Psalm 40:12
For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: theref ore my heart faileth me.

Church made Sue feel uncomfortable. She wanted to be there, but she felt so unworthy. Just sitting in the church made her feel like a hypocrite. She asked forgiveness for her sins, and she believed that God gave it to her, but there was so much to forgive. All her life, she had been told that God was great and that human beings were unworthy of the attention He gave them. Sue figured she must be about the most unworthy of all.

Too often we come before the Lord with the feeling that we shouldn't be there. True, we have sinned, but God does not want us to dwell on the fact that we have sinned, but that we have been forgiven, and that we are His chosen people. The love of God is greater than any sin we might commit. God makes us able to look up, because He lifts the burden of guilt from our shoulders.

Prayer:

Your grace has made me worthy, Lord. What I could not do on my own, You have done for me. Thank You, Father, from the depths of my soul. Amen.

Have You Heard the Clanging Door?
by Max Lucado

 

Nine-year-old Al trudges through the London streets, his hand squeezing a note, his heart pounding with fear. He has not read the letter; his father forbade him to do so. He doesn’t know the message, but he knows its destination. The police station.

 

Young boys might covet a trip to the police station. Not Al. At least not today. Punishment, not pleasure, spawned this visit. Al failed to meet the family curfew. The fun of the day made him forget the time of day, so he came home late and in trouble.

 

His father, a stern disciplinarian, met Al at the front door and, with no greeting, gave him the note and the instruction, “Take it to the jailhouse.” Al has no idea what to expect, but he fears the worst.

 

The fears prove justifiable. The officer, a friend of his father, opens the note, reads it, and nods. “Follow me.” He leads the wide-eyed youngster to a jail cell, opens the door, and tells him to enter. The officer clangs the door shut. “This is what we do to naughty boys,” he explains and walks away.

 

Al’s face pales as he draws the only possible conclusion. He has crossed his father’s line. Exhausted his supply of grace. Outspent the cache of mercy. So his dad has locked him away. Young Al has no reason to think he’ll ever see his family again.

 

He is wrong. The jail sentence lasts only five minutes. But those five minutes felt like five months. Al never forgot that day. The sound of the clanging door, he often told people, stayed with him the rest of his life.¹

 

Easy to understand why. Can you imagine a more ominous noise? Its echo wordlessly announced, “Your father rejects you. Search all you want; he isn’t near. Plead all you want; he won’t hear. You are separated from your father’s love.”

 

The slamming of the cell door. Many fear they have heard it. Al forgot the curfew. You forgot your virtue. Little Al came home late. Maybe you came home drunk. Or didn’t come home at all. Al lost track of time. You lost your sense of direction and ended up in the wrong place doing the wrong thing, and heaven knows, heaven has no place for the likes of . . . Cheaters. Aborters. Adulterers. Secret sinners. Public scoundrels. Impostors. Church hypocrites. Locked away, not by an earthly father, but by your heavenly one. Incarcerated, not in a British jail, but in personal guilt, shame. No need to request mercy; the account is empty. Make no appeal for grace; the check will bounce. You’ve gone too far.

 

The fear of losing a father’s love exacts a high toll. Al spent the rest of his life hearing the clanging door. That early taste of terror contributed to his lifelong devotion to creating the same in others. For Al — Alfred Hitchcock — made a career out of scaring people.

 

You may be scaring some folks yourself. You don’t mean to. But you cannot produce what you do not possess. If you aren’t convinced of God’s love, how can you love others?

 

Do you fear you have heard the clanging door? If so, be assured. You have not. Your imagination says you did; logic says you did; some parent or pulpiteer says you did. But according to the Bible, according to Paul, you did not.

 

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38–39).

 

...Paul was convinced. Are you? Are you convinced that you have never lived a loveless day? Not one. Never unloved. Those times you deserted Christ? He loved you. You hid from him; he came looking for you.

 

And those occasions you denied Christ? Though you belonged to him, you hung with them, and when his name surfaced, you cursed like a drunken sailor. God let you hear the crowing of conscience and feel the heat of tears. But he never let you go. Your denials cannot diminish his love.

 

Nor can your doubts. You’ve had them. You may have them even now. While there is much we cannot know, may never know, can’t we be sure of this? Doubts don’t separate doubters from God’s love.

 

The greatest discovery in the universe is the greatest love in the universe—God’s love. “Nothing can ever separate us from his love” (Rom. 8:38). Think what those words mean. You may be separated from your spouse, from your folks, from your kids, from your hair, but you are not separated from the love of God. And you never will be. Ever.

