“And every work that he undertook in the service of the house of God and in accordance with the law and the commandments, seeking his God, he did with all his heart, and prospered.” 2 Chronicles 31:21

There is a saying in sports that is heard over and over.  Coaches say it to players and players say it to players.  It has become one of the primary reasons for mistakes in an athletic contest, no matter what the sport.  It is the line I have said hundreds of times when coaching football, wrestling, softball, and track.  What is this single line that plagues athletes in every sport?  “Move your feet!”  Whether it is a basketball player that is beaten on a drive, a volleyball player who doesn’t get to a serve, or a football player that is beaten on a block, it is so often the same- the athletes are beaten because they don’t move their feet.  The equivalent of not moving our feet in our spiritual lives is not taking action.  Not moving the feet is usually a show of fatigue, laziness, or lack of preparation.   Those same things can hurt us in our Christian walk as well.

We need to be people of action.  Peter called out to Jesus, but still had to step out of the boat onto the surface of the water.  Abraham believed God, but illustrated it by striking off into the unknown.  Moses came to the Red Sea but raised his arms to God because he believed there was no dead ends with God.

A  woman with the issue of blood believed so strongly in the healing power of Christ that she fought through the crowd just to touch his robe and was healed.  Each one of these people took action that matched their beliefs.  This is faith. Jesus said, ‘Follow me’ when he called His disciples; he was not just saying believe, but to act on those beliefs.  He is still saying that to us today.

Moving our feet is important because it shows more than just lip service.  Some parents will say something across the room ten times before actually moving their feet to help or to prevent some action of their child.  But walking across the room takes more effort than just talking across the room.  That goes for our relationship with God as well.  Peter could have sat in the boat and said all day long that he believed in the miraculous power of Jesus, but the one act of stepping out of the boat said more than a thousand words while sitting in it.   There is a humorous story of a man who falls off a cliff and grabs a protruding root.  He suddenly hears a booming voice and he asks who it is.  The voice says, “I am God and I will save you.”  The man replies that he believes Him, so what should he do?  God says, “Let go of the root.”  The man hesitates for a moment and asks, “Is there anyone else up there I can talk to?”  We probably will not ever be in that situation, but we will be in others when God asks us to trust Him through His Word and our reactions to that will paint a vivid picture of our true beliefs in Him.

First John 3:18 says, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”  As I have quoted many a time, the smallest deed is greater than the grandest intention.  We are to be active Christians, not passive.  “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?”  (James 2:14-16)  Our outward actions should reflect our inward beliefs.   If we do not act upon our beliefs in God we are merely professors of God’s Word, not possessors of His Word.  There should be something that separates us from the rest of the world and “moving our feet” or being active for God should be part of that separation.

There is a difference between waiting “on the Lord” and waiting “for the Lord.”   One means the relying on the continual support of the Lord and the other waits for God to act before we do anything.  Ecclesiastes tells us that there is a time for sowing and a time for reaping, a time for laughing and a time for weeping, but there is also a time for waiting and a time for acting.   We are in times when people expect a lot to be handed to them without taking action.  That can be the same for Christians.  We wait for God to do something.  So often the Word directs us to action, but we wait for God to yell in our ear before doing something.  Unfortunately, the time of God yelling in our ear has passed.  He gave us the Word to be His voice.  While we sit around waiting for God give us something to do, He has already given us something to do.  We just don’t see it.

The old story about the man who prays for years to win the lottery (we will skip the obvious theological conflict here) and finally hears God’s voice telling him he needs to buy a ticket is more than a cute story.  It is often us.  We want to receive without doing.  Don’t confuse this with the famous Bible verse that is not in the Bible, “God helps those who help themselves,” but God does expect us to be obedient.  Think of how history would be changed if people in the Bible had not followed through on their faith.   Our expectations are high, but too often, our efforts are low.  Years ago Elaine and I went to see grandkids Asher and Noah play soccer. It was fun.  I spoke to a spectator on the sidelines before the game who was wearing a Christian t-shirt and he shared about his Christian faith and he said how important it was to him.  Later, he proceeded to get in an argument with the young referee during the game, at halftime, and even after the game he hounded the young ref.  I followed him to his car and mentioned the disparity between his t-shirt, our pre-game conversation and his actions during the game.

