Note: These posts appear from the most recent to the oldest. To follow the First John discussion in the order of the text, I encourage you to start with the older posts first. As in the previous post, I'm not writing this in a properly formatted manner. I'm simply sharing my notes from the class.
Intro: The 140th World Almanac and Book of Facts 2008 Edition says this about about the church..."some tendency towards perfectionism." Proof that we don't live the message of this book otherwise it would say, "some tendency toward love and forgiveness."
Verse 1: Keep in mind when this was written chapters and verses weren't used. This verse is a follow up to those that come before. This shows 1. the meaning of walking in the light (confession of sins) 2. conditions of walking in the light (forsaking those sins).
"Little children" from the Greek teknia also found in 2:12, 28, 3:18, 4:4 and 5:21. Term of affection and closeness. Only other New Testament use of this word is in John 13:33 used by Jesus. Implies the spiritual relation of children to a father in faith. The thought without the specific word is found in First Corinthians 4:15.
Other word used for children is "paidia" in 2:13 and 18. Denotes age and characteristics of childhood. Age to youth, authority to subordinates, wisdom to ignorance.
John's purpose is to warn them against participating in sinful acts but if you do sin, what to do? It's not hopeless as the following shows.
Verse 2: "Have an Advocate", here again is a present tense verb, literally keep on having. He's the ever present remedy. Word we use today for advocate is lawyer, someone to represent us. Tom Miller explains this best: Imagine we are on trial for our deeds. Our Advocate is the Son of the Judge. The Judge's Son is pleading our case.
Righteous: means Jesus, the righteous one pleads for the unrighteous. An advocate himself in need of intercession could not hope to influence the Judge. This is yet another example of John refuting Gnostics who claimed Jesus was sinful if He was man.
Propitiation: to appease, render favorable, conciliate. Occurs here and in 4:10. Other forms used in Romans 3:25 and Hebrews 2:17. He propitiates the Father (rendering Him favorable toward us), reconciling us to God. See also Romans 5:11 and Second Corinthians 5:18-19. Guy N. Woods quote about this: "Positive, undeniable evidence of the falseness of any theology which would limit the benefits of the atonement, or deny its blessing to anyone." (Example - Calvinism)
Martin Luther said, "It is a patent fact that thou too art a part of the whole world; so that thine heart cannot deceive itself and think the Lord died for Peter and Paul but not for me."
Summary: Avoid sin but if we fall into it, rely on the Advocate to plead our case.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
First John 1:8-10
Instead of writing this post in the traditional style, I'm going to basically copy the notes I used in class for these three verses. I don't know that one way is better than another other than saving time in the posting. You might also find it easier and quicker to read.
Verse 8: "say we have not sin", who siad this...Gnostics. Remember the original audience and who they were battling. John's saying it is not possible for the saved to live in sin. If you believe this you do two things. First, deceive yourself and secondly, show the truth is not in you. The ever present problem of sin is why John says we have to have the cleansing blood. Those he's writing to had been forgiven for past sins (at baptism). He's clearly talking about present sin.
Verse 9: Previous verse says "if we say" this says "if we confess". The first is and admission of guilt while the second goes deeper. Say comes from eipon meaning to speak it. There's no sense of guilt therefore no repentance. Confession from homologeo. Confessing implies a dialogue between God and the sinner. God describes the condition of the sinner. The sinner corrects it and confesses that God is light!
Sin in verse 8 is an abstract concept of wrong. In 9, sin becomes individual and specific acts. Obviously we are to confess the specific sins. Side note, think about our prayers for forgiveness. Should we pray generally for forgiveness or should we be specific?
Confess: as talked about earlier it's a present active verb meaning we keep on doing it. We keep on confessing. Also, there are only two types of confession in the New Testament. One is to God as here. Second is to others as in James 5:16. Nowhere are we taught to confess to a priest. It's not needed anyway since Jesus is our Priest, Mediator and Advocate. (Hebrews 7:25, 10:19-20, I Timothy 2:5 and I John 2:1)
Verse 10: Compare again to sin again in verse 8...another advance in thought. From the abstract in verse 8 to specific and concrete acts here. In 8, sin is regarded as a state or condition. Deny this lie (verse 6), deceive themselves (verse 8) and make God a liar (verse 10). This verse emphasizes the fact of sin in the lives of all of us. We must continue to seek it.
This refutes those who don't believe in apostasy. We're not forgiven for all sins past, present and future. If we were, we wouldn't have this ever present need of the cleansing.
