God's goodness

I was intending to cram for my calculus test yesterday, but I was just too exhausted after having been up until 2:30 am working on it the night before. So last night, I worked on it until midnight or so... and my brain just didn't want to work, so I decided to sleep for an hour. I set my alarm for 1 am and woke up at that time still really exhausted, so I set it for 1:45 so that I could study for a couple more hours and then sleep until 6:30. Well, I slept through that alarm... then my 5:20 alarm went off which I also slept through, but I woke up to my 6:30 alarm. I guess I didn't realize how tired I was. Anyway, I crammed for an hour and took the test. I think I did fairly well, despite my lack of preparation time. I would not recommend this method for test preparation, but I am thankful for God's grace and help in comprehending the concepts.

The message yesterday was about Fellowship with God. The focus was on the concept that God is light. Pastor Tim went over three ways that light is portrayed in scripture. Light is portrayed as sight, revelation, or truth (John 8:12, 2 Cor. 4:4-6, 2 Tim. 1:10). Light is also a symbol of purity or holiness (Rom. 13:12, John 3:19-20). Light portrays alertness or awareness (1 Thes. 5:4-6, Psalm 119:105, 1 John 2:11, John 12:35, John 11:9-10). Having said this, we must look at the core of the message found in 1 John 1.

5 This 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.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
7 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.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

For some reason, we tend to get the idea that there are small sins and big sins. I guess it is true in some ways... consequences are different for different sins. Regardless, we need to see sin as sin. The result of sin is separation from God--loss of fellowship with Him. I think the greatest pain that Christ had upon the cross was separation from God. Why is it that we can sin in small things and not see it as a big deal? I think our consciouses have been dulled by the amount of sin that we see on a daily basis that is not dealt with. Sin doesn't look so good if you put the punishment before it. I think this is a huge problem in our society! We are all given the idea that sin goes unpunished. We are told that life is all about us, and that we deserve [fill in the blank]. We must go back to true fellowship with Christ without the hindrance of ourselves. This doesn't come without work. Take a look at Eph. 5:8-11.

8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light
9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth),
10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;

A key part in this is trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. We must fill our minds with God's Word so that we naturally do what is pleasing to Him. Pastor Tim used the illustration of marriage. Marriage is companionship and fellowship (Gen. 2:18, Prov. 2:17, Malachi 2:14). You listen to the other person and find out what they like and don't like and then you act accordingly. You wouldn't expect a spouse to be happy during the weekend after being treated like trash all week long, so why would we think fellowship with God is different? Let us search for those things that please God and act accordingly!