Category Archives: Christian Life

Life’s Balance Sheet

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Today’s reading from Our Daily Walk devotional by F. B. Meyer really spoke to me, especially the second paragraph. “To save ourselves, to build warm nests, to avoid every discomfort and annoyance, … to invent schemes for our own pleasure” — that has too often been my focus. But that’s not how Christ lived, and it is not how He called us to live.

LIFE’S BALANCE SHEET

“What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”– Mar 8:36.

SIMON PETER had been urging our Lord to spare Himself the suffering to which He had referred, but He answered that this could not be for Himself, or for any other who would follow in His footsteps. Proceeding from His own deep experience, He went on to show that in the same measure every one must deny his own choice and will and pleasure, in order that he may reach the highest life for himself and others.

It is not necessary for any man to make a cross; it is our part simply to take up that which God has laid down for us. The cross is no exceptional piece of asceticism, but it is the constant refusal to gratify our self-life; the perpetual dying to pride and serf-indulgence, in order to follow Christ in His redemptive mission for the salvation of men. And it is in proportion as men live like this that they realize the deepest and truest and highest meaning of life. When we live only to save ourselves, to build warm nests, to avoid every discomfort and annoyance, to make money entirely for our own use and enjoyment, to invent schemes for our own pleasure, we become the most discontented and miserable of mankind. How many there are who have given themselves up to a life of selfishness and pleasure-seeking, only to find their capacity for joy has shrivelled, and their lives plunged into gloom and despair. They have lost their souls!

If a fire is raging, and a millionaire saves his palace from destruction, but in so doing loses his own life, does it pay? And are there not many who are building for themselves palaces of wealth and pleasure, but are losing the power of enjoyment because they are destroying all the finest sensibilities of their nature. Our Lord asks, what does it profit to gain the whole world, and forfeit one’s own soul?

But not to adopt the policy of the world is certain to bring upon us dislike and hatred, before which many have been daunted; and yet to refuse Christ’s policy of life, and to be ashamed of acknowledging that we are His followers, will mean ultimately our rejection. For how can our Lord use us in any great schemes of the future, if we have failed Him in the limited sphere of our human life?

PRAYER

O God, we have been disappointed because the cisterns that we have hewn out for ourselves have not given the water needed to quench our thirst. Fountain of Living Water, of Thee may we drink! Bread of Life, of Thee may we eat! Light of Life, shine upon our hearts, that we may walk in Thy light. AMEN.

~ F. B. Meyer

Mimosa

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Sometimes people who work in children’s ministries can get discouraged due to the seeming lack of fruit or the fact that they have some children just a few times and then never see them again. Mimosa by Amy Carmichael tells the story of a little girl who was marvelously changed by just a short encounter with the gospel.

When Amy Carmichael was a missionary in India she learned that some little girls were sold to the temples for immoral purposes. Whenever she could, she tried to rescue these girls, to talk their parents into letting them stay with her instead. One such little girl was named Star. She had been with Amy for a while when her father came, bringing her sister, Mimosa, with him, to try to take Star back. He met and talked with Amy and Mr. Walker, the director, and at one point even stretched out his arm to take Star — yet he felt he could not move, that some strange power was preventing him.

Mimosa saw this. Some of the workers had a short time to talk with her, not even time enough to present the gospel completely. Mimosa asked her father to let her stay: he would not hear of it.

Those who had met with Mimosa longed for her: she seemed intelligent and interested. They lamented that they had not had time to tell her more. “How could she possibly remember what we had told her? It was impossible to expect her to remember……Impossible? Is there such a word where the things of the Lord are concerned?”

Something of what she heard about a God who loved her stayed with her. She knew instinctively she could no longer rub the ashes of her family’s god on her forehead, as was their custom. The women in the house thought her naughty or “bewitched” and beat her with a stick. She was bewildered, but she knew God loved her, in spite of all she could not understand of her circumstances.

