In The Beginning Was The Word

John 1:1, In the beginning... was the Word, and the Word was WITH God, and the Word was God.

This study begins with “in the beginning” because it requires understanding. In the beginning is a vague and indistinct phrase. There is no definite place in time specified. We naturally think of Genesis 1:1 as the beginning of the time of creation. But in John 1:1, we should consider a “time” before creation, which was not a “time” in our sense of the word, but the eternity before time, or it could mean during the time of creation. In any case, the entire triune Godhead is outside of time but works within time as well. We are here introduced to a relationship before anything is created; the relationship of “the Word” to God.

Go And Cry Out To The gods You Have Chosen

Jeremiah 2:27-28 says, "They have turned their backs to Me and not their faces. Yet when they are in trouble, they say, 'Come and save us!' Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble!"

God warns His people of old, that if they persisted in looking to their false gods in the time of prosperity--that they would have none but their idols to assist them in the season of adversity. In the same way, in times of prosperity, the unsaved not only neglect God but despise Him as well! They cast off all fear of God and serve their idols, to the utter neglect of God.

We Do Not Relinquish The Vain Pursuit!

We Do Not Relinquish The Vain Pursuit!
~Charles Simeon (unedited)

Jeremiah 2:11-13,  Has a nation changed its gods, which are not gods? But My people have changed their Glory for what does not profit. Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; be very desolate, says the Lord. For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.

"POP" CHRISTIANITY

Not many people, in today’s modern culture, care to be part of an organization, or club, or clique unless it is popular. There is, it seems, a broad stamp of approval in being in with a group that others are eager to be part of. It offers assurance that “we’re OK” — actually better than OK; it swells our pride, which feels good; it validates our existence.

The Assurance of Spiritual Life

Ephesians 1:13-14 says, In Him (we) also trusted, after (we) heard the word of truth, the gospel of (our) salvation; in whom also, having believed, (we) were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

Our inheritance is eternal life. There is no eternal life without spiritual life which is fellowship with God. He made us, who were DEAD  in sin, alive in Him, Christ. That life is forever. A spiritual life of fellowship with God is guaranteed. What is not guaranteed  is our spiritual perfection in Him... our growing into the mature man, to the measure (standard of judgment; determined extent, which is lofty) of the stature of the fullness of Christ; which is our spiritual completeness in Him. It’s not guaranteed because that part is up to us, and apparently there are some believers in the world who either don’t know that we have to grow  into it (ignorance of the word), or have decided it’s not necessary (complacency).

THE VAST NURSERY

In the "ward" called Christianity, there is a vast nursery of babes, which encompasses most of the domain. They are fed milk sporadically but it is of little nourishment. So the newborns come in, and they grow…ever so anemic.

Day Care is but one day a week. The rest of the time they are left to their own devices. Some mature to kindergarten. Few graduate beyond the elementary. The scholar is an unrecognizable mutant. This is the vast nursery of today's Christians. There are few attendants and even fewer doctors. The babes are sometimes left to lie in their own ineffectuality.

The Price of Redemption

The price of redemption was very high, not for us, but for God... probably beyond our comprehension. God, of course, is Sovereign, Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent. Nothing is impossible to Him, Luke 1:37; Jer. 32:27; Gen. 18:14; Matt. 19:26. This is not a statement of faith... it is fact.

To consider the price, we must understand what happened at the “fall” of both Adam and lucifer. satan,as he is now called, was the author and possessor of sin and death. Before Gen. 1:1 is a HUGE study. 
For us, it began in the Garden with the sacrifice of that innocent animal to clothe Adam and Eve back into a state of fellowship with God. We should note that it was God’s own sacrifice of, I believe, sheep. God Himself had to “submit” that innocent animal to death in order to take its hide. I wonder if we can understand the profound significance of what God did.