Recovery Series

God will forgive our sins. (1 John 1:5-10; 2:1-2)

If we want to have fellowship with God and receive his help in breaking free from our sins, we must put aside our sinful ways of living. We cannot claim to belong to God while living in sin. The Word of God says very clearly that we cannot serve God and Lucifer. If we want to break free from our sins, we must let go of our sins. Sin brings death. The Word of God clearly states that the wages of sin is death. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. He paid the penalty for our sins by His death on the cross.

At our conversion from a life of sin, all of our sins are forgiven. Yet, after we become Christians, we still sin and still need to confess our sins. Our confessions are not offered so that God will accept us, they are offered so that we can remain in fellowship with God. We cannot hide our sins or lie about them to God because He already knows them. God will not push us away when we confess our sin, rather, He will draw us closer to Him.

Our confessions free us to enjoy fellowship with God. It allows us to enjoy the blessings and the joy of God. True confession involves more than remembering what we did wrong and reciting it back to God. God already know all of our sin, so He does not need to be reminded. True confession involves a commitment not to continue in sin. True confession brings us closer to God and gives us strength to defeat the temptation the next time. In confessing our sins, we are agreeing with God that we are sinners and we want to turn from our sins.

ITEM 3

Understanding Lucifer

Who is Lucifer that man should fear him?

The reason that we, as children of God, need to understand Lucifer is because we are under constant attack from him and his evil forces. In order to defend ourselves from his attacks, we need be able to see him as the Word of God describes him. We need to become aware of his power, his battle tactics, his way of thinking, and his limitations. With this kind of knowledge, we will be better armed to fight the good fight of faith against Lucifer and break his death hold on our lives.

In this world, we are surrounded by incompatible and compatible opposites. The opposite of man is woman. Sometimes they are compatible and sometimes they are not. The opposite of dog is cat. In most cases, they are not even close to being compatible. The opposite of God is Lucifer. This pair sometimes will tolerate each other, but they are beyond being incompatible. They are eternal enemies. To be blunt, they do not get along at all.

The words, demon, devil and Lucifer are the commonly used pronouns for an evil being or an evil presence. However, Lucifer is more than just an evil being or presence. His proper name is Lucifer and God created him. When we hear the names Satan and Lucifer, we might picture a strange looking being that has human like features. This creature usually has a tail and horns and carries a pitchfork. This being is thought to reside in the deepest and hottest parts of the earth. His residence is said to be the place where souls burn for eternity. Even though this is the common perception that we have of Lucifer, it is the wrong one.