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On a chartered bus full of young Vietnam veterans, heading to The Wall in D.C., I overheard a conversation. "I told the priest that I had killed another human being. He said since it was war, it wasn't my fault. But, I didn't want to hear that! I wanted him to tell me that I was forgiven!"
At the University, in a Psychology 101 class, we watched a video of an old man, bent over and holding his head in his hands. All he could say was, "I'm so bad…I'm so bad." The psychologist wasn't much, if any, help, in my opinion. He responded to the man, over and over, "No, you aren't bad."
I'm no psych expert, but if that old man had been me, and I was convinced I was bad, no amount of that sort of consolation would do any good. Instead, I would hope to hear: "Do you know that everyone feels the same way, sooner or later? That's because it's true. Even an ancient prophet recognized that: 'The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?' [Jeremiah 17:9] So, now that you know you aren't the only one who despairs as you do, let's give a look at dealing with this in such a way that we can find relief for your distress."
Ah, but there's the rub. How does one deal with the awful sense of guilt? How does one experience the relief of forgiveness?
Decades ago, I watched as Madelyn Murray O'Hair answered an interviewer on a television program. The notorious atheist had rejected her son, who had deserted atheism for Christianity. The interviewer asked Madelyn if she would welcome her son back, should he abandon his new found belief and return home. O'Hair declared vehemently that she would not. [Recorded elsewhere as "One could call this a postnatal abortion on the part of a mother, I guess; I repudiate him entirely and completely for now and all times ... he is beyond human forgiveness." ( http://murderpedia.org/male.W/w/waters-david.htm ) ]
The interviewer persisted: "Wouldn't you forgive him, your own son?"
O'Hair replied, again, that she would not; "I'm not one of those Christians, you know!"
I was as dumbfounded at her admission as it appeared to me that she herself was. She looked absolutely stunned, as if thinking, "What did I just say?" It was a never to be forgotten experience for me, how her words tumbled out, actually giving Christians one of the best advertisements, ever.
Over the years I've come to realize that guilt comes from the accuser. It is designed to drag us down into the miry mud of dark despair. Conviction of sin, on the other hand, we can recognize as coming from God's Holy Spirit, because such conviction points us to the Light at the end of the tunnel. In helping ourselves and others to experience this marvel of forgiveness, we Christians are the ones equipped to share such blessed assurance. Forgiveness is beyond our own resources, thank the Lord. But, when we recognize the One and only Resource and the forgiveness our Savior has already provided at the cross, we are enabled to let go of our limited efforts and come to rest in all that the Lord has done for us.
That is what forgiveness feels like and it is as close as God's Word. We read: "O taste and see that the Lord is good," and His goodness covers everything bad in your life and mine. Thanks be to God!
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. –Colossians 1:13-14
In him [Jesus] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. –Ephesians 1:7-10
What a wonderful message we have to cling to with all our hearts, and to pass along to others still wandering in their own dark despair!
Edy T Johnson
Copyright 2016
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God is Not Against You - He Came on an All Out Rescue Mission to Save You
...in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them... 2 Cor 5:19
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