She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name JESUS, because he will save his people from their sins. Matthew 1:21
The crowded town of Bethlehem, the baby born in a manger, the angels singing their alleluias in the skies, the awed shepherds marveling at what they have seen, the wandering wise men looking for a king, the King Herod and all of Jerusalem who are troubled . . . it is all because there is ONE named JESUS who will save us from our sins.
God is with us, because we need Him to do something we cannot do for ourselves. Save us from our sins.
Those same old sins we live with day after day, years turning into decades.
Here are a few words that were deeply moving for me from poet and teacher, Scott Cairns in God With Us, page 63-64.
No my sins today are pretty much the same sins I've known my entire life . . . Throughout my life, I have asked God's forgiveness, repeatedly, for the same, familiar, habitual sins.
Most of us find that the sins of our days are the sins of our lives. And the worst thing we can do is let our shame or our pride keep us from asking forgiveness every time we must. One day you realize you are tired of confession, tired of the sin; on the day you'll decide you truly want it gone.
And so I asked myself:
What are my same old sins?
Have I neglected to continue confessing them?
Have I learned to live with them in shame, or to ignore them in denial?
Will I begin, once again to confess them
Confess them until I am tired of confessing them... even more, just tired of them?
And now, truly willing to be rid of them?
Jesus, who came to save me from my sins, will never tire of me confessing them. And he will wait long, for me to be so tired of them, I am truly ready for them to be gone.
Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com
