Walking in the Light

REFLECTION QUOTES


“My sin was all the more incurable because I thought I was not a sinner; and my iniquity was more execrable in that I would rather have you, God Almighty, vanquished in me to my destruction, than myself vanquished by you for my salvation.”

~St. Augustine (354-430), Bishop in North Africa


“The central defect of ‘the evil’ is not the sin but the refusal to acknowledge it.”

~M. Scott Peck (1936-2005), American Psychiatrist
in his book People of the Lie

“Their goodness is all on a level of pretense. It is in effect a lie. Actually the lie is designed not so much to deceive others as to deceive themselves. We lie only when we are attempting to cover up something we know to be illicit.”

~M. Scott Peck in People of the Lie

“I suddenly saw that someone could use all the language of…Christianity, and yet the center was fundamentally the self….”

~Leslie Newbigen (1909-1998), Scottish missionary

“…a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble—because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out.”

~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

~Jesus in the Gospel of John (3:19-21 NIV)

SERMON PASSAGE


1 John 1:1-2:2 (NASB)

1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— 2and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.

5This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

Chapter 2

1My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.