Faith in the News Christian News
Here are five great Bible verses for a fresh start.
First John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
I cannot find a clearer Bible verse about fresh starts than this one. We all sin (Rom 3:23), but if we confess out sins, God wipes the slate clean. All our sins and unrighteousness are gone…we are then accounted as having the righteousness of Christ (2nd Cor 5:21).
Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
This is a little like “replacement therapy,” where something good goes in and replaces something bad. In other words, if we dwell more on things that are lovely, commendable, and excellent, we’ll dwell less on things that are not. All Paul is saying is to just “think about these things.”
Acts 19:18 “Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices.”
I love the context of this chapter because it’s a good image of what repentance is, but also what the fear of God looks like. Some “itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits” (Acts 19:13), but “the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded” (Acts 19:16), and such “fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled” (Acts 19:17), that many became believers and they confessed their sins and revealed their practices. Then, “those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver” (Acts 19:19). They all had a fresh start.
Hebrews 12:2b-3 “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
I get the image of Jesus waiting for us at the finish line, and He wants us to keep our eyes upon Him, because He was the beginner and pefecter of this race. During His life, He endured the shame and suffering of the cross, because of “the joy that was set before him,” so let us run with endurance, for the joy that set before us.
Philippians 3:13 “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.”
This is very similar to Hebrews 12:2-3 where we are straining forward to what lies ahead, or really, straining forward for Who lies ahead, and that means Jesus. It is straining, isn’t it, but it’s in our best interests to forget what’s behind us because we’re not supposed to strain backwards. We don’t want to trip over something that’s already behind us, do we?
Conclusion
God is always going to forgive us of our sins. Just confess them (1st John 1:9). Does anyone ever think that they can sin so much that the blood of the Lamb of God would not take them away? No sin is too great or no sins too many that cannot be confessed in repentance and forgiven. Such is the blessing for those who have trusted in Christ and those who are the children of God.
May God richly bless you,
Pastor Jack Wellman
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