In correlation with a bible study I'm doing, I'm giving up guilt for the next ten weeks. I'm quite sure I won't be missing it.
Galatians 5:1 (Posted on Facebook, February 13^th.)

Guilt. Love it. I would say I have successfully spent much of my life feeling guilty. Guilty about so many things: judging others, holding grudges, eating too much chocolate (although if one has to have a guilty pleasure, there could be worse things, right?) I even feel guilty about feeling guilty. Crazy. In fact, guilt and I are so well acquainted that I know its nuances all too well.

Guilt brings with it a sense of shame. I’m such a bad person. I can’t do anything right. God must be really irritated with me because, yes, once again I’ve failed to do what is right or to stop doing what’s wrong. This struggle reminds me of a verse penned by the Apostle Paul.

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? (Romans 7:24)

It brings me great comfort to know that even the Apostle Paul referred to himself as a wretched man. Because, hey, who can’t relate to that--wretched, miserable sinners that we are. Thankfully, that’s not the end of this great conversation that Paul has with his readers and, maybe, more importantly, himself.

²⁵ Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

That deliverance earned for us on an old, rugged cross, that’s where the power comes in, the power I have to live the life I’ve always wanted to. Beating the stick of guilt over my head isn’t going to sanctify me. If anything, it just makes things worse. But, as I remember that God is my sanctifier, I realize that he is the only one who can change me.

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. (1 Thess 5:23-24)

Guilt and peace can’t cohabit. It’s either one or the other. Last time I checked, God didn’t send Jesus down to tally up my sins. He sent his beloved Son down to set me free. Besides, who am I fooling. God knows the real me--maybe even better than I know myself. He knows my sin, my guilt, my shame. He isn’t looking for me to grovel at his feet. All he wants to do is set me free--free from the part I hate most about myself, the sinner.

I run in the path of your commands for you have set my heart free. (Psalm 119:32)

 I’ve always loved that verse, but in the past it’s seemed so unattainable Running in the path of God’s commands; how is that possible? When I feel guilty about something, it weighs me down to the point that I can barely walk, let alone run. But I’m finding that when I fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of my faith, the winds of liberty spur me on to freedom, a freedom that releases me to run like crazy in the path of his commands.

The Big Three

John 8:31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “if you hold to my teaching you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

You know what I’ve realized about myself? I’m a fretter and a stewer. Mostly about mistakes or bad decisions I’ve made or unfortunate circumstances that I find myself in. These are all feelings that have led me down a path I really don’t want to be on with thoughts that have never done me any good - fear, guilt, and regret. Yup, the Big Three. The three that can stop me in my tracks. Lock me in a prison of despair. Immobilize me. If there was ever a person who has been led down the path of misery too many times by these treacherous feelings, it would have to be me.

I have felt guilty about entirely too many things, dwelt entirely too much on my mistakes, shortcomings, screw-ups. And you know what I’ve found? That as good and pious as it might seem to grovel at the feet of God, begging forgiveness for my poor sinful condition, it isn’t really what He wants. In fact, I think carrying around a load of guilt is exactly the opposite of what He wants. I think He wants me to believe.

Believe what? Believe that His Son paid the full price for all of my sins, all of them. And holding on to guilt is kind of a slap in the face to Him when you think about it. It’s like I’m telling Him, ‘Yes, I know that Jesus loves me. Yes, I know that He died for my sins, but I think I need to add something to all of that by groveling on my knees to show just how sorry I am.’ And, while I think it’s vitally important that we are repentant, that we are sorry, I think once the mercy is asked for, God wants us to stand up and keep moving in the right direction.

Proverbs 24:16 [F]or though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again.

You see, I think the Big Three are feelings God never meant for us to carry around. Think about it. If you had a child who had broken your favorite vase or golf clubs or whatever, a child who was truly sorry and admitted that they’d done wrong, you’d punish them. But afterward, after all was said and done, would you want your child to carry around a load of guilt for the rest of their childhood? Of course not. 