Verse 8: "say we have not sin", who siad this...Gnostics. Remember the original audience and who they were battling. John's saying it is not possible for the saved to live in sin. If you believe this you do two things. First, deceive yourself and secondly, show the truth is not in you. The ever present problem of sin is why John says we have to have the cleansing blood. Those he's writing to had been forgiven for past sins (at baptism). He's clearly talking about present sin.
Verse 9: Previous verse says "if we say" this says "if we confess". The first is and admission of guilt while the second goes deeper. Say comes from eipon meaning to speak it. There's no sense of guilt therefore no repentance. Confession from homologeo. Confessing implies a dialogue between God and the sinner. God describes the condition of the sinner. The sinner corrects it and confesses that God is light!
Sin in verse 8 is an abstract concept of wrong. In 9, sin becomes individual and specific acts. Obviously we are to confess the specific sins. Side note, think about our prayers for forgiveness. Should we pray generally for forgiveness or should we be specific?
Confess: as talked about earlier it's a present active verb meaning we keep on doing it. We keep on confessing. Also, there are only two types of confession in the New Testament. One is to God as here. Second is to others as in James 5:16. Nowhere are we taught to confess to a priest. It's not needed anyway since Jesus is our Priest, Mediator and Advocate. (Hebrews 7:25, 10:19-20, I Timothy 2:5 and I John 2:1)
Verse 10: Compare again to sin again in verse 8...another advance in thought. From the abstract in verse 8 to specific and concrete acts here. In 8, sin is regarded as a state or condition. Deny this lie (verse 6), deceive themselves (verse 8) and make God a liar (verse 10). This verse emphasizes the fact of sin in the lives of all of us. We must continue to seek it.
This refutes those who don't believe in apostasy. We're not forgiven for all sins past, present and future. If we were, we wouldn't have this ever present need of the cleansing.
God Is Light (First John 1:5-7)
That is the emphasis of First John 1:5-7. John begins this passage by reemphasizing his credentials. He heard Jesus declare this message first hand. John is a first hand witness passing on this information to these Christians. The phrase used, "God is light" sums up the essense of God. He lives in unapproachable light (I Tim. 6:16).
I Peter 2:9 reminds us that God called us, "out of darkness into His marvelous light." Quite obviously, where there is light, there can be no darkness. It's not possible. This verse from I John in the Greek text is especially pointed. What is translated to us as "no darkness at all" is saying there is not even a speck, not an iota of darkness. It's one or the other. We have light, His light or we don't. There is no middle ground.
I posted in May of last year about the next couple of verses. I encourage you to look at the index and find the post "Get Off The Spiritual Tight Rope...It Doesn't Exist". It covers the message of these verses as well as verse 9. There are two quick points I'll make here though. Walking in the light results in two things. First, we have fellowship with each other and with God and Jesus. Secondly, the blood of Christ cleans us and continues to clean us. The verb walk indicates this must be a continuous action, just as the cleansing of the blood of Christ is.
Another important word to consider here and elsewhere in this book is the word fellowship. From the Greek word koinonia, it means joint sharing, a partnership. Guy N. Woods summed this up nicely in his commentary of this book published by the Gospel Advocate. He writes, "Here in the most emphatic fashion, the writer points out that only in unity of faith is there communion in religion. It is possible to have fellowship only when there is a common bond established in faith, work and love." The bottom line? Only if we walk in the light do we bear each other's burdens (Galatians 6:2) and are then the body of Christ (I Corinthians 12:26-27).
I Peter 2:9 reminds us that God called us, "out of darkness into His marvelous light." Quite obviously, where there is light, there can be no darkness. It's not possible. This verse from I John in the Greek text is especially pointed. What is translated to us as "no darkness at all" is saying there is not even a speck, not an iota of darkness. It's one or the other. We have light, His light or we don't. There is no middle ground.
I posted in May of last year about the next couple of verses. I encourage you to look at the index and find the post "Get Off The Spiritual Tight Rope...It Doesn't Exist". It covers the message of these verses as well as verse 9. There are two quick points I'll make here though. Walking in the light results in two things. First, we have fellowship with each other and with God and Jesus. Secondly, the blood of Christ cleans us and continues to clean us. The verb walk indicates this must be a continuous action, just as the cleansing of the blood of Christ is.
