Category: guilt

A healthy portion of love and forgiveness

God specializes in doing things for us that we cannot do for ourselves. If you have built a relationship with God through faith in Christ Jesus, then you know that feeling of helplessness and the devastation when you feel the brunt of your undone condition. Since Christ was resurrected from the dead, many have looked to him to fix their relationship with the father.

Today we have a unique opportunity to do something for someone else that they could not have done for themselves. I’m speaking beyond a tall person helping a short person reach something on a high shelf. Or a younger person running errands for a much older person. Or even a mother taking care of her child. Although these fit the basics of this thought, we should focus our attention on the weightier matters.

There are people who are in a position that makes it impossible for them to love themselves. They live with guilt and shame and don’t feel worthy. They need someone to love them. There are people who have wronged others and it is impossible for them to grant forgiveness for themselves. They need to be forgiven.

In a country where we take pride in things like revenge, winning and wealth, wouldn’t it be nice if at the end of each year it was mandatory that we would love or forgive? And wouldn’t it be cool if there were strict laws and people could actually go to jail for not loving or forgiving?

The Apostle John wrote: “beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He that loves not knows not God; for God is love.”

And Jesus himself said, … by this will all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another. And if you read Matt. 18:23-35, there is a shocking revelation by Jesus in regards to how the father feels about forgiveness. We only need to remember what he has done for us and reciprocate.

September 28, 2013
Parable of purity

Once upon a time a father baked a beautiful cake. He decorated it with the finest icing, and he added extra icing to it because his cake was so sweet.

He took his cake and placed it in a display case for safe keeping until the right person came to purchase.

Each evening, unbeknownst to the father, some guy would reach up and take a bite out of his cake. In fact, by the time he noticed, there were more than 11 bites out of his cake.

The father was sadden and although he still cared deeply about the cake, he wondered if the bites would hinder quality sales of the cake. The father also remembered when he used to sneak bites of cake and it saddened him more. “No one should be trying to taste cake before purchasing it!” He exclaimed.

The interpretation of this parable is this: The cake is this man’s daughter and every bite out of it represents the daughter’s sexual experiences. The purchasers are men who would be great candidates for marriage.

Moral of the story: No one wants to purchase a community cake. Or as the Apostle Paul wrote: “Marriage is honorable by all and the bed is undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”

September 7, 2013
Parable of a good breakfast

A Father woke up one morning to eat breakfast. He arose early while his kids were still asleep.

He began to make homemade pancakes, breakfast sausage with potatoes and onions and farm fresh eggs. He squeezed oranges and blended them with apple and carrot juice, garnished that with pineapple slices.

His son got up about 20 minutes after the father had started to eat. The son said, “Daddy, where is my food?” The father answered, “It’s in the kitchen son. Everything I made, I did it with the items that are in the kitchen.”

The son was a little angry that his dad had not made enough for him so he settled for a bowl of cereal. The daughter got up and commented that something smelled good. The father said thanks and the daughter asked where was her breakfast.

He gave her same answer he gave the son. She looked stunned and opened the refrigerator and just stared.

The youngest daughter got up, came and kissed her dad and said good morning. The dad smiled and she looked at him and said, “you still can’t get those pancakes right huh dad?” Then she began to make homemade waffle batter and fry chicken. She had the house smelling so good that her siblings couldn’t believe it.

In amazement, the two asked their younger sibling why she made chicken and waffles. The youngest child said, “I made chicken and waffles because that’s what I wanted for breakfast. You guys are always out with your friends and I’m here learning everything I can. Life can be tough so I am sacrificing now for my future … Gotta be able to take care of myself.”
The father just smiled.

The moral of this story is simple. There are three kinds of people in the world. Some are like the son, who sits back and watches what’s happening. This person never gets engaged in anything, he just watches and settles. Then there is the oldest daughter who is like another type of person who sits back and wonders what happened. They don’t have a clue and feel a sense of entitlement as if someone owes them something.

So we have the person that sits back and wonders what happened, the other person who sits back and watches what happens and then the one who makes things happen like the youngest daughter. She follows the rule of doing what you need to do so that you can do what you want to do.

Dear reader which child are you?

August 24, 2013
Bye, bye guilt!

We live our lives and struggle with consistently figuring out how to negotiating right from wrong. Sometimes revenge feels right, but it is never right. Sometimes having feelings for someone outside of your marriage may feel right, but it too is never right. Even stealing can seem right to a person in certain circumstances. With our lust and enticement from Satan, almost anything can feel right.

What is amazing to me is that in the moment we don’t feel anything but vindication and justification. Once we come to ourselves, the only things left to feel are guilt, sorrow and regret. There are even people walking around further punishing themselves because they feel they don’t deserve forgiveness. What makes matters worse is that there are people who will exploit these relationships and seek to control another person because they have a hard time with forgiveness.

God sent his son so that we would not ever need to struggle with guilt. God giving his son was meant to be sufficient for anyone struggling with guilt. Jesus became an unlimited credit card for sins and all anyone in the family needs to do is call on him and he will take care of the tab. Some may feel guilty for running up a tab, but all Jesus says is, don’t worry about paying me back, just pay it forward. So we would allow our present experiences to control future experiences. Since I had a huge debt that was paid for me, I would extend in a like fashion this same grace to another. Sounds easy enough doesn’t it?

Well, why do we have such a hard time with this? Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a community that understands this principle? Wouldn’t it be nicer to just meet a group of church folks who believe it and consistently practice it? Truth is, this is a personal principle that is up to every Christian to uphold alone. The purpose is for one person to affect another. It’s supposed to be a domino effect. All God needs is for someone to knock down the first domino. Will that be you dear reader?

April 6, 2013