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Love is sacrifice, or it is not true. Giving to the other what they need, not expecting anything in return. Seeing the need and responding. It is not necessary to 'die' for a friend like Jesus did, but to "die to Jesus" allows us to give/love more deeply. When we understand where the other person/s are, if we 'love well' we will give what we can and not expect anything in return. We have eyes and ears, we can see what is going on for them. When we can give more, our heart is stretched by God to be more living, to be more of a servant to our brothers. Let us learn from the Holy Spirit how to open up and love more, to love better. We can always grow more in this way.

Disappointment leads to sadness or anger. It is because we don't get what we want. Perhaps our motivations are selfish, self-centered, not useful for the other person at that moment in their life. If we do as Jesus commands we love the others first and put ourselves last, we can't be disappointed, and we won't get angry, and hatred won't build up.But if the "truth" is only what we want for ourselves, then the above will trigger disappointment into anger or hatred. When we see the truth of the other person, we can understand why we have no right to be disappointed, and hence should forgive ourselves for not seeing the truth of the other person. We needs God to show us the truth, not our self centered interests, which are not the basis of brotherly love.

Abel's sacrifice was accepted but Cain's was not. He was angry, he didn't look at himself to ask why/what am I doing/thinking/acting wrong. Instead he judged Abel and in anger killed him. This is such an extreme action, Cain was very disappointed in God's reaction to him and his sacrifice. He was jealous of his righteous brother and lost all reason to his actions. It made no sense to kill Cain, Able should have tired to emulate Cain and his ways, to talk to Cain and become more enlightened. Able was infected by the devil and th ways of the world.

In this world today with TV, and today's morals, there are far too many7 false teachers that consume our time. We are surrounded by such falseness, and also by the pleasures of the world. Those who were/are false teachers suggest that sin is not bad, that is it is normal part of the world. It is a dangerous attitude to have, it can only lead to death. For those who believe there is nothing else, they will get what they believe in. Heaven help us all, as we are all sinners.

We need to remind ourselves that we have this seed, we can confess our faith out loud and allow the Holy Spirit of God to work in us. This is all part of God's plan for those that he has chosen. It is even why those of us how do this study right not are actually doing it. It is the work o God's seed in us, it is that inward reminder at work. It is the review of this exact lesson and this exact question, it is God's see in us leading us to the right way of thinking and acting. For some of us it takes more than for others, due to our past history and what we are going to overcome, with God's help, with His grace. We are blessed to do this study right now,and it is part o what we need to come closer to God and to be sanctified by the Holy Spirit in us. It changes our behavior and our desires, and it is something that can not be stopped, it is God's will that will overcome the flesh and desire of the world in us.

We know what is God's law and that we should "delight in the law of the Lord" If we are not delighting to obey his, it si because we don't love him enough and have not recognized our need for him and how we are lost without him. We can either hold onto this or reach for it until we are back in touch. While we are/were lost, our sin was not obvious, but now the most obvious sins are known to Breaking God's law is like asking to go to jail; now does that make any sense? Knowing Jesus is coming back, does it make sense to sin?

It is for me the confession of my faith and possession of the Holy spirit's blessings that cause me to ask Him ot make me a better man. I am weak, as are ALL-men/people. But being weak/meek can become a blessing when we recognize our need for Him and to depend upon Him. With faith in His resurrection, we can also have faith that he will come back as he said he would, and also that he will never leave or forsake us. So faith is the key issue here, have faith and it would be natural to wish to be better, cleaner, purer, for our loving Savior who died for us. We're unable to purify ourselves but we can still attempt to turn away from earthly bad habits. And to stop lying to ourselves about what is acceptable in this fallen world.

We are Father God's very own children and he is our very own father {Romans 8]. So we were born again into real life, eternal life. And we will be continually tested and expected to grow in faith, if we make the right choice. This is our joy to remain in Jesus, and he will remain in us. He is the Word, the life and the truth, the only real truth. With the new birth we can start ot see this and start to let God reign in our lives. He has a plan for each of us and it is the only real right-plan. What a blessing to be a child o God, and to have been made righteous by Jesus' blood.

We need both the Holy Spirit and the human teachers who are true disciples, lovers and followers of Christ. God has placed in the church "teachers,to equip us for the work of ministry, for building up our faith in Christ We must not rely on them only to feed us we need to feel the Holy Spirit to lead us/ teach us to grow in Christ.

