Have you ever been blind to a sin you were practicing? I certainly have.
When I complained to my friend Jan Silvious about how my administrative assistants kept resigning, hoping for sympathy, she said, simply:
“Seems to be a pattern in your life, Dee.”
I was so shocked. Jan thinks this is me?!
That shook my world, but it caused me to ask the Lord if Jan was right. Then the Lord “happened” to bring a sermon to me called “Models of Manipulation” and saw that I was hurting my assistants through passive aggressive comments, which I, in my darkness, thought was a kinder way that coming to them directly in love.
Paige tells us that the words of John may “shake us” but we should not despise the shaking. These verses which shine light on our lives may shake us:
Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar.
Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness.
But if we are convicted, truly repent, and run out of the darkness and into the light, it’s like removing a huge splinter from our foot. Relief. Healing. Joy! When I responded to Jan, all of my relationships were transformed, bringing love and joy. What John says is true: I write these things so that our joy may be full.
SUNDAY:
- How did you experience the love of God this week?
MONDAY: Finish up Paige’s 3rd Teaching
2. Share your favorite parts and comment.
3. Share a time when you were blind to a sin. How did God bring light to you and wake you up?
TUESDAY: Finishing Up Paige
4. Finish up with Paige.
5. The following is an actual note my daughter got in 3rd grade thatI put in The Friendships of Women that reminds me of Paige’s story of a note from a boy in 4th grade. What point was she making with that?
WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY — LISTEN EACH DAY AND SHARE YOUR COMMENTS
SATURDAY:
5. GOD SHOT?
6. TAKE-A-WAY SO FAR?
38 comments
1. How did you experience the love of God this week?
I am visiting my sisters-in-law and we went to the Sight and Sound theatre to see the play Joshua. We had fun being together and watching the show. Just as the word “abide” kept repeating itself last week, this week it’s the word “repent.”
Hi, Laura. Thanks for your loving thoughts last week! Am glad you had a good time with your sisters-in-law. Today, I am teaching on Joshua (and Caleb) in children’s church. “Repent”- oh, I need to do that, and I needed to do it when I woke up this morning.
What a great Kiss from the King, Laura!
Hey Laura,
Great to hear about you time with your sisters in-law. We are hoping to get to the Sight and Sound Theater in Branson when we visit my brother who lives close to that one. Our kids have gone and say it’s wonderful.
It is wonderful Bev! I have seen several plays. Esther is a favorite, as is Jonah. I hope you get to go!
Sounds wonderful, Laura!
SUNDAY:
How did you experience the love of God this week?
September has been more hectic than usual. There were days when I was near tears, especially after my dear friend, who is like a mother to me, Barb, was diagnosed with kidney failure and put on hospice. This was kind of my conversation with God in one form or another:
Me: Come on, dear God. How much more can I take?
God: You have me through the Holy Spirit.
Me: This is just too much.
God: You have me, Bing.
What kept me going was doing the “I spy” or the God Hunt that you taught us many years ago, Dee. And also a daily Scripture writing theme: A Renewed Mind,” and for October, “Peace over Panic”. And coming here to read the comments and hearing from Paige. This was how God has shown me His love this past week (and months!)
Bing, God is so personal, isn’t He!🙏
Thanks for sharing Bing. I’ve had you on my mind and prayed for you.
Still hoping to connect with you in the future. 💕
Love your God conversation, Bing. May the Lord be with your dear friend.
SUNDAY:
How did you experience the love of God this week?
—I was able to connect on the phone with my sister and talk for over an hour. She is a very gracious and godly woman and always blesses my life with her sweet joy in the Lord. Spiritually she seems to always encourage and lift me up. It has been almost two and a half months since I have seen her and tonight she comes down to Lincoln for a commissioning for her granddaughter who is going to the mission field in southeast Asia as a single woman. It is a place very hostile to the Gospel and Christianity. But we will be able to demonstrate our love and prayers together tonight and our joy will be in Jesus and the good work He is doing in this amazing young woman’s life.
