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Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (CEV)
Like an old pair of shoes tossed in the garbage. Like a discarded, favorite pair of jeans. Like that car that finally gave up the ghost after years of trial and tribulation. That’s what life is like after Christ comes.
Once we were under the Law. The Law was God’s standard of living after sin entered into mankind. The Law was never meant to remove sin as much as it was an appeasement for sin.
Then grace entered the picture. Grace didn’t just appease God, Grace cleansed us. Before we became followers of Jesus we lived life according to our own conscience. A conscience based on the idea that we were the center of the universe. Right and wrong depended on what was best for us. It didn’t work. I was never intended to work.
When we came to a place in our lives where we realized our faults, we felt guilty. Guilt isn’t always a bad thing. Guilt, in a positive sense is simply agreeing with god that we made a mistake. Guilt can draw us back to him when the path we’ve taken separates us from the peace he intended for us to have. Guilt, in the positive sense, is terminated with repentance. Gone. Wiped out like an old pair of…well, you get the picture?
- The Law makes us aware of our guilt; but Grace cleanses us, even from the memories of our faults!
- The Law says we’ll never succeed; but Grace says we’ll never fail because of Jesus living in us!
- The Law says we are guilty; Grace says we are redeemed!
- The Law says you’ll never be free; Grace says you’ll never be held captive!
- The Law uses guilt as a tool to remind us of our past; Grace uses conviction (through the Holy Spirit) to remind us of our holiness through Christ!
- The Law focuses on external actions (rules); Grace focuses on the heart and emotions!
- The Law says you are doomed; Grace says enter into the presence of a loving Father!
As followers of Jesus Christ we no longer need to live under the oppression of guilt even though we continue to be attacked by sin. 1 John 1:9 reminds us that ‘when’ not ‘if’ we sin we can come to the Savior and receive forgiveness. The guilt we feel before that is our Father’s beckoning us to come home to his loving arms. Not for punishment. Jesus took that. He calls us home to be restored.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, I continue to battle with feelings of guilt for past mistakes in my life. Mistakes that have hurt others. Mistakes that have hurt myself. Mistakes that have hurt you. Forgive me once and for all for those times when I’ve failed. Empower me with your Holy Spirit to live free of the false guilt Satan throws my way. Amen.
Then he showed me another vision. I saw the Lord standing beside a wall that had been built using a plumb line. He was using a plumb line to see if it was still straight. And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” I answered, “A plumb line.” And the Lord replied, “I will test my people with this plumb line. I will no longer ignore all their sins. Amos 7:7-8 (NLT)
I remember a Sunday School story from years ago. It was the story of a little girl that got caught lying to her Grandma. After being ‘caught red handed’ the little girl confessed that she lied but it didn’t seem like such a big deal because it was just ‘a little white lie’.
The wise grandmother said nothing. She asked the little girl if she’d like to help make brownies, which of course, she did. After adding all the ingredients from the recipe grandma handed the girl a small bowl and asked her to go out to the barn and ask grandpa for a small bowl of manure to put in the brownies so they could finish baking them.
The girl was appalled! “Grandma! We can’t put manure in the brownies. It will ruin them.” Grandma assured her that it would only be a little bit of manure, not much, and she’d hardly taste it.” The argument continued until grandma smiled and put her hand on the little girls arm.
Honey, you’re right. We won’t put any manure in the brownies. Even a little bit would completely ruin the whole batch. But that’s like sin, even little white lies destroy our relationship with God and with others.
It was a lesson well learned by the little girl…and me for that matter. The enemy wants us to believe that small sins don’t matter. Especially those things we do in private that only affect ourselves. “The Lie he wants us to believe is that “Little sins only hurt me.”
This lie of the enemy is flawed in two ways. First of all, there are no small sins in God’s eyes. Sin is sin. Period. It doesn’t matter how large it is or how small it is. It isn’t important if the thing you have done affects thousands or yourself alone. In God’s eyes there is no difference.
That’s a good news/bad news situation for us. Because there is no ‘sin hierarchy’ in God’s eyes then anything you have done that you (or others) consider horrendous is on the same level as what others may consider ‘minor sins.’ The bad news is that you are no better off than any other sinner! This puts us in the same class as a child molester, or a terrorist or any other person. Sin is sin. Period.
The other flaw in the enemies lie to us is that sin is something we do against God, not people. People may have the scars. People may bear the pain of our sin. But ultimately our sin isn’t against ourselves or anyone else. It’s against God himself. That makes his forgiveness and acceptance of us even more amazing.