John 15:7 is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. For me "remaining" is about being close to Jesus NOW. NOW is now, the present tense, i.e. right now, to keep Him in our mind and heart and as a result be close enough to feel the Holy Spirit. It is said in the fictional book "The Shack" the only way ot be with God is in the present, not in the past or future. Remaining or being in the now is about the only thing that is real, the only truth. It is the only place we are safe and with God, all else is imaginary thoughts of the past or future. He said only take care of today, don't worry about tomorrow. If we are afraid of the future, or stuck on some emotional thing of the past, we are not able to abide, and unable to server God in the moment as he would expect us to do. I pray for us all to abide in Jesus, especially me. It is difficult but I feel it can be dome with a lot of prayer and discipline.

We have learned so much during our life that is 'earthly' and it might also be focus upon ourselves, and what we think are our earthly needs, our independence, our self-centered-ness. All these things lead us away from being able to server others with a loving heart approaching that of like Jesus. The Holy Spirit can teach us the truth and if we let Him, He can be an internal guide to filter out what is unhealthy for our spiritual growth. We need this guide to grow and to live with love and discernment regarding others, to be able to administer good love, tough love, and what ever is prayerfully needed in a given moment. It is not something we can accomplish by ourselves.

John refers to the fact that each real church member had surely received the Spirit of God within him, something that was not going to go away, a blessing for eternity. This is the same Holy Sprint that David [by oil] and Jesus [baptism] received. Clearly each Christian that John wrote to had received such anointing, as we are so bless to have received.

The spirit of antichrist is everywhere, .... on television, and so many lost people wandering about this planet following the message of non Christian religions. Myself I have experience a clever "devil-like preacher" who once he has my attention, begins to get emotional and blaspheme the bible, calling it a book of lies. We need to be on guard at all times!

The **** of the flesh is powerful, created by God to all life to continue [children, family values, good things] this can be distorted by looking at a woman or man for pure selfish physical pleasure. Taking action makes it worse, this brings in the primitive desire of man the animal instinctive desire. Be it only in viewing or in taking action, the mind has been compromised, there is no love for God getting through to the heart; the hear is damaged. Lastly objects like cars, homes, fancy clothing, these must not become more important than serving God and bowing to his will. These things of the world must not be allowed to dominate our minds and actions, the love of God is better than anything else. Digesting this and living it are challenges, but rewarding as it/jesus says over and over in the Gospel. "Trust in me, I have overcome the world."

Jesus said, love me first and then love others, don't think of yourself as I will give you what you need. Loving or wanting 'things' of any kind and making them important has the potential to block our love of God. He said give up everything and follow me to his disciples. We in this world seem unready to do this, we hang on to things insecure and feel we 'need them.' Making them nothing compared to needing God, recognizing that we will be BLESSED when we recognize and accept that we are "poor in spirit" [1st beatitude] is a big help to embrace this truth. This can help us see and feel what is truly important. Also being logical about it is one thing but to feel God's love and let that give us the security we need is also part of it. All these worldly things can't make us happy, it is just not worth it compared to God's love. Best to put Him first ro be ready to have an unfulfilled life; it is that simple, black ro white, light or dark.

As sincere Christians, we need to encourage each other, to listen carefully to your brother's situation if he wishes to expose it and respond with prayerful loving encouragement. Jesus said, "Love each other, as I have loved you." this is a tall order that needs to be learned as we evolved as Christians. it gets better over time if we keep our heart in the right place and ask the Holy Spriit to teach us every day. God is amazing how he loves and heals.

Hate and unforgiveness are things we can equate to the heart in that they are negative emotions relative to our experiences in life. How can we server if we are busy holding on to negative emotions? How can we notice the problems of others we could serve if our mind is stuck in the past. We can only 'do' one thing well at a time, so being stuck in the spat harms our ability to be present and to enjoy the truth of the moment, the only thing that is real. Listening to Jesus and how he came to heal and to save all, not to judge, this is how we learn what is unconditional love, perfect love that awaits us, love to reach into our heart and heal the hurt of hate and unforgiveness, and disappointment. It is only by knowing God better, and getting closer to Him and His word and Hiss light that we have hope for deep fulfillment, for real love that can't be disappointed. This is the way to the light, to real truth.

