There are no do-overs in life. None. Expired days and moments cannot be relived. They are now a part of your past. Words and actions cannot be rescinded. Once in a lifetime opportunities have vanished. Sinful deeds are now a part of you. There is so much finality to the past, which often leads to ongoing feelings of guilt, shame, and regret. How would you feel if I told you that your past could be erased? What if the sin and shame that taints your past could be removed from your record? You can be released from your past and I’m going to tell you how. The apostle John writes the following words to believers in the first century, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:9, NLT). Forgiveness of your past sins is simply based on whether you are willing to agree with God about your wrongdoing and take responsibility for your disobedience. When David’s sin of adultery and murder was discovered, he prayed these words, ” Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, ‘I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.’ And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone” (Psalm 32:5, NLT). In the midst of his prayer of confession, he offered advice to the godly who found themselves guilty of sin, “Therefore, let all the godly pray to you while there is still time, that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment” (Psalm 32:6, NLT).
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We like to talk about the past. Well, I guess that statement is only half-true. We actually like to discuss the good memories in our past and forget about the bad ones. It is much easier to relive accomplishments, successes, and happy times while doing our best to erase the inabilities, failures, and disappointments. Our trophies are on display for everyone to see, but our shame is hidden away. We’ve become experts at hiding things, especially the things we do not want others to discover. Here is the problem with this thought pattern. You cannot hide the past from yourself. No matter how hard you work at tucking the past away, it always has a way to resurface. Why do shameful parts of our past reappear? The answer is simple. Guilt and shame return when the sins that haunt our past have not been properly handled. Rather than facing the past, we bury it in a shallow grave.
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This is the fourth post in our Good Habits series, which challenges a Christian to establish three spiritual disciplines in their lives.
The first two habits we discussed, Bible reading and prayer, are mostly private disciplines; however, the habit we are examining today is what I would term a “public” habit. Being involved in a local church is a habit that is very important to the growth and stability of someone who follows Christ. According to Acts 2:40-47, the church is comprised of those who have believed in Christ and publicly expressed their faith through baptism (Acts 2:40-41). The early church spoken of in Acts 2 came together for the following purposes: learning the Scriptures (2:42a), fellowship (2:42b), observing the Lord’s Supper (2:42c), and prayer (2:42d). It is evident that the early church was supposed to consistently gather together; in fact, the early church gathered in the temple daily to worship and then went house to house in order to share in fellowship with each other. God did not intend for His followers to be alone in their spiritual journey. He wanted them to be together.
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This is the third post in our Good Habits series, which challenges a Christian to establish three spiritual disciplines in their lives.
Habits are often thought of in a negative sense but there are certain disciplines which add value to our lives. This is especially true in the life of a Christian. Although there are several good habits for a follower of Christ to establish, we are looking at three of them. In the last post of this series we examined the necessity of reading the Bible since it has the power to transform us. There are a lot of voices speaking to us each day – friends, media, our feelings – so we must fight to give God a chance to speak. God uses the reading of His word to be that voice; however, it is necessary that the reading of the Bible be combined with an obedient response or it is rendered ineffective.
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This is the second post in our Good Habits series, which challenges a Christian to establish three spiritual disciplines in their lives.
“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul…” (Psalm 19:7, NKJV). These words were written by David thousands of years ago, but they have remained foundational to why reading the Bible is important. The law of the Lord (Scripture, the Bible) has the power to convert the soul. The word converting literally means to turn back. You and I often find ourselves traveling the path of our own choosing, so how can we turn the other way or begin walking a different path? The answer is clearly found in words also written by David in Psalm 119:
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Certain habits disgust me. I will restrain myself from listing the habits that push my tolerance level to the edge…okay, maybe I’ll mention just one. People that leave toenail/fingernail clippings in public places such as bathroom counters, floors, or really anyplace but the trashcan. I bet you can make me a list of the Top 5 Most Disgusting Habits, but please don’t. Habits are not always negative, though. Exercising, self-control, good hygiene, reading, and listening are all positive habits worthy of consistent discipline. Practicing these habits regularly will add value to our lives.
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I don’t lose very many things. I’m not referring to competition losses (I’ve lost plenty of games in my lifetime) but the loss of items or things. Most people who know me would describe me as methodical. Every thing has a place and should be returned to that place after use. However, my methodical system recently failed me. Part of the responsibility at my job is to visit individuals who are hospitalized and sometimes I need to get into areas of the hospital that are restricted to normal guests. In order to gain access to these “restricted areas” I have a clergy badge, but the other day I arrived at the hospital in Cleveland, which is an hour drive, and could not find my clergy badge. I spent 15 minutes searching my car but I could not find it anywhere. I quickly called Leah and asked her if the kids had taken the badge. They like to clip it to their clothes and sarcastically say, “Hi, I’m Pastor Tom!” The kids had not seen it, but I had my suspicions. I even told Leah that I rarely misplace things and that someone must have taken it in order to steal my identity! I imagined a crazed killer like Michael Myers (from the 1980′s Halloween movies for those who are too young to remember) roaming the hospital with my clergy badge attached to his shirt in order to gain him access to his next victim.
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Spiders don’t bother me. Some people are freaked out by them but I’m not. My phobias lie more with water; however, spiders are definitely moving up on the list as they find more creative tactics to scare unassuming individuals. Yesterday, Lexi and I were sitting on the chair in the living room when I noticed a very tiny spider climbing on the lamp shade. No big deal, right? Normally, I’d use a shoe to kill a spider but I figured that a shoe would endanger the lamp. I decided rather to use a paper towel to capture and kill it, but when I captured it in the paper towel, it jumped on my hand. I admit it. I screamed…like a man, of course. Even though the spider was small, it was probably all fang so my terrified scream was justified. My manly scream must have frightened it because it leaped off of my hand onto the floor. As far as I know, he (or she) is still missing.
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I love taking pictures and am a sucker for beautiful skies. A couple weeks ago the sunset was so picturesque that I decided to pull the car over and snap a few pics before the sun went down. Both of my kids were with me so they also hopped out of the car; however, as Ty exited the car to take pictures “just like his dad,” the iPod touch he had received for Christmas slipped out of his hand and landed face down on the road. Fighting back the tears, he held up his iPod to show me that the screen had been completely shattered. Pieces of the screen were falling off of the iPod onto the ground and I could see a very sad look come over Ty’s face. As his father, I felt so bad for him. When we got home I got online to see if there was any way that the screen could be replaced and although I found some repair kits, I wasn’t comfortable with replacing the screen myself. As a last attempt I thought that I would see what others had done when their screens had shattered so I inquired on Facebook. One of the responses I received said that the Apple Store had replaced an iPod with a shattered screen for free.
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Our trip to Rome, Italy was awesome! Part of what made it a wonderful trip is the team…they were a pleasure to lead. This year I decided to give out Rome Awards for crazy things that happened on the trip. Although you may not understand all the awards, you must ask the individual associated with the award so they can explain why they received it. So without further delay, here are the awards:
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