Today, we explore the essential theme of honesty with ourselves during the Lenten season, specifically focusing on the idea of never lying to ourselves. We delve into the cultural tendencies that lead us to self-deception, highlighting how societal norms can distort our understanding of right and wrong. By turning to God's word as our standard, we can gain clarity and avoid the pitfalls of denial. As we engage with these concepts, I encourage you to reflect on your own spiritual journey.

Takeaways:

1. This episode emphasizes the importance of confessing our sins in order to receive forgiveness and purification from God.
2. Self-deception is a significant issue; we can easily convince ourselves we are not sinning when we truly are.
3. The teachings of the New Testament challenge us to live a life that aligns with God's standards, not cultural norms.
4. Understanding the context of First John helps us see the relevance of its message today in combating self-lies.
5. The journey of faith includes a commitment to change our old ways for a new life that reflects God's character.
6. Engaging with scripture is vital for gaining a proper perspective on morality and living authentically.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. www.bible805.com

Hi, welcome to the Hobo Soul Podcast (NOTE--why the software is crazy splitting up the content like this I have no idea--it's all here and I apologize)

of road advice from the Bible and

from me, Yvonne Prehn, someone who's a

little further down the road of life.

I'll talk to you every weekday for about five to 10 minutes, with periodic

longer talks on serious Saturdays.

Let's get started with our topic today,

Lenten and Devotion Day #9 How to Never Lie to Yourself

During this Lenten season, we're looking at the quotes and challenges from my devotional book and journal In Dying We Are Reborn, that you can download for free on www.bible805.com. Each day there's a daily quote and challenge from the book, which I'll read to you and I'll then share my comments on them.

Today's quote comes from the Bible, First John 1:9, where it says

"If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us for from all unrighteousness."

And today's challenge is

"When we confess we've sinned and specifically name that sin, we're acknowledging that there is someone above us who sets a standard for what is right and what is wrong, and when we do that, he makes us clean."

Now here's my commentary on it.

This verse and the results from obeying it are pretty clear.

We mess up, we tell God about it honestly, and he forgives us and makes us clean. Not exactly a great theological explanation needed here, but what I'd like to look at in a little more detail is the context of this verse.

Because unless we take it seriously, we won't be in a place where we can confess any sins because we won't realize that we've messed up. We'll get into the habit that many of us are very good at, of lying to ourselves.

Here's the context of the verse.

The verse comes from the book of First John, and it was written by John, the disciple of Jesus, who was one of the brothers that Jesus nicknamed a "Son of Thunder." It's been a long time since then. His brother was the first disciple to be killed.

As a disciple of Jesus, John has been through a lot, and he's now writing to tell young followers of Jesus how to live as disciples. After a brief introduction to the book and who he's writing for, here's what John says.

"If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we're obviously lying through our teeth.

We're not living what we claim, but if we walk in the light, God himself being the light we also experience a shared life with one another as the sacrifice. Blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son purges all our sins. If we claim we're free from sin, we're only fooling ourselves.

A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins, simply come clean about them, he won't let us down, he'll be true to himself.

He'll forgive our sins and purges of all wrongdoing. If we claim 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."

The summary of what John is saying is that we all sin and if we don't think we do it, we're only lying to ourselves. That's so true. But here's the question, and it's an important one. How do we know when we're lying to ourselves?

Not only can we become masters at self denial and self delusion because we don't want to feel bad, but in our culture today, many things that the Bible clearly calls sin are not only accepted but but celebrated.

No need to go into detail here, but greediness, though we wouldn't call it greediness, we'd call it "getting what we deserved" in every area, from money to sex to stuff. That's the cultural norm, but that's not what God approves of.

And the obvious anecdote to really having a proper view of things, of not lying to ourselves, is to have a different source of reference for what is good and acceptable other than the culture. And that of course, is God's Word.

Now it's good to be reminded that the books of the New Testament were not written in a time and to a people that lived in some Puritan backwoods culture, they were written to primarily urban people, citizens of Rome whose morality before they came to know Jesus, which their sexual morality, by the way, often included, if you could afford it, not only having a spouse, but lovers of both genders. And that was considered perfectly fine, legal and open.

To their beliefs that might makes right that you don't owe anyone anything; they were innately cruel and they were driven to get whatever they wanted. All these characteristics were celebrated by Rome and practiced enthusiastically by the citizens who could afford to practice them.

The previous lifestyle of most people who became followers of Jesus would make even the most jaded modern day people blush. This was the audience that Paul, that John wrote to.

But this audience, no matter what they had lived like before they became Christians, the writers of the New Testament, didn't cut them any slack in how they were supposed to live once they professed they were followers of Jesus.

Here's what Paul said to the Ephesian believers whose cities celebrated a pagan goddess, and as citizens of the town whose lives had most likely been involved in it in one way or another, the message puts it rather bluntly.

"Everything, and I do mean everything, connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through.

Get rid of it and then take on an entirely new way of life. A God fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as accurately as God reproduces His character in you."

And to the Romans, here's what Paul said.

"Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God.

You'll be changed from the inside out, readily recognize what he wants from you and be quick to respond to it.

Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings out the best in you, develops well formed maturity in you."

Don't just hear the negative in these commands, hear the positive. Just like forgiveness results in cleansing, getting rid of your old way of life, the world's view of right and wrong results in a new way of life. A God fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as accurately as God produces His character in you.

How exciting is that? The very character of God, of Jesus himself being reproduced in you.

And in the Romans passage, the reminder that your culture always drags you down, but that God, God brings out the best of you, develops well formed maturity in you.

Following Jesus, getting to know the Bible and from those actions, getting a true view of yourself, your world, morality and a truly satisfying life.

That's how to live without lying to yourself.

In closing for this Lenten devotional, which is a special Hobo Soul series that I'm doing for Lent, I'd encourage you to pause take time to share with Jesus your response, thoughts and prayers to what you just heard. You can do this quietly in your heart or you can write it out.

I have a free journal with the quotes, challenges and space for you to write in that you can download at www.bible805.com let me close in prayer for you that as Jesus went into the wilderness to solidify his call, that you during this time retreat to a place spiritually where God can significantly deepen your relationship with him, where he can speak to you regardless of the temptations and distractions in your life, and that you'll come out of it with a clear sense of his calling for you and a commitment to follow it. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Amen.