17 November 2019
Two-Minute Features | 24 November 2019 | 10 November 2019

Practicing Sin & Closeness to God Doesn't Mix (TMF:1265)

Friday, November 22, 2019
Peace to Live By: Practicing Sin & Closeness to God Doesn't Mix (TMF:1265) - Daniel Litton
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       We need to have a clear conscience so we can pray. If we feel condemned about something, we need to confess our sin to God so he can forgive us and our fellowship can be restored. However, willingly sinning in our daily lives, continually doing something that we know to be wrong, ruins our fellowship with God, and really our relationship with him. We won’t feel comfortable being close to him if we have willful sin in our lives. We may even try to fellowship with him, but we don’t feel his presence on the other end because we know, deep down, we have not been living in a right way. We will surely feel hypocritical in this instance. And so we must have complete surrender to God in all things. There can be nothing that we hold onto, whether sinful or not sinful, something that we hold as a higher value than God himself. Our love for God needs to be pure. In reality, when you get down to it, nothing matters but God. If you say that to ourselves over and over in prayer, you can enter a deep mediation and closeness with God indeed. This is something I personally practice from time to time and it makes me feel like a million bucks.

When Our Gift or Tithe Doesn't Count (TMF:1264)

Thursday, November 21, 2019
Peace to Live By: When Our Gift or Tithe Doesn't Count (TMF:1264) - Daniel Litton
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       If we offer our gift to God while knowing a fellow Christian has something against us, God will not accept our gift and it will not count to our benefit. That’s how important it is with God that we are on good terms with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, there may be some of you out there saying, “But I know my brother has this [fill in the blank] against me.” Well, if you haven’t tried to makeup with the person, that needs to become a top priority right now because God doesn’t want there to be division within the body of Christ. You need to make it a priority to make up with that person. Now, if the person won’t make up with you, that’s not you're fault, but you need to do everything you can on your end to try to make up. We need to have a clear conscience so we can pray. If we feel condemned about something, we need to confess our sin to God so he can forgive us and our fellowship can be restored. However, willingly sinning in our daily lives, continually doing something that we know to be wrong, ruins our fellowship with God, and really our relationship with him. We won’t feel comfortable being close to him if we have willful sin in our lives.

Meditating to Examine Ourselves (TMF:1263)

Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Peace to Live By: Meditating to Examine Ourselves (TMF:1263) - Daniel Litton
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       Meditation, then, on our own personal conduct is a significant part to identifying sin in our lives, confessing it to God, and then seeking to act differently the next time. It is in this way that we improve our lives and become more pleasing to God, more and more like Christ. And if we have realized that we have sinned against another person, it may become necessary for us to go to that person to ask the individual for our forgiveness. Recollect, earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told us, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23, 24, ESV). We are to wait on giving any gifts to God then when we realize that someone has something against us, and first go and try to reconcile with that person. That’s what God wants us to do. If we offer our gift to God while knowing a fellow Christian has something against us, God will not accept our gift and it will not count to our benefit.

Our Daily Forgiveness for Sins, Part 2 (TMF:1262)

Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Peace to Live By: Our Daily Forgiveness for Sins, Part 2 (TMF:1262) - Daniel Litton
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       So, some sins that we commit will be just one time occurrences, while others will involve continuing struggles that we have. Now I think that most often we know what our sins are as we have compiled an internal list that we are going to take to God when we pray. And sometimes we just ask God for forgiveness on the spot right after we do the wrong. Nonetheless, I think this section of our Lord’s prayer also encourages us to spend time in reflection in our minds to consider any sins we may have committed that we haven’t realized we’ve done, or that we are guilty of. Sometimes as we consider the last 24 hours, or however long it’s been since we’ve confessed sin to God, we notice something that we haven’t noticed before—a way in which we sinned against God or against another person. The Holy Spirit may be bringing this situation to our minds. Meditation, then, on our own personal conduct is a significant part to identifying sin in our lives, confessing it to God, and then seeking to act differently the next time. It is in this way that we improve our lives and become more pleasing to God, more and more like Christ.

Our Daily Forgiveness for Sins, Part 1 (TMF:1261)

Monday, November 18, 2019
Peace to Live By: Our Daily Forgiveness for Sins, Part 1 (TMF:1261) - Daniel Litton
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       Continuing in the Lord’s prayer, we read: “Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” It’s unfortunate, but definitely true that we all fail in our daily lives, and we do find that we have sin regularly that we need to confess to God and ask forgiveness for. It’s interesting to consider how our Lord couples this area of forgiveness with God with giving us our daily bread. Notice how the word ‘daily’ is included here. So, we are to ‘daily’ ask for God’s forgiveness of sin—our debts against him—as we all will sin daily. Some of this sin is just one time occurrences of a certain sin, and some of the forgiveness we need involves ongoing battles we have in our lives, in our minds, as pertain to certain areas. It may be that one day we slip up and tell a lie, but lying may not be a usual problem for us. So, we have to ask God for forgiveness for the lie we told another person. Or, it could be that we have found that we have had a particularly bad day in our combat with lustful thoughts.