FOLLOW LMI
"I'd like to share Christ, but I just don't know how!"
When God gives you an opportunity, just smile, pull out a copy of If We Never Meet Again or What If No One Warned You? and say, "Here's something I think you'll enjoy reading!"
Literature Ministries International
- By Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
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September 18
BARRIERS TO FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
1 John 1:5
There are certain things that tend to militate against fellowship with God and to rob us of it; there are certain things that will stand between us and the fellowship that in turn leads to joy. First of all, there is sin--unrighteousness. John has told us about the possibility of great joy (verse 4); then comes a word that almost crushes us to the ground at once: "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all"--and fellowship seems hopeless. But then, thank God, he tells us how this can be dealt with. If we recognize and confess sin, then there is the blood that cleanses, and God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (1:7, 9).
The second hindrance that John talks about in 1 John 2:3 is lack of love for the brethren. If there is anything wrong in my relationship to God, I lose the fellowship, and I lose the joy. Yes, but if there is anything wrong in my relationship with my Christian brothers and sisters, I also lose the joy, and John works this out in a very subtle way. You lose contact with the brethren, and you lose contact with God; you lose your love to God in the same way.
The third hindrance is a love of the world, a desire or hankering after its pleasures and its whole sinful mentality. This again is an interruption to fellowship with God. You cannot mix light and darkness.
The last thing that interrupts fellowship with God, he tells us at the end of 1 John 2, is false teaching about the person of Jesus Christ. Obviously if the only way to God is through Christ, if I am in any way wrong about my teaching or doctrine concerning Him, then automatically I sever the communion, and again I lose my joy.
A Thought to Ponder
Certain things tend to militate against fellowship with God and to rob us of it.
From Fellowship with God, p. 34.
Today’s devo is taken from Walking with God Day by Day © 2003 by Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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