After she was married at age seventeen, she found she had been deceived by her husband’s family: He was “landless [and] neck-deep in debt.” It was no shame to be in debt: in that culture: “”If you have no debt, does it not follow that no one trusts you enough to lend you anything, and from that is it not obvious that you are a person of small consequence?” But Mimosa’s character could not endure it, though she had never been taught against it. She encouraged him to sell the land in her name, the only piece of land he had that he had given as a dowry, to pay off the debt, and then suggested they would work. He was amazed at such a thing, but agreed. His unscrupulous elder brother suggested they start a salt market and that Mimosa sell her jewels to get them set up: he would take care of it. He instead somehow misused the money. She gave some money to her mother to keep for her, but then her mother would not give it to her when she asked for it: her mother was angry with her over the loss of the jewels that had been passed to her. “Let thy God help thee!” she told her daughter.

Mimosa went out to pray: “O God, my husband has deceived me, his brother has deceived me, even my mother has deceived me, but You will not deceive me…Yes, they have all deceived me, but I am not offended with you. Whatever You do is good. What should I do without you? You are the Giver of health and strength and will to work. Are not these things better than riches or people’s help?….I am an emptiness for You to fill.”

Thus her life went. She was a derision because she would not worship the false gods or engage in idolatrous practices. She worked hard because her husband would not. There were times when she was weak and could not work that God worked in unusual ways to provide for her. She had three sons; then a snake bite left her husband blind and crazy. In a couple of instances she received a bit more information about the God she loved, and she clung to it and to Him.

Meanwhile, Star was concerned for her sister. She felt led to write to her and prayed someone would read the letter to Mimosa. A cousin did read it to her, as often as Mimosa asked him, but neither of them thought to write back to Star, so she and the ladies of Dohnavur were left to wonder and pray.

A mysterious illness which took the life of one of her sons caused the neighbors to torment her further with their words. They felt it was all her fault since she would do nothing to appease the gods. Mimosa replied, “ My child God gave; my child has God taken. It is well.” Though weak, ill, grieving, and alone, she still told God, “I am not offended with you.”

The years followed in much the same way. She had two more sons. The oldest one was taken by the father (who had regained something of his right mind) to another town to work but, to Mimosa’s grief, required him to rub the god’s ashes on his forehead.

She began to long that her children should have “what she had never had, the chance to learn fully of the true and living and holy God and themselves choose His worship.” It would take too much space here to tell how God wondrously worked out the all the details to go to Dohnavur, even, miraculously, her husband’s approval. Her sister, Star, was strongly burdened to pray for Mimosa and discovered later that was just the time when all of this was coming to pass. Twenty-two years after she first visited Dohnavur, she returned. It can only be imagined what she felt as she soaked up Christian fellowship, learned to read, studied the Bible, was baptized. After a time she went back to her husband, determined to win him. He was in a less tolerant caste, yet amazingly he did not put her away. Her life was not easy. “But then, she has not asked for ease; she has asked for the shield of patience that she may overcome.”

“Is not the courage of the love of God amazing?” Amy Carmichael wrote. “Could human love have asked it of a soul? Fortitude based on knowledge so slender; deathless, dauntless faith — who could have dared to ask it but the Lord God Himself? And what could have held her but Love Omnipotent?“

Jon and Kate

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I don’t watch Jon and Kate Plus 8. I’ve caught just a few minutes of it here and there as I’ve flipped through channels. My fleeting impressions were that Kate was high-strung and somewhat disrespectful of her husband and that Jon seemed to be just…there.

I am very sad to hear that they are planning to divorce. I would hope they’d go for some type of counseling. All too often I have known of people to struggle silently in their marriages and then decide to divorce without trying to get help in the mean time, and it seems once that course of action is decided, the door is shut to any thought of healing and reconciliation. I am from a divorced family. The Bible calls marriage a coming together of a man and woman to become one flesh, and the rending of that relationship is just as painful as real flesh tearing.

But what also saddens me is the “chatter” I’m seeing on various blogs and Facebook about them, especially among Christians, whose speech is supposed to be “always with grace, seasoned with salt,” (seasoned with salt, not primarily consisting of salt.)

I admit I struggle with where the lines are between evaluation and judgment, criticism vs. critcal thinking, discussion and gossip. I don’t always know where the line is that crosses from one to the other.

I do know it is a major mistake to assign motives when we don’t know what is going on in another’s heart.

Of course, inviting the public into your everday lives means they are going to see faults and failures as well as everyday life, and of course we can learn from others’ mistakes. But that doesn’t mean we can’t exerise compassion as well.

