Reading I – 1 Jn 3:22–4:6
Beloved:
We receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us.
Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit whom he gave us.
Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God.
This is the spirit of the antichrist who, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world.
You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
They belong to the world; accordingly, their teaching belongs to the world, and the world listens to them.
We belong to God, and anyone who knows God listens to us, while anyone who does not belong to God refuses to hear us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.
Prayer:
Lord, I love You and pray that I will be open to Your guiding hand in my life. May I always be attentive to the countless ways that You call to me each and every day. And may I always respond to You with all my heart. Jesus, I trust in You.
We Belong to God
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★ LYRICS:
1/. None of us lives as his own
And none of us dies as his own
For while we live we are responsible to God
And when we die, we die as His servants.
Refrain:
For both in life and death we belong to God
That is why Christ has died for us and come again.
We shall all appear before the judgment seat of God.
For it is written “Every knee shall bend before me
and every tongue shall give praise to God”
2/. For we are sure that neither death nor life
nor this nor future ages nor their pow’rs
no height, no depth, no creature that thrives
will come between us and the love of Christ
3/. Give yourselves as sacrifice to God
holy and acceptable to the Lord
Do not allow your minds to be conformed
to this age but let your hearts be ruled by His spirit
4/. Now not all of us shall fall asleep
but all of us are to be changed
in the twinkling of an eye
as the last trumpet sounds
we shall rise victorious in Christ