A Reading
This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practising the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
(John 1: 5-9)
A Thought
Ahead of his Wimbledon semi final match against Djokovic, Shapovalov contemplated his chances of success. Shapovalov had six times before played Djokovic, losing every time, and was seeded lower in the men’s singles competition. Djokovic was seeded number one, and was chasing his twentieth grand slam. Facing an uphill task, Shapovalov wistfully reflected upon his faith in his team preparation, and that at the start of the match, the scoreboard records 0-0. Af after that anything can happen.
I don’t know if Shapovalov is a Christian, but that may have been the source of his optimism.
There is no sin in heaven, and no one with sin on their conscience can enter heaven. We are all compulsive sinners, and the outcome for us looks incredibly predictable. We are up against the mighty strength of our own compulsive misbehaviours.
Except that the scoreboard will be reset to zero by Jesus upon our request in faith. Reset to zero not just at the start of the game, but at the end of each set, and at the end of each game. With responsible confession and repentance, through the sacrifice made by Jesus, we can maintain a clean scoresheet in heaven throughout our earthly lives.
Which means that, through faith, we can never fail in the only scoreboard that really matters – our redemption and salvation.
Thank you, Shapovalov.
A prayer
Our Father, which are in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
Amen
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