Being in Christ means being in the moment of love with others; it is not judgemental it is presence and it is leting God lead. In this way there is no "law" only the moment in which to do our best to be like Christ when we interact. Obedience is our job on how to behave, and is not about judging others, it is about serving them and accepting them as they are, then leting the Holy Spirit do the work of the moment.

God is love, Jesus is love on steroids, but that is the perfect love of God, not human love, and so much better than what we might offer to another if we don't love God first. After we begin to experience God's real love, why would we want to settle for less? Still the world looks god and the Devil is clever, and we fall and we fail; if we love and obey as a "rule" that is not our heart being affected by God's love, we don't really have a chance to feel it. Loving the rules leads to the self-righteous attitude of the Pharisees. Jesus showed us who they really were, loving themselves and tricking others to worship them. We know that Jesus showed what is true, and showed real love, the thing we all want and really need in this fallen world. Why settle for less than the best? Is one taste enough for the addictiveness of God's love? My heart know what is real and it is Jesus and his way and light.

1 john 2:2 "But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense

Firstly in the Lord's prayer, Jesus taught us to confess, to admit and ask for forgiveness,... but also to recognize and forgive others for their sins to us. The ACTS prayer model is all about first Adoring God and His Son, and the Holy Spirit, they have done great things for us. Next we must CONFESS and tell the truth as we see and feel it. The truth shall set us free. Next we must REPENT and do our honest best to not be repeat offenders, though we know we are all sinners, and have no hope without His grace and love. In any case CONFESSing and REPENTing is followed by the cleansing of His blood. Only true confession and repentance will work, the contrite heart we hear David speak of in the 51st Psalm. Jesus said 'remain in me and obey my commands,/// and your joy shall be oveflowing" [the fruits of the spirit] If we stop confessing our sins we build up a very bad DEBIT with God and distance ourselves from Him, though he is always reacing for us... is it worth the loss to have some of the world's pleasure? Jesus said in John 1:38 "what do you want?"

When we do/plan and execute something that is wrong, inside us it has an impact if we have any character at all in Christ. If we fall in sin at the moment of experiencing some things we didn't expect, is it because we have not yet ingested deeply enough the word of God? We deny some real power of the Holy Spirit when we are less than 100% focused on God's commands. Losing the Kingdom of Heaven for moments or for days... what do we want in life? Do we want an after life? Do we want our father to say well done a few times before we die? Or do we want him to say, "Ok you made it even here at the end, I love you just like to prodigal son? What ever we want in our hearts is what we will get. So may we stay in the light as much as we can, with a focus on wanting to be more and more like Christ.

Each of us has a responsibility for what we want, in John 1:38 Jesus said "...what do you want?" So I say, I desire to know and feel more his love so I can share it. This requires discipleship and prayer and meditation and fasting. So what do we want in our Christian group gathering? If we want something less that superficial chitchat, we know what to do... ask God to make it happen, pray for individual members of the group so God will show us how to be with them when we meet, also t pray befog we meet or talk to such people. Real fellow ship means real relationships and that requires an investment of time and of thee heart. there is no substitute to sincerity and loving attention when we seek deeper meaning in our relationships with anyoine. Praise God for this and pray that such will happen for all who study this lesson.

We are commanded to worship the Lord, and Jesus himself said, I command you to love one another. This can only be accomplished if we love the Lord and are able to feel more deeply how much he loves us. We are his creation, made perfect in his plan for each of us. Our time is short here duing this life and when we have missed the signals to feel his love and then to worship him, we are distancing ourselves from God and have the danger of eternal separation. We know he will not let us go too far off with9out correcting us. We pray the consequence of these lapses of independence and disobedience are not too painful, and that we learn ASAP why it makes so much sense to accept his unfailing love and grace and bow to his perfect plan and his will for happiness in our lives.

Fear is a debit or distancing of ourselves from the presence of God. He did not create us to have a spirit of fear, saying: "if God is with you, who can be against you" and what would it matter anyway. nonetheless Jacob had a life that included fears and despair, even though he was blessed by visions from God several times. if we are not careful to live in the shadow of God's love trusting and obeying in Him, we risk creating a space or debit that might become a huge gap keeping us from God's promise. So capture every though, bow with a broken heart and thank God for the breath of the moment. God's will shall be done in any case, let us speak to him and ask that his will be done, noting Romans 12, that we learn via trials etc. to discern the will of God and follow his will in our lives.