17072012

3 John 1

Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)

1 Greetings from the Elder.

To my dear friend Gaius, a person I truly love.

2 My dear friend, I know that you are doing well spiritually. So I pray that everything else is going well with you and that you are enjoying good health. 3 Some believers came and told me about the truth [b] in your life. They told me that you continue to follow the way of truth. This made me very happy. 4 It always gives me the greatest joy when I hear that my children are following the way of truth.

5 My dear friend, it is good that you continue to help the believers. They are people you don’t even know. 6 They told the church about the love you have. Please help them to continue their trip. Help them in a way that will please God. 7 They went on their trip to serve Christ. They did not accept any help from people who are not believers. 8 So we should help them. When we help them, we share with their work for the truth.

When we can help, we need to do it...

9 I wrote a letter to the church, but Diotrephes will not listen to what we say. He always wants to be the leader. 10 When I come, I will talk with him about what he is doing. He lies and says evil things about us, but that is not all. He refuses to welcome and help the believers who travel there. And he will not let others help them. If they do, he stops them from meeting with the church anymore.

11 My dear friend, don’t follow what is bad; follow what is good. Whoever does what is good is from God. But whoever does evil has never known God.

12 Everyone says good things about Demetrius, and the truth agrees with what they say. Also, we say good about him. And you know that what we say is true.

13 I have many things I want to tell you. But I don’t want to use pen and ink. 14 I hope to visit you soon. Then we can be together and talk. 15 Peace to you. The friends here with me send their love. Please give our love to each one of the friends there.

15072012

1 John 5

Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)

God’s Children Win Against the World

5 The people who believe that Jesus is the Messiah are God’s children. Anyone who loves the Father also loves the Father’s children. 2 How do we know that we love God’s children? We know because we love God and we obey his commands. 3 Loving God means obeying his commands. And God’s commands are not too hard for us, 4 because everyone who is a child of God has the power to win against the world. 5 It is our faith that has won the victory against the world. So who wins against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

We as a member of God's house, the others believers will be our brother and sister. God's decide who is the member of the house, not us. We need to accept all of them and love them. How you treat your brother and sister?

Jesus never said that obedience is an easy stuff. But serve Christ need self-consciousness and the pay of the energy to love him and not hard to pick the heavy burden. When we feel that is hard for us to carry the burden, we can always come to Christ and get help from Him....

God Told Us About His Son

6 Jesus Christ is the one who came. He came with water and with blood. [a] He did not come by water only. No, Jesus came by both water and blood. And the Spirit tells us that this is true. The Spirit is the truth. 7 So there are three witnesses that tell us about Jesus: 8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood. These three witnesses agree.

9 We believe people when they say something is true. But what God says is more important. And this is what God told us: He told us the truth about his own Son. 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has the truth that God told us. But people who do not believe God make God a liar, because they do not believe what God told us about his Son. 11 This is what God told us: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life, but whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

We Have Eternal Life Now

13 I write this letter to you who believe in the Son of God. I write so that you will know that you have eternal life now. 14 We can come to God with no doubts. This means that when we ask God for things (and those things agree with what God wants for us), God cares about what we say. 15 He listens to us every time we ask him. So we know that he gives us whatever we ask from him.

This verse is about God's will and not our will. When we have a conversation with God, is not asking of what we want, is about what he want and what his planning in us. When we ask what he want, he will listen to our prayer and when he is listening, he will give us the right answer. Now we can start praying by faith.

16 Suppose you see your fellow believer sinning (sin that does not lead to eternal death). You should pray for them. Then God will give them life. I am talking about people whose sin does not lead to eternal death. There is sin that leads to death. I don’t mean that you should pray about that kind of sin. 17 Doing wrong is always sin. But there is sin that does not lead to eternal death.

18 We know that those who have been made God’s children do not continue to sin. The Son of God keeps them safe. [b] The Evil One cannot hurt them. 19 We know that we belong to God, but the Evil One controls the whole world. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding. So now we can know the one who is true, and we live in that true God. We are in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God, and he is eternal life. 21 So, dear children, keep yourselves away from false gods.