Small things

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The reading for today in Our Daily Walk by F. B. Meyer really spoke to my heart. I was going to just quote the last paragraph, but really couldn’t leave out the first two. But the last paragraph set off a train of thought about other small things God has used: the “little maid” who told Naaman about the prophet, the book Mimosa by Amy Carmichael about the life-changing truth a young girl heard in just a short time at the Dohnavur compound, and many others.

THE POWER OF SMALL THINGS

“Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed nothing shall be impossible unto you.”– Mt 17:20.

THE GRAIN of mustard seed is the smallest of seeds, but Jesus says that it is a fitting emblem of the Kingdom of God, and the unostentatious beginnings of the Christian era. The number and social position of the disciples was insignificant in the extreme. And the first germ of truth sown in the heart of man, woman, or child, is sometimes equally insignificant. It may be just a sentence, a text, a passing remark which results in a mighty harvest (Mark 4:30-32).

What is it that enables this tiny seed to make such a prodigious increase? It lies in its receptive power, as it receives into its nature the mighty forces which slumber in the soil, the effect of sunbeams, moisture, and air. So long as a little aperture is kept open, there is no limit to the fertility and usefulness of the plant. You may be but a child, and your life seem weak and ineffective, but if you will open your heart to God by faith, He will pour in His mighty fullness, and the tiny seed become a great tree of strength and usefulness, grace and beauty.

Let us not despise the day of small things. Faith may be as a grain of mustard seed, but as it is used it will grow. Your effort to do good may seem so insignificant that it would be hardly missed, if it were discontinued, and yet out of it may emanate some mighty work which will bring help and comfort to thousands. How many orphanages, schools, and philanthropic efforts have owed their origin to the most infinitesimal beginnings. One destitute child cared and ministered to for Christ’s sake has led to another, until finally thousands of little ones have received a good start in life. What could be more insignificant than the beginnings of the Gospel message in many a heathen country. Do not be discouraged. Like Gideon, you may be only a cake of barley bread, but by faith you may overturn the tents of Midian. Like the little lad, you may only be able to place five tiny loaves and two small fish in the hands of Jesus, but He will bless them and make them sufficient to feed the multitude. A stone may bring Goliath to the dust; an arrow may pierce through the armour of the mailed warrior. Have faith in God; Reckon on God’s faithfulness to you!

PRAYER

Lord, increase our faith. Give us a child-like faith to receive what Thou dost offer, and from this moment may a new sense of the presence and power of God, through the Holy Spirit, come to us. AMEN.


Book Review: Every Now and Then

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Every Now and Then Every Now and Then is the third in Karen Kingsbury’s 911 series dealing with various people affected by the tragedy of 9/11. Though the major characters from the previous books are also in this story, it can be read and enjoyed as a stand-alone book as well.

Alex Brady’s father was a firefighter who died on the job when the Twin Towers collapsed on 9/11. Alex had been a teen-ager with everything going for him — good grades, good family, sweet girlfriend — but he shut down after 9/11. He closed himself off to everyone else in his life and moved away to California. Since he felt God had failed him in allowing the bad guys this horrendous victory, he made it his mission to take as many of them off the street as he could and to prevent tragedies from happening to others. He became a sheriff’s deputy with the K-9 unit, establishing a reputation for courage, bravery and dedication — almost to the point of recklessness and danger. Alex was totally unaware that his boss’s family and circle of friends, who were trying to include Alex, had also been personally affected by 9/11, nor that the girl he loved and turned away now lived in the area.

Eco-terrorists  targeted some of the higher-end residential building sites for arson to make their point that excess and affluence was taking a toll on the environment. Alex decided to infiltrate the organization on his own time to try to find the leaders and stop them.

Though I could tell fairly early where the plot was going to lead, the climax still had me riveted, on the edge of my seat. The plot line seemed more realistic to me than the previous two books, and Alex’s struggles in regard to the evil God allows in the world are some that every thinking Christian wrestles with. Karen brings up some points in that regard that are new to me and very helpful.

