Have you ever noticed how we are the hardest on others where we are the hardest on ourselves? Judging myself makes me judgmental of others. What I don’t like in me, I see clearly in you. Self-hate, self-doubt, self-loathing…all lead to hating ourselves and others, doubting our worth we doubt their worth, and looking down on us makes us look down on them. Shame starts with me and is contagious. Shame is a spiritual chemical weapon. Silent but deadly. Killing everyone and everything in its path.
Shame condemns the person along with the sin, because of the sin. In contrast, guilt convicts us of sin but does not choose to leave us there. Godly guilt does not chain us to our sin, but separates the sin from us by lifting us out of the sin. Shame, in contrast, leaves us in our sin and in essence says that we are that sin. We are not sin. We do sin, in fact all of us have fallen short of God’s glory, but His grace washes away our sin and we become sinless because Jesus takes on our sin.
Jesus wore your addiction. Jesus took on your abortion. Jesus put on your secret struggle. Jesus chose to bear your shame so that you can be free. He does not want you to die in your sins. He doesn’t want you to go to your grave tied to your sin. He wants you to come clean so that His perfect love can cleanse you of all unrighteousness.
Jesus does not wait to condemn you. His mission is not to say, “A HA!!! I knew you were no good! I was just waiting here to catch you in your sin and make you a public disgrace.” NO!!! He takes on our DIS-grace and gives us HIS grace.
Conviction of sin does not have to be the final word on your life or mine. Jesus came into the world not to condemn us, but to free us from the consequences of our sins. Now, He won’t ignore our sin, because He loves us. But, He won’t damn us for our sins either.
Jesus comes to you and me in the most convicting way because He does not hate us. He loves us…in spite of our sins. I would even go as far to say that He loves us because of our sin. Sin is what brought Him here. Sin is what nailed Him to the cross. Sin is what keeps Him interceding for us to the Father even now.
Sin is what His grace covers, dissolves, eliminates, dismantles, destroys, eradicates, and defeats. So where there is sin, there is opportunity for grace. Where there is hate, there is a chance for love. Where there is doubt, there is room for surety.
Whatever evil you and I have done, whatever good you and I have refused to do – that is where HIS grace is applied. Let us not refuse His grace today. We all need it. Let this be the day that you and I allow the love of God to make peace with your soul and mind by admitting our sins and letting His love separate us from our sin forever.

We DOUSE God’s FIRE when we DOUBT His FAITHFULNESS. We DISMISS His POWER when we DIMINISH His PRESENCE.
Moses got cold feet when God gave him his mission. How could his feet be cold when he was right in front of a burning bush, a blazing fire? It doesn’t make sense but we do it every day.
God is a burning ball of energy and yet we hesitate, compromise, and douse His fire with our doubts. We operate out of limited power because we don’t spend enough time in His presence.
When God is with us we have all the power and authority we need.
We don’t need to feel strong enough, we aren’t.
We don’t need to be powerful enough, we aren’t.
We don’t need to feel prepared enough, we aren’t and never will be.
We just need to know that God has called our name, He has an assignment for us, and He will be with us.
Lord, set our hearts on fire and may we burn brightly for You.

My word for 2015 has been SPEAK…

When we speak, we push past the fence of fear.
When we speak, we release each other from loneliness.
When we speak, we tear down barriers to intimacy.
When we speak, we penetrate isolation.
When we speak, we dissolve discouragement.
When we speak, we destroy distrust.
When we speak, we break the deafening silence.

Our days are usually filled with a lot of distractions, but some days there seem to be more than normal – especially when the devil doesn’t want us to speak. He knows the power in our words. The Condemner prefers silence because no one is freed unless we speak. Recognize that distractions can be Satan’s way of keeping us from releasing love. Go ahead. Speak. I am praying that your voice will penetrate the darkness and someone will not feel so alone in their sorrow. SPEAK.

“He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief.
And he went about among the villages teaching.”
– Mark 6:1-6 (ESV)

The sermon review started out well enough…On the Sabbath, Jesus “began to teach in the synagogue and many who heard Him were amazed. The people even said, ‘Where did this man get these things? What’s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles!”

But then the review turned into a critique… [Read more…]