Tag Archives: Sin

The cost of hidden sin is shame and exposure

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English: Resurrection of Christ

English: Resurrection of Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The cost of hidden sin is shame and exposure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nahum 3:5

“Behold, I am against you,” says the LORD of hosts; “I will lift your skirts over your face, I will show the nations your nakedness, And the kingdoms your shame.”
NKJV

In the last chapter of Nahum, God brings several charges against the city of Nineveh. One of these charges is their involvement in harlotry and sorcery. These two lifestyles thrive in the dark corners of society and desire to accomplish personal fulfilment with ungodliness. So what is God’s plan to punish those involved? He is simply going to expose their sinfulness to everyone.

In our own lives, I believe we fear this more than anything else. We fear the thought of being “found out”. Friend, God already knows our sins. There is nothing we can do to hide them from His perfect gaze, but there is good news. He desires to forgive us of those sins and all we need to do is be honest. When we come to God fully confessing our faults and failures to Him, He will wipe them away. On the other hand, if we try to hide our sins from Him, one day they will make it to the surface for all to see. Today, rather than hiding your sins, come to God, confess and watch as your burden is lifted. Experience the fresh forgiveness of your Heavenly Father.

Dear Heavenly Father,
I come to You today to confess my sins to You. You tell me in the Bible that if I confess to You, You will wipe away all my sins and so I come this day asking for Your forgiveness. Continue to change my heart and make me more like Jesus. In Jesus Christ Name, Amen!

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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The Blood of Jesus Christ

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Stained glass at St John the Baptist's Anglica...

The Blood of Jesus Christ

How much more . . . will the blood of Christ . . . cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death.

Hebrews 9:14, NIV

Do you know people who arrogantly insist that if their good works outweigh their bad works, God is somehow obligated to accept them? As you look around, what “fruit” do you see others bringing to the place of sacrifice instead of humbly approaching God through the blood of His Son? The “fruit” of

religious activity,

good works,

morality,

or philanthropy?

Many people do not want to come to the place of sacrifice, the Cross of Jesus Christ, because it intensifies the conviction of their own sin and judgment and is a reminder that heaven’s gate is closed to sinners. God warns that “a man is not justified by observing the law,” (Gal. 2:16, NIV) because “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” of sin (Heb. 9:22, NIV). So humble yourself, come to the Cross, and thank God for the blood of Jesus that is sufficient to forgive any and all sin

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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Do not yield to the devil’s accusations

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The Temptation of Christ, 1854

The Temptation of Christ, 1854 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Do not yield to the devil’s accusations

 

“And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength and the Kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night” (Revelation 12:10)

One of the devil’s key strategies is to keep people in bondage to their past by reminding them of their sins. He’ll haunt you with the thoughts and pictures of your wrongs. He’ll always tell you how useless you are and give you more than enough reasons why you would fail in life.

But you shouldn’t allow the devil give you a bad day through his railing accusations. God’s calling upon your life was clearly stated before the world began; He already determined that you should be a success in life. Remember that one of satan’s title is “the accuser of the brethren”, and he is an expert at it because he’s been at it a long time.

There are Christians today who have lost faith and stopped going to church all because they did something wrong. I wonder if they realized that their solution was in God’s Word; “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

In Romans 6:14, God says, “Sin shall not have dominion over you.” So when you do something wrong, don’t let it have dominion over you. Don’t stay there wishing your world would come to an end. Your sins have been removed from your life, as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). God has dumped them into the abyss.

If the devil reminds you of your past, you remind him of his future (Revelation 20:10). Refuse to be weighed down by the failures of your past, and begin to declare your glorious future in Christ Jesus. Understand this: God loves you! If He loved you while you were yet a sinner, how much more now that you are His child (Romans 5:8).

 

Confession:

I have been delivered from the bondage of sin, hence, it cannot dominate me. My heart is established upon the Word of God; therefore, I’m not moved by the devil’s schemes and accusations.

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21)

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For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Just as a sacrificial lamb gave its purity in exchange for Israel’s sins, Jesus became the sacrificial Lamb for the whole world. He gave us His nature in exchange for our sinful nature. When He was hanged on the cross, He had the worst experience of His life. He became sin for us and was separated from His father. His love for us was what kept Him through.

Jesus went to hell, defeated the devil and needed to be raised to life. God sent His life-giving Spirit to raise Him back to life. The world was accustomed to the principle of death, but now, a life-giving Spirit was beyond their imagination.

“Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). The Holy Spirit of the Almighty God is the glory of the Father that brought Jesus back from death. If the Holy Spirit hadn’t raised Him back to life, He would have remained there. When He came out from the grave, He came out, not as the one who was made sin on the cross, but as a new creation, born of the Holy Spirit.

When you gave your life to Jesus Christ, you received the same life that raised Him from dead. Just like Him, you became a new creation. When He died, you died in Him and when He was buried, you were buried in Him. And when He rose from the dead, you rose in Him with a brand new life!

You’re now a master over your world because you don’t function under the law of sin and death which formerly enslaved you. Rather, you function by a brand new Law: The Law of The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. That’s the Law for the new creation!

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father! I thank You because I’m a new creation, born of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I reign in this life because I function in the Law of The Spirit of Life, in Jesus Christ Name I pray, Amen!

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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Because He died, I Am Free From Sin And Its Penalty

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Because He died, I am free! Free from my sin and its penalty

 

 

 

 

 

Set Free!

 

 

 

 

 

You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

Romans 6:18, NIV

With blood flowing from His wounds and streaming down His face from the thorns in His brow, Jesus stood before Pilate. As part of the Passover celebration, it was Pilate’s custom to release any prisoner the crowd chose. It just so happened that “at that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. So . . . Pilate asked them, ‘Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus Who is called Christ?'” (Matt. 27:16-17, NIV)

The rulers shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” (John 18:40, NIV). Barabbas! Barabbas was a thief and a murderer and a rabble-rouser! The religious leaders of Israel were demanding that Barabbas be set free and Jesus be crucified. And so Barabbas became the first person to be set free by the death of Jesus.

Jesus died, not just in the place of Barabbas, but in your place and mine. Because He died, I am free! Free from my sin and its penalty.

Blessings

 

 

 

 

 

 

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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Secret Sins

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Secret Sins

 

Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. Psalms 90:8

 

 

 

Besides expressing faith in God, the righteous is identified by consistent right-standing with God. According to Ezekiel 3:21, the righteous is expected not to live in sin, but to continue to do what glorifies God. Righteousness is not something you engage today and disengage tomorrow like some people think. You do not abstain from sin only when those you respect are around, but also when they are not around. The righteous does not only abstain from public sins but also from secret ones. The challenge of most believers is not how to avoid open sins but how to stay righteous in their thoughts realm and to keep away from touching the unclean things when they are all by themselves. That is a major challenge and for the righteous, this is the area he or she devotes more attention and prayer to.

David was one person who had a challenge in this area. Through the knowledge of God’s Word, he understood that secret sins, which nobody else is privy to, are fully exposed to God. In Psalms 90:8, he says our sins which were shrouded in secrecy of darkness and ignorance are exposed by the light of His (God’s) Presence. Your secret sins are not covered at all! God knows everything about your secret deeds. The devil or his agents who were present when you indulged in those evil acts also have the records. It is either God exposes your secrets, or the devil does. What you have buried in the earth or locked up in a safe, which you think is safe, is not safe at all. It can be exposed at anytime. The only secrets that can truly be secrets are the ones you confess to The LORD and hand over to Him. If He covers your faults, nobody can uncover them. When David realised this, he therefore asked God to deliver him from secret sins. Are you still living in sin secretly? Do you secretly masturbate, lust after same sex or the opposite sex? Do you secretly steal or bribe to influence decisions? Repent today and hand your secrets over to God.

Key Point:

The secret sins you fail to expose to Him today will be exposed before men and then nobody and nothing can cover your shame.

 

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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Forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us (Matthew 6:12)

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English: Baptism of Jesus Christ

Forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us (Matthew 6:12)

Payment in full

God is merciful

Peter asked Jesus how many times he had to forgive someone. Peter thought that forgiving seven times was pretty good. “No!” Jesus answered, “seventy times seven!” Then Jesus gave an illustration showing how God views our responsibility to forgive.

A king became aware that one of his servants owed him a significant amount, so he ordered the servant brought before him and demanded the servant pay every penny. The servant could not pay so the king ordered the man and his family sold into slavery to pay the debt. The servant fell before the king and pleaded for mercy. The king felt pity and forgave him the tremendous debt.

The servant found a fellow servant who owed him and demanded payment. The friend begged for mercy, but the servant would not forgive him and had him thrown into prison.

When the king heard about it, he was angry! He called in the servant and demanded to know why he had acted so unforgiving toward his friend when he had been forgiven so much. Then the king commanded the servant be thrown into prison until he had paid every penny.

