Guarding Your Guilt

As I sat at my desk this morning, contemplating this topic of guilt, which plagues so many (all of us at one time or another), I thought about the cure for guilt.  The cure for guilt is the cross.  Without the cross, you and I would be stuck with our guilt.  There is no other remedy.  But, like the cough medicine that remains in the cabinet while we hack away, God's remedy for our guilt often remains with the cap still tightly screwed on the bottle.

First, we need to analyze our guilt to determine its source. Are you feeling the godly conviction of sin, —or twisted emotions from enemies within?

The remedy is the same.  Yet, the voice of one, reassures us with the hope of forgiveness, drawing our focus to our loving, forgiving Lord Jesus; the other condemns and draws our focus inward to our failing, sin prone selves.  How do you determine whether you are feeling godly conviction or enemy/self condemnation?  Look at who you are drawn to look at - Jesus' accomplishments on the cross for you or your failure.

Then, how do you unscrew the cap of the bottle of God's forgiveness?  Here are 3 steps:

1 and 2.  Acknowledge and confess your sin.

Psalm 32:5  I acknowledged my sin to You,And my iniquity I have not hidden.I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. 

1 John 1:9 

    If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

3.  Repent

Acts 3:19  Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 

In acknowledging, confessing, and repenting we are admitting our sin, agreeing with God that it is wrong and determining (in His strength and your choices) to turn from that sin.  There is no short cut.  If you leave one out, you will either remain in your guilt or remain in your sin.

Notice the results of our obedience to our part - God's sure forgiveness, God's sure cleansing from ALL unrighteousness and times of refreshing in the presence of the Lord.

When we continue to "hack" away, letting the guilt of our sin get the best of us, we are missing out on the cure Jesus died to provide for us.  Confession and repentance restore our relationship with the Lord so that we no longer dread being in His presence for fear of retribution, but we long for His presence because that is the place of refreshment.  And, oh how you and I need to be refreshed by Him.

As we come to the close of 2012, we tend to evaluate our lives or at least the previous year.  Failures will certainly pop up for each of us.  What place will they have in 2013 for you?

Jesus Came to Get Messy

What is the messiest thing to you?  My first thought is that of crickets crawling all over me.  If I allow myself to keep thinking, I could probably envision many things that I think are messy - things I would prefer to avoid. I will entertain those thoughts no further.  The thoughts I would like to entertain is what Jesus considers messy.  The messiest thing to Jesus is sin.  He is so holy, He can't look upon it.  Yet, He came to dwell in the midst of it.  He came to take it upon Himself, because truly, sin is sticky.  It's a substance that sticks to you and me and no efforts on our part seem to be able to free us from it.  

Jesus, who dwelt in glory.  Jesus who dwelt in purity.  Jesus who dwelt in perfection, condensed Himself into the womb of a virgin and, upon His birth, experienced life in a way He had never personally known.  Expelled from Mary's womb and laid in a feeding trough (which was probably very messy - no bleach, no Lysol, no disinfectant), serenaded to sleep (something He also had not done before) by the mooing of cows and the baaing of sheep. Quite a contrast to the melodies of heaven!

I think I'm going to put mud on the baby Jesus of our nativity.  I think that rather than clean straw, I'm going to put mud on my table where the manger sits.  I'll keep the angel clean.  Angels probably know nothing of messiness.  That's one of the many reasons why Jesus is better than the angels.

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, [2] has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; [3] who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, [4] having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. Hebrews 1:-4

 He is better for many reasons.  But right now, today, I think He's better because He was willing to get messy.   As Jesus laid in that feeding trough, He experienced grime for the first time.  But, that grime would pale in comparison to the grime He would take on 33 years later as He allowed His body to get messy with the spit of others and the blood of His own body.  Yet, even that was bearable.  It was when He took on your sins and my sins - when He put on our messes, that Jesus really got messy.  

But - that's what He came to do.  He came to get messy so that we might be cleansed.  He came to take our dirt, our sticky dirt.  

As Pastor Dale shared with us, " Instead of having a messy Christmas, we can have a merry Christmas.  The ONLY reason you and I can have a merry Christmas is because Jesus had a messy Christmas.

Jesus came to get messy - for you and for me.

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 

2 Corinthians 5:21

    Merry Christmas!