COMING CLEAN WITH GOD – Part 2 of 3

What would an X-ray of your soul reveal? Regrets over a teenage relationship? Remorse over a poor choice? Shame about the marriage that didn’t work, the habits you couldn’t quit, the temptation you didn’t resist, or the courage you couldn’t find? Self-imposed guilt lies hidden beneath the surface, festering, irritating. Sometimes so deeply embedded you don’t know the cause.

You become moody, cranky. You’re prone to overreact. You’re angry, irritable. You can be touchy, you know. Understandable, since you have a shank of shame lodged in your soul.

Interested in an extraction? Confess. Request a spiritual MRI. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties, and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24)

As God brings misdeeds to mind, agree with Him and apologize. Let Him apply grace to the wounds. 

-- Max Lucado in “Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine”

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THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

“You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God.” (Ephesians 2:8 NCV)

This is the gift that God gives. A grace that grants us first the power to receive love and then the power to give it. A grace that changes us, shapes us, and leads us to a life that is eternally altered. Do you know this grace? Do you trust this grace? If not, you can. All God wants from us is faith. Put your faith in God. 

And grow in grace. More verb than noun, more present tense than past tense, grace didn’t just happen; it happens. Grace happens here.

The same work God did through Christ long ago on the cross is the work God does through Christ right now in you.

Let Him do the work. Let grace trump your arrest record, critics, and guilty conscience. See yourself for what you are -- God’s personal remodeling project. Not a world to yourself but a work in His hands. No longer defined by failures but refined by them. Trusting less in what you DO and more in what Christ DID. Grace-less less, grace-shaped more. Convinced down deep in the substrata of your soul that God is just warming up in this overture of life, that hope has its seasons and death has its due date.

Grace. Let it, let Him, so seep into the crusty cracks of your life that everything softens. Then let it, let Him bubble to the surface, like a spring in the Sahara, in words of kindness and deeds of generosity. God will change you, my friend. You are a trophy of His kindness, a partaker of His mission…

This happens when grace happens. May it happen in you. 

-- Max Lucado in “Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine”

#6403

CHOOSING REPENTANCE – Part 3 of 3

If you are tired of the physical, emotional, and spiritual consequences of guilt, these five steps of action will help you develop an attitude of repentance.

1.    Identify areas of your life where you have failed to meet God’s standards. The first step in repentance is an honest evaluation of every part of your life. The Psalmist prayed, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24 NIV)

2.    Acknowledge your failure to God. To humble yourself before God means to sincerely acknowledge your failure and your need for forgiveness.

3.    Accept God’s forgiveness. 1 John 1:9 declares, “If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

4.    Make restitution where necessary. If we have wronged another person, it is necessary for us to seek that person’s forgiveness. And, like Zacheus, monetary restitution might also be in order. Such an action is a sign of genuine repentance.

5.    Turn away from known sin in your life. It is possible to follow the first steps without truly repenting. The word repent carries the idea of turning around… turning from sin to God

You may have been traveling down the road of unresolved guilt for a long time. Don’t be discouraged. There is a way out. Decide you are tired of going in that direction; ask for God’s forgiveness, make any necessary restitution, and turn around.

-- Adapted from “Choose Your Attitude, Change Your Life” (1992) by Robert Jeffress

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CHOOSING REPENTANCE – Part 1 of 3

EDITOR’S NOTE: Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a season the Church sets aside for reflection, humility, and renewed dependence on God. When the ashes are placed on our foreheads, as will be done today in many churches around the globe, we’re reminded of two profound truths: our human frailty and God’s endless mercy. The ashes don’t shame us -- they invite us to honesty. They call us to repent -- to turn FROM the sinful patterns that pull us away from God and to return TO the One who welcomes us with grace.

CHOOSING REPENTANCE – Part 1 of 3

“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”  (Acts 3:19 NIV)

Many years ago, the following note in the thief’s handwriting was found in a stolen Trans Am returned by police to its owner in Los Angeles: “Your CB is in the trunk. The radio is out because I couldn’t stop my friend from taking it (insurance will cover radio). I’m sorry it had to be your car, but I was looking for one and the car lot left the key in and unattended. Your left back tire loses a little air at times. Your brake light comes on a lot and sometimes stays on when you drive (check your brakes.) I hope this didn’t put you out for me taking your car. I would have preferred a dealer’s car. But this was all that was available. Sorry (needs gas).”

