Clearing Out the Back Seat
Theme of the Week: What's Wrong with the World?
Bob Benson
Friday, January 17, 2003
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Key Bible Verse: But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong (1 John 1:9). Bonus Reading:1 Jn. 1:5-2:2
Confession comes from a couple of Greek words that I can't pronounce. One word means, "To say," and the other word means "the same." So the word "confession" simply means "to say the same."
It's not like saying, "Yeah, I did it, but they made me do it." Or, "If you knew what I had to put up with at home, you would understand." That's not saying the same. Saying the same is saying, "Whatever that was, that was me."
For some reason confession makes me think of an uncle of mine and an old two-door Coupe DeVille Cadillac he had. I don't know what all was in the trunk of that car, but in the back seat were concrete blocks and bricks and pieces of wood and house plans and paint chips and drapery samples and catalogs of plumbing and light fixtures. His car was just a strata of his seven years of home-building.
When we throw away the word confession we do away with our way to clean out the back seat. And so we go around with the righteousness that is our own. Even though the whole world can look in the back window and see that our righteousness is not too righteous.
—Bob Benson in "See You at the House"
My Response: To clean out my life, I'll say "That was me" about. …
Thought to Apply: You can never conquer sin with an excuse.
—source unknown
Adapted from "See You at the House" (Generoux, 1986) by permission.
Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.
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Dear Savior, being saved didn't inoculate me from sin. Help me to recognize and confess it, and experience Your cleansing.
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