When we buy into the enemies lie about sin we tend to rationalize about it (He did it so I can too; If you think this is bad, you should see what she did; I know it’s wrong but…) or we play the comparison game (at least I’m not as bad as…). When we do this we are trying to live by human standards and not God’s standards.
In Isaiah, God says, I’ll set the plumb line. I’ll do the measuring. If you fall short of my standards in ANY way you will be judged. Only by the Grace of God and the forgiveness offered through Jesus Christ can we approach God.
Increased love for Jesus leads naturally to obedience just as increased love for our lover drives us to want to do whatever we can to make that person know how much we love them. The sign of a person that loves you is that he/she encourages you to do what you excel at; supports your dreams; seeks your good, not theirs. That’s what Jesus has done for each of us.
In spite of our sin we are loved dearly by him. That’s why he came to die for us. God will do whatever he can to build a passionate love relationship with you but obedience is the key to that relationship.
Truth Statement: Sin is sin and affects our relationship with God regardless of how it affects others. (But complete forgiveness is available through Jesus Christ no matter what we’ve done, big or small!)
PRAYER: Father God, I’ve been listening to the lie about sin. I have many ‘little habits, or vices’ that I know are wrong but have overlooked them because I didn’t think they hurt anyone. Now I realize they hurt you and our relationship. Forgive me for the little things. Empower me to stop listening to the lie and live for you. In Jesus name, Amen.
(From the series “Lies that Keep Us from Loving Ourselves. Osceola Community Church-October 2011)
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” John 14:8 (NLT)
The word Father had a completely different connotation to Philip in his day than it does to us today. The term ‘Father’ was much more than a symbol. It conjured up in the minds of every Jew a man that was honored, revered, feared and loved all at once. He was the essence of stability, love, consistency and trust.
Philip was seeking what each of us wants in life. Someone that could be trusted to do what he said he’d do. Someone in whom they saw power and intimacy and leadership and sensitivity. Today, everyone has the same longing deep within them. We all long to have someone in our lives we can count on to be, do and say what they say they will.
My apologies for a moment to the women reading this post. Mothers too have a powerful influence in our lives. But to get the full essence of Philips request we need to realize the immense influence of fathers in the emotional, physical and spiritual development of each of us.
In the same way we need to realize that the ‘father’ that Philip sought is still being sought by many today. While it’s impossible for anyone to fulfill all the qualities of our heavenly Father, it’s imperative that we as fathers strive to work towards that goal.
So, what does our heavenly Father look like? Watch Jesus.
Ask the woman who was guilty of adultery. Remember, she wasn’t accused. She was guilty. Jesus makes no effort to exonerate her. He doesn’t argue her guilt at all. He simply says she was not condemned. What a Compassionate Father!
Question the man who lived his entire life rejecting God. That is, until his dying breath on the cross when he begged Jesus for mercy. Moments later he joined his Savior in Paradise. What a Merciful Father.
Ask the blind man who spend his entire life in physical darkness only to be misunderstood when Jesus gave him sight. What an Understanding Father!
Listen to the father of the seizure ridden boy as he tells the story of how Jesus healed his son and how, that night, he and his wife slept soundly for the first time in years. What a Sensitive Father!
Hear the story the paralytic by the pool recount. He’d given up any hope of healing. His disability started out being physical but grew to the point where it was emotional (I’ll never make it to the pool. I’ll never be healed) and then spiritual (even God has forgotten me). Then Jesus came. What an Encouraging and Healing Father!
Max Lucado states, “Faith begins when you see God on the mountain and you are in the valley and you know that you are too weak to make the climb.”
It’s during those dark times in our lives that we echo the words of Philip. I don’t understand all that’s going on. The future scares me. Just show me the Father and I’ll be okay.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, Daddy, God of all creation. Thank you for being the kind of Father I need for all time. When I feel weak and am unsure I can go on, help me to see Jesus so that I can see you. Amen.
You have not seen Christ, but still you love him. You cannot see him now, but you believe in him. So you are filled with a joy that cannot be explained, a joy full of glory. 1 Peter 1:8 (NCV)
S.A.D.-Seasonal Affective Disorder-by definition it’s a type of depression that comes on people generally at a certain time of the year, usually fall. For those of us in the northern climates it’s usually caused by long nights and short days in which there may be no sunshine at all.
