Monday May 28

If we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and his message isn’t in our hearts. My children, I am writing this so that you won’t sin. But if you do sin, Jesus Christ always does the right thing, and he will speak to the Father for us. ² Christ is the sacrifice that takes away our sins and the sins of all the world’s people. (1 John 1:10-2:2, CEV)

John sort of left us hanging at the end of 1 John 1. Saying if we say we have no sin, the word is not in us. But chapter 2 rescues us!

He is writing this so we don't sin but if we do, so what? Jesus has already paid the price for all sin! He is constantly proclaiming our innocence of all wrong-doing because he replaced our record with his!

Don't sin, John says, and don't pretend you have never sinned, but if you do sin, trust Christ's love to cover your tab.

Because Jesus is Himself our innocence. Our sacrifice. The atonement for our sins. And not just ours, John says, but the sins of the whole world!

Very good news, isn’t it? Turns out we can claim we have no sin, because Jesus the sinless one, has done away with our sin and given us His sinless nature after all.

But wait, there’s more. Because of Pentecost, the day Christ sent His Holy Spirit to inhabit the disciples and every follower of His, we have His own Spirit within us, guiding and strengthening us, so that we really won’t sin.

The season of Pentecost began on Sunday, and I believe as we continue our lectio divina of 1 John together, we’re going to see how Pentecost makes it possible for us to live the lives of love that Christ intends.

For us, in fact, to become the Christ He wants to send to our homes and neighborhoods to share His love.

Who would turn away from such a calling? I know you won’t! Let’s start tackling 1 John 2:3-6 tomorrow.



This page is dedicated to ...

• John Eldredge who convinced me I could hear from God,
• Brennan Manning who helped me see a tiny fraction of how much God loves me,
• Phillip Yancey who introduced me to the "Jesus I never knew,"
• And Donald Miller, who showed me the downright silliness in dreaming of a Roomba vacuum cleaner.

Great authors who help move people into closer relationship with Christ. I hope to be like you some day -- and even more, I hope to be like Jesus.

-- Jaxy

Pentecost 2012 - Lectio Divina

This Pentecost season we'll continue our practice of a method of reading a simple passage of Scripture and meditating on it each day until, as Henri Nouwen said, we let it "descend from our mind into our heart and thus become enfleshed."

Our first Pentecost passage is 1 John 2:1-6.

My children, I am writing this so that you won’t sin. But if you do sin, Jesus Christ always does the right thing, and he will speak to the Father for us. ² Christ is the sacrifice that takes away our sins and the sins of all the world’s people.

³ When we obey God, we are sure that we know him. ⁴ But if we claim to know him and don’t obey him, we are lying and the truth isn’t in our hearts. ⁵ We truly love God only when we obey him as we should, and then we know that we belong to him. ⁶ If we say we are his, we must follow the example of Christ. (CEV)



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