Thoughts and Reflection
Today we read about the most common verses in the Bible – God is love. John repeats this phrase in the bible and reminds us we were created for love. We also read about sin and the difference between mortal sin and venial. Mortal sin is deadly, while venial sin is not deadly.
Paul warns us that we can lose our faith. Paul tells us that God desires the salvation of all people. the only way to God is Jesus.
About This Project
For the year 2022, I decided that my New Year’s Resolution was to read the whole Bible following the Bible in the Year plan presented by Fr. Mike Schmitz. It is a big and bold undertaking. You can follow along by subscribing. Feel free to look at previous day’s post and comment. It’s something we can all learn from together!
Daily Readings
1 John 4
1 My dear friends, not every spirit is to be trusted, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets are at large in the world.
2 This is the proof of the spirit of God: any spirit which acknowledges Jesus Christ, come in human nature, is from God,
3 and no spirit which fails to acknowledge Jesus is from God; it is the spirit of Antichrist, whose coming you have heard of; he is already at large in the world.
4 Children, you are from God and have overcome them, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
5 They are from the world, and therefore the world inspires what they say, and listens to them.
6 We are from God; whoever recognises God listens to us; anyone who is not from God refuses to listen to us. This is how we can distinguish the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood.
7 My dear friends, let us love one another, since love is from God and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
8 Whoever fails to love does not know God, because God is love.
9 This is the revelation of God’s love for us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him.
10 Love consists in this: it is not we who loved God, but God loved us and sent his Son to expiate our sins.
11 My dear friends, if God loved us so much, we too should love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God, but as long as we love one another God remains in us and his love comes to its perfection in us.
13 This is the proof that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us a share in his Spirit.
14 We ourselves have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as Saviour of the world.
15 Anyone who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God.
16 We have recognised for ourselves, and put our faith in, the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.
17 Love comes to its perfection in us when we can face the Day of Judgement fearlessly, because even in this world we have become as he is.
18 In love there is no room for fear, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear implies punishment and no one who is afraid has come to perfection in love.
19 Let us love, then, because he first loved us.
20 Anyone who says ‘I love God’ and hates his brother, is a liar, since whoever does not love the brother whom he can see cannot love God whom he has not seen.
21 Indeed this is the commandment we have received from him, that whoever loves God, must also love his brother.
1 John 5
1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and whoever loves the father loves the son.
2 In this way we know that we love God’s children, when we love God and keep his commandments.
3 This is what the love of God is: keeping his commandments. Nor are his commandments burdensome,
4 because every child of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.
5 Who can overcome the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
6 He it is who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with water alone but with water and blood, and it is the Spirit that bears witness, for the Spirit is Truth.
7 So there are three witnesses,
8 the Spirit, water and blood; and the three of them coincide.
9 If we accept the testimony of human witnesses, God’s testimony is greater, for this is God’s testimony which he gave about his Son.
10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him, and whoever does not believe is making God a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.
11 This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 Whoever has the Son has life, and whoever has not the Son of God has not life.
13 I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
14 Our fearlessness towards him consists in this, that if we ask anything in accordance with his will he hears us.
15 And if we know that he listens to whatever we ask him, we know that we already possess whatever we have asked of him.
16 If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that is not a deadly sin, he has only to pray, and God will give life to this brother — provided that it is not a deadly sin. There is sin that leads to death and I am not saying you must pray about that.
17 Every kind of wickedness is sin, but not all sin leads to death.
18 We are well aware that no one who is a child of God sins, because he who was born from God protects him, and the Evil One has no hold over him.
19 We are well aware that we are from God, and the whole world is in the power of the Evil One.
20 We are well aware also that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know the One who is true. We are in the One who is true as we are in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and this is eternal life. Children, be on your guard against false gods.
1 Timothy 1
1 Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus appointed by the command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope,
2 to Timothy, true child of mine in the faith. Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Christ Jesus our Lord.
3 When I was setting out for Macedonia I urged you to stay on in Ephesus to instruct certain people not to spread wrong teaching
4 or to give attention to myths and unending genealogies; these things only foster doubts instead of furthering God’s plan which is founded on faith.
5 The final goal at which this instruction aims is love, issuing from a pure heart, a clear conscience and a sincere faith.
6 Some people have missed the way to these things and turned to empty speculation,
7 trying to be teachers of the Law; but they understand neither the words they use nor the matters about which they make such strong assertions.
