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When Promises aren’t Promises   I will give just one of many possible examples to illustrate how easy it is to imagine God has promised every believer something, when we have merely ripped a verse out of context and forced into God’s mouth a promise he has not given us. I chose this example because it is popularly believed. At the same time, however, I dare not imply that God can never take words out of context and use them as a promise to an individual. It is not for me to tell the Almighty what he cannot do! But it is also not for us to tell him what he  must  do, unless he has specifically promised it to us. For example, I do not consider it impossible for God to want someone to go to Macedonia and one day that person is reading Acts 16 and suddenly Paul’s call to Macedonia leaps out of the page at him and God uses it to speak to his heart that he should go there. Nevertheless, it is obviously ridiculous to claim that God is telling every Christian to go to Macedonia just because Scripture says God told Paul to go there.   I therefore find it easy to believe that God could speak to you personally through a few verses later (Acts 16:31) and promise you that all your family will be saved. Nevertheless, this would have to be a dramatic personal revelation direct from God because this is not a promise that every Christian can claim. Paul was speaking specifically to one man – the Philippian jailer. The apostle immediately preached to the jailer’s entire household. They all responded and were baptized on the spot. If this simple statement were a promise for every Christian, it would be stated clearly elsewhere in Scripture. In contrast, 1 Corinthians 7:15-16 implies that it is uncertain whether or not an unbelieving partner will be won to the Lord, even though, of course, it is not God’s desire that anyone should perish.   Your loved ones might indeed come to the Lord and you should faithfully pray and gently work toward that goal. The point, however, is that without God specifically and unmistakably promising you salvation of your loved ones, you cannot claim that Acts 16 guarantees it.   Jesus proclaimed, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” He then raised Lazarus from the dead. If we do not claim this as a general promise to all Christians whose loved ones have been dead for four days, what right have we to do it with other statements that are directed at an individual and not taught throughout the rest of Scripture?   God-honoring faith in a divine decree is a spiritual world away from presumptuously stuffing words into God’s mouth. Until we hear from God we can do nothing but act like Peter staying in the boat and saying, “If that’s you, Lord, tell me to come.” Unless we submissively wait and ask, what we claim to be faith is nothing but arrogance that exposes us to the need to be taught a lesson. Once Jesus gives the word, however, we can step out on that word, and participate in a miracle.   Even personal words from God, whether they come direct from God or through someone else, need prayerful interpretation. Is it truly from God or is some human fallibility mixed with the word? John Bevere’s  Thus Saith the Lord?  (Creation House, 1999) expounds several reasons why a “word from God” might not be from God, regardless of how undeniably supernatural it is and despite the high reputation of the person claiming to speak for God. In addition, even a personal word from God often comes with conditions that are not spelt out. For instance, the prophet Jonah’s pronouncement that in forty days Nineveh would be destroyed made no mention of any possibility of avoiding this fate. The mere fact that they were being told ahead of time, however, implied that there was still a chance to avert destruction. The people repented and the city was untouched. Anyone not understanding the nature of prophecy would conclude that Jonah’s word could not have been from God since it never happened the way he said it would.   The infallible Lord always keeps his promises, but we do not always infallibly interpret his promises.

