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 we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.
- 1 John 1:9-10 (ESV)
I am a relatively large man. Twenty-eight-year-old Keith Schultz is not.
Now I have never met Schultz, but I have seen his photographs. He is a slim, fine-boned man. Indeed, he is so thin he might even think that he, maybe, could manage to squeeze down the chimney of an upscale home, which is exactly what he did.
Understand, Schultz didn't squeeze down his own chimney. No, he picked the chimney of someone else, someone in Ridgecrest, California. Without permission, he scrambled up and into that chimney with the hope that, once in, he would disarm the alarm system and let his fellow robbers into the house.
Things did not go as planned.
Rather than getting into the house, Schultz got stuck in the chimney. He called to his friends for assistance, and they gave it. They broke into the home and set off the alarm. In a panic, they tried to set Schultz free. When that plan failed, they called 911 and reported his condition to the authorities.
Then Schultz's ex-friends left him to face his fate alone.
To make a long story short, firemen managed to rescue Schultz. His condition was checked at a local hospital; then he was taken to jail and booked. Oh, the police also took a photo of soot-covered Schultz and shared it with the media.
In that photo Schultz looks like a very sad man. He probably is a sad man, since he is the most recent individual to discover that sin often takes a person from bad to worse.
The first people who discovered that truth were Adam and Eve. Forbidden fruit which looked tasty turned into a death sentence and banishment from Eden. David thought Bathsheba was quite a cutie and that brought him to adultery and murder. These biblical folks, along with many others, experienced the bad-to-worse seduction of sin.
Maybe you have too and ended up thinking, Hey, there's no way out; there's no way to stop this thing!
If that is what you thought, or maybe, even now, are thinking, stop! There is a solution that breaks the bad-to-worse slide. That solution is found in our Bible verse for today.
Rather than covering our sins, we confess them.
When we make a sincere confession, the Father, who, because of His Son's sacrifice, is ready to hear our repentant hearts, will forgive us. Indeed, He will wipe every spot and stain from our souls, so we can get about the business of praising Him.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, I give thanks my sins no longer have to keep on going, keep on growing. Because of the Savior, You are always ready to forgive. For this undeserved and unearned blessing I give thanks in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Use these devotions in your newsletter and bulletin! Used by permission; all rights reserved by the Int'l LLL (LHM). The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
