Living Unashamed

""No matter how much the shame screams, “You’re not wanted,” God says, “I want you.” Regardless of what you’ve been through or done, God wants you. He has seen your hurt and has recorded your tears, and he still wants you. He’s lifting you out of the pit.

We don’t have to go back to the pit, or go back to our self- destructive ways, even though there’s a part of us that thinks that’s where we belong.

God loved us right out of that pit, no matter what put us there in the first place. God loves us so much, he wraps himself around us and draws us up.

God does not redeem us based on goodness. God does not redeem us based on our faithfulness. He knows the worst about us, but redeems us anyway.

We never have to live in the fear that we’re not worthy of love. We are loved with the senseless, seamless, and scandalous love of God. And that changes everything."

            -Pete Wilson, , Let Hope In

Worth a Look

Links worth a look:

Genesis 1&2: Are You Missing the Point?

How King David Reminds Us of Jesus

What the Eucharist Means to Me - Robin Parry

Why You Can't Pit Jesus Against His Bible

Evangelism in the Workplace

Feeling Shame is Not Repentance

Jesus is Greater....

"Jesus is greater": This should be a complete sentence all by itself. However, I love how those three simple words are continued in this little piece by Justin Buzzard:

Jesus >

Jesus is greater.

JESUS > Sin + Fear + Guilt + Regret + Discouragement + Need + Pain + Shame + Failure

Jesus is greater than sin, he took on, paid for, and beat your sin.

Jesus is greater than fear, he is bigger than whatever makes you afraid.

Jesus is greater than guilt, he has made a complete atonement for our guilt.

Jesus is greater than regret, he redeems our broken past.

Jesus is greater than discouragement, he is never discouraged even though he knows the worst about you, your circumstances, and life in this broken world.

Jesus is greater than need, he knows all of your needs and your needs are not difficult for him.

Jesus is greater than pain, he knows your pain and is stronger than what is hurting you.

Jesus is greater than shame, he cleanses dirty people, making us whiter than snow.

Jesus is greater than failure, he loves to work with failure–it’s his specialty.

JESUS > Sin + Fear + Guilt + Regret + Discouragement + Need + Pain + Shame + Failure

Hat Tip: Peter Cockrell

More Gospel Implications

Ready for some more Gospel Implications?  Here we go!

Gospel Implications: Since Jesus is praying we’ll be filled with his joy, staying dour, smug, & cold is not an option.

Gospel Implications: Because Jesus has perfectly obeyed the law for us, we don’t have to, we GET to.

Gospel Implications: Because Jesus cannot possibly love us more than he already does, we can focus on loving others.

Gospel Implications: Since Jesus is our Advocate & Intercessor, who even purifies our prayers, we can pray big & boldly.

Gospel Implications: Since Jesus is the ONLY perfect spouse, let’s not expect our spouse to be Jesus to us.

Gospel Implications: Since Jesus IS a perfect spouse to us, let’s love our spouse more sacrificially & extravagantly.

Gospel Implications: Since Jesus ONLY & ALWAYS speaks words of life to us, how dare we harm one another with OUR words?

Gospel Implications: Because Jesus is redeeming a pan-national Bride, we must decry & repent of all racism & tribalism.

Gospel Implications: Since we are in Christ and condemnation free, all self-contempt must be repudiated as unbelief.

Gospel Implications: Since Jesus came to set prisoners free, we must not stay enslaved to bitterness, greed and vanity.

Gospel Implications: Do not think/act like an orphan, for you are a legally adopted, dearly loved child of your Father.

 Can't get enough of this!

Some Gospel Implications

Love this! Need this! From Gospel Implications, Part 1 @ Provocations & Pantings:

Gospel Implications: Jesus’ imputed righteousness demolishes our hope of meriting God’s favor and fear of losing it.

Gospel Implications: Because Jesus is currently making all his enemies his footstool, our right to anxiety & fear is gone.

Gospel Implications: Since Jesus took our guilt & shame on the cross, we can’t use those dark tools in our relationships.

Gospel Implications: Since Jesus in making all things new, we can’t disengage from the culture & abuse the environment.

Gospel Implications: Since God promises the sufficiency of his grace, we can’t bail as quickly from difficult situations.

Gospel Implications: Because Jesus said “It is finished”, all attempts at supplementing his work are blasphemous.

Gospel Implications: Because the throne of heaven is occupied, you can get off of your high horse.

Gospel Implications: Because one day we will be as lovely & loving as Jesus, holiness should be a passion & joy today.

Gospel Implications: Because Jesus will not sleep or slumber tonight, we can.

More to come.  Glorious (and truthful) stuff!

At Our Worst & Best

“Imagine your worst moment of guilt and shame, the memory that, when you let it, haunts you and threatens to hound you to the grave. In light of that sin, we sometimes cannot imagine how God could possibly forgive. Yet it was for that moment that Christ died for you. At your worst, God gave you his best. While you were still a sinner — of the worst kind — Christ died for you (Rom. 5:8). The Passover teaches us that no debt of sin is too great to be forgiven because the precious sacrifice of Jesus pays it all.

Now imagine your best day. You’re on your winning streak, behaving well, keeping up with your spiritual disciplines, forgiving those who wrong you, helping those in need and leading non-Christians to Jesus. In light of such stellar Christian performance, we sometimes assume forgiveness, telling ourselves, ‘Of course God forgives me; I’m on his team.’ But the Passover teaches us that we don’t — and never could — deserve God’s forgiveness. Our debt of sin to him is so great that we couldn’t possibly pay God back, not with a thousand years of perfect performance (as if that were possible). On your best day, when you can most easily see yourself as God’s friend, your sin still makes you his enemy and requires Christ’s death so that you might truly become his friend despite yourself. God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

— Mike Wilkerson Redemption: Freed by Jesus from the Idols We Worship and the Wounds We Carry (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2011), 75

Hat Tip: Of First Importance

Sounds like ANOTHER book I should read!