I mentioned that a better action that would have illustrated his belief would have been to be quiet and protect his witness.  After all, he did nothing to help the kids, the crowd, the ref, or God.  But not acting out would have necessitated “moving his feet” and making an effort to avoid the obvious contradiction between his faith and his right to downgrade someone else.  He seemed to be listening and I hope he was.

In First Peter we are told,   “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  (1 Peter 1:13)  We need to be prepared for action, not for sitting on our hands.  We need to “move our feet,” and act on our faith.  There is a famous story of how General Stonewall Jackson’s army found itself stranded on the wrong side of the river during a crucial point of the war and had to get across.  General Jackson told his engineers to plan and build a bridge so the army could cross, and he also called his wagon master in to tell him that it was urgent the wagon train cross the river as soon as possible. The wagon master started gathering all the logs, rocks and fence rails he could find and built a bridge.  Long before day light General Jackson was told by his wagon master all the wagons and artillery had crossed the river. General Jackson asked where the engineers were and what were they doing?  The wagon master’s only reply was that they were in their tent drawing up plans for a bridge.  That is sometimes what we do, we sit around drawing up plans for God, when others just go out and do the work of God.

We should seek the will of God, but seeking should also result in doing.  I heard one of my favorite authors being interviewed on the radio one day and I will paraphrase what he said that struck me as true.  He said that to be a writer, a person must write.  A true writer cannot wait around for inspiration, he must write.  A true writer cannot go down to the beach and wait for the right mood to come upon him.  A writer must write.  Sometimes he may not even feel like it, but a writer must write.  He said he tires of all the namby-pamby writers now who spend half their life waiting to be inspired.  A writer must write.  A writer who only waits is not a writer, he is a waiter.  I can see an application in that for us.  As Christians we can’t wait around for the spirit to move us when God has already given us instructions to move. Christians must act! Do we have to be inspired to give to the poor, give the gospel, or give our best?  The Word has already said that.  Christians must act!

God has plans for us, but we need to be an active part of that plan.  God is not a puppet master and we the marionettes who need to wait for Him to raise our arms and move our feet.  Jesus didn’t knock Peter out of the boat, Peter stepped out on his own.   We need to step out of the boat.  We need to “move our feet.”

“But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment, whoever does so destroys himself.” Proverbs 6:32

“So far, so good.”  That was heard coming from a man passing by the third story of a skyscraper after falling out of a window on the fiftieth floor.  He was, in essence, correct, but only for a few more feet.  That is also the common belief of those who find themselves caught up in sinful acts.  After falling from the window of faith, things might seem pretty good for awhile on the way down and that will lead to a false sense of security.  The proverbs verse above isolates the sin of adultery, but there are many sinful behaviors that can be penciled into the verse.  The point is that every fall has its terrible conclusion and denying it on the way down does not change God’s law anymore than the denial of gravity can change a rapid descent.

Lack of judgment leads to self-destruction. Once one decides to take the path of poor judgement, there are fewer and fewer routes back to righteousness.  The root cause of poor judgment is self-deception.  Once we entertain first steps of sin, each step gets easier.  The first step is always the hardest, but the easiest to return from.  Every step taken after that is harder to return from, and soon, return seems out of the question.  At some point pride will take hold of us and return to the right path becomes admission of wrongdoing, and that is sometimes too hard to face.  We might say we would rather be in misery than admit that we caused the misery.  Self-destruction is accompanied by some very typical behaviors.  If we understand those, maybe we can help others who are going down the wrong path or at the least will avoid our own trips off the straight and narrow.

It is important to know that the domino of bad choices never starts in isolation.  It normally entails a sequence of unwise decisions, each one escalating in severity.  The steps of sin are slow and short at first and then pick up in speed and stride until they may even reach a sprint.  I ‘ve watched many a marathon  and I notice that there are check points along the way where coaches will shout out instructions and the runners will often change their tactics to keep going strong.  When someone is in a sin marathon, there are tactics, outlined by Coach Satan for every step of the way.  Dutifully, it seems, everyone on his team follows his instructions to the tee.

