Conviction vs. Condemnation
Losing our guilt. I just can't believe how clear Fausto made the whole thing in his lesson yesterday. He took a concept that we want to make so difficult and made it clear as day. And I wanted to write a few things down so I could go back and look at it later...the next time I shackle myself with the chain of guilt.God CONVICTS us of our sin. He says, "That's wrong. Don't do that. Here, do this instead. It's better anyway." God is always about what we ARE...never about what we're NOT. But Satan CONDEMNS us. And we let him. He tells us the big lies: "You're no good. Just look at yourself. Sinning all the time. You should be ashamed." Or this one: "You can't stop sinning. But neither can anyone else. And your sin isn't any worse than theirs. In fact, it's better than most. Don't worry about it so much." So Satan works on us according to our own personality. Which is more effective? Telling me that my sin makes me awful? Or telling me that my sin isn't anything to really worry about?
God makes it clear. Sin is wrong. Period. But there is LIFE after sin. Jesus dealt with our sin for us. The longer we dwell on it, the more time we waste getting on with our lives. When I think about sin and guilt, it becomes so obvious to me that God is life and Satan is death.
Thanks, Fausto, for reminding us of that. And for making it so clear.
posted by Thurman8er @ 3:22 PM
3 Comments:
Satan loves to put us on a guilt trip. If we magnify our faults and keep wallowing in pity and hopelessness we fit right into his plans.
Christ died for our sins, and regardless of what Satan would have us believe, our Lord is able to make us stand.
We sin, we ask forgiveness, God forgives, and we move on.
Excellent thoughts. Satan will often even bring to mind previous forgiven sins trying to weigh us down.
In those times we should thank him for reminding us of the great salvation and forgiveness we received in Jesus Christ.
As you said Sunday morning, Fausto hit that one out of the park. (shocking that you would use a baseball analogy!)
We had visitors Sunday who said how comfortable and warm they felt in our midst for two reasons...
First, they were shocked we didn't have an organ, but after we started said we didn't need one. The music was too good to ruin it with an instrument.(very cool)
Second, they were so amazed at how we were "honest" and didn't claim to be perfect or expect anybody else to be either. They said that the church they used to go to was full of perfect people...they would never have talked about guilt in their church because that would have acknowledged wrong doing.
So...once again we see that College is a breath of fresh air (Holy Spirit) for people who need Jesus in their life. We take it for granted so often.
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