NO MORE GUILT

The LAW. No, not the Po-Po, the Fuzz or Obama. I mean the Law as in the Old Testament rules and regulations. Know what I mean? Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not. Ever feel like you can't possibly measure up to the rules of the "churchie folk" you know because of this or that? Yep, that's condemnation set up by the Law. The Law was given to the Israelites because they did not yet have Christ and actually, they had the Living God dwelling among them in the form of fire and because He is holy and they were not, they had to do all these sacrifices in order to send away their sins so they could be in relationship with Him. But then God sent himself in the form of Man so that He could end all this sacrificial business and FOREVER wipe out sin...so he could FINALLY be in relationship with man without all this condemnation/sin butting in between. So Christ did this magnanimous thing, this thing above all things in all of history dying a sinner's death, brutally I might add, so that his perfect blood could atone for ALLLLLL sin past, present and future. That is a LOT of sin. And in his dying words he said, "It is FINISHED." Finished. Done. Past. Not just his life here on Earth, not just the end of a task. Jesus took on the GUILT of every single sinful thing I have ever done...and let's face it, I could fill up a large section of the Metropolitan Library just on my own...but also every one I'm committing today and for the rest of my earthly life...AND yours, and his and hers down the street. Not to mention the people in the next City over, the next State over, the entire Earth's population past, present and future. HOLY COW! For real? Can I even really wrap that around my brain? So he did it. He finished Sin's power over any human being. In Hebrews 10:12-14 it says:

¹² But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. ¹³ There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. ¹⁴ For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.

With that ONE offering of himself (because seriously, only a God sized sacrifice could possibly cover THAT MUCH sin) he forever made perfect YOU and ME and that guy who cut you off, and your Dad, and your cousin and your enemy. You and I were made alive in Christ when he took on that guilt and then sacrificed himself to Death. So, my point comes in this...why are we still condemning ourselves to live as if we are still slaves to death, disobedience, drugs, lust, overeating, alcohol, thievery, (insert guilt ridden sin here)?? Christ took the guilt for that and threw it down into the pits of Hell. He's not up there seated at the right hand of the Father going "Ugh, Father, we didn't do enough. Christy's down there drinking herself into an oblivion because she can't make herself do the right things or feel good about herself. What do we do now!?" Uh, no. He's sitting there right beside Christy with the bottle in her hand saying "Honey, don't you know? I know you have no power over this thing you do. I know your flesh is weak, but sweetheart, I do not condemn you. I died so that you may have freedom and walk in life with abundance. You are seated with me in Heaven right now because I FINISHED IT and know the end of the story. You are here being transformed from glory to glory to walk and rest in my love and mercy and grace. You are here to tell others of my great love and mercy and grace. I live in you and because I AM THE KING you have power over that bottle. Because of my blood that runs over your head you are clean before my Father so you NEVER have to run and hide from us again. Because of my blood and my love you have power to overcome any addiction, any anger, any hurt, any unforgiveness, any medical ailment and live in Victory in this earthly life. (Insert your name), my dearest child, I love you SOO much." Ephesians 2 is SO amazing. Take a read and see how it grabs ya!

¹ Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. ² You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world.^a]">[a] He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. ³ All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.

⁴ But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, ⁵ that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) ⁶ For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. ⁷ So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

⁸ God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. ⁹ Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. ¹⁰ For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

If we are living apart from Him and in bondage to sin, which leads to unhealthiness and an overall lack of life, then we are not living up to the people that are seated in the heavenly realm with Christ right now. All there is to do to begin this is believe in who He is, REST in the knowledge that there isn't anything you can do in your own strength, give Him control, obey what you hear Him telling you and watch the fruit come!!

Today a friend of mine showed me the Blue Letter Bible (BLB). We were discussing how you can use this online tool to do deeper word studies of the Bible (and let me tell you, the Bible isn't as scary as it might seem. Just open it, pray out loud asking for Him to open your spiritual eyes and ears and read. REST in his sufficiency to do that and watch, you'll start getting it!!) and she used that one verse that talks about how Jesus is the Vine and we are the Branches and apart from Him we wither...and that he PRUNES the branches that aren't producing fruit. So we were saying "ugh, doesn't that suck. You do good, you get prunes to do more good. You don't do good and get pruned and thrown away." WELL, after searching the BLB for the word pruned (which doesn't mean just to hack it off, it means to cut away parts) and discussing how the person who cares for the vines actually lift up the non-fruitbearing limbs out of the dust and onto the fenceline, and then prune away the unneeded leaves so it can get the sun and water it needs to produce...it started to take on a whole new feeling. He doesn't look down and go "oh, that branch is down in the mud again and crud, it's not producing fruit like I said it should. Bad branch! Off with your head!" Nope. He lovingly lifts that branch out of the mud (AGAIN and again, if necessary) and hefts it back up right where it should be, cleans it off and prunes away the dead bits, feeds and waters it and waits for it to bear fruit. Do you feel me out there? Am I rambling too much? I feel like I jumped around on you. I hope you get some of this bc it's HUGE. Christ died for YOU and to overpower sin and death. Sin has NO POWER in your life and neither does condemnation. If you're feeling condemned and guilty, you just remember Hebrews 10:14. You are clean FOREVER and he loves you. The next time you find yourself sitting there doing that THING you do that makes you feel guilty, stop the guilt...I don't care if you are cooking up and shooting heroine right in the middle of your kitchen...stop the guilt and say "Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for taking the guilt of this away. Help me to be the me that is sitting beside you in Heaven right now." Crazy, huh!? That's the God we serve! He's HUGE and AMAZING and SO...FREAKING...ABUNDANTLY...BUTT-CRAZY in LOVE WITH YOU and ME!!