What Does Your Life Communicate?

1 John 4:1-6

 

Do you open your Christmas presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?

 

Growing up, my parents made us wait until the morning. It was sheer torture. I was so keyed up the night before my Dad would read the Christmas Carol just to put us to sleep. Even then, I found creative ways to stay awake like, hiding in the downstairs closet or hiding under my bed with a light to stay awake.

 

There are a lot of messages at Christmas time, and many of those messages come through time honored traditions, like gift giving. In Sweden, there is a tradition of watching a 1958 Disney Christmas special at 3:00 p.m. on December 24. The program consists of Jiminy Cricket introducing a series of vintage cartoons.

 

What message does this tradition communicate?

 

“¹Dearly loved friends, don’t always believe everything you hear just because someone says it is a message from God: test it first to see if it really is. For there are many false teachers around, ² and the way to find out if their message is from the Holy Spirit is to ask: Does it really agree that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, actually became man with a human body? If so, then the message is from God.” TLB

 

That’s what John wrote to the believers about how to determine if a spirit - or message - is genuine. He wrote that we should put messages and beliefs to the test; to make sure that the message you are hearing holds up to the truth of the Gospel.

 

Messages are normally communicated by word of mouth, but oftentimes messages are communicated by written word or body language, actions and even inaction.

 

This makes me wonder if our lives aren’t a message. And if that is true, what message are we communicating? What would happen if our message, our life, was put to John’s test?

 

As a child, I knew that Christmas was about Jesus, but the message that I heard, that came across loud and clear, was that Christmas was all about gift getting.

 

John wrote in his Gospel the true message about Christmas. “¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… ¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”        NIV

 

Jesus Christ came in the flesh from God. This is what we as believers celebrate, not just in December, but throughout the year. This is the truth. It may not be popular. It may not be PC. But it does pass the truth test.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What does your life communicate?

 

 

 

 

 

What’s in Your Wallet?

1 John 4:1-6

 

 

No doubt this title brings to your mind visions of Samuel Jackson’s commercials for the Capital One Quicksilver cashback card. They are pretty memorable commercials, whether you ever get the card or not. That does bring up an interesting question. How do you decide whether you want it or not?

 

Maybe you already have too many cards to begin with and don’t need one more piece of plastic in your wallet. Or maybe you don’t want the cash back. Instead, you would prefer to add onto your frequent flyer miles.

 

Whatever your reason is, you made a decision based on certain criteria. You might even say that you ran it through your own personal test to see if it met your criteria.

 

That’s what John wrote about to the believers. He wrote that we should put messages and beliefs to the test; to make sure that the message you are hearing holds up to the truth of the Gospel.

 

“¹Dearly loved friends, don’t always believe everything you hear just because someone says it is a message from God: test it first to see if it really is. For there are many false teachers around, ² and the way to find out if their message is from the Holy Spirit is to ask: Does it really agree that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, actually became man with a human body? If so, then the message is from God.” TLB

 

Messages are normally communicated by word of mouth, but oftentimes messages are communicated by the written word (including texting, social media, etc.), body language, actions and even inaction.

 

This makes me wonder if our lives aren’t a message. And if that is true, what message are we communicating? What would happen if our message, that is our life, was put to the test?

 

So, like the commercial, the question comes to mind: What’s in your life? What message are you communicating?