A Common Man’s Guide to God

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction to First John

Day One Why Should We Believe You? I John 1:1-2
Day Two Is the Trinity Important? I John 1:3-4
Day Three Is God’s Holiness a Good Thing? I John 1:5
Day Four What About Phony Christians? I John 1:6-7
Day Five Is Man Basically Good? I John 1:8-10

Day Six “Sorry!” is Not Enough? I John 2:1-2
Day Seven Test of Authenticity I John 2:3-6
Day Eight How to Spot Fake Christians I John 2:7-11
Day Nine The Christian Life is a Process I John 2:12-14
Day Ten On Marrow Sucking I John 2:15-17
Day Eleven Are We in the Last Days? I John 2: 18-19
Day Twelve How to Tell Truth from Error I John 2:20-27
Day Thirteen The Death of Shame I John 2:28-29

Day Fourteen Unwanted and Insignificant I John 3:1
Day Fifteen What’s the Use? I John 3:2-3
Day Sixteen How Much Can I Sin? I John 3:4-10
Day Seventeen Why are Christians Hateful? I John 3:11-16
Day Eighteen Cultivating a Generous Heart I John 3:17-18
Day Nineteen When My Heart Condemns Me I John 3:19-24

Day Twenty When it’s Good to be Skeptical I John 4:1-3
Day Twenty One Telling People They’re Wrong I John 4:4-6
Day Twenty Two Does Love Come Naturally? I John 4:7-12
Day Twenty Three Intimacy with the Almighty I John 4:13-16a
Day Twenty Four Those Unloving Christians I John 4:16b-17
Day Twenty Five No Fear in Love I John 4:18-21

Day Twenty Six Feeling Close to God I John 5:1-5
Day Twenty Seven Certain About the Afterlife I John 5:6-13
Day Twenty Eight Does God Listen to Me? I John 5:14-15
Day Twenty Nine When NOT to Pray I John 5:16-17
Day Thirty This We Know! I John 5:18-20
Day Thirty One The Not-God Option I John 5:21

The Text of I John Thematically


About the Author

Preface

“God is no longer a stranger somewhere away in the heavens;
He is no longer some stray force or power somewhere, some supreme energy. God is no longer some potentate or lawgiver far removed from us; God is now someone who we KNOW.”
Martin Lloyd Jones



Most of us are common. Ordinary. Despite the incessant calls to greatness, we’ll leave almost no footprint on this earth. We won’t change the world and chances are we won’t even make the local news. We live, love and then quietly leave. But though we are common... we’re not ignorant, nor do we feel unimportant. We are ordinary, but we still believe our lives count for something. We have dreams and yearnings, one of which (sometimes buried underneath a lot of hurt and confusion), is to know our Creator. Despite our unremarkable lives, we have this audacious hope that for some unexplainable reason, God might take an interest in us, or at least make sense of our chaotic world. We’ve even heard it said, that some people walk with God! That sounds impossibly wonderful. Still, there’s a haunting attraction to that picture: average people – common people like us - walking with the Almighty.

The Common Man’s Guide to God is for ordinary people who get up every day and go to work. It’s for people who earnestly want to know God but also have school work or family obligations. Their search for God requires them to steal away for a brief moment of prayer before the events of the day sweep them away. Their needs are profound, but their schedules are jammed. If this in any way sounds familiar, you may find this devotional helpful.

The Bible is a rich treasure of wisdom written by many different types of men, from fig farmers to diplomats to kings. One of those writers however is especially good at relating to common people, probably because he was a common person himself - a simple fisherman. His name is John, and his letter, First John, is a straight-forward description of what it’s like for common people to walk with God. He gets down to business quickly. He gives us the big picture. His style is simple, and he repeats things for us in case we don’t get them the first time. First John is an eyewitness account of a fisherman who lived two thousand years ago as he describes what it’s like to walk with Jesus... an uncommon, common man, whom he knew personally. He travelled with Jesus, heard his teachings, saw miracles with his own eyes, and then watched him die at the hands of his countrymen. John’s testimony is an accurate, pure, undistorted view of what it means to be a true follower of Jesus Christ, both then and now.

For more than twenty centuries First John has helped millions of ordinary people discover authentic Christianity. Average people can be extraordinarily happy in God, and using his firsthand knowledge of Christ, John explains how that’s possible. If we’re willing to accept the truth of what he says, our average worlds become anything but common. The God of the universe invades our mundane realities, transforming our life in this world, while at the same time preparing us for the next world. In the end, God balances the scales. The famous, the powerful and the elite fade into insignificance. But the common man who walks with God abides forever.