This week of daily devotions in the Book of First John center on the Apostle’s Prologue to his letter. You’re going to need your Bible and I’ve provided the Study Notes on this website that you can either bookmark, or print. Be sure to scroll down to the notes outlining and commenting on the PROLOGUE.

I hope this helps those of you who are committed to journaling this year.

Week 2: 1 John 1:1-4

1 John PROLOGUE Day 1: Happiness or Joy?

1 John PROLOGUE Day 2: No Substitute for Experience

1 John PROLOGUE Day 3: Have you lost your joy?

Three Words, Three Priorities

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Here’s the first promised installment of daily devotions from the Book of First John to help you and encourage you in your walk with the Lord Jesus. You’re going to need your Bible and I’ve provided the Study Notes on this website that you can either bookmark, or print.

I hope this helps those of you who are committed to journaling this year.

1 John Overview Day 1: Am I missing something?

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A Friendship Day

Two or three times a year I fight the 57 freeway traffic down to Orange County to meet one of my lifelong friends. Dave Burchett and I met in 1980, my first year at Dallas Seminary. I think our wives were in a Bible study together in the little neighborhood church we attended. Since Dave and Joni lived outside of the “spiritual cocoon” of the seminary culture, their friendship made a big difference during our four years in Dallas, Texas.

In the years since, Judy and I have moved all over the country—Michigan, Oregon, Southern California. Dave and Joni are still in Dallas, only a few miles from their original home. The four of us have only met together a few times in the two decades since. Dave’s a television director, so his travels give us more opportunity to see one another.

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Why do you think we tend to disconnect from others when life hurts?

It’s tragic, but God has another idea!

Here’s our worship pastor, Tom Townsend, inviting you to this discussion this Sunday, September, 26, at Church of the Open Door:

1 Peter 4:7-11 from Ed Underwood on Vimeo. (Click on the Red 1 Peter 4:7-11)

Hope to see you there! Two services–Traditional @ 9:30; Contemporary @ 11:00.

What is your first thought?

If you’re a Christian, your first reaction may be guilt and shame when you read words like these from the lips of Jesus:

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me” (John 17:20-23).

One of the surest signs of how far the church today lives from the New Testament’s emphasis on unity is that most of us read these words as a challenge rather than a comfort.

It’s time to look at them again, as if for the first time and in context!

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