 

Step to the well of his love and drink up. It may take some time to feel the difference. Occasional drinks won’t bedew the evaporated heart. Ceaseless swallows will. Once filled up by his love, you’ll never be the same.

 

The fear of love lost haunted young Al. But the joy of a love found changed the disciples. May you be changed. The next time you fear you hear a clanging door, remember, “Nothing can ever separate us from his love” (Rom. 8:38).

On Location - Sam I Am (Scar Tissue)
by Ed Young

Who we are today is a direct result of our past.  We all have scars and wounds from the words and actions of others and from our own failures and mistakes.  But for the Christ-follower this is not the end of the story.

As the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to remake us into new creations, these scars from the past become stepping stones to spiritual maturity.  Embrace these top ten principles from God's word and allow Him to rebuild your battered self-esteem:

10 I am created
For we are God's workmanship. Ephesians 2:10

9 I am chosen
For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you...1 Timothy 1:4

8 I am protected 
Protect me as you would the pupil of your eye. Psalm 17:8 (NLT)

7 I am complete
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 2 Peter 1:3

6 I am victorious
In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Romans 8:37

5 I am called
[God] has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace...2 Timothy 1:9

4 I am forgiven
There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1

3 I am free
Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. John 8:32

2 I am loved
 I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. Jeremiah 31:3

1 I am accepted!

Romans 6:23
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Thoughts on today's verse

When we get death for sin, we're only being paid what we're owed -- sin is rebellion against the God who loves us and gave us his most precious gift to redeem us from sin! But God's gift is free -- eternal life in Jesus Christ. He gave it without our assurance of following.

Prayer:

Thank you, God, for loving me when no one else could or would. Thank you for sacrificing the most precious gift of heaven so I could join you there. Of all the gifts I've ever received, yours is the best. This thanksgiving I offer through the gift that set me free! Amen.

 

True Believers

 

“Those who have been born into God's family do not sin, because God's life is in them. So they can't keep on sinning, because they have been born of God” (1 John 3:9)

 

Of the twelve disciples, we envision Judas Iscariot as the one with shifty eyes, lurking in the shadows.  While the other disciples wore white, Judas would have worn black.  He was the one you would have immediately recognized as the bad guy.

 

But I think Judas Iscariot was the very opposite: a phenomenal actor who came across as an upright man, devout in his faith.  As one of the Twelve, Judas had been handpicked by the Lord Himself, but eventually betrayed Him for a few pieces of silver.

 

Judas made the wrong choice to do the wrong thing, even though he had been exposed to so much truth.  With his own ears, Judas heard Jesus deliver the Sermon on the Mount.  With his own eyes, Judas saw Jesus walk on water.  He saw Lazarus raised from the dead.  He saw the multitudes fed with the loaves and fishes.  He saw the blind receive their sight.  He saw it all.  He heard it all.  Yet he became more hardened in his unbelief.

 

Judas could go deeper into sin because he really never knew Jesus.  If you are a true Christian and you begin to compromise, you will sense the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  But if you can sin without any remorse, then one must question if you really know God.  The true child of God, though still a sinner, simply will not live in a pattern of sin.

 

If you find yourself, as a follower of Christ, immediately experiencing conviction when you start to sin, then rejoice.  It is a reminder that you belong to the Lord.

Remaining Vertical With God

1 Peter 2:23
When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.

Have you ever been wrongfully accused? Oh, the need to defend and justify becomes so great. "What will people think if they believe these things are true?" we reason. Imagine what Jesus thought as they hurled insults and threats upon Him. The God of the universe had visited planet earth only to be slandered and accused of blasphemy.

Jesus could have done two things in response. He could have used His power to put the people in their place. He could have responded "horizontally." He could have fixed the problem right then. However, He chose to respond in a different way. He chose to "entrust Himself to Him who judges justly." It requires great faith to entrust ourselves to God in the midst of personal assault. However, if we can do this, we will discover a level of grace and wisdom that will be birthed from this experience that we never thought possible. We will discover a freedom in God we never knew before. Whenever we suffer for righteousness without seeking to protect our reputation and rights, we are placing our total faith in the one who can redeem us. This activates God's grace in our lives and enables us to experience God's presence like never before.

Ask God to give you the grace to stay vertical with Him. Avoid the temptation of responding horizontally each time some event comes into your life that you want to "fix." Entrust yourself to the one who judges justly. It may be a divine appointment for your growth to another level in grace.