10-6-2015

 Good Morning All!!

          1 John 1: 8-9; “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

     If you are a parent or a grandparent you know this story.  You walk into the kitchen and find cookie crumbs on the floor.  You see the cookie jar tipped over and empty.  It shouldn’t be empty but now it is.  You are in the house and the three year old in your family is in the house.  There is no one else and you know you didn’t eat the cookies.  So you seek out your three year old.  He is now playing with his toys.  He has chocolate smears on his face and hands.  So you ask the questions.

    “Do you know what happened to the cookies?”  The answer, “What cookies?”

    “The cookies in the cookie jar; did you eat them?”  The answer, “no.”

    “Are you sure?  There is only you and me and I didn’t eat them.”  “The answer, “no, I didn’t eat them.”

    “Then why do you have chocolate on your face and hands?”  The answer, “I found one on the floor.”  And so it goes until you finally get a confession or you lose your patience and you decide just to deal with it.  He might never admit it.  It is always possible that he is lying to himself enough that he is trying to lie to you. 

    Of course we like to think that we, as adults, have out grown this; but have we?  Or do we engage in self-denial and in making excuses.  If we say we have no sin; if we deny the truth around us, we deceive ourselves.  Perhaps we try to explain away our actions.  “I couldn’t help it.”  “It isn’t that big of a deal.”  “It is not as bad as what he did.”  “It is different now, everyone is doing it.”  “It was just a little thing.”  We always have excuses and denials; we always have these self-deceptions which interfere with our relationship with God. 

    Maybe we deceive ourselves by denying the pain of our neighbor.  We look away; we claim we can’t do anything to help anyway.  We claim we don’t know what to do; we don’t want to help one and not another.  What if someone who needs more help shows up tomorrow?  And just like our three year old, it goes on and on.  We deny and deceive ourselves and by deceiving ourselves we miss the cleansing of our soul and spirit.  We go uncleansed because we deny the truth about ourselves.

    God forgives our sins and offers us the cleansing when we give up those sins.  We get the cleansing when we truly repent our failures; because it is when we truly repent and see our only hope is in Jesus that we are truly cleansed, truly refreshed and truly at peace with God.

Father in heaven, your free and wonderful forgiveness brings us into your loving family.  Cleanse us of our guilt and fear.  Lead us to follow your will that we may bring hope to this world.  Lead us to see our neighbor’s need and give us the wisdom to offer them the grace that you pour out upon us.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret