When Jesus approached Jerusalem His ‘chosen people’ in the Gospel of Luke, he cried (Luke 19:41-44).  These people thought they knew God but they did not.  Because of this, death was coming to them and this caused Jesus much grief.  It is my mission and God’s will for me to speak to all those that claim to know God.  I am driven by Christ’s Spirit to speak the truth.  I pray with tears that this blog brings conviction to your heart.  Don’t test your life against others to feel secure.  Test your life against the Word of God.  
 
John 13:35 “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
If love shows the world that we love Jesus, what does love look like?  How do we know if we truly have it?  I am sure you could ask most anyone that calls himself or herself a Christian and they would say they love Jesus.  I am sure you could ask most any married couple if they love each other and they would say, “Of course we do.”  And if you asked them how they knew they loved they might say, “Because I know my heart.”  Yet the Bible tells us that listening to the heart is not wise.  Jeremiah 17:9 "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”  So how do we really know if we have love? 
 
God is love.  If we have God we will love because the attributes of Jesus Christ will begin to form in our lives when He makes His home in us.  Our lives will reflect who Jesus is.  A Holy Spirit filled Christian, the only kind of Christian, will do the will of God.  If we have love our lives will be full of the fruits of the Spirit because true love produces the fruit.  Galatians 5:22-23 “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”   
 
For most of my life, I said I loved but I did not.  Well, I did actually love but the only one I loved was myself.  To the world it may have seemed I loved but there was always a secret agenda.  How many people go through their married lives with the ‘you scratch my back I will scratch yours’ mentality?  Doing something to get something is not love.  Examine yourself!  If you got nothing back for the things you did would you still do them?  You know you have love when you give and you give and you give, and get nothing back and you still want to give some more.  Real love is not something you run out of or something you do to pay for something else.

In the Gospel of John Jesus was struck in the face for simply answering a question with truth.  Did Jesus retaliate for the wrong that was done to Him or did He show forgiveness and mercy?  It is impossible to love until we know God.  It is impossible to know God until we realize how evil our nature is and turn away from sin.  When we realize that we deserve hell for the wicked things we have done, we can have mercy on others when they do wicked things to us.  If God shows us mercy how can we not show mercy to others?  Do we think we sit in higher places than the Lord? 
 
If we have love, we will feel what others feel.  We will be full of joy when others receive good news and we will be full of grief when others are grieved.  If we have love we cannot make a personal choice that brings us happiness and others pain.    Our sinful nature looks out for our own desires and happiness, and what we can get.  God’s nature looks out for the wellbeing of others and what He can give.  Love always chooses others first.
 
We can know that we have love if we speak the truth always.  The truth often hurts. Those that tell you what you want to hear do not love you.  People pleasers only love themselves.  God is love.  Jesus Christ is truth.  The world will know that we are disciples of Jesus Christ if we speak the truth in love no matter the cost.  If the world does not hate us, it is because we are not speaking the truth.  Those that don’t know God hate the truth and they run from it.       
 
Do you grieve, do you wail, do you weep?  A deep love for others and God will often cause an overflow of tears.  When excessive tears are produced, they drain into small ducts in your nasal cavity.  When the ducts are full the overflow forms tears.  In the same way, whatever is in the heart, when it is full, overflows into our lives in what we do, think about, and how we speak.  Tears represent a heart overflowing with love.                  
 
True love always shines.  No matter the circumstance, no matter the difficulties, love never changes.  Love will die for another.  Love will hate its own life.  Love will be content in every situation.  Love embraces hardship.  Love endures.  Love will stand forever. 