There were just a few problems I had with the book. The most minor one I’ve mentioned before when reviewing Karen’s books, and that is her penchant for ending chapters with a sentence fragment, as well as sprinkling them throughout. It can be done every now and then for effect, but when it becomes a noticeable habit, it loses its effect. Secondly, it seems odd that a group concerned about the environment would make a point with arson, which is bad for the environment, especially during California’s windy season. That point is made several times in the story, and I suppose the idea is that the terrorist group is not really interested in the environment at all. My last “issue” is a theological and therefore more major one: at the beginning of the book it seems that Alex is a believer, but he turns his back on God in bitterness and grief. Yet in the midst of a fire, he “wondered… if this was what hell felt like…maybe he was about to find out” (p. 263). If he was a true believer, he wouldn’t be facing hell.

Karen’s books are always easy to read, her characters likable and easy to relate to, and her plot lines easily draw one in, while she deals effectively with issues of the heart. This was my favorite of the books in this series.

(This review will be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of books and Callapidder Days’ Spring Reading Thing Reviews.)

Book Review: In Trouble and In Joy

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In trouble and in joy_dpThe first part of the title of In Trouble and In Joy: Four Women Who Lived for God by Sharon James comes from a line in a hymn by Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady:

Through all the changing scenes of life,
In trouble and in joy,
The praises of my God shall still
My heart and tongue employ.

The four women Sharon James writes about in this book exemplify that truth: in varying degrees of trouble and joy, they lived for God.

Margaret Baxter was a rebellious, glamorous, well-to-do teen-ager who became a Christian under the preaching of her Puritan pastor, Richard Baxter. Though he was twice her age, Margaret fell in love with him, and in time her feelings were reciprocated, and they married. The union was a step down for Margaret financially (Richard took care to arrange their finances in such a way that he did not have access to her money so it would not be thought he married her for her money) and socially, but  she had found her purpose in life and blossomed. This was a time when “Non-conformists” were persecuted, and when Richard was imprisoned for a while, Margaret voluntarily joined him. Both were, like all the rest of us, very human. Margaret was known for being generous, cheerful (Mrs. James notes, “It is simply not true that the Puritans went around looking miserable. Indeed, Richard Baxter wrote, “Keep company with the more cheerful sort of the godly; there is no mirth like the mirth of believers'” [p. 49]), industrious, competent, capable, patient, supportive — and anxious, fearful, perfectionist, and over-zealous. Yet she was aware of and grieved by her faults, and it was her desire to live a holy life for God.

Sarah Edwards had eleven children as the wife of Jonathan Edwards in the early 1700s. The Edwards were known for their “uncommon union,” their great love and respect for each other, and Sarah’s hospitality. Sarah thrived as a wife and mother, but the Edwards’ faced their share of difficulty as well when Jonathan was dismissed from the church where he pastored and some of their children died.

Anne Steele lived in a small English village in the 1700s, never married, suffered from poor health most of her life (with what is thought now to have been malaria), published two volumes of hymns and poems, and was known for her cheerfulness and faith. It was expected at that time that young women would marry and have a family, and there is some correspondence of teasing between Anne and her sister about Anne’s unmarried state even though the sister admitted her life was not all rosy.

Frances Ridley Havergal lived in the Victorian 1800s and is best known as the writer of hymns such as “Take My Life and Let It Be” and “Like a River Glorious.” Her father was a pastor and she was very active in the ministry of the church, thriving in personal work, one-on-one discussions with others about the gospel and spiritual truth. When her father died, her step-mother made unusual demands and seemed to even be mentally unstable, but Frances did her best to honor her. She did travel a lot and kept running, amusing accounts of her experiences: letters from her travels to Switzerland were gathered together in a book titled Swiss Letters.  She turned down several proposals of marriage, though she “once wrote of the sense of ‘general heart-loneliness and need of a one and special love…and the belief that my life is to be a lonely one in that respect…I do so long for the love of Jesus to be poured in, as a real and satisfying compensation'” (pp. 193-194). She was a prolific writer of hymns and books. She “loved life, enjoyed people, revelled in nature, and laughed a lot” (p. 200).

The book deals with each woman individually, detailing her historical setting, the story of her life, her character and significance, and excerpts from her writing. Mrs. James’ style of writing is somewhat academic, more like teaching a class than telling a story: that’s not a bad thing, but I had picked up this book because I had read and enjoyed her earlier one, My Heart In His Hands about Ann Judson, and I don’t remember it being quite that way, though it has been years since I read it.