Another important word to consider here and elsewhere in this book is the word fellowship. From the Greek word koinonia, it means joint sharing, a partnership. Guy N. Woods summed this up nicely in his commentary of this book published by the Gospel Advocate. He writes, "Here in the most emphatic fashion, the writer points out that only in unity of faith is there communion in religion. It is possible to have fellowship only when there is a common bond established in faith, work and love." The bottom line? Only if we walk in the light do we bear each other's burdens (Galatians 6:2) and are then the body of Christ (I Corinthians 12:26-27).
Friday, July 17, 2009
Back to First John (Chapter 1)
I've been sidetracked lately and have posted about some other issues recently. I know some of you are waiting for the notes from our study of First John. You can find the previous posts about the book in the archive section of this blog, located on the right hand side of the main page.
The first chapter of this book is probably the key to entire book. Once it is understood, the four chapters fall in line. The first chapter is a counter to 15th chapter of John's gospel. John 15 explains the positive side of fellowship, abiding in Christ. First John 1 explains to us that when we don't abide in Christ we must seek forgiveness so we can have that fellowship. We'll talk more about abiding later.
Keep in mind what the Gnostics believed as you begin reading the first four verses. They said all matter was evil. Humans were evil. Jesus could not be the Christ because he would have been evil in the form of a man. One group said that it just appeared that Jesus was on earth. It was an illusion.
I think of John as a court room lawyer making his case to the jury right off the bat as I look at I John 1:1. He tells these critics that he's talking about "that which was from the beginning". John then goes on to say he used three of his senses as he knew "that which was". John heard Him, saw Him and touched Him. You can't do those things with an illusion. He's going right after the Gnostics at the start of his opening argument.
John strengthens his argument in verse two and three. "The life was manifested". John again says he saw Christ and is His witness and now he's sharing that news with his audience and refuting these Gnostics. John is saying I have fellowship with Him and you can too. The word fellowship comes from koinonia in Greek. It means partnership, joint sharing. We can only have fellowship when there is a joint sharing, a common bond in the faith, in love and in work.
Verse four must have been a very powerful verse to this original audience. They've been hearing these Gnostics tell them that to try to serve God one must suffer total depravity. John says no. I'm telling you these things, "that your joy may be full." Joy was the total and complete opposite of what these people had been hearing from the false teachers. What a breathe of fresh air that sentence must have been to them and should be to us. If you have Jesus you have joy.
The first chapter of this book is probably the key to entire book. Once it is understood, the four chapters fall in line. The first chapter is a counter to 15th chapter of John's gospel. John 15 explains the positive side of fellowship, abiding in Christ. First John 1 explains to us that when we don't abide in Christ we must seek forgiveness so we can have that fellowship. We'll talk more about abiding later.
Keep in mind what the Gnostics believed as you begin reading the first four verses. They said all matter was evil. Humans were evil. Jesus could not be the Christ because he would have been evil in the form of a man. One group said that it just appeared that Jesus was on earth. It was an illusion.
I think of John as a court room lawyer making his case to the jury right off the bat as I look at I John 1:1. He tells these critics that he's talking about "that which was from the beginning". John then goes on to say he used three of his senses as he knew "that which was". John heard Him, saw Him and touched Him. You can't do those things with an illusion. He's going right after the Gnostics at the start of his opening argument.
John strengthens his argument in verse two and three. "The life was manifested". John again says he saw Christ and is His witness and now he's sharing that news with his audience and refuting these Gnostics. John is saying I have fellowship with Him and you can too. The word fellowship comes from koinonia in Greek. It means partnership, joint sharing. We can only have fellowship when there is a joint sharing, a common bond in the faith, in love and in work.
Verse four must have been a very powerful verse to this original audience. They've been hearing these Gnostics tell them that to try to serve God one must suffer total depravity. John says no. I'm telling you these things, "that your joy may be full." Joy was the total and complete opposite of what these people had been hearing from the false teachers. What a breathe of fresh air that sentence must have been to them and should be to us. If you have Jesus you have joy.
Music in Church
The following email was sent to me last night by my friend Larry York who received it from the the writer. Larry is a member of the West End congregation in Knoxville. The Providence Road church of Christ which is mentioned in the email is in Charlotte, NC. Jeff Walling is a minister there which should come as no suprise while you read this account if you know his history. Yes, they also have a "praise team." Dr. Randy Gill, who this article is about is, teaches in the music department at Lipscomb University. That will give you something else to think about!