First of all, those in sin must separate themselves from spiritual truth-tellers. They must avoid places where these people hang out.  Church, Bible studies, and other Christian haunts are off limits.  They must avoid being alone with anyone who might try to bring the Bible into the conversation.  Of course, those people must be replaced with others.  Non-Christians are fine, but the best people to hang with are wishy-washy Christians with milquetoast spirituality who  emphasize passive tolerance for all behavior.  These kinds of Christians are great because they give the illusion that the backslider has not totally left the faith, and lends some credence of credibility to his actions.  Eventually, in the later stages, even these pseudo-Christians will be left behind because even their wimpy Christianity is too much for completely backslidden turncoats.  Those falling away must put themselves in the position to avoid the truth from Ecclesiastes: “It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise person than to listen to the song of fools.”  (Ecclesiastes 7:5)  Instead, they listen to the songs of fools and eventually join the choir themselves.

Secondly, after people and places begin to be left behind, new habits will replace the old ones. Habits that were rejected for years suddenly become palpable and eventually habitual.  Hobbies and interests will change and such things like music and movies degrade to an explicable low level.  We are warned about this behavior in Romans: “And let not your behavior be like that of this world, but be changed and made new in mind, so that by experience you may have knowledge of the good and pleasing and complete purpose of God.” (Romans 12:2)  At first the wanderers  begin to play at their worship and worship their play, but eventually they abandon their worship and live for their play.  There may be sporadic returns to the people and places of their life in the spirit, but it will be short-lived because there are too many references to “do the right thing” and “obey God’s Word” and “avoid sin” and all kinds of intolerant and discriminatory verbiage.  But those brief returns are just enough for the wanderer to blame future absences on the prejudice of obviously hypocritical Christians.

Lastly, but really all along the way, the self-destructive backslider must put the blame on everyone else.  He cannot be to blame.  After all, he did his best and everyone else let him down.  He gave God a try, but God was found wanting.  They deceive themselves into thinking they have it all figured out and everyone else is clueless.  There is no one who is exempt from the attacks.  Anyone who might question the backslider, correct the backslider, convict the backslider, rebuke the backslider, or confront the backslider is the enemy.  Backsliders are self-sufficient and dependent on no one.  Anyone in their way who disagrees with their direction will be run over.  The brave who stand up to them will receive their ire and probably their wrath.

Unfortunately, self-destruction is really a misnomer.  There is really no such thing as self destruction that stands alone.  When one self-destructs, he takes others with him. If he were the only one affected, maybe his behavior could be overlooked.  After all his bad choices would only be affecting his own life.  Sadly, that is not life.  He does the opposite of throwing himself on the hand grenade for others.  He throws others on the hand grenade for him.  That is what the self-lover (which is what a self-destructor is) does not realize.  He hurts those around him, as much or more as he hurts himself.  Sometimes even more because he has to drain feelings from himself to carry on this self-destruction, but those around him retain their feelings and those feelings feel pain.

When someone puts his own desires first, none will thrive.  Not him, not those around him.  The Lord of the Rings tells the story of two hobbit-like people named Sméagol and Déagol who decided one day to go fishing. Ordinarily they were simple folk who could find delight in the smallest things, but everything changed for these two when, in the course of their fishing expedition, Déagol finds a ring on the bottom of the river. This ring, however, was no ordinary ring, for it had been designed by the evil warlord Sauron and promised to grant great powers to its wearer.  Seeing the ring, Sméagol instantly wanted to have it, and upon Déagol’s refusal to hand it over, “he caught Déagol by the throat and strangled him, because the gold looked so bright and beautiful.”

This story shows what happens when we covet something or someone else.  Our desire to have what belongs to another can twist us into to people we can hardly recognize.  If our sinful desires cannot be resisted, reputation, families, careers, and lives can be ruined.  If we find ourselves going off the path of righteousness, even slightly, we must right our course.  Proverbs 12:12 says, “Whoever is wicked covets the spoil of evildoers, but the root of the righteous bears fruit.”  We cannot sow wickedness and expect to reap righteousness.  The saying “so far so good” can be trumped by another saying, “All’s well that ends well.”  Sinful self-destruction does not end well.  It will never end well.  Not for the sinner and not for the innocent.  Those who backslide plunge into a pool whose ripples will go out to distances and places not imagined.

