A Sin-free life?

SCRIPTURE: 1 John 3:6 Anyone who continues to live in him, [Jesus], will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.

THOUGHTS: We all know we've done things that were wrong, bad, evil, sinful, etc. And we all know we've NOT done things we should have done. The Bible of both the Jews and the Christians calls this "sin," and there were several different ancient Hebrew and Greek words that described it.

We all know we can and do sin: the question is, can we NOT sin?

Anyone who talks about an afterlife talks about it as a perfect, loving, joyful, peaceful place...but that means it has no sin, right? So we intuitively think it must be POSSIBLE, somehow...

In this series of weekly Sunday sermon messages, we're looking at the possibility of living -- right now -- the way of life that Jesus taught and lived out in front of people: a way of 'holiness of heart and life.' Our goal in this series is to experience both the forgiveness from the PENALTY of sin thanks to Jesus' death and resurrection that pays the penalty, AND freedom from the POWER of sin, which Jesus' resurrection also gives us and empowers us to overcome by His grace and the help of the Holy Spirit.

ACTION: Right this minute, close your eyes and visualize the exact place you are in now, recreating it all in your mind -- and then imagine that place as being absolutely sin-free. If you're sitting at your kitchen table, or driving down the road listening to this, imagine right now -- no angry actions, no words of despair or pain, sinless. THAT is what we're trying to live in NOW, and not just wait until we're dead.

PRAYER: "Our Father in Heaven, help me to live into this sin-free vision today as well as I can by the grace and power of Jesus!"