Are You Still Bummed?

Still bummed, huh? Hmmm. Did you get the Bummer, Man! message? If not, let’s recap: Jesus died for our sins and is the atoning sacrifice for us. He opened the way for us to go to God and ask for forgiveness. Since God is faithful, he hears our prayers and forgives us our sins when we confess them to Him and ask for His forgiveness. Once we’ve done that, we can stand on His faithfulness to forgive us. If we are still feeling convicted, it could be one of several things: not believing that God has actually forgiven us (not trusting His word); another underlying, un-confessed sin; a repeated sin (and possibly a stronghold); or spiritual condemnation.

Prayer is our first tool to turn to, as it always should be. God is faithful, and he wants absolutely nothing to stand between us and Him, so we need to pray and ask for revelation as to why we are experiencing what we are. If we have an underlying sin He will reveal it. If we’ve fallen again in the same area, it could be we have allowed a spiritual stronghold to take hold and we need to shake it off. He will show us all the details we need to know to overcome it. If we’re under the spiritual attack of condemnation, he’ll shed light on that as well. He desires a personal relationship with us and with the heart of a Father will do all He can to facilitate that relationship.

All we need to do is humble ourselves and allow His truth to permeate our lives.

Bummer, Man!

Have you ever done something and then felt really bummed about it later? Or maybe not really bummed, but maybe a little bothered by your decision? I sure have. It may have been a decision you made that you knew in your gut wasn’t quite right but did it anyway. Most of the time (I’d say over 90%) it’s probably guilt you’re feeling because what you did offended God in some way. AKA sin. It is God’s way of communicating to you His displeasure with your thoughts or actions. You have been convicted of whatever it was that you did. The good thing is that God is a God of grace. We usually don’t immediately reap the “rewards” (consequences) of our behavior, but sometimes we do. His grace period exists so that He can teach us and build us up in His image.

So how do we get rid of our guilt? How do we wipe the slate clean? Well, we can’t really wipe the slate clean, but we can get rid of the guilt. See, God is perfect, and he expects nothing less than perfection. But you and I both know that we’ve missed the mark. And we can’t go back and undo the things we’ve done in the past. In old times, the Israelites had to periodically make sacrifices to atone for their sins. But the sacrifices were only good for a while, and as they went along in life they found that they were in need of another sacrifice because they had messed up again. Last time I checked, I haven’t done any animal sacrifices. And I don’t think anyone else has either, or we’d have heard from PETA. But thankfully God has a plan.

Enter Jesus. He lived a perfect life. The fact that hell couldn’t hold him is proof of that. He died a sinner’s death, but because He didn’t ever sin, hell had no authority to keep Him. God raised Jesus up from the grave as an example of what will happen to all who call on His name. He was the perfect sacrifice that atones for our sins – past, present, and future. If we call on His name, we will be saved. And His sacrifice on the cross opens up a way for us to go directly to God and ask for forgiveness for our sins. God tells us that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). We can rest assured that God IS faithful and will not hold our sins against us. Therefore, if we rest on this truth, we can remove the feelings of conviction we experience when we sin because Jesus paid the price for that, we have called on His name, we have confessed our sin to God, and He is faithful. Doing these things adjusts our perspective to the truth of the matter and allows us to remove the guilt of the sin and the conviction associated with it.

So don’t be bummed!

On The Ball

Do you remember how they used to demolish buildings? They used a wrecking ball. Remember those things? Big, heavy, steel balls that were swung into a building by a crane. I remember watching video of them in use against some poor old brick building. The crane would swing it toward the building, slowly picking up speed and eventually smash it into a wall. Sometimes the ball would appear to bounce off with little or no perceivable effect. Other times I could see that it made a dent, causing part of the wall to buckle, but the wall still stood. Still other times the ball would strike the building with such force it would go all the way through, punching a sizeable hole in the wall. Yes! Success! Now it’s merely a matter of time before the wall succumbed to the tenacity of the wrecking ball. Eventually the whole building would be a big pile of rubble, waiting for the cleanup crew.