" I found this to be interesting, relevant, and thought provoking. I went to http://www.prcoc.org/ to listen, but the audio has not been posted yet.
Providence Road C of C has been having some special classes this summer on Wednesday, that they refer to as “Hot topics”. This past Wednesday was on instrumental music. I attended to hear what was being said.
The speaker was Dr. Randy Gill. He is the worship minister at Woodmont Hills in Nashville, where John Mark Hicks and (formerly) Rubel Shelly are ministers. He is also an executive with Zoe Group, the producer of Wineskins Magazine. He is a graduate of Pepperdine and taught music for years at Rochester College (formerly Michigan Christian). Considering his background, his presentation was not surprising.
Randy began by discussing his journey. He was raised to believe that instrumental music was a sin. He recited his belief as a young person that there were no other real churches and part of this distinction was the use of acapella music. As he began to teach, he had his ten reasons while instrumental music was a sin, and included it in his teaching.
Over time, with the intersection of various music activities at the university and interaction with “Christian” non members of the church, he became increasingly confronted with contradictions.. This led him to the next step on his journey. He came to believe that the only issue was doing it in worship. And so he began to listen to Christian contemporary music, etc. and “appreciate” its potential to improve people. He used the classic example; Do we want our kids to listen to Love Gun by KISS or Christian instrumental music? He ridiculed the practice of some churches to allow instrumental music in the fellowship hall for weddings, but not in the auditorium.
He came to understand that instrumental music was not a sin, but just our tradition. He noted that the NT use of synagogues was not authorized and yet Jesus used them. He also noted the cultural association of instruments with pagans. He knew all the arguments including gopher wood, Nadab and Abihu and the “no priest from Judah:” He knew all the definitions of Psallo and the debates. He accused us of picking and choosing between women wearing hats, anointing with oil, washing feet and one cup. In light of the limited texts on the topic (he read 1 Cor. 14; Eph. 5 and Col. 3), and there context was not really worship “rules”; he now considers instrumental music as cultural and incidental. It is not a salvation issue.
Now he is in a stage of not causing division with people, while at the same time not losing our young people and appealing to the community. Why should our traditions stand in the way of reaching the loss? Keeping our young people? He said we have a generation of young people that do not understand or accept the arguments on instrumental music. Instrumental music objections are akin to “race” discrimination of days gone by, and people consider it a throwback to a failed way of thinking. An older generation had both problems and he now lnks them together.
At Woodmont Hills they have full instrumental music in classes, drama and other presentations, just not on Sunday morning. He laments the limitation. It keeps people from using their gifts. It causes young people to question and leave. It keeps the un churched from coming.
He concluded the session with Q&A that were written and handed in. During the session, most of the audience was readily agreeing and laughing with him as he scorned the church. (There were a number of elderly people that sat very quietly and I frankly felt sorry for them.) However, some of the questions were pretty good. Why shouldn’t we just take Church of Christ off our sign? He said he was hurt by that question, that the he had as much heritage in the church as anyone else. Don’t instruments drown out the singing? That’s a technical issue that the sound board manager can handle, if properly taught. How do we maintain any distinctiveness? Let’s be known for our love, not our music. Etc. He did say, no one should worship this way if it goes against their conscience.
All in all, it was disturbing, but not surprising. I was especially surprised with the ready acceptance of most of the audience. And remember, this is the Wednesday night crowd. Like Woodmont Hills, I do not believe they are going to go instrumental anytime soon in their worship. This was part of the continuing education (brain washing) that is being done all over the country. They do not have any objections to it today, except people’s conscience. One day they will have instruments; it is just going to take more education and more old people passing on.
Ten years ago, Woodson and Holland did some presentations on the Change Movements Mode of Operation. I bolded and underlined the elements they sited. There is an eerie consistency in the agenda.
Notice:
1 – have a well educated speaker to cause the audience to feel inferior
2 – talk about being on a journey, the implication is from simpleness to enlightenment
3 – highlight perceived contradictions in our approach, too many people do not know how to handle them or their history
4 – anything you don’t agree with, talk about it as being culturally limited ( PR will get there on women’s role too,,,,and this is how others have gotten to homosexuality is ok)
5 – state you now all the arguments, but never address them. Randy did not recite his ten reasons and then show why they are not valid.
6 – state this is not a salvation issue. Of course, that is not the question, it is a question of what does God really want and how interested am I in finding out.
