Glow! Week 2

*The Creator versus the imitator (Satan)*

June 13th, 2010

For this week we read 1 John 2: 10-11; 15-17:

"10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light and in him there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes."

"15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever."

This week Joel talked about how we are not to be of the world. He said that there is the creator (which is God) and then there is the imitator (Satan), and so there are two plans on this earth: the creator's and the imitator's. In the beginning there was 1 plan: God's intent for us was to first love Him and then to love others. With the fall, in came into picture a second plan: Satan's plan, which was to love ourselves or to only focus on ourselves. The fundamental difference between these plans is that one involves living for and with others, while the second involves living only for oneself.

By stepping into a relationship with God, we take one more step into his plan for us. Joel here used a ladder to show how when we enter relationship with Jesus, we take the first step toward our heavenly father and his will. Once this occurs, we find that God starts to illuminate the darkness (sin) in our lives and as we are filtered of the things of this world and step away from the imitator's plan, we start to look more like Him. So, when we lose our sin we start to look like Him. It is here where we can start live our creator's plan of living for and loving others according to God's will.

I absolutely love how Joel gives this visualization of stepping into a relationship with Jesus with a ladder, which represents God's plan. Once we step onto the ladder we can never get off, but we can determine how high or how close we get to our father in heaven, until the day our bodies die and we are perfected. So, as we take more steps toward God the more he illuminates the darkness and rids of it and the closer we get to Jesus and God the father.

God tells us to not love the world nor the things of this world - this follows within the imitator's plan. By abiding in the father, we remain in his plan, in his will. We must see, sense, and say (bring to light) these things that are of the flesh and of the eyes and are of pride in possessions. John tells us not love the things/plan of the enemy. We must ask ourselves: Do I have the lust of the flesh, do I have the lust of the eyes, and do I boast of the prideful things in my life? It is here where God can reveal to us the things of the world in our lives. It is here where we can begin to see the darkness that needs to be brought to light and recognized God's plan and steer clear of the imitator's plan.

~ Kara