Also our son filled in for our pastor and preached this morning. It was a joy and privilege to hear him open God’s Word. We are experiencing the love of God through our new church home here in Lincoln .
I’m so glad you are loving your new church in Lincoln! Which one is it?
We attend Lincoln Berean. We actually have long standing ties with the church but also our son Tyce is now the President of the Berean Fellowship of Churches. It is not a denomination but a community of about 60 churches in the US and around 100 village churches in Southeast Asia.
The website for the Fellowship is at weareberean.org
What a joy to celebrate all that Jesus is doing in your family, Bev. I am excited for your sister’s granddaughter. It sounds like a weekend of blessings!
Paige – middles section
Sin, sin, sin. That’s the sticking point. It’s a Bible word, not a religious word. It’s God’s Word for what is wrong with us. Sin not just legal, it’s relational. Ultimately all sin is against God, idolatry.
John is holding us up to the Light, if we say… All self-confidence and zero self-awareness,
If we say that we have fellowshipe with Him and walk in darkness… liar We do not DO the truth self-directed
If we say that we have no sin… self-deception the truth is not in us
If we say that we have not sinned… calling God a liar self-deification
We have to RUN to the Light. But, if we walk in the light… if we confess our sins 1 John 2:1 Don’t sin, but if we do, we have an ADVOCATE – JESUS He will plead my case, He’s already paid for my sin, I must confess and turn to my Advocate for help.
What stands out to me here is that this isn’t an evangelistic message for unbelievers, IT’S FOR BELIEVERS, a clear warning with consequences and also with remedies. I am now a saint, because Christ lives in me, BUT I can still sin. I am not sinful because of what I do or don’t do, but because of WHO I AM. Only Jesus faced all the temptations of the world and never sinned. I am not Jesus.
Run to the light! Yes!
Paige says we have three claims. The first is that we are not sinners. The second is we don’t sin. The third is that we have fellowship with God even though we are walking in darkness. These claims are from the sin deniers. We believe that everyone around us is sinful except me. We have no light. If we are self-deceived, would we know it?
Laura, I loved that Paige brought these things out.
I don’t think we always realize we are self-deceived, but if we are truly walking with the Lord and in His Word, He is our “fact checker” and we are less likely to be deceived. The enemy is clever and we have to stay in God’s Word, pray and be cautious about who we spend time with. The world has many distractions that appear good, but are not of God. I think I need to fact check my heart constantly in His Word.
I like that Patti — would love to hear examples from you all about when the Word fact checked you.
As a baby Christian, I was reluctant to discipline my toddler — then I read the Proverb that said “If you refuse to disciple your son you will ruin his life.” (Living Bible)
Also the verse about making your belly your god.
The verse from Ecclesiastes about if you make a vow you better keep it for God has no pleasure in fool.s
How about you?
This has been such a powerful lesson and has reminded me of how I have had to go to His Word so many times because of my sin, which could have so many roots. My sinful mind could have a thought and plant a seed of bitterness in my heart. Maybe I would respond to something in a passive-aggressive way, rather than take it immediately to Jesus. When a hurt comes from someone and I personalize it, it has grown and caused me to have a bitter attitude, and it seems to ooze out my pores. And always, my sin is ultimately against God!
When pain and loss come, now do I handle it?
Do I ask “why me”? I love Psalm 51. It is so good for me to read and re-read this Psalm, for All my sins are against God. I need to keep my eyes on Him, before I speak or write or act.
‘….The Joy of the Lord is my strength” Nehemiah 8:10 This reminds me to re-focus.
‘’God desires your Repentance: this does not mean you are sorry for your sin because you got caught or exposed. You are sorry for your sin because you hurt the Heart of God.” Pastor Jack Hibbs.
God knows all that is happening to me every moment. I need to always have His Word in my heart. We will never have all the answers here, and many prayers will not be answered the way we would like or in this life, but we always have a choice. Turn to His Word first. And it is not easy! I think this is why I love that little lesson from Alistair Begg. “Every sin is an inside job”….
Lord, help me to keep my eyes on You!
