Category: life lessons

Get the Nail Gun: Understanding Your Guilt

But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. –Jude 1:21

 

The world does not know what to do with all our guilt.  It affects every person and what we think about.  Guilt is much more destructive then Hurricane Katrina ever was. People talk about being crippled by guilt.  Psychiatrists have come out and said that 80% of their patients could be healed if people could resolve their guilt and their remorse for their past sins.  So much drinking and drug abuse is simply trying to numb yourself, if just for a little while.  Forgiving yourself is not an easy thing.  We must remember that all sin committed ultimately is against Jesus, and we must put our hearts in position for grace and mercy to fill us.  The Holy Spirit hovers over us, and yet He does not condemn.  He is not the accuser; He is the Helper and the Comforter.  The Holy Spirit convicts but He will not condemn.

Satan has a ministry–it is to accuse you before the Father.  He is malicious and savage.  He delights in reminding you of your sin and evil. He unceasingly pounds you.  The devil has an evil plan for your life, and works continuously to implement it.  Guilt and remorse are just two weapons at his disposal.

We honor God when we accept our sin, and His forgiveness.  Our verse from Jude declares that we must keep ourselves in the love that God has for us.  It takes intentional effort.  Our guilt is heavy, so we must put it down.  And then we must deliberately stand and purposefully open our outstretched arms to His forgiveness.  We need to “keep ourselves in the love of God”.  I get out my “spiritual nail gun” and fix myself in His love.

Guilt is like wounding ourselves.  Satan pokes our wound in order irritate it.  We learn to hide it from God, and others.  But these things are killing us. It’s like having gangrene. And the brutal sorrow and regret consume us.  I guess that is why we have Jude 1:21 in the first place.

Geriatrics R Us, and Other Thoughts

I’m coming up to 50 and it seems very strange.  I have never gotten old before, so it is an adventure.  I guess for the first time I’m face-to-face with three things.

1)  I am older than most people I meet. 

A few weeks ago I attended the weekly pastor’s meeting for Homer.  I looked around and of the 7-8 pastors/elders I realized I was the oldest present.  It really felt strange.  I am no longer ‘looking to’ but am now ‘looking back’. But I still find myself thinking that old age is always 15 years older than where I am now.

2)  Time has become increasingly valuable. 

For the first time ever, I am operating with the sense that my time is slipping away.  It’s funny but I can’t watch TV anymore, because it uses time up.  It seems foolish to me.  The same with books and magazines.  (I even resent bathing, because of the time involved, lol.)  I get frustrated unlacing my shoes, because time is slipping away.  We think that as we get older, we will have patience.  That is decidedly not the case for me.

3)  I have an eternity with God and His faithful, ahead of me. 

The first two are somewhat automatic, they just seem to come when I am in a certain frame of mind.  But this one, #3,  comes when I pray.  Growing up I always had a fear of death.  Just thinking about it now, makes me a little edgy and anxious.  I need to hold on to the promises and actively anticipate heaven.

Growing old is weird.  Making the different transitions to age-appropriate concepts is a real hoot!  My hair is grey now, and I’m having issues with my hearing and my sight.  I really like to read the obituaries, especially noting the age of the deceased.  I’m also a big baseball fan, and it’s funny but I catch myself thinking that I could be the father of anyone of them.

Time rolls on, whether you like it or not.  It’s best to think about scrapping your earth suit.  Our present bodies are becoming obsolete.  The funny thing is, 100,000 years from now, we will look back at this time on earth and wonder what the heck that was all about. :-)