BIBLE READING: John 8:3-11
We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Shame has kept many of us in hiding. The thought of admitting our sins and revealing ourself to other human beings stirs up feelings of shame and the fear of being publicly exposed.
“The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. ‘Teacher,’ they said to Jesus, ‘. . . the law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?’ . . . Jesus stooped down and “wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, ‘All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!’ Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one . . . until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman” (John 8:3-9).
Many believe that it was Jesus’ writing in the dust that caused the accusers to leave. Perhaps he was listing the secret sins of the Jewish leaders. If this is true, it gives us a beautiful picture of the kind of person Jesus is—a person to whom we can safely expose our secrets. Our confessor needs to be someone who is not surprised by sin and will not be waiting to condemn us. Such a person needs to take private note of our wrongs, writing them in the soft dust, not etching them in stone and posting them in public. Since shame can be a trigger for addictive behavior, we need to be careful about whom we choose to confide in.”
Excerpt From: Tyndale House Publishers. “The Life Recovery Bible NLT.
We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Shame has kept many of us in hiding. The thought of admitting our sins and revealing ourself to other human beings stirs up feelings of shame and the fear of being publicly exposed.
“The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. ‘Teacher,’ they said to Jesus, ‘. . . the law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?’ . . . Jesus stooped down and “wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, ‘All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!’ Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one . . . until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman” (John 8:3-9).
Many believe that it was Jesus’ writing in the dust that caused the accusers to leave. Perhaps he was listing the secret sins of the Jewish leaders. If this is true, it gives us a beautiful picture of the kind of person Jesus is—a person to whom we can safely expose our secrets. Our confessor needs to be someone who is not surprised by sin and will not be waiting to condemn us. Such a person needs to take private note of our wrongs, writing them in the soft dust, not etching them in stone and posting them in public. Since shame can be a trigger for addictive behavior, we need to be careful about whom we choose to confide in.”
Excerpt From: Tyndale House Publishers. “The Life Recovery Bible NLT.
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