Category: self-deception

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.

When You Lose [Faith]

…”calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Luke 7:19

 

Here we have John the Baptist locked away in Herod’s prison.  We read of his wavering, but that shouldn’t alarm us.  There has always been difficulties for those who follow without diluting their love for Jesus.  It’s very likely that John had preconceptions about Jesus’ ministry.  But that certainly doesn’t mean he was apostate or backslidden.  He still believed, as he looked out through the bars.

We walk in a greater light and have surer promises that John did.  And in that light we still have our difficult moments.  We can falter and shake and doubt.  And John only had a 100th of understanding that we have.  Often we are amazed by another’s confusion and struggles, it is so clear to us that they are falling short.  It is frustrating.  Moses once went ballistic, beat his rod on a rock and had some choice words.  His anger spilled all over him and made a mess.  We read of his provocation, and miss our own faults, sins and weaknesses. 

We need to understand the depth of our own depravity.  There are those who have proceeded us, who have had their moments of despondency and doubt.  We see them, as it were, from a distance and criticize and challenge what we see.  Noah’s drunkenness and Lot’s vacillation.  The flakiness of Samson, Peter’s denial and Mark’s timidity, and much more.

Today, let us resolve to be gentle with each other. “For we all stumble in many ways”, James 3:2.

A Serious Case of JDD

I have a syndrome called JDD.  It afflicts me in several different ways.  My psychiatrist can give me no meds that would help me.  It weakens me and makes me vulnerable to a host of enemies.  I have Jesus Deficit Disorder.

I wonder about this thing called “Christianity”.  After over 2000 years, have we veered off course?  Is the Church of Jesus founded even resemble the one we have in the US? As I ponder about these questions, I honestly am not sure anymore.

Being a Christian without the presence of Jesus is a frightening possibility.  We don’t realize that we have shifted to another track, things seem so ordinary and smooth.  It is spiritually disturbing that we are diverted so easily.  We end up with the Christian religion, but without Christ.  How did this happen?

When you have Jesus Deficit Disorder (JDD) you end up with a Christianity without Christ; a form of religion, but without its inherent power.  It all appears legit and acceptable, but it is a sham.  It is not what Jesus intended for us.  The intimacy has lifted. We speak about Him, but not to Him. 

There is a deficiency in a heart that does not claim Him as an intimate friend.  It frightens us so that we avoid the presence of the Lord.  The children of Israel had absolutely no desire to meet with God face-to-face.  They insisted that Moses should go on without them.  What prompted this?

We have an untamed God.  On any given Sunday, out ushers seating us should be handing out life vests, and issuing flares and whistles.  We would be tied to our chairs.  For we are in the presence of a God who is awesomely loving, and faithfully unpredictable.  He is a Lion, wild and untamed, and hanging out with Him also turns us into a wild disciple, who is a bit edgy and untamed.

Having JDD will revert us to a soft domestic soul, disengaged from a spiritual authenticity.  Oh, we travel to what we believe the general direction of good religion.  We are missing the attitude of “more Jesus”.  It’s old hat stuff, but I must say it anyway– more Jesus–less religion.  

Speck Analysis

Why do you stare from without at the very small particle that is in your brother’s eye but do not become aware of and consider the beam of timber that is in your own eye?
Matthew 7, Amplified Bible

 

We have an incredible capacity for self-deception.  We operate on the premise that by condemning another person, we will be a more spiritual person.  I have this extreme tendency to look for issues that I can zap, point my finger at, all to build myself up inside.  This very common approach to spirituality has been identified and denounced by our Lord.

But it is so easy to do, and to be frank, so satisfying to practice.  Jesus makes it out to be absurd, almost comical in strange way.  A bit of dust becomes the center of attention; a big plank is ignored.  I think we all get the picture, and it is laughable!  Or is it?

The speck can be just about anything.  It is an irritant, but it also is small.  We know it is present, we can’t just ignore it.  The plank also can be just about anything, and a speck and a plank have considerable differences.  With our huge plank though, we can still make out that tiny particle in our neighbor’s eye. Interesting.

Jesus’ wants us to renounce this false deception, and not to let it mislead us anymore.  We cannot go around identifying evil in others–and minimize our own.  I don’t want to do this anymore, I can’t do this anymore.

Part of verse 7, tells us to “consider”.  We are being instructed to evaluate our own condition, before we take the next step of helping out another.  Know yourself first.  Measure that plank, know its dimensions, understand what you are dealing with.  And don’t be reaching out to your brother’s issue.  It may make you feel spiritual and mature, but it is also foolish and ill-advised.