So the big question is, why do we? If Jesus came to do what He truly wanted to do – set us free, why would we remain behind bars of guilt when the door to the cell has already been cracked wide open? You see, Jesus did come to set us free. Set us free to run in the path of His commands. So let’s try something shall we? A New Year’s Resolution that might just revolutionize our relationship with God. Believe the truth – the truth that God has removed our sins and our guilt -  as far away from us as the east is from the west. I don’t know about you, but this is one New Year’s resolution that I’m looking forward to keeping – maybe even for a lifetime.

good cop, bad cop

You know what I’ve been thinking about for a while? Don’t you just love it when I start an entry that way? Lately, I’ve been contemplating the mysteries of God. Well, not really but I have been contemplating this -  why it’s so easy to think of God as the bad guy, the one who lives upstairs and is a merciless task master - the one who’s only out to catch us when we do bad stuff. In other words, why is it so easy to focus on the wrath of God rather than his amazing love?

I’ll cut to the chase here. I fully admit that while I know that God loves me, that he sent His Son to save me from myself, and even now makes his home in my heart, I don’t really get the love of God. For me it’s easier to focus on the laws. Let me give you an example. This is a long passage to write, let alone read, but bear with me, will ya, ‘cause I want to make a point here.

Isaiah 61:1 – 3 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and to provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of Praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.

Whew! Thanks for hanging in there. My question for you is this. In this passage how many times is there any kind of reference to God’s judgment? Once. And how many times of his love and redemption? Nine. That’s nine times that God makes a promise to heal the brokenness of humanity and only once that the word judgment pops up. But you know what verse I seem to fixate on the most; the judgment one – the day of vengeance of our God. And I’m wondering, is it just me, or is fixating on God as the bad guy more of a human nature thing?

The thought occurs to me even as I type this that there’s a reason why it’s so easy to make God out to be the bad guy in this mess of life. It’s the lie that’s easiest to believe. The Liar (Satan) wants us to view God in that way. It makes his job a whole lot easier. If we don’t get his love for us then why would we ever want to draw near to him? Are we all missing out on the best that God has to offer – his love. Nine times up there in that long passage God affirms his love for humanity and only once is there a reference to his judgment.

But still what’s the point. Well, to be honest I’m not sure. But here’s a thought. God’s our Father - the one who made us. He’s our redeemer the one who saved us. And even now his Spirit dwells in us moving us ever closer to Him. Were we to view the bible from the lens of God’s love for us it would make a difference in our lives – a huge difference. Don’t believe me? I’ll close with another passage, and let you decide for yourself how important it is to really get God’s love for us. Of all the things the Apostle Paul could have prayed for his friends in Ephesus; stronger faith, more devotion to Christ, a fervent prayer life, a more generous spirit - of all those things, this is what he prayed.

Ephesians 3:14 – 18 I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit . . . so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have the power . . . to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.

It’s easy to make God out to be the bad guy. But it’s so important to know him as the God who’s for us – the one who loves us, the one who sacrificed his only Son to bring us back to himself. Stop focusing on the strict figurehead that we assume is God. Let your roots sink down deep into the soil of a marvelous love – the one God has for you.  

The Biggest Lie of All

Ephesians 1:4-5 Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.

Want to know what the biggest lie in the world is? God doesn’t love us. Not really. Not at all. He’s mostly just out to get us. Like when we misbehave, he’s there with a really big club ready to knock us over the head because we’re all such simple, little, slimy sinners. Is this a lie you’ve believed? Maybe it’s time to stop believing the lies and start thinking about the truth. The whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Ephesians is a great book in the Bible. It just is because it’s filled with so much gospel and grace and redemption. My favorite part of this book is found in the 1^st chapter, Paul’s Prayer for Spiritual Wisdom.  It’s kind of a long prayer so I’ll just share some highlights. 

I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called. vs18

What does God really want us to know? How much he loves us. 

Ephesians 3:17 And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him.  May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.  And may you have power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great your will never fully understand it. 

Why is it so easy to skim over these beautiful words of truth? Because we tend to believe the lies of the devil rather than the truths of God. Think Adam and Eve here – you know the ones who weren’t supposed to eat from that one tree. They believed the lie - the lie that God didn’t really love them or he would have given them this forbidden fruit.  As their descendants we don’t do much better.

Ask most people what they think God is all about and I bet you that many will say something negative. But look again at that verse above. Paul prayed for these Ephesians that they would experience Christ’s love, a love that is too great to ever fully understand.

So what does God want us to know? To really know – that he loves us, unconditionally, unwaveringly, unabashedly. His love isn’t lukewarm. It isn’t here today and gone tomorrow. No, it’s the kind of love you and I will search for our whole lives. And if we try to find it anywhere but in him we will completely miss out on the best kind of love that anyone could give – eternal love.