Strong Words

Reading the Bible will always challenge us because
we can only live the way God wants us to with His
power in us. Without the Holy Spirit living inside
us, we will only try to please God in vain. These
are some verses from the Bible that are very bold
and strong, but this is the truth. You can believe
it or not, but even if you don't believe it, it doesn't
mean it's not true. We would be wise to learn what
the Bible teaches us.

**All parenthesis are my thoughts that I added

1 John 1:5-10: "This is the message which we have heard
from Him (Jesus Christ) and declare to you (everyone), that
God is light and in Him is no darkness at all (He is perfect).

If we say that we have fellowship with Him (call ouselves
Christians), and walk in darkness (get drunk, cuss, gossip,
lie, are sexually impure, etc.), we lie and do not practice
the truth (live out the truth from the Bible).

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light (live pure
lives being set apart in our beliefs with God's strength),
we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus
Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin (we are forgiven).

If we say that we have no sin (don't think those things
mentioned above are wrong), we deceive ourselves, and
the truth is not in us (we are not really Christians).

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us [our] sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar,
and His word is not in us (we don't live pure lives because
we just call ourselves Christians but the Holy Spirit is not
in us)."

**These are powerful words. It shows that there could be a lot
of people who call themselves Christians when they really
aren't. God is the Judge who knows each of our hearts, but
these verses show us that we can probably tell people apart
by the way they live.

Let us not deceive ourselves, but instead walk in the
light as Jesus is in the light! God forgives us but
we need to recognize our sin and confess it to Him.
Let your light shine in 2010!