It's not a "Do-It-Yourself" Project...

We had a great discussion in our Adult Bible Fellowship last Sunday Morning. We were discussing Pastor Erwin Lutzer's morning message from the week before, when he preached on "The Devil we abhor."

Pastor Lutzer preached on the character of Satan, how he fell, and what God allows him to do on this earth. It was a powerful and very sobering message.

So our ABF decided to talk about the message during our time together.

One of the things I can remember someone saying was "sin exposed is sin that is weakened. Sin that stays hidden retains much of it's strength."

I know how very true that is, and I speak from personal experience.

As much as most of us want to separate ourselves from anything seems contrary to Scripture, confession shouldn't be one of those things from which we run. This is so for two reasons:

First, confession is completely Biblical. Just read James 5:13-20. James (the half brother of our Lord Jesus) goes on to instruct us to "confess your sins one to another and pray for one another, so you can be healed." He connects confession of sin to healing. All kinds of healing.

Second, when "sin" is confessed, we are admitting that we have violated a Holy God, and that we want to align ourselves with the character of His Son.

We realize that "confession" and forsaking, and healing is not a "do-it-yourself" project. We can't cleanse ourselves of sin. But we can brings ourselves to Jesus Christ and allow Him to cleanse us. We can confess--and we should do so, regularly--to those brothers and sisters in Christ who can love us in security, help us find grace and the process towards healing, and hold us to the biblical standards for living.

None of us can do "these things" by ourselves. It's just not a "do-it-yourself" project.

Not now, and not ever.