7 – If we don’t’ do this, we can’t reach the loss and keep our young
8 – tie the issue to other things that nobody agrees with…race discrimination one cuppers, etc.
9 - Show how it limits people on using their gifts (maybe we should get Barbara McDermott to paint us a picture on the stage during worship)
My only response is to keep teaching the truth, and when ever the opportunity exists, pull people back to the real core issues, not the peripheral impacts."
Amen!
" I found this to be interesting, relevant, and thought provoking. I went to http://www.prcoc.org/ to listen, but the audio has not been posted yet.
Providence Road C of C has been having some special classes this summer on Wednesday, that they refer to as “Hot topics”. This past Wednesday was on instrumental music. I attended to hear what was being said.
The speaker was Dr. Randy Gill. He is the worship minister at Woodmont Hills in Nashville, where John Mark Hicks and (formerly) Rubel Shelly are ministers. He is also an executive with Zoe Group, the producer of Wineskins Magazine. He is a graduate of Pepperdine and taught music for years at Rochester College (formerly Michigan Christian). Considering his background, his presentation was not surprising.
Randy began by discussing his journey. He was raised to believe that instrumental music was a sin. He recited his belief as a young person that there were no other real churches and part of this distinction was the use of acapella music. As he began to teach, he had his ten reasons while instrumental music was a sin, and included it in his teaching.
Over time, with the intersection of various music activities at the university and interaction with “Christian” non members of the church, he became increasingly confronted with contradictions.. This led him to the next step on his journey. He came to believe that the only issue was doing it in worship. And so he began to listen to Christian contemporary music, etc. and “appreciate” its potential to improve people. He used the classic example; Do we want our kids to listen to Love Gun by KISS or Christian instrumental music? He ridiculed the practice of some churches to allow instrumental music in the fellowship hall for weddings, but not in the auditorium.
He came to understand that instrumental music was not a sin, but just our tradition. He noted that the NT use of synagogues was not authorized and yet Jesus used them. He also noted the cultural association of instruments with pagans. He knew all the arguments including gopher wood, Nadab and Abihu and the “no priest from Judah:” He knew all the definitions of Psallo and the debates. He accused us of picking and choosing between women wearing hats, anointing with oil, washing feet and one cup. In light of the limited texts on the topic (he read 1 Cor. 14; Eph. 5 and Col. 3), and there context was not really worship “rules”; he now considers instrumental music as cultural and incidental. It is not a salvation issue.
Now he is in a stage of not causing division with people, while at the same time not losing our young people and appealing to the community. Why should our traditions stand in the way of reaching the loss? Keeping our young people? He said we have a generation of young people that do not understand or accept the arguments on instrumental music. Instrumental music objections are akin to “race” discrimination of days gone by, and people consider it a throwback to a failed way of thinking. An older generation had both problems and he now lnks them together.
At Woodmont Hills they have full instrumental music in classes, drama and other presentations, just not on Sunday morning. He laments the limitation. It keeps people from using their gifts. It causes young people to question and leave. It keeps the un churched from coming.
He concluded the session with Q&A that were written and handed in. During the session, most of the audience was readily agreeing and laughing with him as he scorned the church. (There were a number of elderly people that sat very quietly and I frankly felt sorry for them.) However, some of the questions were pretty good. Why shouldn’t we just take Church of Christ off our sign? He said he was hurt by that question, that the he had as much heritage in the church as anyone else. Don’t instruments drown out the singing? That’s a technical issue that the sound board manager can handle, if properly taught. How do we maintain any distinctiveness? Let’s be known for our love, not our music. Etc. He did say, no one should worship this way if it goes against their conscience.
All in all, it was disturbing, but not surprising. I was especially surprised with the ready acceptance of most of the audience. And remember, this is the Wednesday night crowd. Like Woodmont Hills, I do not believe they are going to go instrumental anytime soon in their worship. This was part of the continuing education (brain washing) that is being done all over the country. They do not have any objections to it today, except people’s conscience. One day they will have instruments; it is just going to take more education and more old people passing on.
Ten years ago, Woodson and Holland did some presentations on the Change Movements Mode of Operation. I bolded and underlined the elements they sited. There is an eerie consistency in the agenda.
Notice:
1 – have a well educated speaker to cause the audience to feel inferior
2 – talk about being on a journey, the implication is from simpleness to enlightenment
3 – highlight perceived contradictions in our approach, too many people do not know how to handle them or their history
4 – anything you don’t agree with, talk about it as being culturally limited ( PR will get there on women’s role too,,,,and this is how others have gotten to homosexuality is ok)
5 – state you now all the arguments, but never address them. Randy did not recite his ten reasons and then show why they are not valid.
