Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Confession?

The word tells us that we are to confess our sins to each other. Now this does not mean that we tell each other all of our faults so that they can then go around and tell everyone what you are doing wrong, in other words, gossiping about you. We are told to do this so that we might start our healing process of forgiving ourselves for our sins. We know that Jesus forgives us, but sometimes we have a hard time forgiving ourself. Then sometimes we may need spiritual guidance from our pastor or priest. But we must first know that we do not just wait until once a year and go to confession. No, we need to be quick to repent as soon as we fall into sin. You can not walk in the light of the Lord if you are living in sin. When you have the Holy Spirit living within you, he will be quick to stir you up when you are trying to do something wrong. We have to be quick to listen and be obedient to the Holy Spirit. If you continue to not listen when the Holy Spirit tries to stop you from doing wrong, eventually you will harden your heart against Him and before long, you will no longer be able to hear Him when He tries to stop you. You have probably heard all your life, well, we are just sinners, we are not Jesus. Well, let me say that is a lie of the devil. Quit speaking that over yourself. The word says, when we became a Christian we put off the old man and put on the new man, and now we are the righteousness of Christ Himself living in us. So, once we are born again we are no longer sinners. This does not mean that we will not mess up now and again and sin, but we do our best not to so. When we are truly born again, we will try hard not to sin. But when we do, we know we will be forgiven.

James 5 v 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....

PS 32 v 5....I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, " I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," and You forgave the iniquity of my sin......

You see before you were saved, you would have tried to hide your sin instead of confessing your sin. You probably would have been in denial of that sin. The first step into becoming a born again Christian is confessing to the Lord your sins and asking Him for forgiveness. This is one time you have to go straight to Him, not to a mediator, but to the source Himself. He wants you to come to Him. He will always be there for you, you just have to come to Him. Someone said it like this once, Jesus is such a gentleman, He will never impose Himself upon you, but He will always be there when you call upon Him.

Rom. 10 v 10-13....for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.......


Now do not misinterpret my next statement. I am not telling Catholics not to go to their priests for confession, no more than I would tell another Christian denomination not to go their pastor for spiritual guidance or counseling, I am just saying do not go expecting to be forgiven just because you went to them, you still have to confess to Jesus and ask His forgiveness yourself, no one else can do this for you.

You can not go to a priest, or a pastor and confess your sins and then they tell you that you need to pray 10 Hail Marys or 10 Our Fathers and your sin will be forgiven. No that is not the way it works. You see the sacrifice for sin was done once and for all by Jesus. We no longer offer sacrifices for sins, but the blood of Jesus is the only way to have our sins forgiven. So when you are told to go and pray these prayers, or we try to bargain with God and say we will do this or that and sin no more, that does not line up with the word of God. That would be considered sacrifices. Sacrifices ended when Jesus died on the cross. He was the ultimate and final sacrifice for sin. When you try to bargain your way out of sin instead of accepting Jesus' sacrifice for that sin, it is the same as you saying you have a better way of being forgiven than the blood of Jesus.

1 John 2 v 2....and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.....

Heb. 7 v 26-28....For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, for His own sins and then for the peoples, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the law appoints a high priest, men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever......

You see Jesus is the High Priest, we no longer have the law appointing priests to offer up sacrifices, no that ended when Jesus died on the cross for us once and for all. So if there is an area in your life you need deliverance from, then you need to confess to Jesus and ask for forgiveness, then forgive yourself, and accept His forgiveness. Life is so much better when we are walking in His light and when we know that we are doing all we can to let His light shine through us. Remember, you are no longer a sinner, but a highly favored child of God, and the righteousness of Jesus Himself lives within you.

Neta

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