365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 197

My bible study is working on the book of Hebrews. We met last evening to discuss chapters 9 and 10. In one of the study books we are going by called Be Confident by Warren W Wiersbe, he talks about sin being man’s greatest problem. He goes on to say, “by nature, man is a sinner, and by choice, he proves that his nature is sinful.” He finalizes all this with a quote from sources unknown, “We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners.” This one little line gets to the heart of the reason why many have a difficult path to real spiritual relationship with God. In my study on temperaments, there are temperaments that because of their needs or lack of needs do not think they need God or think they are too unworthy and unlovable. Shinning the light on sin is thwarted by our own weaknesses within our temperament but Jesus can be that light. Jesus can show each of us that we are sinners no matter how many good things we do or no matter if we have never committed a “big” sin. Sin is sin and we are all by nature sinners but we will try to cover it up, hide it away, disregard it. Our weaknesses are being played on by Satan. He will play upon those weaknesses to keep us from the light of Jesus and a real spirit-to-spirit relationship with God. Accepting ourselves as sinners is the great hurdle we have to jump over on our path to God. This hurdle cannot be done alone. Each of us play a part, plant a seed, say a word that can encourage and motivate another to seek God and get over that sin hurdle. Share your story, live your life as an example of Christ’s love, be all you can be for the Lord.

Hebrews 10:12-14 But when this priest (Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.  

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 359

We watched the movie Brave last night. It is well worth your time to watch especially if you are a mother or a daughter since the plot is about the relationship between the mother-queen and daughter-princess. The thing I love most about this movie is how it shows the conflict within a person when it comes to facing their sins. The princess ultimately faced what she did and asked for forgiveness. This conflict within a person came up in my reading from a Tim LaHaye book called The Spirit-filled Temperaments. He told of a woman who asked him to tell her the truth about what she was doing that was making her ultimately be depressed. He was hesitant about it but she pushed more and so he told her the flat out truth, it is because you are selfish. The sin of selfishness was making her thought patterns turn negatively and so she ends up depressed. This lady obviously was having conflict within herself and finally was brave enough to ask someone who was going to give it to her straight. The main point in both of these stories is that we have a choice but in making that choice we have to be brave. We have to be able to see the truth of ourselves so that we can go on and ask for forgiveness and be cleansed. Facing our sins for what they are is the first hurdle in restoring our relationship to God that was ripped apart in the Garden of Eden. It is like the symbol in the movie of the tapestry that the princess cut in two with a sword. One side was her and the other side was her parents. One side is us and the other side is God.  Jesus came and he can stitch the tapestry back together when we bravely face our sins and ask for forgiveness. Thank you Lord for giving us the motivation and bravery to face our sins each day and ask your forgiveness.

Romans 14:11-12 If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.