6 – state this is not a salvation issue. Of course, that is not the question, it is a question of what does God really want and how interested am I in finding out.
7 – If we don’t’ do this, we can’t reach the loss and keep our young
8 – tie the issue to other things that nobody agrees with…race discrimination one cuppers, etc.
9 - Show how it limits people on using their gifts (maybe we should get Barbara McDermott to paint us a picture on the stage during worship)
My only response is to keep teaching the truth, and when ever the opportunity exists, pull people back to the real core issues, not the peripheral impacts."
Amen!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Things Remembered
My family and I spent several days at Isle of Palms, SC. Last Wednesday was our first service back at South Knoxville since I responded to the invitation a couple of Sundays earlier. As I walked in the door Wednesday I was told I was in charge of that night's devotional.
In the few minutes I had to get ready, I thought of what I might say. I've been told I'm a good story teller. I know in my life I've experienced a lot of things that make for good stories. My first thought was that I could tell a good story about some person or experience that would have a moral thought behind it that people could benefit from. Then I realized that my situation from the past few weeks was exactly what I needed to talk about. When we can personalize our struggles and hopes I think it makes it more relevant for everyone. I talked about things I'd remembered.
I had been reminded of First John 1:9, a verse I've talked about on this site previously. In the past I've emphasised the point that this verse talks about continuing actions. It's true and it's important. From the original Greek it was written in, the verse tells us if we continue to confess our sins then Christ continues to forgive and cleanse us. What I remembered recently though was the word "all". He will, "cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I think sometimes our conscience has a hard time letting us digest that word when it comes to our own sins and shortcomings.
I was reminded of First Peter 4:8. It says, "And above all things have fervent love for one another, for 'love will cover a multitude of sins.'" When you have sinned, when you need to feel that love, it's an awesome feeling when it's extended to you. Whose love? The love from other Christians, the love of Christ and God the Father, the love of a good wife, the love from your family.
Another thing I'd remembered was what James told us in James 5:16. "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." My dad used to say that if "the effective, fervent prayer" of one righeous man accomplished a lot, imagine the power behind the prayers of many people. I know many people have been praying for me over the last couple of weeks and I appreciate it very much. I know I always pray for others both publicly and privately. Isn't it an incredible humbling and encouraging feeling to know when others pray for you?!
Like I said previously about another point, it's important that we know these points for the facts they are. When we consider ourselves, our struggles, our needs and our relationship with God it's even more important to remember the importance of these points in a personal and life changing way. I hope this helps you.
In the few minutes I had to get ready, I thought of what I might say. I've been told I'm a good story teller. I know in my life I've experienced a lot of things that make for good stories. My first thought was that I could tell a good story about some person or experience that would have a moral thought behind it that people could benefit from. Then I realized that my situation from the past few weeks was exactly what I needed to talk about. When we can personalize our struggles and hopes I think it makes it more relevant for everyone. I talked about things I'd remembered.
I had been reminded of First John 1:9, a verse I've talked about on this site previously. In the past I've emphasised the point that this verse talks about continuing actions. It's true and it's important. From the original Greek it was written in, the verse tells us if we continue to confess our sins then Christ continues to forgive and cleanse us. What I remembered recently though was the word "all". He will, "cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I think sometimes our conscience has a hard time letting us digest that word when it comes to our own sins and shortcomings.
I was reminded of First Peter 4:8. It says, "And above all things have fervent love for one another, for 'love will cover a multitude of sins.'" When you have sinned, when you need to feel that love, it's an awesome feeling when it's extended to you. Whose love? The love from other Christians, the love of Christ and God the Father, the love of a good wife, the love from your family.
Another thing I'd remembered was what James told us in James 5:16. "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." My dad used to say that if "the effective, fervent prayer" of one righeous man accomplished a lot, imagine the power behind the prayers of many people. I know many people have been praying for me over the last couple of weeks and I appreciate it very much. I know I always pray for others both publicly and privately. Isn't it an incredible humbling and encouraging feeling to know when others pray for you?!
Like I said previously about another point, it's important that we know these points for the facts they are. When we consider ourselves, our struggles, our needs and our relationship with God it's even more important to remember the importance of these points in a personal and life changing way. I hope this helps you.
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