Seals

Good morning Trinity Tribe,

Starting yesterday, Hanna started sounding like a seal with the
wonderful barking cough of croup. Croup is one of those illnesses you
cannot do much about. You shut the person up in the bathroom with the
hot water from the shower making steam and it helps…until you step out
of the bathroom. You can go out into the cool night air…and it helps
for a moment. But no cough medicine available at the drug store will
do a thing.

Sin is like that. We can try to wash off our sins on our own…but they
are still there. We can try to do good things to make up for our bad
ones, but that doesn't help. There is only one prescription to get
rid of the symptoms of sin: the life, death, and resurrection of
Jesus Christ. Only when we admit our sin and ask for forgiveness can
our sins be wiped away. Jesus already took care of all of them two
thousand years ago.

In Hebrews 4 (Message version) it explains it this way: Now that we
know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to
God—let's not let it slip through our fingers. We don't have a priest
who is out of touch with our reality. He's been through weakness and
testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let's walk right up to
him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the
help.

In 1 John chapter 1 it says: If we claim that we're free of sin,
we're only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On
the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he
won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins
and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we've never sinned,
we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like
that only shows off our ignorance of God.

God sets us free from the burden of our sins through Jesus Christ. We
just have to ask for that freedom by confessing our sins. Let's get
set free and ask for the help of Jesus!