Everyone -- including car thieves -- at one time or another faces moral failure. How do we deal with such failure? We have a choice. We can choose to ignore it or we can repent. Repentance is an attitude that chooses to confront sin rather than ignore it. And such an attitude choice is absolutely vital to our physical, emotional, and spiritual health.

Unfortunately, most of us have a limited view of repentance. We tend to think of repentance only in terms of salvation. The word repent conjures up images of some scraggly street preacher announcing the end of the world via a sandwich board. Yet, an examination of Scripture reveals that repentance is an attitude that is more characteristic of Christians than of non-Christians. It is not just a one-time action that ensures heaven after we die.  Instead, repentance is an attitude that confronts and deals with failure in every area of life. Martin Luther understood this truth. The first of the Ninety-five Theses he nailed to the church door in Wittenberg in 1517 read, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘repent,’ He willed that the entire life of believers be one of repentance.” 

-- Adapted from “Choose Your Attitude, Change Your Life” (1992) by Robert Jeffress

#6309

GRACE REDEFINED PETER’S IDENTITY

“When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love Me more than these?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ Peter said, ‘You know that I love You.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed My lambs.’ Again Jesus said, ‘Simon son of John, do you love Me?’ Peter answered, ‘Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.’ Jesus said, ‘Take care of My sheep.’ The third time He said to Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love Me?’ Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, ‘Do you love Me?’ He said, ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed My sheep.’” (John 21:15-17)

Right there, Jesus did more for Peter -- and more for us -- than we can imagine. Jesus was telling Peter that he wasn’t finished. Peter was going to be the rock on which the mission of God would be established and carried forward. Jesus was telling Peter that his identity wasn’t going to be a denier of Jesus. (See Luke 22:54-62 for Peter’s denial of Jesus.) He was going to be a hero of faith and a legend in the church. In fact, Peter would one day very soon preach the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, and three thousand people would be saved that day (Acts 2:14-42).

Sure, there were consequences to Peter’s denial of Jesus. Two thousand years later, we’re still studying the story. Peter’s denial didn’t get swept under the rug or erased from the memory bank of humanity. There were consequences for Peter, just like there are consequences to your decisions and my decisions, too.
 
Yet Jesus never focused on the failure. He focused on the restoration. Grace removed Peter’s guilt, and grace also removed Peter’s shame. Peter’s identity was no longer wrapped up in the denial. Peter failed, but he wasn’t a failure. He wasn’t useless. Peter’s life was no longer marked by shame. Grace redefined Peter as a friend and family member of God Almighty.
 
That’s what the grace of God does for you and me, too.
 
 -- Louie Giglio in “Don’t Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table” 

#6188

INVITE THE SPIRIT TO EXAMINE YOUR SOUL – Part 3 of 3

“People cannot see their own mistakes. Forgive me for my secret sins. Keep me from the sins of pride; don’t let them rule me. Then I can be pure and innocent of the greatest of sins. I hope my words and thoughts please You. Lord, You are my Rock, the One who saves me.”  (Psalm 19:12-14 NCV)

The smoke detector wasn’t my enemy; the fire was my enemy. The smoke detector was simply trying to help me.

I have a life. That’s my house. I have a soul. You do too. Do you hear any beeping sounds there?

Beeping can sound like this: A parent neglects his children. They complain, misbehave, or increase the level of conflict around the house, and the parent has a nagging sense of failure. But instead of looking closely at his parenting – instead of talking directly about it with his children – he buries himself more fully in work, hobbies, or television.

A woman feels a twinge of pain when she sees a documentary about famine in Africa. She vaguely wonders about how little money she gives. But she doesn’t like the discomfort, so she distracts herself by going shopping.

An angry man blows up at those closest to him. His “beeping sound” is his loneliness. He takes the batteries out of the smoke detector by drinking a little more, convincing himself his relatives are all difficult people.

Guilt is not my enemy. Sin, which blocks off life, is my enemy. The Spirit will often bring a sense of conviction, and when He does, the best response is not to suppress the guilt, but to get out of bed, take a look around the house, and put out the fire before it does more damage.

