[Membersandfriends] Thursday, November 04, 2004

Wed Nov 3 22:01:22 PST 2004

The Upper Room Daily Devotional -- E-mail Edition
Brought to You by Upper Room Ministries
Thursday, November 04, 2004

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Free Advent '04 Study Guide

NOW AVAILABLE: The free web-based Advent study guide is now available at http://www.upperroom.org/devotional/advent/. The study guide is to be used with the Nov/Dec 2004 issue of The Upper Room daily devotional. To order a copy of the magazine for each study participant, call 1-800-972-0433 -- at least four weeks before the sessions begin. The first session will be during the week of November 22, 2004. Watch this link (http://www.upperroom.org/devotional/) for more information.
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SINS AND CORN SEEDS
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1 John 1:5-9 (NRSV)

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but 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. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow.  If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit.
-  Galatians 6:7-8 (NRSV)
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WE were reminiscing and confessing to some pranks we had pulled in our younger days.  One man recalled how his father had instructed him to plant several rows of corn in the family's garden.  Instead of doing the work as instructed, he went to the far corner of the garden, dug a deep hole, poured all the seeds in it, and went to play.  We laughed as he recounted how a few weeks later dozens of corn stalks appeared where he had buried the seed.  To cover his act, he chopped them down, only to have others grow.  In desperation, he doused the plants with an herbicide.  Then through many sleepless nights he worried about the chemical herbicide leeching into the rest of the garden plants and poisoning his family.  He said, "You can't plant corn deep enough to keep it from coming up."  

The Bible teaches basically the same thing about sin.  How many of us have learned the hard way that sin "will find you out" (Num. 32:23)?  The list is long of those who, instead of confessing, tried to hide their sin, only to have it surface at the worst possible moment.  The only safe course is to acknowledge our sin and accept forgiveness.

Prayer:  Father, thank you for forgiving our sin.  Amen.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
When we confess our sins, God forgives.

-- Larry Thomas (Texas, U.S.A.)

PRAYER FOCUS: Those living with unconfessed sin

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RELATED READING ...

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The scripture quotation is from the NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION of the Bible, copyright (c) 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.