We need to keep ourselves on the right paths, so that others know where they, too, can travel. We must speak up when we see a wanderer even if we will face derision.  We need to remember the truth revealed in Psalm 119:1, “How happy are those whose way is blameless, who live according to the LORD’s instruction!”  We need to spread that truth.  God has promised us that “(He) will make known to (us) the path of life; and in (His) presence there is fullness of joy; and at (His) right hand are pleasures forevermore.”  (Psalm 16:11)  Why would we walk any other path?  Why would anyone?

“Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1

Last week I wrote about guilt and pointed out that guilt can be like pain.  It can alert us to a problem that needs to be taken care of.  Many see guilt as bad because it can cause psychological problems like insecurity and tension and physical problems like headaches and weight loss or gain.  But the sense of guilt needs to be examined because some guilt is false and harmful and some guilt is real and helpful.  In the last devotion  I talked about guilt that was helpful.  I mentioned the guilt that is pointing out a wrong in our life that needs to be dealt with.  If Satan had his druthers, he would have us ignore real guilt and dwell on false guilt.  If that is what Satan wants, that is what we should not do.  The key is, how do we tell the difference between good guilt and bad.

Recognizing our real guilt is what leads us to Christ. If we do not understand real guilt, we would never come to a saving faith in Jesus.  One of the first steps in receiving the gift of salvation is understanding that we are sinful people separated from a Holy God.  If we ignore those feelings of guilt, we will never take the step of receiving the sacrifice of Christ and would never experience a new life in Him.  The guilt is not the problem.  Sin is the problem.  Guilt points us to the solution.  In that way, guilt is sometimes very good because is saves us from a terrible consequence that will take place if we do not change course.  False guilt, however, does not lead to freedom, but to imprisonment.  That is why we need to be able to tell the difference.

For everything that is real, there is a counterfeit.  Expensive clothes, jewelry, and even electronics all have their cheap knockoffs.  There is hardly a name brand that doesn’t have is its generic step-sibling.  Sometimes the fakery goes beyond products.  One man made over a half-million dollars in three years selling fake diplomas and medical certificates to people who went on to the medical field.  Things can be counterfeit, people can be counterfeit, so it stands to reason that feelings can be counterfeit.  Many of us can carry around a false sense of guilt that holds us back.  We assume that if we feel guilty, we must be guilty.  That guilt becomes destructive when it keeps us dwelling on the wrong things and prevents us from experiencing the right things.

There is a sad short story called “The Necklace.”  It is about a young woman, Mathilde, who is dissatisfied with her life and looks longingly at the lives of the “upper crust” women around her.  Her husband returns from work one day with an invitation to a gala ball and she cries because she has nothing to wear.  The husband, then, uses up personal savings to buy her a dress, but she is still distraught.  She has no nice jewelry.  The husband knows he can’t afford anything, so he suggests that Mathilde go to friend who is rich and borrow something.  She picks out a wonderful necklace, attends the ball, and leaves her husband on the sidelines while she dances her heart away.

Finally, Mathilde and her husband head for home and when they arrive, she realizes she has lost the necklace.  Distraught she goes to a local jeweler, picks out a necklace exactly the same, and returns that one to the owner who was non-the wiser.  Unfortunately, the necklace costs more than her husband can make in a lifetime.  So they take out loans from unscrupulous characters, and to pay them off, they sell their modest home and move to tiny apartment, both take on two jobs, and work their fingers to the bone.  Working night and day, the couple age rapidly and one day Mathilde’s path crosses with the original owner of the necklace.  The rich woman does not even recognize Mathilde because she has changed so much.  The woman makes a comment about it and Mathilde says her terrible condition is the woman’s fault.  Mathilde goes on to tell her the story of losing the necklace, the the subsequent loans, jobs, and poverty that resulted from replacing the necklace.

The woman clasps Mathilde’s hands and tells her
the necklace was imitation and not worth anything.  It was one of the saddest endings to any of the short stories I taught through the years. Believing the false is real can only lead to disaster.