I didn’t agree with all of Mrs. James’ conclusions about why the women did what they did or the few things for which she criticized them: for example, she faults some of the women for not being more socially active. She wrote of Frances: “Although she was always ready to give benevolent help on an individual level, there is little evidence that Frances had strong feelings about the blatant social and political inequalities of that time” (p. 201). Some of us feel that dealing with individual hearts, resulting in a true heart change, will take care of the larger issues, and that Christians are called to share the gospel and make disciples, not necessarily battle the culture itself (though it’s not wrong to fight social ills). Mrs. James does go on to say of Frances, “And yet the ‘limiting’ of her vision to gospel issues meant that she was extraordinarily focused. Her mental and spiritual energies were not diffused into many different areas,” allowing a greater concentration on vital issues of “salvation, consecration, and worship” (p. 201). These women had their hands full enough with what they did do to warrant criticism for what they didn’t do.

I did appreciate Mrs. James research, insight, and masterful compilation of the details of these women’s lives. There is much about each woman’s  life to instruct Christian women. To give just one example, one of Frances’s letters tells of the hostility and “appalling service” she received at an inn in Switzerland. Where most of us would be fuming and calling for the manager, Frances reacted patiently and finally said to the angry, spiteful woman, “You are not happy. I know that you’re not.” the woman was startled, “tamed…made a desperate effort not to cry” and listened while Frances spoke to her “quite plainly and solemnly about Jesus.” She received a tract, promised to read it, and thanked Frances over and over. Frances concluded, “Was it not worth getting out of the groove of one’s usual comforts and civilities?” (pp. 250-251). I have to confess that was a rebuke to me: I rarely think of such situations as a means of service to others.

Mrs. James concludes:

They had different personalities and varied situations, but each of these four women lived focused lives, wanting to praise God through days of trouble as well as joy. As is true of many women, they had to juggle all sorts of responsibilities. Pursuing holiness did not mean running away from these responsibilities: it involved living every day wholeheartedly for God (p. 253).

(This review will be linked to Semicolon’s Saturday Review of books and Callapidder Days’ Spring Reading Thing Reviews.)

Preaching personalities

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Last night we had a guest speaker at church. He wasn’t new to our assembly — he had married one of our girls — but we had never heard him speak publicly before. For various reasons both my husband and I thought this man was going to be a bombastic, in-your-face type of preacher, but we were pleasantly surprised. He wasn’t that way at all. Of course, he was mainly just sharing his testimony and the mission God had called him to rather than preaching a message, but, still, we enjoyed what he had to say and the way he said it.

That reminded me of another time I had misjudged a preacher. Well, actually, I hadn’t misjudged in this case: this man was a bombastic, in-your-face, ranting and raving type of preacher. There was a Christian radio broadcast I used to listen to while cleaning up the kitchen after dinner, and this preacher’s program came on afterward. As soon as he came on I would turn the radio off in disgust. I did that for months, if not years. Then I got convicted that that was a bad attitude. This man did preach truth. I didn’t have to like his style or listen to him, necessarily, but I shouldn’t have that negative attitude toward him. His style wasn’t wrong just because it didn’t appeal to me: God had used him to reach many people — evidently some people like that style. (This doesn’t mean that the end justifies the means and as long as he’s getting “results” it’s all good. I don’t agree with that principle. But there was nothing unbiblical in his doctrine or even in his style.) The Bible teaches that, while preachers are to be held accountable for their doctrine and their lifestyles (whether or not their lives match up to what they preach), we’re supposed to respect them as men of God. So I began to leave his broadcast on while I was finishing up in the kitchen. And on one particular day God used something he said to help me in an area I had been struggling with for years.

One former pastor we had said, while speaking about the Old Testament prophets, that many of them were contemporary with each other (in my ignorance as a young Christian reading the Bible through for the first time, I had thought all the books were chronological), but God had sent the same message out through different men because they each had different personalities that would appeal to different people.

