Week One:1 John 3:6

Hey everybody!  I know that this is a little late, being that we actually started our "promise moving" on Monday, but better late than never.  Don't let the tardiness stop you from joining us.  Just like the parable Jesus tells in Matthew 20.  Whether God "hires" you first thing in the morning or with one hour left on the shift, we all get the same blessing in the end: eternal life with the Creator of everything!

The promise we decided to start the year with comes from 1 John 3:5-10,

But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
 

This is no new thing.  I think that a lot of us only look at half of this wonderful truth though.  We are so enthralled with the fact that Jesus forgives us of our sins that we forget something even bigger.  Jesus takes away our sins.  In Him there is NO SIN.  No one who lives in Him keeps sinning.  No one born of God continues to sin.  This is completely different than simply forgiveness of sins.  This is life changing.  This is world altering!

I really like the New American Standard Bible's interpretation of verse six, "No one who abides in Him sins..."  I love that word, "abides".  When I think of the word abide, the first thing that pops into my mind is an abode, another word for your house or the place that you live.  So to abide means to live.  Now we are all familiar with the fact that we are to live for Christ and that He will live in us, but how many of us really follow through with that?  I know that I never used to.

So that is the promise we are moving on.  Abiding in Christ.  Absolutely drowning in Him.  Not just for an hour in the morning during Bible reading and prayer time, not just before bed, or any other silent times in the day while we are praying.  Abiding in Christ is just like living in your house.  If you are there, you are constantly there, constantly under your roof, constantly wrapped in your houses protection from the outside elements.  The difference though, we can take Christ with us.  We don't have to only abide in Him at home.  We can abide in Jesus in the middle of the chaos that swirls around us daily.  The promise is that if we do that, we are 100% incapable of sinning.  We don't need forgiveness (we do, just not while we're abiding in Him because forgiveness is already present) because He promises us that as long as we are immersed in Him we will not sin.  It's impossible to.

One important distinction should be made before I end.  The focus of this promise is very important.  Should you choose to join us (and we all really hope you do!) the priority MUST be abiding in Christ.  If the focus becomes the result of the promise, not sinning, then you are serving the law and not Jesus Christ.  That is, by definition, legalism.  Even the end goal of this promise isn't necessarily to stop sinning.  Don't get me wrong, I want to stop sinning, but the goal of this whole process is to draw closer to God.  That has to be our end goal for everything.  If it is not, then we end up running after the wrong prize and will not like the destination we end up finding.

So there it is; there is the first promise to move on.  Some of us will be blogging a little later in the week to let you know how things are going or how the week went.  I know my week has been incredible and I can't wait to share more.  Now, I will leave you with the words from the band Switchfoot:

"I dare you to MOVE"