We need to examine our guilt and get to the bottom of it.  When I coached and received criticism, I always listened.  After I listened I did one of two things.  If it was legitimate, I took it as advice and made the necessary changes.  If it was not legitimate, I forgot about it.  That is what we should do with guilt.  Guilt is criticizing something in our life.  If it exposes truth, we should make changes.  If it is built on a
falsehood, we should ignore it and go on. Sometimes we feel guilty over something that doesn’t violate God’s standards, but fails to to meet our own or other people’s expectations. God’s standards are important.  They will always be higher than man’s standards.  If we concern ourselves only about what God thinks, we will not have to worry much about what man thinks.  Guilt because we cannot reach others standards is often false guilt and eats us up from the inside.  We need to believe God more than our feelings.  He is a lot more reliable.

Another false feeling of guilt that plagues many is dwelling on past sins that God has already forgiven. True guilt exposes present sins, false guilt constantly reminds of past sins.  If we have taken care of those sins, we don’t need to constantly scratch at the old wound to keep it fresh.  A woman once broke an expensive vase of a friend.  She took the vase with her to repair, but it was unrepairable.  Her friend visited her and noticed the vase cracked and ugly sitting on a desk and asked her why it was there.  She replied that it was to remind her of her transgression.  The woman walked over, grabbed the vase, dropped it in the garbage and said she had forgiven her long ago and it was time she forgave herself.  We sometimes like to leave our past mistakes on display so we can be reminded of them.  If we have cleaned up our mess and truly confessed, it is time to remember what God says, not what Satan says.  Satan will condemn us but Romans 8:1 says: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Whenever we feel condemned, we need to recognize it as the malevolence of the enemy who is trying to rob us of the peace that is ours through Christ.

The Holy Spirit convicts us and Satan condemns us.  Condemnation is not the same as conviction.  Satan helps us to ignore actual wrongdoing. The key for us is to discern between the guilt that our flesh, Satan, and the world heaps on us and the necessary guilt that can lead to healing.  We need to praise God that He has forgiven our sins.  If we don’t understand God’s great mercy, we will still be shackled by chains that have been unlocked.  We need to take a stand and refuse to accept guilt for that which has been forgiven.  Reading the Word, surrounding ourselves with believers, listening to worshipful music, staying in the Word, and listening to instructional sermons can all help us to discern where our feelings originate.

There are many things we feel guilty about, but another burden
Satan puts on us is our inability to fix all things.  We cannot make everything right.  We cannot undo things that have been done.  We can’t make someone be who God wishes them to be.  There are restrictions on what we can do in this life and we cannot allow the guilt about not being fixers of all woes make us feel guilty.  A favorite saying of mine is, “I cannot do all things, but I can do some things.  Those things that I can do, I should do.  Those things that I should do, by God’s grace, I will do.”  We cannot carry around guilt about pasts we cannot change, people we cannot mold, or promises we cannot keep.  Some things just will be, regardless of how hard we try to change the outcome.  We need to concentrate on the Lord and identify with the words of Mary in Luke “and my spirit has begun to rejoice in God my Savior,”  If we look to His adequacy, we will look less at our own inadequacies.

We should not let the false chains of guilt to hold us back, but if our guilt is real, we should confess the sin, turn from it, and not let Satan accuse us of it again. We have a “glorious freedom (as) the children of God” (Rom. 8:21), and we should live in that glory.    Psalm 32:5 reminds us, “Then I acknowledged my sin to you . . .and you forgave the guilt of my sin.”   True repentance takes away the guilt of our sin and this brings true freedom from our sin.  We need to hold onto and believe what God says in Romans 8:31-35 “. . . who can separate us from the love of Christ?”  Satan can’t, the world can’t, our flesh can’t, and false guilt can’t.  When we step from the prison of sin, it is time to change clothes.  Ephesians 4 tells us “You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.”  Why should we wear the uniform of our prison life any longer.  We should put on the new clothes of salvation.  Why should we look or act like prisoners any longer.  True guilt leads us to the keys of the prison; false guilt leads takes us back.  Let’s learn to recognize the difference between the exit and entrance.

“Repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive your evil thoughts,” (Acts 8:22)

There is much said on guilt by psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, ministers, hairdressers, and even bartenders.  They have all heard their share of guilt stories and most of the time guilt is looked upon as a bad thing.  A quick google search will reveal a lot more information about the destructiveness of guilt than its value.  Guilt is almost always looked at as a negative, but if we look at guilt as a negative, it is easy to miss positives that true guilt can play in our lives.

The dictionary calls guilt “the act or state of having done a wrong or committed an offense.”  This is pretty straight forward.  Guilt is an indicator something going wrong. It is the negative feeling that accompanies a negative behavior.  Guilt in itself is not wrong.  It is the warning light on the dash board of our car.  In society today, we are basically told to cover up that light.  We are told it is wrong to feel guilty and so we are told, in essence, to deal with the symptoms of guilt rather than the causes the guilt.

Guilt originated in the garden.  Adam and Eve ate of the one thing that was forbidden and they hid.  They were not experiencing some sort of false guilt planted by Satan.  They were facing the real feelings of guilt after the real trespass of God’s commands.  After they presented themselves to God, God did not tell them to wipe out those evil guilt feelings from their mind.  He was not angry for their guilty feelings, but for their rebellious actions.  Guilt was not the wrong.  It was an indicator of wrong.  Because of the trespasses in the garden we know that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)  So sin is with us always, regardless of the message the world tries to give.

Later in the New Testament, Jesus used the hypocrisy of men to save an adulterous woman from stoning.  After all the would-be “stoners” walked away, Jesus did not tell the woman to go and not feel guilty any longer because she had a reason to feel guilty.  He asked her who was there to condemn her.  “She replied, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘I do not condemn you either. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.'” (John 8:31)   He told her to go and sin no more. He did not deal with the symptom of sin, but the act of sin.  He told her to stop the action that led to guilt.  To often today we stir real guilt and false guilt both in the same pot and make the feelings the same.  The consequence of this is a lot of people not dealing with root causes of their sinfulness.  John tells us in 1 John 2:1 “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”  We need to deal with the sin, not just the feelings of sin.

I have told the story many times about the man who would just walk up and hit people for no reason.  He felt terribly guilty about it and went to therapy.  After months of therapy, he finally felt cured and shared his relief with a friend.  “I still  hit people for no reason, but I don’t I don’t feel guilty any more.”  A humorous story, but all too true today.  We are told not to feel guilty about acts that we should feel guilty about. If we remove the guilt, we will not deal with the acts.  Guilt is often the vehicle that transports us to a place of healing so we should not ignore it.

Down deep we know when we are guilty, and we don’t want to face reality, so dealing with the surface feelings becomes much easier than dealing with the deeper truths.  Two men were on trial for armed robbery. An eyewitness took the stand, and the prosecutor slowly moved to what would be his climatic conclusion of questioning. “So, you say you were at the scene when the robbery took place?”

“Yes,” the witness answered.

“And you saw a vehicle leave at a high rate of speed?”

“Yes,” the witness answered again.

“And did you observe the occupants?”

“Yes, two men.”

“And,” the prosecutor boomed, “are those two men present in court today?” He turned and faced the defendants.  At this point the two defendants sealed their fate. They raised their hands.  We know when we are guilty, we often just need to come clean.

If we would just test our guilt feelings, we would realize that many of them have a legitimate basis.  There was an NFL player back in the day who had terrible pain in his knees.  He would just have them shot up with pain killers and play the games anyway.  After years of doing this, he retired and his knees were beyond repair.  He was virtually a cripple.  The pain in his knees was an indicator that there was something wrong that needed to be dealt with.  Covering up the pain was like us covering up our guilt; it keeps us from dealing with the root problem and it will just continue to get worse.  Soon it will cripple us.  Guilt is often a warning sign, flashing away, letting us know there is a malfunction and we must take the time to look at problem and deal with it.