8 We are well aware that the Law is good, but only provided it is used legitimately,
9 on the understanding that laws are not framed for people who are upright. On the contrary, they are for criminals and the insubordinate, for the irreligious and the wicked, for the sacrilegious and the godless; they are for people who kill their fathers or mothers and for murderers,
10 for the promiscuous, homosexuals, kidnappers, for liars and for perjurers — and for everything else that is contrary to the sound teaching
11 that accords with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, the gospel that was entrusted to me.
12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength. By calling me into his service he has judged me trustworthy,
13 even though I used to be a blasphemer and a persecutor and contemptuous. Mercy, however, was shown me, because while I lacked faith I acted in ignorance;
14 but the grace of our Lord filled me with faith and with the love that is in Christ Jesus.
15 Here is a saying that you can rely on and nobody should doubt: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I myself am the greatest of them;
16 and if mercy has been shown to me, it is because Jesus Christ meant to make me the leading example of his inexhaustible patience for all the other people who were later to trust in him for eternal life.
17 To the eternal King, the undying, invisible and only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
18 Timothy, my son, these are the instructions that I am giving you, in accordance with the words once spoken over you by the prophets, so that in their light you may fight like a good soldier
19 with faith and a good conscience for your weapons. Some people have put conscience aside and wrecked their faith in consequence.
20 I mean men like Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan so that they may learn not to be blasphemous.
1 Timothy 2
1 I urge then, first of all that petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving should be offered for everyone,
2 for kings and others in authority, so that we may be able to live peaceful and quiet lives with all devotion and propriety.
3 To do this is right, and acceptable to God our Saviour:
4 he wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth.
5 For there is only one God, and there is only one mediator between God and humanity, himself a human being, Christ Jesus,
6 who offered himself as a ransom for all. This was the witness given at the appointed time,
7 of which I was appointed herald and apostle and — I am telling the truth and no lie — a teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth.
8 In every place, then, I want the men to lift their hands up reverently in prayer, with no anger or argument.
9 Similarly, women are to wear suitable clothes and to be dressed quietly and modestly, without braided hair or gold and jewellery or expensive clothes;
10 their adornment is to do the good works that are proper for women who claim to be religious.
11 During instruction, a woman should be quiet and respectful.
12 I give no permission for a woman to teach or to have authority over a man. A woman ought to be quiet,
13 because Adam was formed first and Eve afterwards,
14 and it was not Adam who was led astray but the woman who was led astray and fell into sin.
15 Nevertheless, she will be saved by child-bearing, provided she lives a sensible life and is constant in faith and love and holiness.
1 Timothy 3
1 Here is a saying that you can rely on: to want to be a presiding elder is to desire a noble task.
2 That is why the presiding elder must have an impeccable character. Husband of one wife, he must be temperate, discreet and courteous, hospitable and a good teacher;
3 not a heavy drinker, nor hot-tempered, but gentle and peaceable, not avaricious,
4 a man who manages his own household well and brings his children up to obey him and be well-behaved:
5 how can any man who does not understand how to manage his own household take care of the Church of God?
6 He should not be a new convert, in case pride should turn his head and he incur the same condemnation as the devil.
7 It is also necessary that he be held in good repute by outsiders, so that he never falls into disrepute and into the devil’s trap.
8 Similarly, deacons must be respectable, not double-tongued, moderate in the amount of wine they drink and with no squalid greed for money.
9 They must hold to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
10 They are first to be examined, and admitted to serve as deacons only if there is nothing against them.
11 Similarly, women must be respectable, not gossips, but sober and wholly reliable.
12 Deacons must be husbands of one wife and must be people who manage their children and households well.
13 Those of them who carry out their duties well as deacons will earn a high standing for themselves and an authoritative voice in matters concerning faith in Christ Jesus.
14 I write this to you in the hope that I may be able to come to you soon;
15 but in case I should be delayed, I want you to know how people ought to behave in God’s household — that is, in the Church of the living God, pillar and support of the truth.
16 Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is very deep indeed: He was made visible in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed to the gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory.
Proverbs 30:24-28
24 There are four creatures little on the earth, though they are wisest of the wise:
25 ants, a race with no strength, yet in the summer they make sure of their food;
26 the coneys, a race without defences, yet they make their home in the rocks;
27 locusts, which have no king, yet they all march in good order;
28 lizards, which you can catch in your hand, yet they frequent the palaces of kings.