How my heart breaks when I look around me.  The world is flying by with every kind of distraction imaginable.  The world is so busy with sights, sounds, and success.  Everywhere I look I see most everyone chasing after the temporary things.  This world and everything in it is going to burn.  Those that cling to this world are going to burn.  How can so many claim to know God yet live for pleasure, fun, and themselves?  How can we claim the Holy Spirit is directing our lives and then love the world?  Did you know that unless you do the will of the Father you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven?  Did you know that Jesus came to serve, not to be served?  Do you not know that society doesn’t dictate what a disciple of Jesus Christ does?  Would Jesus do what you do?  Would He talk like you talk?  Would He go where you go and look where you look?  Would Jesus love shopping?  What Jesus binge watch all of the popular shows?  Would Jesus be concerned about His appearance other than modesty?   
 
I am sick of hearing people say we are all children of God!  How far have we fallen?  Our deeds show who our father is.  Black and white have been blurred into gray.  If everything is true than nothing is true.  God’s Word is truth!  What does the Bible say?   

John 8:37-44  “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word.  I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.” 
“Abraham is our father,” they answered.
“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did.  As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things.  You are doing the works of your own father.”
“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me.  Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.  You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
 
If we are children of God, we will do what Jesus did.  If we love Jesus we will obey His teachings.  Saying a prayer, accepting Jesus into our hearts in front of a congregation, and calling ourselves Christians does not make us a child of God or cause His Spirit to enter us.  A child of God will begin their walk with God in repentance and they will stay in repentance as God transforms them into Christ’s likeness.  A born again believer turns from the world and hates the world.  A true disciple of Jesus Christ will not laugh at what the world laughs at and will not need what the world needs.  A Holy one of God will not use sexual innuendo or talk in perverse speech no matter who is listening. 

If you have been born again, Jesus Christ is living inside you.  You can’t be hit by a train and walk away like nothing happened.  If Christ lives in you, you will become a new creation.  If the old you is gone, how can you continue in sin?  The Bible says you can’t!  Don’t believe the lie that God’s grace covers every sin and you have no part to do.  You are expected to be Holy!  You are expected to be separate!  If the world does not hate you, it’s because you are not a child of God.  If others that call themselves Christians do not get angry with you when you speak the truth, you are not a child of God.  Those that love the most speak the most truth. 
 
Jesus said that few would be saved yet the vast majority that believe in Christ live on autopilot, doing just enough to keep themselves deceived into believing they are ok.  You can’t have Jesus and have the world too.  You can’t worship Jesus and worship demons. 
 
If God is your Father your mind will always be on Him.  If the Holy Spirit dwells in you, you will love to do good and hate to do evil.  You will hate sin and run from it.  Living in the world will be incredibly difficult.  You will be full of joy yet be full of sorrow.  You will grieve the sin that is all around you. 
 
Examine yourself!  Don’t judge your life against others that call themselves Christians.  If you are a preacher don’t judge your teaching against another preacher.  If you are a husband, don’t judge how you treat your wife against other husbands.  If you are a mother, don’t judge how you raise your children against other mothers.  What does the Word of God say?  When you stand before God, His word will be your judge.  Don’t wait until it’s too late.  Let God’s Word be your judge now!   
 
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”           
 
1 Corinthians 10:21 “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons.”
 
John 15:18-19 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”
 
 
1 John 3:9 “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.”
 
Hebrews 10:26 “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,”
 
 
1 Corinthians 5:11 “But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.”
 
 
1 Corinthians 5:12 “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?  Are you not to judge those inside?”
 
 
1 John 2:15 “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.”
 
 
Proverbs 8:13 “To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.”
 
Proverbs 6:12 “A worthless person, a wicked man, Is the one who walks with a perverse mouth”
 
Proverbs 10:32 “The lips of the righteous bring forth what is acceptable, But the mouth of the wicked what is perverted.”
 
John 14:23 “Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
 
 
John 12:48 “There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.”
 
1 John 2:4 “Whoever says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.”
 
Hosea 9:15 “Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there.  Because of their sinful deeds,
I will drive them out of my house.  I will no longer love them;”
 
James 4:9 “Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.”
 
Jeremiah 7:23-24 “but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you.  But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.”