In the last couple of posts I have taken opportunity to address my FBCG family with some reflections on our recent Life Action Summit. This event in the life of our church will no doubt be an important marker in our journey as a Body. My focus in these short deposits has been to identify the battle we face with our flesh and with the strategies of the evil one. These posts are offered as pastoral reminders of the importance of pressing on in obedience in the Christian life, and especially in specific areas that have come to us in the recent Summit.  How often Jesus spoke in simple terms on our need to follow Him,  “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46)

In this final post-Summit article, I want to focus on the issue of guilt and how that can hamstring faithfulness to Christ. When we face setbacks and challenges in our lives, we can harbor guilt as our struggles remind us of failures that drag stubbornly.   We don’t even meet our own expectations, let alone God’s.  In this recent season of refreshing, the struggle with sin in our lives can bring guilt and condemnation.  These struggles can breed a hopelessness which is a fiery missile from the evil one to derail us off mission.

For such evil strategies, when Satan seems to put his slimy boot on our throats, we find hope in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In Romans 8, Paul begins this “Mount Everest” text with lifegiving hope for believers battling with guilt, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1). This promise should be employed by every believer as a “grace ambulance” when we battle the issues of heart and life.  With simple confession, and the grace Christ supplies, we are called to begin again.

The work of an unknown poet captures this truth well. The scene is an elementary classroom, and it is called, “Beginning Anew”: (more…)