-- John Ortberg in “The Me I Want to Be”

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INVITE THE SPIRIT TO EXAMINE YOUR SOUL – Part 1 of 3

Trying to see the truth about myself is like trying to see the inside of my own eyeballs. “Who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults,” the psalmist asked [in Psalm 19:12]. Fortunately, we are not left on our own. The Spirit is already at work in us. Our job is simply to listen and respond.

Once, in the middle of the night, Nancy and I were lying in bed and there was a tremendously loud beeping sound. Nancy gave me an elbow to the ribs and said, “What is that sound?”

I knew that if I acknowledged hearing the sound, it would be my job to go check it out. So I said, “What sound?” But I had to say it very loudly so that she could hear me over the tremendously loud beeping sound.

And she said, “That tremendously loud beeping sound.”

“Oh, that sound! Let me go find out.”

I went into the hallway, found the problem, and took care of it. When I got back to bed, Nancy asked, “What was it?” I told her it was the smoke detector.

“What made it stop?” I told her I took the battery out.

“You can’t do that,” she said. “There could be a fire in the house somewhere.”

“Nancy,” I explained patiently, “we’re upstairs. There’s no smoke, we can’t smell anything, there’s no heat coming from anyplace. I checked. Do you smell any smoke? I don’t smell any smoke. It was clearly a battery problem. Trust me. I took care of it.”

We went back to sleep.

– John Ortberg in “The Me I Want to Be”

THE BLAME GAME

“The Lord God said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’ Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’”  (Genesis 3:11-13 ESV)

All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you. The only thing blame does is to keep the focus off you when you are looking for external reasons to explain your guilt, your unhappiness, or your frustration. You may succeed in making another feel guilty about something by blaming him, but you won't succeed in changing whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy.

-- Adapted from Wayne Dyer 

#5844

FREEDOM IN CHRIST

We can serve God out of a cringing feeling of failure to measure up, or we can serve Him out of gratitude for the work of grace He has fully brought into our life. Grace is by far a superior motivation to guilt. God doesn’t want us running holes in our shoes on some guilt trip. He doesn’t want us living life by some Levitical checklist of rules and regulations. He wants us to be free -- not just from sin, but from the chafing collar constraint that the Law clamped around our necks.

God wants us to be free, He wants us to live free, as Hebrews 10:15-18 indicates: “The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First He says: ‘This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put My laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.’  Then He adds: ‘Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.’ And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.”

Having the Law in our hearts as opposed to an external standard of stone is the primary difference between the New Covenant and the Old (Jeremiah 31:31-33). The power of God’s Spirit residing within us is sufficient for us to live fully, to live fruitfully, and to live freely, unfettered from the shackles of sin and from slavery to legalism…

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free, therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”  (Galatians 5:1) 

-- Charles R. Swindoll in “The Preeminent Person of Christ: A Study of Hebrews” 

#5653

TENDER AND COMPASSIONATE

“The Lord is like a father to His children, tender and compassionate to those who fear Him. For He knows how weak we are; He remembers we are only dust.”  (Psalm 103:13-14 NLT)

Several years ago a man I know was going through the painful process of trying to break an addiction. One day he asked me if I would joy down a list of encouraging Scriptures that he could carry with him at all times. Happy to do it, I chose ten of my favorites, typed them up, and handed the list to him at church. A few weeks later, I asked him if he still had the list and was using it. He said he was, and that the Scripture he found most encouraging was number six on the list, none other than Psalm 103:13-14.

He said he’d grown up with the notion that Jesus was a strict disciplinarian who was watching his every move, just waiting for him to slip up. He said the guilt and fear that image created in him was paralyzing. Then he read David’s words from Psalm 103, and it was as if the sun broke through the clouds. The words “tender” and “compassionate” were words he’d never associated with God. Suddenly, he had a whole new appreciation for Jesus, a deeper love for Him than ever before, and a stronger desire than ever to try to please Him.

-- Mark Atteberry in “Free Refill: Coming Back for More of Jesus”


#4751

THE REMEDY FOR SIN

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”  (Romans 8:1 NKJV)

The remedy for our sin, whether scandalous or acceptable, is the gospel in its widest scope. The gospel is actually a message; here I am using the word ‘gospel’ as a shorthand expression for the entire work of Christ in His historic life, death, and resurrection for us, and His present work in us through His Holy Spirit. When I say the gospel in its widest scope, I am referring to the fact that Christ, in His work for us and in us, saves us not only from the penalty of sin but also from its dominion or reigning power in our lives. This two-fold aspect of Christ’s work is beautifully captured in Augustus Toplady’s great hymn “Rock of Ages,” with the words,

            Let the water and the blood,

            From Thy riven side which flowed,

            Be of sin the double cure,

            Cleanse me from its guilt and power.

