Impact

1 John 2:3-11.
Howdy everyone.
The big question we answered tonight was can we love Jesus, and dwell in darkness. And to further this, can we say we love Jesus, and allow people we love to walk in darkness. We must strive to walk in the footsteps of Christ, by loving people the way He loved. Love is more difficult than hatred. Hatred is allowing people we care about to walk right into the trap sin lays. And too many people walk in darkness without ever being approached by light. Darkness desperately needs light. And as followers of Jesus, we are called to be His light to the dark. Dustin shared a story revealing the only thing sin can ever accomplish death. He also shared how no one approached him, as he walked towards destruction. This is how we hate one another, by allowing people to walk to the slaughter. Instead of being so quick to run away from another’s stumbling, our response should be to rush to their side in love, and pull them back towards light.
1 John says if we say we are in the light, yet hate are brother we are still in darkness. But Jesus calls us to love Him with all we have, and love our neighbor as ourself.
Sin is not fun, it is not something to shrug off, it is not something to take care of when we get the chance. Sin is only death and destruction. Praise be to God that He provided His son to give us the path to life.

May we go from here to follow Christ, and rush towards those straying in darkness with light.

Hello everyone again. Tonight was all about the number one subject we all want to avoid in the bible. A subject that makes us squirm in our seats. Tonight was about confronting face to face our ugliest opponent; sin. Dustin led us through 1 John 1:8- 1 John 2:2. We learned tonight that the most deadly type of deception is deception that causes us to be oblivious of sin. 1 John says that by denying our sin we are liars, and we call Jesus a liar too. But the glory of Christ ’s death on the cross is in the truth that we all have sinned, and even though God is just and righteous and has every right to sentence to us the death we deserve, He comes and dies on our behalf instead. And as we walk and stumble and betray God, Jesus pleads our case. This is the beauty of the gospel; we do stand guilty before a God who is just, but because of Christ’s blood we stand innocent.
All of these things go along with the concept of walking in the light, and in order to purge from our midst the poison of sin, we are told to tell one another about our darkness. This is the most difficult part, yet can transform into the most beautiful facet of our fellowship here.
Sin is an ugly word, but because of its ugliness, redemption in Christ is so much sweeter. And walking in the light of His grace, includes admitting to God we have all fallen hard and not trying to hide that from others.

1 John 1:8-2:2
If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
2:1 My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. 2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.

“Find a friend and stay close and with a melting heart tell them whatever you’re most ashamed of…”mewithoutYou

Until Next time…

Hello everyone who missed out. I hope all of you are having a good, but if you’re not that is okay too. We don’t have to have a good week all the time. IMPACT tonight was refreshing. The night kicked off with a riveting round of ultimate frisbee. Afterwards, we all made our way down to the “college” room for discussion. We gathered together and discussed the lessons of the week before. Last week we learned about walking in the light and how we must be in the light to have effective fellowship. This week revealed that in order to walk in the light, we must be willing to reveal to each other where our darkness lies. Honesty is always difficult, but honesty is always better than wearing a mask. Dustin shared with us his heart about “fake Christianity.” We hope here at IMPACT! to walk away from Christianity that is artificial and stale, and strive towards following Christ with honesty and passion. Walk in the light by not allowing darkness to hide. Have a good week everyone! ( and if you don’t have a good week, IMPACT! is a safe place to be honest about it