Why we can’t be forgiven while refusing to let go of sin     Christ’s sacrifice has provided a legal way whereby anyone, though guilty, can go scot-free. But that does not make forgiveness automatic.   Forgiveness requires a response on our part.   Suppose someone is proven guilty of dangerous driving. No matter how much the judge likes the person, he must declare the law-breaker guilty and fine him appropriately. It is quite legal, however, for the judge to offer to pay the fine out of the judge’s own pocket. It is then up to the offender whether he accepts the judge’s gift.   There is one more consideration, however. If the reckless driver intended continuing the same offenses, he would be a danger to the community. It would be wrong to pardon someone who plans to continue flouting the law.   Likewise, the Perfect One is obligated to consider our attitude to sin before releasing us from eternal condemnation. He does not insist that we never fall; simply that we  want  never to fall. I am referring neither to your actions nor to sinlessness, but to a mental attitude of vital importance to God. The Bible calls it repentance  – a change of heart regarding sin; a willingness for God to deliver us from sin. It involves placing our trust in him, rather than in our own ability to control our lives; giving more credence to his wise and loving demands than to our own whims. We may find it virtually impossible to even  desire  a sin-free life, but we must at least want God to make us willing.   Suppose you are caught in a burning building. Just in time a fireman hears your terrified screams, bursts through the flames and begins to carry you to safety. But you fight him off. ‘No!’ you say, ‘I don’t want to burn, but I want to stay here.’   ‘You idiot!’ shouts the fireman, ‘This whole building is about to go up. Either you leave this place immediately, or you’re dead!’   Likewise, we either let Jesus take us from our sin, or we will die in our sin.   The essence of sin is disobedience. So to be saved from sin is to be delivered from disobedience. No matter what you pray, heaven knows you cannot want the Savior to deliver you from disobedience if you want to remain in disobedience.   It is sheer hypocrisy to ask God to take away the sins we hate, if we plan to keep the sins we love. It is blissfully easy to make a sin seem little. We can never fool God. Tragically, we often fool ourselves. Adam’s sin, with its cataclysmic results, was not mass murder, hideous perversion or demon worship. In God’s sight their sin was so gross that Adam and Eve had to be forever banished from Eden, and yet they had lived better lives than any saint.   The Almighty longs to give us holy desires and victory over sin, but he never abuses his power by forcing this upon us against our will. Many people, though they would never admit it, want to keep their favorite sin more than they want forgiveness. Though it would grieve God greatly, we will rot in any sin we deliberately choose to remain in. This would result in our entire lives being cut off from God.     Just as we cannot let a jet take us into the sky while keeping one toe permanently on the tarmac, neither can we let Christ take us to heaven if we stubbornly insist on keeping a part of us outside of his will. Our own efforts will never get us off the ground, but we must agree to Christ’s desire to lift every part of us away from the world. This has nothing to do with our own moral struggles, but simply permitting Christ to save us from the sins we love – giving him permission to wrench our darling sins from us.   I reel at the thought of the hordes who have tragically missed this point. Another analogy will confirm its centrality.   You are trapped in a sea of sin. Bottomless waters lap towering cliffs. No one can tread water forever. The murky depths terrify you, except for one spot. You’ve found a place where the deadly waters seem beautiful and the sensual waves exquisite. How can anyone take seriously your cries for help if you’re splashing around enjoying yourself? And what’s the point of saving someone who is hell-bent on plunging back after every rescue attempt? No one with a suicidal commitment to a sin can be saved.   How can God take seriously your request to be removed from sin’s penalty if you have no desire to be removed from sin’s ‘pleasure’? The sin you love is as deadly as the sin you hate.   This doesn’t mean you must initiate a sinless life to enjoy forgiveness. We’re in sin’s death grip. Only Jesus can break it. But do you want him to? Do you want to be rid forever of your favorite sin?   The Almighty gives us dignity by respecting our wishes. If we don’t want him to be our God – ie in total control of our lives – it grieves and appalls him, but in his gentleness he will permit us to go our own way. No one has suffered the pain of rejected love like God.   The issue is not ‘works’ – our attempts to do right – but faith – trusting God’s loving wisdom above our own so that we give up running our own lives – trying to be our own god – let God be God of our lives.   You can never be forced to love someone. Nor can you be forced to genuinely want purity of heart. The Giver has done all he can. It’s over to you.   By genuinely wanting to be removed from both the penalty and ‘pleasure’ of all sin and trusting the pardoning power of Jesus’ sacrifice, you give God free rein to do what he longs to do – pay your debt to justice and credit to your account the moral perfection of Christ. That makes you so pure in his eyes that you need no longer be isolated from him. You can then commence an endless communion with the most wonderful Person in the universe.   Related Webpages Satan, Evil Spirits and Temptation: You  Can Beat Them  - Winning secrets Spiritual Secrets Dying to self: the key to supernatural Christianity