As is the way of the world, everything is topsy-turvy.  Legitimate guilt is made to seem false, and false guilt is made to seem legitimate.  We are told we shouldn’t feel guilty about acts of sin, but we should feel guilty about acts of righteousness.  We are told that any guilt we might carry inside our hearts by being separated by our savior is illegitimate.  But we are also told that if we shake the forbidden fruit from the tree and eat, we should shake off the guilty feelings that will follow.  There is only one way to shake off the guilt and Dr. Luke tells us how in Acts, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” (Acts 3:19)  You notice he doesn’t say, “just don’t feel bad anymore.”  That just doesn’t work.

There is a lot more authentic and necessary guilt out there that are signposts pointing to disaster than there are bouts of false guilt.  We must not fear guilt any more than we fear the burglar alarm going off on the back porch.  We should not fear the alarm, but the burglar. We should not fear the guilty feelings but the actions that set them off.  Of course, there is such a thing as false guilt and the key is how do we distinguish between good guilt and bad guilt.  Next week I will get into how we tell the difference. Until then have a great week…

“‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”  Matthew 15:8

One of the things that we are instructed to do in the Word is to honor God.  In these fast-paced times when honoring almost everything but God is rampant, it can be easy for believers to forget their obligation to honor the creator.  Honor has several different meanings all of which can be applied to our relationship with God.  First of all, it can mean to greatly esteem, secondly it can mean to fulfill, and thirdly it can mean privilege.  In one way or another all three of those meanings should come into play in our worship of God.

First of all, we should esteem God above all else.  We can do that in many ways, but most importantly we must believe in His Word.  It is hard to say that we are honoring God if we don’t read the Word and obey its instruction.  If we want show respect to the boss at work, we do what he says.  That is a form of honor.  If our hearts our right, we are honoring to God.  The Word says that the greatest commandments are to “Love the Lord God with all our heart and mind and soul, and to Love our neighbors as ourselves.”  If we fulfill the instructions in the Word with those two things in mind we will be esteeming God as we should.

There are hundreds of ways outlined in the Word that we can honor God.  If we read what He says, take it to heart, and follow through with His commands our actions will be honoring.  We are told that we should use the Bible as our textbook for behavior, and when we do, we honor Him,  “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”  (2 Timothy 3:16-17)  We are told to pray and when we do, we honor Him, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”   (Philippians 4:6)  We are told to put others first and when we do, we honor Him, “Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3)  We are told to study the Bible and when we do, we honor Him, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth”  (2 Timothy 2:15) We are told to we need to accept the sacrifice of the Son and when we do, we honor God.  “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  (Romans 10:9)

When we esteem the Word, do what it says, we honor Him. When we ignore the Word, we dishonor Him.  It is pretty clear.  But we shouldn’t get this wrong.  We are not following God’s instruction so that we can earn His love.  We are following God’s instruction because we love Him and want to show our love.  We earn nothing by our actions; we show something by our actions.  We show honor.   We can get so caught up in our own lives that we forget that honoring God should be our top priority.  I told you a few weeks ago about “top-button” theology.  If we get our top button right on our shirts, all the other buttons will align.  That top button is honoring God.  If we get that right, the rest of life will align.  If not, all other things will be askew.

Honor also means to fulfill our responsibilities.  If we honor our obligations, that in itself is honoring.  We no longer walk this earth on our own accord.  We represent  Christ.  Along with that representation are certain kinds of behavior that glorify Him.  God has told us that he has paid a debt for us in full.  “He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” (Romans 4:25)  He will honor that.  We, in turn, can show our love by honoring the obligations we have to Him.  It is clear what He asks of us, “He has told you what is good and what it is the LORD requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.”  (Micah 6:8)  We will honor Him, by honoring what we are called to do. Many Christians spend six days a week sowing wild oats and then come to church and pray because of crop failure.  That does not honor God.

Honor also means privilege.  It is an honor to serve God.  “But be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.”  (1 Samuel 12:24)  If we consider our service to Him an honor, that is honoring to Him. Paul tells us that, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)  If we are doing things for God, it honors God.  If we honor God all other things will be taken care of.

Our honor thanks Him for His grace and mercy.  Our love for Him recognizes His love for us.  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”  (Deuteronomy 6:5)  So, it is an honor to honor Him, and we should honor the command to honor by honoring Him whenever and wherever honor is possible.  Phew, that is a mouthful, but with God’s help we can do more than say it- we can do it.