.

Why We Read

1 John 2:21-25 (ESV)

Who is the Antichrist?

I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.

No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us — eternal life.

Notes on the Scripture

s his poem earlier in the chapter indicated, this pastoral epistle is not motivated by a need to teach basic Christian beliefs. It is intended for church members who are believers and grounded in the faith. Something odd was going on, however.

We don’t really understand the situation completely. But by implication we can see that some Christian person or sect had arisen that denied the divinity of Jesus, or was at least preaching that He was not the Jewish Messiah.

So John gets back to the most basic lesson of Christian belief, to reinforce something his listeners already knew; and if it was good for them to hear, it would be good for us to remind ourselves of it, as well.

Nobody can come to God except through Jesus Christ. Period. Muslims do not know God and will not know eternal life. Very nice people who lead good lives and are beloved by their fellow men will have no place in heaven, because judgment is not a democratic institution. “Judgment is mine, saith the Lord.” Moreover, anyone teaching the opposite is “the antichrist.”

Because of Hollywood horror movies, people have an odd picture in their mind of what “antichrist” means. But since this is the only place in the Bible where the term is used, we must concentrate on what it actually means as it is defined here: A person who has come to have faith, but then teaches that Christ is not the Son of God and the sole means of salvation.

The civil right of freedom of worship is a fine and good thing, but Christians must not let it sneak into their minds to become a moral value. If you hear a Christian minister, or anyone speaking as a Christian, who says that maybe Muslims or Buddhists have found a different path to God, they are not only deluded; they are the very people John calls antichrists, for they contradict one of the most basic tenets of Christian faith:

Daily Inspiration

“Sad Face”

Current Memory Verse     Remember the Bible

Print Today’s Devotion