There’s another kind of S.A.D. that attacks us as well. Call it Spiritual Affective Disorder. If you are a Christ-follower and you’ve been walking the journey for a while you are all too familiar with this type of S.A.D. Those times when you feel emotionally and spiritually spent. You try to pray but can’t. You force yourself to read the Bible but the letters and words are just a pattern on the page with no meaning and no ‘inspiration’.
Sometimes this type of S.A.D. can be so severe it causes you to lose faith. At least for awhile. Is this all really worth it? Maybe banging your head on a wall would be more helpful! Maybe going out and getting drunk or finding a new partner or making some drastic changes in lifestyle will help.
Then you stop short. “What am I thinking?” you ask yourself. Those things won’t make the problems go away. In fact they make it worse.
So what is the answer to avoiding or curing Spiritual Affective Disorder? The cure for the physical version of S.A.D. is prolonged periods of sunshine. The cure for Spiritual Affective Disorder is walking in the SONshine.
The Apostle Peter is writing to a bunch of new believers in Christ. They were living in dangerous political times. Their lives were threatened on a daily basis and many had even lost their lives due to their faith.
Peter says “You haven’t seen Christ, but your very belief in him should bring you great joy”. In a sense Peter is saying; don’t look at the struggles around you. Don’t focus on how bad things are. Focus on Jesus. Keep him in view and the troubles of life will be less threatening.
Who but Peter would know what it was like to see Jesus? He was writing to people who hadn’t had the opportunity to see Jesus on a daily basis. He was writing to a people who hadn’t had the benefit of seeing Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. He was writing to a people who had never felt the water under their feet as they walked across a lake to meet Jesus.
Peter knew something each of us should remember. Keep your focus on Jesus. Only he will give you a joy that no one can understand. Step into the SONshine and stop being S.A.D.!
PRAYER: Dear Jesus. I remember you saying you would walk with me through the storms and gloom of life. At times it’s hard to see the SONshine due to heavy clouds of concern and worry. Empower me with your spirit to see through the fog so that I can have the joy only you can give. Amen.
May the Lord, who made heaven and earth, bless you from Jerusalem. Psalm 134:3
You may not freely admit it, of course, but the value of the gifts you give is dependent on the level of love and intimacy you have with the person you are giving the gift to. Gifts given to casual acquaintances are really more like gestures than gifts. Gifts of great value cost you something. The greater the cost, the more valued the person you are giving the gift too.
One year funds were very slim around Christmas. I wanted to give the love of my life something special but simply didn’t have the funds to purchase what I’d hoped to give her. With a somewhat heavy heart I ‘settled’ on using my ability to take pictures and made a collage of some the special times we’d had in the past year. When she opened the package you’d have thought I’d given her the Hope Diamond! She still talks about that simple gift today and it sits prominently on her nightstand.
Why was that simple gift so precious? It certainly had no dollar value. It wasn’t fantastic scenery or a hand made painting. The frame was simple and cheap. The pictures were printed on a home printer. But I was reminded that Christmas that the value of a gift isn’t in dollar amount but emotional attachment and sacrifice. My sweetheart sees in that simple frame of pictures all the memories of some great times together. Each photograph is a reminder of our love. My putting them together was the perfect way to remember our year together. She knew that this gift came from my heart.
Do you notice where your Heavenly Father gets the blessings (gifts) he bestows on us? He is creator of heavens and earth. He could have given you gifts from anywhere in the world, or the universe for that matter. But where did he go to get those blessings? He went home.Jerusalemwas where the temple was.Jerusalemwas where Jehovah God ‘dwelt on earth’.Jerusalemis where the blessings God bestows on us come from. He didn’t give us gifts he acquired. He gave us gifts that were his own personal possessions. You don’t give someone your prized possessions unless your love for that person is tremendously deep. The Apostle Paul reminds us that his love is deeper that the deepest ocean and higher than the highest heavens. His love goes as far as east is from west. His love for you is so deep that he gave his only son for you and has promised to bless you here on earth and for eternity.
The Jews sang this song, the song of Psalm 134, as they leftJerusalemafter worshiping God in his ‘home’ theTemple. I imagine the words of this song still on their lips as the walls disappeared behind them. Truly we were blessed to be in his presence.
May each of us as Christ-followers say the same. While the earthly temple still resides in Jerusalem, today Jehovah God has made a new home. A home within each of us as a result of Jesus death, resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the father. “May the Lord, who made heaven and earth, bless you from Jerusalem. Amen”
PRAYER: Father forgive me for taking for granted the many gifts you have given me. Help me to realize the great value you place on me. Empower me to live in such a way that your blessings in my life overflow to those near to me that need your touch. In Jesus name, Amen.
