Verses I read today:
耶利米书3:16 耶和华说："你们在国中生养众多。当那些日子，人必不再提说耶和华的约柜，不追想，不记念，不觉缺少，也不再制造。
"And when your land is once more filled with people," says the Lord, "you will no longer wish for 'the good old days' when you possessed the Ark of the Lord's Covenant. You will not miss these days or even remember them, and there will be no need to rebuild the Ark."
耶利米书3:24 从我们幼年以来，那可耻的偶像将我们列祖所劳碌得来的羊群牛群，和他们的儿女都吞吃了.
From childhood we have watched as everything our ancestors worked for --- their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters ---was squandered on a delusion.
约翰一书1:5 神就是光，在他毫无黑暗！这是我们从主所听见、又报给你们的信息。
约翰一书1:6 我们若说是与 神相交，却仍在黑暗里行，就是说谎话，不行真理了。
约翰一书1:7 我们若在光明中行，如同 神在光明中，就彼此相交，他儿子耶稣的血也洗净我们一切的罪。
约翰一书1:8 我们若说自己无罪，便是自欺，真理不在我们心里了；
约翰一书1:9 我们若认自己的罪， 神是信实的，是公义的，必要赦免我们的罪，洗净我们一切的不义；
约翰一书1:10 我们若说自己没有犯过罪，便是以 神为说谎的，他的道也不在我们心里了。
This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him ad all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
Quotes that are really meaningful to me From NLT Application Study Notes:
In 1John1:6, John was confronting the first of three claims of the false teachers: that we can have fellowship with God and go on living in spiritual darkness. False teachers who thought that the physical body was evil or worthless taught one of two approaches to behavior: They insisted on denying bodily desires through rigid discipline, or they approved of gratifying every physical lust because the body was going to be destroyed anyway. Obviously the second approach was more popular. Here John is saying that no one can claim to be a Christian and still live in evil and immorality. We can't love God and court sin at the same time.
In 1John1:8, John was attacking the second claim of the false teachers: that people had no natural tendency toward sin, that they had "no sin," and that they were then incapable of sinning. This is a lie. The false teachers refused to take sin seriously. They wanted to be considered as Christians, but they saw no need to confess and repent. The death of Christ did not mean much to them because they didn't think they needed it. Instead of repenting and being purified by Christ's blood, they were encouraging sin among believers. In this life we always capable of sinning, so we would never let down our guard.
The false teachers not only denied that sin breaks the fellowship with God (1:6) and that they had a sinful nature(1:8), but they also denied that their conduct involved any sin at all(1:10). That was a lie that ignored one basic truth: All people are sinners by nature and by practice. At conversion, all our sins are forgiven --- past, present, and future. Yet after we become Christians, we still sin and still need to confess. This kind of confession is not offered to gain God's acceptance but to remove the barrier to fellowship that our sin has put between us and him. It is difficult, however, for many people to admit their faults and shortcomings, even to God. It takes humility and honesty to recognize our weaknesses, and most of us would rather pretend that we are strong. But we need not fear revealing our sins to God --- he knows them already. He will not push us away, no matter what we've done. Instead, he will draw us to himself.
What is the purpose of confession?
Confession is supposed to free us to enjoy fellowship with Christ. It should ease our consciences and lighten our cars. We should continue to confess our sins, but not because failure to do so will make us lose our salvation. Our relationship with Christ is secure. Instead, we should confess so that we can enjoy the maximum fellowship and joy with him.
If God has forgiven us for our sins because of Christ's death, why mush we confess our sins?
In admitting our sins and receiving Christ's cleaning, we are
1. agreeing with God that our sin truly is sin and that we are willing to turn from it,
2. ensuring that we don't conceal our sins from him and consequently from ourselves,
3. recognizing our tendency to sin and relying on his power to overcome it.
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