Shame, Shame, Shame!

Jun 6, 2009 | Stories, The Good Word

For the past few days, I have been sensing a feeling of uneasiness…like a bit of distance from the Lord that I didn’t understand. I was reminded of His word that says, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:1&2) As that came to mind, I continued to ask the Lord what it was that was making me feel like we were separated, and why He felt far away. (Be reminded, if the Lord feels far away, it’s normally you who moved.)

At first I didn’t get a sense of what the matter was, so I went on about my business. Then last night as I lay in bed, a memory came to mind from about five years ago. An incident that I won’t go into detail about happened, which left me feeling cheated, angry, frustrated, guilty and even ashamed. Mind you, this was no major incident — really not a huge deal — so it was strange to me to be reminded of it all these years later, and to think hmmm….what is it about this that is so unsettling to me, and why am I struggling to put it away?

I was suddenly reminded of a statement a friend of mine who is staying with us at the moment made — “The two ways we usually deal with sin are blame and shame.” This might be a rather rough paraphrase, but it was enough to get me thinking about the incident I’d been mulling over from the Lord’s perspective, and to realize there was a depth and breadth of issues within it that I needed to deal with. First, I blamed myself because the incident put a dear friend of mine in a situation that was uncomfortable for her. The Lord showed me the truth: this was not my fault, the free will of other people placed her in that situation — people choosing not to follow the Lord. I also discovered that because of that, and everything else that happened, I felt ashamed. Ashamed that I’d put my friend in that situation, ashamed because I felt like I’d compromised, and ashamed that I hadn’t listened to my gut instinct that “something was fishy”. I repented for not listening to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and God reminded me of His goodness.

I also needed to extend forgiveness to the person I trusted who hurt me and put both of us in that situation. I needed to acknowledge that I’d been trying to cover myself because I was ashamed of what happened. I needed to turn to the Lord and ask His forgiveness for covering myself and hiding instead of committing all this to Him.

Back in the garden, Adam and Eve were ashamed of their sin and began to cover themselves and hide from the Lord, and we often do the same thing today. Sometimes we do it because we don’t want to be seen in our sin. When I was a kid, if I had disobeyed my parents, I ran and hid. This was because I didn’t want the spanking that was due to me as a punishment for my misbehaviour. They often had a difficult time finding me, and as a result, I didn’t get as many spankings as I deserved! Often I think today I’m still hiding and hoping I won’t be found, instead of dealing with something because I don’t want punishment. If I had been honest about what I’d done, I might have even been forgiven, and received a lesser punishment!

The good news of the Gospel, however, is that Jesus took the punishment for our sin (the eternal separation from God we deserve) on the cross. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him. We need to learn to forgive those around us, knowing that the forgiveness we receive has a direct correlation to the forgiveness we extend. We need to learn to stop hiding from God because we’re ashamed of our sin. The great and glorious Good News is that we can turn to God, and He will deliver us, and remove our shame.

David prayed, “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed.” (Psalm 34:4&5) God is willing and waiting to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God promises this over and over again! David prayed, “I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.” (Psalm 32:5) And again He promises: “…Then you will know that I am the Lord, For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.” (Isaiah 49:23)

God is so good! He was waiting all along to help me deal with this past hurt, and I finally brought it to Him so He could show me the truth, and His desire for me to walk free from shame, blame, and condemnation. He can convict us, cover us, and cleanse us instead! May we all learn to turn to the Lord quickly, to be honest about our mistakes, and to let Him remind us how much He loves us, and how, even when we’re behind the bushes somewhere sewing fig leaves, He still wants a relationship with us, and He wants to make us whole.

The sermon in a nutshell: Don’t hide from the very Being who can set you free from the the shame, the guilt and the condemnation of your past!  He wants to walk with YOU, and to make you whole!

Everybody wants to go to heaven…but nobody wants to die.

Jun 1, 2009 | Stories, The Good Word

Have you ever heard this song?  I was thinking about it this morning for some reason. It’s been remade on a David Crowder Band CD, but Alison Krauss sang it before that… not sure where it came from honestly. As I was pondering that popping into my head, I realised how incredibly true that statement is, in light of what the Lord has been speaking to me about lately. On the surface you think, yeah clearly, nobody (for the most part) really wants to die, but, if there is a heaven, the average Joe on the street would say, “count me in on that one, big man.”

At a deeper level though, honestly, we are all called to die, on this side of heaven. I’m not speaking in the sense of just kicking the bucket and pushing up daisies, I mean, the Christian call is a call to die to yourself, day after day, and to live in Christ. Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mark 8:34) Why is this so dang hard? Because I am selfish and I want to do what I want to do.

I’ve been reading a great book lately (finally) called The Bait of Satan, by John Bevere. It has absolutely challenged me to remember the essential elements of what Jesus was instructing His followers to do, and the type of life He was calling them to live if they wanted to be His disciples.  Here are a few of the mind-blowing statements I’ve been reviewing in the Scriptures that are deeply challenging to me:

“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. — Matthew 5:44 Sometimes I don’t even want to pray for brothers or sisters in the Lord who are getting on my nerves!!

“Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” Ephesians 4:29 Wow.

When Paul is discussing the lawsuits among the believers in the Corinthian church: “…Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?” (1 Cor. 6:7) In other words, instead of taking offense and fighting for ‘justice’ when you feel someone has wronged you — why not let it go, refuse to carry offense around with you, and trust God to be your defender?

It’s likely that many of you will read these, as I do myself, and say, yeah yeah yeah I know that. But do we know it? The greatest challenge for me has come from considering 2 Timothy 3. Paul warns us about perilous times and perilous men. He says that men will become lovers of themselves, lovers of money…unthankful, unholy, unforgiving….having a form of godliness, but denying its power…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Did you hear that? We can study the Word and listen to podcasts all day long. We can read Christian book after Christian book, pass through a Bible course or even a seminary with flying colours, we can sit under some of the greatest teaching pastors and speakers or our time, but if we are not applying the Word of God to our lives, obeying it and doing what it says, we don’t know Jesus, and don’t have a part in Him.

Paul goes on to encourage Timothy to keep walking in godliness: “you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

Our works will never never justify us — it is through faith in Jesus that we find salvation. But if we have no works to demonstrate that we do believe, then do we really believe? James put this well: “But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe — and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” He goes on to explain how faith works together with works, and (as an example), by works, Abraham’s faith was made perfect. When we obey God, we choose to die to our own selfish desires, and in this death, friends, there is life in abundance!

The Sermon in a Nutshell: The conclusion of the matter seems always to be the same for me, well summed-up in a cherished old hymn: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, than to trust AND obey.”