Lexi

John assures us that we are loved "my dear children", and that because Jesus loves us (the whole world) he has taken our sins upon himself and justified us before the Father. It is comforting to know we are loved. That God loved us at our worst, and not only that but was willing to stand up for us when we did not deserve it. To not then attempt to avoid sin, is to make a mockery of all that God has done for us.

I have always considered confession, a pray of repentence to God. That you realize that you have sinned against him. That you realize you are wrong and ask for his forgiveness so that through perseverance and his power you walk more fully in the Spirit. I noticed though that I often lack admittance to another of my sin. The way they confessed to John, a mature believer. This really make me think. How much more humbling it would be to vocalize out loud, to someone who is more mature than you, the sin you have done. The mature believer may also be able to give you spiritual guidance in how to overcome the sin you may struggle with be it small in the sight of the world or big. If we do not confess our sins, we are being proud, we are refusing to recognize that we have done wrong. As childen of God, I believe that God will teach us how our pride and lack of confession is wrong. He will help us to humble our prideful hearts. Forgiveness lets go. Cleansing helps to get rid of the our sinful nature.

When we walk in darkness, we are not walking with God. This has many consequences. We stop experiencing his blessings, we stop hearing his voice, we stop receiving his comfort. This involves selp deception because while we are experiecing God's warnings that our life is not glorifying him, we continue in OUR own way. We have to lie to ourselves to believe that we are walking with Christ when we are not. Eventually the result is that God will say he did not know us, and we will be cast aside into eternal darkness. Repentance and a desire to LIVE for God, and not for self is how we get back. I loved the frog in the hot pan of water illustration, becoming desensitized to sin in our lives. I think this happens a lot within the church, and sin becomes accepted because we all struggle with it, so it's okay. It's good to realize we all struggle, keeps us humble. However, we need to be confessing our sin and working on being overcomers through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Why is our fellowship with fellow Christians so often just on a surface level? How can we have fellowship at a deeper level in Christ? What would it take in your Christian group or your relationships with other believers to deepen your level of fellowship so it is authentically Christian? When we say we love Christ, then out of that love we spend time with him, reading his word, praying, worshiping both in song and with our lives. Through this our minds are renewed and our desires become focused in line with God's will. Our life, our passion is to live for Christ, to do his will over our own, when we meet others with that same passion we are excited and encouraged because of our shared interest. I agree with many of you, that our relationships are so often on the surface because we fear rejection, being hurt. I agree that we need to remember that we are "deeply loved" by God, and to be geniune with others. Living to please God instead of others. "... But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another...." (1:7) I think John writes this both as an encouragement and as a warning. You cannot have true fellowship with someone who does not have fellowship with the Lord. You will however, be filled with joy at having fellowship with others who live for Christ. I think our relationships with other believers deepens when we choose to serve them, know them, see their needs and try to help. Through prayer and discernment, we know where the resources of time and money that the Lord has entrusted us with should be spent. Building up his church.

Hello! My name is Alexis. This is my first online bible study. I am really excited about doing a bible study in a forum like this. I live on the western side of Washington, in the USA.