Our lives are often times the same way – a staunch brick building, stately in nature, unwavering in strength. Or so it seems from the outside. But if someone were to peer inside our windows, what would they see? Would our inside look as magnificent as our outside, or would they see broken and rotted wood, peeling paint, chipped tile? What would their feelings be when they saw inside? Would they be disappointed? Dismayed? Would they be afraid of what they saw? Would they see promise or a lost cause?

We have a habit of keeping our outside looking fit and trim. We’ve even gone to the extent of putting up fabulous looking window treatments to complete our façade. Nobody can look inside to see what’s going on because we’ve blocked the windows. Although it’s not posted, people know to “Keep Out”. We tell them this with our actions – shallow conversations about the weather, about the economy, about anything but us, how we are doing. Because we’re fine, right? Nothing to worry about.

But how is our inside condition? Are we as fit and trim as we appear, as we lead others to believe? Or do we need some serious renovation? I know someone who knows: Jesus. You see, He is a carpenter, and he knows buildings. He has an uncanny way of looking at a building and seeing exactly what the problem is. And He knows what it takes to return our buildings, our lives, back to what He has envisioned. After all, He is the architect, the master designer of life. He knows the way things ought to be. Not just for life in general, but for your life. And mine. He knows the foundations we have built our lives upon. And no matter how well we try to build our lives, if we’ve started on a foundation that is anything but Him, our lives will always be out of kilter. One small mistake in the foundation is amplified as the building is built. Adjustments have to be constantly made to correct for errors made early on.

The outside may appear good and the inside as well, but as people come into our house they begin to notice little things that aren’t just quite right. They may never know for sure, but they know deep down that something is awry.

So what does it take to fix our house? Can we peer back into time to an event that happened to us, a choice we made, that has caused faults in our structure? Maybe we can, but most probably we can’t. We can’t because our foundation has been covered up with the rest of our house. It really takes the Home Inspector to identify our problems. And not only can He identify them, He can fix them too – because He’s a carpenter. Of course, He can’t do anything until we give Him permission. We have to contract with Him to be able to reap the benefits of His expertise. Until then, Jesus simply stands outside knocking on the door of our hearts.

You may have never had the opportunity to contract with Jesus Christ. You can today, right this minute, and say “hey Jesus, I’ve got this problem. My life isn’t so great right now, and I heard you could help me out”. It could be financial. It could be family strife. It could be addiction. It could be rejection. Maybe someone did you wrong. It could be any numbers of things that you know aren’t right, that you are suffering through. Regardless of what it is, Jesus has the answer. He is the one who is faithful and true. And He is ready and willing to go to work to rebuild those parts of your life that are out of kilter a bit. But he needs your permission. All you have to do is call him and he’ll be there.

You know, it could be that you signed a contract with Him, perhaps long ago, and well, you’ve kind of strayed from some of the details. How’s that working for you? What effects has it had on your life? You know, although the details in the contract are all His ideas, Jesus is the most gracious of partners, and only seeks to get you back in line with the contract so that the building of the rest of your life will go well. He may need to take some time to fix a couple of things here and there, but His vision for your completed project is perfection. He’s willing and able to do the extra work to fix whatever went wrong.

I encourage you today to know Jesus Christ. He is a knowable person, and he has a vested interest in your life. See, He is God incarnate. He came down from heaven in order to make a way for you to know Him. He hung on a cross as an innocent man and shed His blood so that your sins would be forgiven. See, it is our sinfulness that keeps us from knowing Him. And it takes the blood of a perfect sacrifice to atone for that sin. Nothing else will do. Jesus knew that and that is why He came – to provide an avenue for us to get to God.

Our sinfulness is like that brick wall, and it keeps Him out. We are on one side, and He is on the other. The sooner you call out to Him, the sooner He can get to work fixing your foundations. It may seem He is using a wrecking ball, but go ahead, trust Him, let Him do His work in your life. You’ll find that you are able to rest easily once He has begun His work.

I linked up with Elizabeth Esther for the "The Saturday Eve Post". To find others linking up for Mar/Apr highlights just click the here.