MONDAY: Finish up Paige’s 3rd Teaching
2. Share your favorite parts and comment.
—She really nails it when it comes to the reality of our sin. This is incredibly good biblical teaching on Sin.
She said Sin is the sticking point.
Further sound bites from Paige are:
“John used just the same word for Sin redundantly.”
“Sin is the Bible’s comprehensive term for what is wrong with us.”
“A big category for everything that is wrong with us.”
“All sin is ultimately against God.”
“Sin is not just legal. It is relational.”
“John’s point is not to define sin but to make us face our sin.”
This last comment is a very important part of this teaching by John and his purpose in writing to us. By facing our sin we can confess it and be cleansed from it. That is the absolutely wonderful work of Jesus. By confessing our sin we can be set free from its power over us.
3. Share a time when you were blind to a sin. How did God bring light to you and wake you up?
Paige’s thoughts on being Self-Deceived.
“Our response to our sin. We just don’t want to admit it. The truth is not in us. The heart is deceitful.
We see the speck in others eyes but not the blinding 2×4 in our own.”
A good question from Paige. “If we are self deceived would we know it?” And her answer was “No something else has to invade.”
I thought about you Dee and your acknowledgment of your not seeing your part as being the problem with administrative assistants quitting. But what God used to invade your thinking was an observation by your friend Jan Silvious. Her penetrating question and then coupled with a powerful sermon.
For way too long I felt entitled to “air” my complaints against those who had wronged me. I seemed to have this need to talk about it.
In reality often I was just trying to justify my own position of being right. I had a need to right. Ot was a selfish mindset. It was God’s Word that invaded my thinking and shed light on my sin and opened my eyes to my own sinful heart and the need to practice a much greater humility and have a quiet heart. Proverbs says in effect that too many words, too much speaking leads to sin. I said too much and my heart was the problem.
Me too on your last paragraph Bev!
Me three!
1. How did you experience the love of God this week?
2. Share your favorite parts and comment.
I love how she emphasizes over and over that Jesus is the LIGHT. There is no darkness is Him. None. It has been on my heart all week, how quickly I can let the darkness seep into my mind and my heart. I love that we need to know this, as our baseline.
It is not flashy and shiny, but it is the center of Who He is. And how He shines His light on our sin.
We cannot filter out what we think is sin, we need to hold ourselves up to the Light, before we can see our own sin. Love Paige’s example is cleaning her windshield until the sun shone on it. God’s light sees everything in us from the inside out. Sin can be what we should do, yet neglect and what we should not do, but we do.
Loved her definitions of sin too.
James 4:17 “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. This is so good and so convicting to me.
It is not about being illegal, it is relational. All sin is ultimately against God.
Do I claim I love God more than anything and that I am living for God, but live a life where He is not the center of my life? Claiming a fellowship, but live a different life. You cannot gaslight the God who is Light. We are claiming a closeness that we have fellowship with God, while living in opposition to Him and His will.
I spend no time with Him, I don’t try to learn more about Him, and I don’t identify with the people worship God. But I know this is what God has for me. We are claiming life in God, while living in the pit….sin in me “deny-ers”. We are self determined and self directed, self deceived, self deified. The way we talk about our sinning. Our lies only work on ourselves. The truth is not even in us. Self deified, we set our own boundaries, we know what is best for us. 1John 1:5-10.
This is all self destructive.
The mark of a Christian is sin consciousness. Sin grows in the darkness and dies in the light. There is power in our confession to Him.
The Light of the world, our advocate ran toward the darkness and took all our sin, and our punishment at the crucifixion. What has been exposed of us, has already been covered at the Cross by Jesus, because He loved us that much. He covered the very thing He exposes.
Do we believe how loved we are?
I love this quote: John 6:37 “All the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”
‘Paige’s quote is so powerful: “Only when I understand my unworthiness will I understand my worth in His eyes.” “This is how we get to come into the light and He will never cast us out. And He lives in my heart.”
Yes Patti, this is so good.