-- Jerry Bridges in “Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate”

#4702

VULNERABILITY IN CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY

“Jesus said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”  (Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV)

It takes a great deal of work for a group of strangers to achieve the safety of true community. Once they succeed, however, it is as if the floodgates were opened. As soon as it is safe to speak one’s heart, as soon as most people in the group know they will be listened to and accepted for themselves, years and years of pent-up frustration and hurt and guilt and grief come pouring out. And pouring out ever faster. Vulnerability in community snowballs. Once its members become vulnerable and find themselves being valued and appreciated, they become more and more vulnerable. The walls come tumbling down. And as they tumble, as the love and acceptance escalate, as the mutual intimacy multiplies, true healing and converting begins. Old wounds are healed, old resentments forgiven, old resistances overcome. Fear is replaced by hope. 

-- M. Scott Peck in “The Different Drum”


#4463

FREE TO FORGIVE

“…and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.”  (Matthew 6:12 NLT)

The words "you are forgiven" are the most hopeful words we can hear.  When we are laboring under a burden of guilt over things we have done and things we should have done but didn't, we can despair of ever being whole and free.  Someone has said of guilt, "It's a gift that keeps on giving."  Guilt has a way of gnawing away at our spirits until all that remains is discontentment, unhappiness, and fear of facing our sins.  As the psalmist wrote, "When I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all the day long" (Psalm 32:3).  Forgiveness heals us by making whole a life torn apart by guilt.

With forgiveness comes hope for a new and restored relationship with God, others, and self.  Once the crushing burden of guilt is lifted, we need not be "paralyzed"; we are free to live the full and abundant life God wants for us. We are free to forgive.

-- Adapted from Robert Martin Walker in “Prepare Him Room”


#4422

GOD’S PURPOSE AT THE CROSS

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”  (Isaiah 53:6)

“Suffered.” This word carries not only the everyday meaning of bearing pain, but also the older and wider sense of being the object affected by someone else’s action. The Latin is ‘passus’, whence comes the noun “passion.” Both God and men were agents of Jesus’s passion: “this Jesus, delivered up according to the plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23, from Peter’s sermon). God’s purpose at the cross was as real as was the guilt of the crucifers.

What was God’s purpose? Judgment on sin, for the sake of mercy to sinners. The miscarrying of human justice was the doing of divine justice. Jesus knew on the cross all the pain, physical and mental, that man could inflict and also the divine wrath and rejection that my sins deserve; for He was there in my place, making atonement for me. “All we like sheep have gone astray… and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

-- J.I. Packer, quoted in “His Passion: Christ’s Journey to the Resurrection”

#4304

SHOCKED BY SIN

Someone has said that our greatest security against sin is our being shocked by it.  The shock response is hard to come by in our day.  We are fed such a constant "diet of shock" in the media that we're not likely to be shocked by anything so subtle as passing thoughts of evil.  Besides, our culture excuses most conduct, including even the most reprehensible, by shifting the guilt to others. 

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas in If Experience Is Such a Good Teacher Why Do I Keep Repeating the Course?


#3164

TRUE REPENTANCE

The story is told of a shoplifter who writes to a department store and says, "I've just become a Christian, and I can't sleep at night because I feel guilty. So here's $100 that I owe you."

Then he signs his name, and in a little postscript at the bottom he adds, "If I still can't sleep, I'll send you the rest."

-- Unknown


#3014

ACCEPTING GOD'S GRACE

Accept that you are accepted. In the moment that grace strikes, grace conquers sin. Lingering guilt that has grown tumor-like for years in the dark recesses of a person's soul can lose its deathly power. Grace helps us face the truth about ourselves, to embrace it rather than run from it; and by embracing this truth and offering it to God, we discover that God will shape us from this day forward anew. God's been waiting for us, desiring us to let Him in. Can we accept that we are accepted?

-- Robert Schnase in Five Practices of Fruitful Living

 
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