Satan and Evil Spirits: You  Can Beat Them   The Secret to Casting Out Demons, Defeating the Devil, and Overcoming Temptation   The Forgotten Weapon in Spiritual Warfare And Key to Successful Deliverance Ministry     The Truth Summarized   Even though the Bible claims we have great power over evil, the way most of us actually live is humiliatingly different.   Christians are invincible in the face of evil only when they are in  total  submission to God and would rather suffer torture or loss or death than let evil win.   For those who are in union with Christ, evil spiritual powers are nothing but caged beasts, unable to touch us. Satan’s entire forces can only resort to idle threats or bribes to entice us into entering their cage where they can rip us apart. Nevertheless, Satan is such a supernaturally powerful evil genius that he can end up luring into his cage every living Christian. The only sure thing to protect us is what the Bible calls death. No one, no matter how terrifyingly cunning, can threaten or entice a dead person.   The key is not physical death but something that can at first seem as scary and as extreme. The Bible calls it death to self, or being crucified with Christ. Like Jesus’ death and resurrection, however, what seems like a ghastly end is actually the beginning of a brand new life. As Jesus revealed, losing one’s life for Jesus’ sake is the key to finding real life (Matthew 16:25; John 10:10). Becoming a true Christian is like recklessly throwing all your money away on “worthless” desert land. People mistakenly think you are a fool, because only you know there is an oil field underground.   As soon as you die with Christ, you rise with him and begin reigning with him, with your every spiritual enemy under your feet.   The Truth Expounded   Although vigorously denied by the average person, everyone not a genuine Christian is a slave of evil.   John 8:33-34  They answered him, “We . . . have never been slaves of anyone. . . .” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. . . .”   A person might have no idea he has lost his freedom until he tries to act as if he were free. If you enter a room and the door locks behind you, you might not realize you are imprisoned until you try to leave. Likewise, many people are blissfully unaware that they are enslaved by an addiction until they try to quit. Then they usually do their utmost to live in denial. “I could quit any time I want,” they tell themselves.   Being enslaved by evil applies to much more than what is commonly regarded as addictions.   Proverbs 5:22  The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast.   Acts 8:23  For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.   Romans 7:14   . . . unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.   Titus 3:3  At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.   Despite slavery to sin being broad, however, commonly accepted addictions provide a window on how slavery to sin operates.   As it begins to dawn that we are enslaved, our minds are likely to do surprising things to avoid the truth. For example, slaves to sin typically do their best to fool themselves into thinking they are enjoying their bondage. Years ago, when the dangers of smoking were less publicized, psychologists brought together a group of smokers. They asked the smokers to describe how much they liked smoking, then subjected them to a strong presentation on the dangers of smoking. A follow-up study revealed that those who kept on smoking despite increased awareness of the danger, claimed to enjoy smoking more than ever. What tricks our minds can play, rather than face the disturbing truth of bondage!   Peter highlighted the extent of people’s delusion:   2 Peter 2:19  They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity – for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.   The only way to remain free from slavery to sin – to not be mastered by evil – is to keep making God our master.   Matthew 6:24  No one can serve two masters. . .  You cannot serve both God and Money.   Romans 6:16-22  Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? . . . But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. . . . Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.   The only alternative to being a slave of evil is to become God’s slave. That sounds like bad news until we begin to realize the implications of having a master who is so mind-bogglingly good that he has no equal:   Mark 10:18   . . . No one is good – except God alone.   Being God’s slave is not remotely like being tricked and ensnared like sin’s slaves. Instead of forcibly submitting to a master who will destroy us, being God’s slave is voluntarily submitting to a master who, as Jesus proved, would rather be tortured to death than see us harmed. God’s slaves are love slaves. At any instant we could rebel, but we choose instead to revel in God’s loving wisdom, and obey like a starving man saying yes to food.   To be a love slave of God is not to lose one’s identity but to become more gloriously alive than we could ever otherwise hope to be. Obeying God is like a seal plunging into the ocean. Suddenly a clumsy, lumbering landlubber is transformed into a graceful, acrobatic sea creature, able to dart and somersault in astounding fashion. Nothing could be more liberating.   Whether God or evil is our master, is determined not by a one-off decision – deciding to become a Christian – but by whether we live in continual obedience to God. This is why Scripture has to warn Christians not to let sin become their master:   Romans 6:12  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.   Galatians 5:1  It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.   