I love this quote: John 6:37 “All the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”‘Paige’s quote is so powerful: “Only when I understand my unworthiness will I understand my worth in His eyes.” “This is how we get to come into the light and He will never cast us out. And He lives in my heart.”
Love your whole post.
We are claiming to be the light, but that is blasphemy.
If you turn from me, you will be in the darkness. Run to the light!
We are the problem.
Confession is a gift! If we run into the light then there is no place to hide. We don’t like to hide. We love to be found. Because of the love of Jesus, we aren’t afraid to be found. Forgive me for myself for my self rule.
John Piper – the mark of a Christian is not sinlessness, but sin consciousness. We sin all the time. we need to be confessing all the time
Laura, Love this John Piper quote! So good!
SUNDAY:
How did you experience the love of God this week? I always experience the love of God here when I come to see what you all are learning and am encouraged. This week I faced the sheer mortality of life as I watched my step-mom suffering in the hospital with a bacterial infection. God held me close with encouraging prayers from all of you and friends and family while he worked in her life and body, healing. She should be getting clearance for a PICC line today and be moved to rehabilitation. Praising God for more time with her. Also, praising God for some light in my daughter’s situation. Waiting to see how this moves forward for her.
MONDAY: Finish up Paige’s 3rd Teaching
2. Share your favorite parts and comment.
Why is it no big deal who Jesus is? I really like him, but do I NEED Him? I love that she said this!! I often feel this way and ask myself why. There are times I am aware of my sin and feel the need for Him more, but more often I feel pretty good about myself. I don’t like to say, I am a sinner. I don’t like to admit that is who I am-I prefer to make excuses. I like to think I have fellowship with God and think about the good things I do. I know I am a sinner, but do I know this on a personal level and NAME my sins? That is not comfortable and does not fit neatly with my moral upbringing. I think I have given up my morality, but in reality I still cling to it because it feels good. It’s one thing to say, we are all sinners collectively. It’s another to say I am a sinner. It’s me. I did it. It’s all my fault.
Sin requires confession. It is a gift ( never heard this before!) Confession is the Christian response to sin. We need to be sin conscious so we can confess and not live in darkness. Problem is we are self-deceived. Our goal is the relationship NOT the forgiveness. We are SO human. We want the benefits of the relationship with Jesus, so we think of things to confess BUT do we look at our heart and confess truly about who we are?
3. Share a time when you were blind to a sin. How did God bring light to you and wake you up?
Of course when I was saved-you have all heard this. Recently? My daughter said to me that I am a gossip. I was shocked because she said I always share things about people in the form of a prayer request, but maybe that wasn’t meant to be shared. I hadn’t thought of it in that light. I thought I was truly concerned about my family and was sharing a true concern-which it was, but apparently those people were not wanting their concern shared, even to family. After thinking about it, I understood and have tried to be careful to ask if a concern should be shared or not. I find that most people prefer to share their needs themselves and that makes so much sense. Just like me to think I am doing something good.
TUESDAY: Finishing Up Paige
4. Finish up with Paige.
Don’t extinguish the light because you love the darkness!!!
5. The following is an actual note my daughter got in 3rd grade thatI put in The Friendships of Women that reminds me of Paige’s story of a note from a boy in 4th grade. What point was she making with that?
We don’t have an option to say maybe to God. We either have a personal relationship with him or we don’t. We cannot just say we believe, we must obey and love him by staying in relationship through confession of our sin.
Praise the Lord for His grace and healing! Such good news, Chris.
Chris, I found your comments about morality interesting in light of what I read this morning by Oswald Chambers from today’s reading from “My Utmost for His Highest”.
“The moral miracle of redemption is that God can instill in me a holiness that enables me to live a totally new life. But it isn’t until I reach the frontier of need and understand my limitations that Jesus says, “Blessed are you” (Matthew 5:11). God cannot put the holiness that was in Jesus Christ into someone who is still convinced of their own morality. I have to be consciously in need of him to receive his heredity.“
The whole devotional lines up with what Paige was teaching.
