{"id":4768,"date":"2020-05-19T16:00:34","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T16:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wpmu.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/?p=4768"},"modified":"2021-12-08T09:20:09","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T09:20:09","slug":"god-loves-you-reading-plan-day-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/2020\/05\/19\/god-loves-you-reading-plan-day-8\/","title":{"rendered":"God Loves You Reading Plan Day 8"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don\u2019t recognize that we are God\u2019s children because they don\u2019t know him.\u00a0Dear friends, we are already God\u2019s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.\u00a0And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Everyone who sins is breaking God\u2019s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.\u00a0And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him.\u00a0Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear children, don\u2019t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous.\u00a0But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.\u00a0Those who have been born into God\u2019s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God\u2019s life\u00a0is in them. So they can\u2019t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.\u00a0So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers\u00a0does not belong to God.” 1 John 3:1-10, NLT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note from the Christian Basics Bible<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We live in a world where people constantly imitate others\u2014their favorite football player, movie star, or business guru. They wear the same clothes as them and imitate their behavior; but their attempts to be like them are doomed to failure, for they have neither the wealth, good looks, nor skills to achieve what they did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And some Christians\u2019 attempts to be like Jesus are equally doomed to failure. They try so hard, putting so much effort into becoming like Christ; but it doesn\u2019t work. In fact, they are left disappointed and frustrated. And yet, God\u2019s goal is for us to become like Christ (1 John 3:2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What we must realize is this: We cannot become like Christ simply by our own human effort\u2014praying harder, reading the Bible more, giving more, or fasting (valuable though these things are). We become more like Christ as \u201cthe Lord\u2014who is the Spirit\u2014makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image\u201d (2 Corinthians 3:18). This is the Spirit\u2019s work, not ours! And yet, for that to happen, we have to yield to him. This means making right choices\u2014choices to forgive, serve, sacrifice, love, give.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For it is as we make these choices that the Spirit enables us to live them out; and as we do, we discover that\u2014little by little\u2014we are becoming less like our old selves and more like our Savior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look inside the Christian Basics Bible<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don\u2019t recognize that we are God\u2019s children because they don\u2019t know him.\u00a0Dear friends, we are already God\u2019s children, but he has not yet shown us what we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,17,51],"tags":[102,103],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4768"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5652,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4768\/revisions\/5652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}