God gave His only Son to die in our place. That is mercy beyond comprehension. How, then, can we ever refuse to give mercy to others when we have received so much mercy ourselves. To the degree that we show mercy to the poor, the wretched, and the guilty, we are like God.

Your View of God Really Matters …

Since God richly lavishes His mercy on us, we must show mercy to one another. And that means letting go of all those old hurts caused by others.

What More Does God Say?

Romans 8:38-39; Luke 6:35

Because God is merciful, He forgives me of my sins when I sincerely confess them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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Naturally Holy

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Resurrection of Christ

Resurrection of Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Naturally Holy

 

John 5:14, “Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.”

 

JOHN 5:1-15

 

In saying this, Jesus shows that sin causes the tragedies that come into our lives. The reason for holiness in the life of the believer is that when we obey sin, we yield ourselves to Satan, the author of that sin. Yielding to sin is yielding to a person – Satan. God doesn’t impute the sin to us but the devil does. Our actions either release the power of Satan or the power of God in us.

 

 

Although God is not imputing our sins unto us, we cannot afford the luxury of sin because it allows Satan to have access to us. When a Christian sins and allows the devil opportunity to produce his death in their life, the way to stop it is to confess the sin, and God who is faithful and just, will take the forgiveness that is already present in our born again spirit and release it in our flesh. This removes Satan and his strongholds.

 

 

The sins of a Christian don’t make him a sinner any more than the righteous acts of a sinner make him righteous. Sin is a very deadly thing that even Christians should avoid at all costs, but it does not determine our standing with the Lord. A person who is born again is not “in” the flesh even though he may walk “after” the flesh.

 

 

What is the motive for living a separated life? We live a separated life because our nature has been changed. We were darkness, now we are light (Eph. 5:8). Many people argue for holiness in order to obtain relationship with God. We need to live holy lives because of the relationship that we already have. It’s the nature of a Christian to walk in the light and not in darkness. If Christians were rightly informed of who they are and what they have in Christ, holiness would just naturally flow out of them. It’s their nature. It’s our nature.

 

 

 

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

 

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When God makes a promise

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When God makes a promise

Deuteronomy 7:13 says: “He will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: He will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy wine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which He sware unto thy fathers to give thee.”

Notice that when God makes a promise, He makes it not just to the one who hears it, but to all of the future seed. When God said He would send His Son to die for our sins so that we could be blessed because when we have turned from our iniquities, He did it so that we could receive the blessing. Jesus died, not for His sins, but for our sins, and He died for our sins, bearing our curse, so that we could be blessed with His righteousness and His blessing. Today, think about how God sent His Son for you; not just for the people of yesterday, but for the people of the future. You were in the future in Christ‘s mind when He died on the cross.

You were on His mind!

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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Forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us

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Corrie Milne 2007-11-11

Forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.

Let the mercy of Jesus be your model

Jesus Christ is our Example

(Matthew 6:12)

In 1944, during the horrible days of World War II, in the Ravensbruck concentration camp, Corrie Ten Boom and many other emaciated women worked long hours every day under the watchful eye of the prison guards. That year, Corrie’s sister, Betsie, died, a victim of the tortuous conditions.

In 1947, after the war, Corrie spoke to a group of Germans in a sparsely furnished Munich church basement. During her talk, she said, “Those who have been able to forgive their former enemies have been able to rebuild their lives…We, as Christians, have every reason to forgive each other, for our God richly lavishes His mercy on us.”

When she finished, she was approached by a balding, heavyset man in a gray overcoat. Horror filled her as she realized he had been one of the prison guards.

He thrust out his hand. “How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!” Dumbfounded, Corrie did not take his hand.

He went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me… but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein, will you forgive me?”

Corrie remembered how he had pushed Betsie with the butt of his gun. Slowly, her hand moved toward his. Their hands touched and she finally vigorously shook his hand. With tears in her eyes, she said, “I forgive you, brother…with all my heart.”

God loves us no matter what we have done. He forgives us when we ask. Since God richly lavishes His mercy on us, we must show mercy. And that means letting go of hurts caused by others.

Your View of God Really Matters …

If you have been offended, how does it compare with the experience of Corrie ten Boom, and Jesus, both of whom forgave their attackers. You can too. Let the mercy of Jesus be your model.

What More Does God Say?

Acts 7:59-60

Because God is merciful, He forgives me of my sins when I sincerely confess them.

May the LORD bless Nigeria, American and Israel and take care of us; May the LORD make His face shine upon us, And be gracious to us; May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, And give us peace, In Jesus Christ Name, we pray! Amen!

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