Thanks for this Bev. I love it when teachings line up like this. It all really comes down to humility, doesn’t it? We have to admit our need and acknowledge God’s authority. Much of TRUTH comes down to these two things.
I give God all the credit for her healing-of course, but it really was a close call. Much of the last two weeks the doctors were just trying to keep her alive. 😅
This was to Cheryl 😊
This is such a powerful post, Chris. Love your thoughts.
I am so thankful that your step mom is improving.
I know I am a sinner, but it is hard to say or even think those words. I have to look at my heart every day and clean up my focus.
I could easily ask for prayer and share too much. I have to work on that!
I, too, love what Paige said about Confession is a gift. So true. When we verbalize who we are or what we said, it sounds much louder and more true than when we just thought it!
TUESDAY: Finishing Up Paige
4. Finish up with Paige.
—I have always appreciated 1 John 1:9 for the reminder of the faithfulness and justice of God and because of the promises of forgiveness and cleansing being available. But I realize I pretty much considered it a go to verse for my sins. For asking God for forgiveness of the latest acts of sin in my life and as a means to getting my life cleaned up a way to keep short accounts with God. And I think that is probably a good thing but Paige brings a whole deeper meaning and application to this verse in realizing that my confession needs to go to a deeper level of recognizing my innate sinfulness. My very human condition is one of sin. It’s not my acts of sinning that are the problem. It is the fact that I am a sinner that is the problem. I need cleansed so I can be transformed. It is all about atonement by Jesus for me that makes that possible. She talked about his advocacy and that he doesn’t advocate my case. Because of his atonement for my sin he advocates in my place.
Her comments and quotes by John Bunyan on John 6:37 were so powerful to be reminded that because of his love for us we will never ever be cast out for any reason whatsoever if we come to him. If we come into the light and let him expose us and let him do his work of transformation.
“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” John 6:37 ESV
I thought this was a powerful quote by Paige.
“Our understanding of God’s love is in direct proportion to understanding our need.”
She said only when we know our unworthiness and the light of the love of Jesus in light of our unworthiness will we understand our worth in his eyes.
Again so much good teaching. 💕😊
Love your entire post, Bev. Love the Bunyan quotes and love this:
…….this verse in realizing that my confession needs to go to a deeper level of recognizing my innate sinfulness. My very human condition is one of sin. It’s not my acts of sinning that are the problem. It is the fact that I am a sinner that is the problem. I need cleansed so I can be transformed. It is all about atonement by Jesus for me that makes that possible. She talked about his advocacy and that he doesn’t advocate my case. Because of his atonement for my sin he advocates in my place.
4. Finish up with Paige. There are so many important points in this lesson! We are claiming life while we are languishing in the darkness.
‘Laura mentioned the great John Piper quote, which is so good: “The Mark of a Christian is not sinlessness, but sin-consciousness.”
Another great point is that our hearts are so deceitful. We look at ourselves in the mirror in complete darkness…..we look a whole lot different in the light. We need to see ourselves in the light, so we see who we really are. And that can be scary!
We self deify. This is not self deception, this is blasphemy. Paige compares it to the Pharisees.
We are self destructing. Another great point: God did not say “if you sin, I will kill you- He said “If you sin, you will die.” It is each of us choosing to walk in the Light of God ….or choosing to walk in the Darkness, (of making our self more important that God) which leads to your destruction.
Run to the light for eternal life.
5. The following is an actual note my daughter got in 3rd grade thatI put in The Friendships of Women that reminds me of Paige’s story of a note from a boy in 4th grade. What point was she making with that?
We can’t be “maybe” with Jesus. We are His or not His…all the way in the wheelbarrow….not sort of…
A friend and I were discussing the Chosen ~ the loaves and fish scene….and it reminded me of your note.
She is in her second year as a widow. She wrote:
“My life feels like fragments and broken pieces so much of the time. A ride in Jesus’s basket sounds good.” She is all His, broken pieces and all.
I can relate! I am broken, but oh what Jesus can do with all my broken pieces if I am in His basket. Being all in with Him is a safe place to be.