The pastor I had while in the last year of high school and in college and then the one my husband and I were under during the first fourteen years we were married definitely had the gift of teaching. They rarely raised their voices except occasionally for emphasis, they spoke to people and not at people, they taught logically and delibrately through a passage, they didn’t often move around much. That is still the type of preaching I long for and respond to best. I don’t like shouting, ranting, using a verse as a jumping-off point only to express one’s opinions, walking back and forth across the stage (and down the stage and up the aisles — that’s very distracting to me), shooting from the hip rather than logically proceeding through a passage. We’ve had speakers who have done all of those things, and I have to be careful lest my dislike (and criticalness) of those things distract me from the message. There have been times I’ve heard other people talk about how blessed they were by a message, and I think, “Where was I?” Other times I’ve been blessed by a more ordinary talking speaker (or writer) who had perhaps a more intellectual approach, and other people’s response seems to be, “Well, that was…nice.”

The bottom line is I am responsible for receiving the truth I hear despite how it is conveyed.

O hope of every contrite heart

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These are some of the lesser-known stanzas from the hymn “Jesus the Very Thought of Thee” by Bernard of Clairvaux: the rest is here.

O hope of every contrite heart,
O joy of all the meek,
To those who fall, how kind Thou art!
How good to those who seek!

But what to those who find? Ah, this
Nor tongue nor pen can show;
The love of Jesus, what it is,
None but His loved ones know.

When once Thou visitest the heart,
Then truth begins to shine,
Then earthly vanities depart,
Then kindles love divine.

O Jesus, light of all below,
Thou fount of living fire,
Surpassing all the joys we know,
And all we can desire.

Jesus, may all confess Thy Name,
Thy wondrous love adore,
And, seeking Thee, themselves inflame
To seek Thee more and more.

Sin

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On my way home from taking Jesse to school, I caught the very end of a radio broadcast in which the speaker read a letter to the editor in which the author said he was sick of hearing about sin and wanted only a religion that taught things like gentleness and tolerance.

That’s understandable: no one really likes hearing about sin, especially their own. But that attitude is a bit like going to a doctor and saying, “I just want you to teach me about wellness and health: I don’t want to hear anything about this mass that you’re going to tell me needs to be removed.” What kind of doctor would be doing his patient any favors by telling him only the positive and neglecting to deal with the unpleasant negative of the ailment that will destroy him?

What exactly is sin? Besides detailing specific sins, the Bible speaks of these broader characterictics:

1. Falling short of God’s glory

Romans 3:23: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

2. Failure to believe God

Hebrews 11:6: But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

3. Failure to do good

James 4:17: Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

4. Unrighteousness

I John 5:17a: All unrighteousness is sin

5. Acting against conscience, acting apart from faith

Romans 14:23: And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin

6. Transgressing the law

I John 3:4: Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

We might think, well, sure, defined like that, yes, we’re all sinners, but my sin isn’t as bad as other people’s. Going back to our patient analogy, that’s like saying my illness isn’t as bad as the other guy’s, so I don’t have to worry about mine. According to Romans 3:23 mention above, the standard is not how we compare to others: it’s how we compare to God. I heard it once described like this: if we all needed to leap over a 500 foot chasm, some would make it farther than others, but we’d all fall short.

The sin Adam and Eve engaged in which plunged the rest of the human race into sin was not what we would call gross sin: they simply did what God told them not to do. Jesus said the greatest commandment is “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” It follows, then, that the greatest sin is to fail to love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds.

So, a sinful nature is there within all of us. We can’t ignore it. It’s too destructive. We know it’s destructiveness and painfulness when others sin against us. It separates us from God: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. Isaiah 59:2. Psalm 38 details the physical and mental anguish resulting from sin, not to mention the eternal punishment.

Thankfully there is a remedy: I Corinthians 15:3-4: For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.

Isaiah 53:5-6: But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Because the Lord Jesus, who was inherently sinless and who is God Himself, took on our sin and the punishment for it, when we believe on Him, all our sin can be forgiven. Even after becoming believers, on the basis of Christ’s death and resurrection, when we sin we can come to Him and have the slate wiped clean. I John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

When He has cleansed our sin away, dwells within us, and given us a new nature, then we are enabled to show forth love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,  meekness, temperance (Galatians 5:22-23)– all the good and positive qualities that are a blessing to other people.

I hadn’t planned to write about this today: I had two other posts in mind and was trying to decide which one to go with when I heard that bit of a radio broadcast, and as I thought meditated on what I had heard, some of these other truths came to mind, so I felt that perhaps this was what I should write about today.

Proverbs 28:13: He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.