Remaining free from slavery to sin is a daily decision:   Luke 9:23  Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. . . .” (emphasis mine)   So unless we keep making God our master, sin and Satan and his hordes are able to enslave us. This is why “Submit yourselves, then, to God” comes immediately before, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Only when we are in complete submission to God can we expect to successfully resist the devil and his deceptive schemes.   We sometimes act as if “Lord” were a mere courtesy title. It means master, and this is why the word appears so often in the Bible. Fully obeying God, however, is nothing like the scary thing that it seems. It is warmer, safer and more satisfying that even obeying one’s own whims. What makes obeying God so satisfying is that no matter how much you want to look after your best interests, God wants it even more. The God of infinite love is more devoted to you and loves you more than you care for yourself. No matter how smart you are, the all-knowing Creator of the universe is wiser still. His guidance is the expression of his yearning to pour infinite intelligence and divine foreknowledge into your every decision. To obey God is to say goodbye to foolish decisions and hello to mastery over self. Yielding even to God’s scariest commands is not only the smartest decision you could ever make, it is like yielding to a lover’s caress.   Most of us are tempted to think, “I’ll obey God almost all the time. I’d only disobey if asked to do something that is exceptionally difficult.” That’s not letting God be our God. Making our own decisions as to which of God’s directions we will obey is making ourselves god – the one who decides what we do. To push God out of part of our lives is to reject wisdom and security and love. It not only breaks God’s heart, we deeply wound ourselves. Making oneself god is what Eve thought she was doing when she disobeyed God. Tragically, the devil fooled Eve into thinking that obeying God was not in her best interest. She thought that exercising the option of disobedience would make her as smart as God. Instead, she foolishly trashed her relationship with the true God, the Source of life. By refusing to let the loving Lord be her master, she became subject to the only alternative: death, sin and Satan became her master.   We find it so hard to take from theoretical doctrine to practical reality the thrilling truth that God is good, infinitely wise, and passionately and selflessly devoted to our eternal welfare. Little children are sure they know how to have the most fun – eating nothing but ice-cream and candy, chasing balls on to busy streets, sticking forks into electrical outlets, playing with scorpions, and so on. They remain safe, healthy and grow up to be outstanding adults, however, only by obeying parental directions that at the time they don’t like. No matter what our age, we find it hard to believe that there is anyone in the universe who knows better than us what is best for us. Nevertheless, the truth remains that, relative to the infinite intelligence of Almighty God, we are as little children and as likely as them to be dangerously mistaken as to what will end up giving us the greatest satisfaction and happiness. To submit to God is to let him give us his best. Like running for cover and warmth during a blizzard, we desperately need to snuggle into the God of infinite wisdom. To enter into total submission to God is to enjoy the ultimate safety.   If total obedience still seems scary, I understand. There’s a link at the end of this webpage just for you, about how God’s will for you is more wonderful than you could imagine. If, however, you are unsure as to whether you have a genuine personal relationship with God, it is vital to get this sorted immediately. Please bookmark this page and read  You Can Find Love  before proceeding.   The Implications for Deliverance Ministry   The practical importance for deliverance ministry of being in submission to God is seen in the dismal failure of the sons of Sceva to cast out a demon (Acts 19:13-16). Being not just Jews, but priests – sons of the chief priest, in fact – these men would have known Scripture exceptionally well and were most likely highly moral. They were probably also very caring and loving, since they were trying to relieve someone afflicted by demons. This all counted as nothing, however, because they were not in submissive union with Jesus. Their attempted exorcism was so disastrous that they themselves ended up attacked.   We are like five year olds in a tough neighborhood. Jesus is our devoted, much older brother. Our father has warned us to always stay close to big brother traveling to school and in the schoolyard, and for as long as we do we are safe. We must be careful not to feel untouchable, however; forgetting that only because big brother is with is that would-be child molesters avoid us and we can mock school thugs and see them retreat. Instead of going where our brother wants, we could decide it would be more fun elsewhere and run off alone, having no idea how vulnerable that simple act has made us. That’s what happens when we disobey God. We move out of the Almighty’s protection and have no conception of the terrifying danger that action exposes us to.   We can be like Samson compromising with Delilah and getting away with it for a while until suddenly we go too far and don’t realize it until the Philistines overcome us, take us captive and make us their plaything (Judges 16:4-25).   The centurion with the sick servant was highly commended by Jesus because he understood that power hinges on submission to authority (Matthew 8:9-10). Those under his command obeyed him as fully as we would like demons to obey us, but he recognized that he was obeyed only because he obeyed those above him. As a Roman soldier, he knew that submission does not allow him to choose which orders he will obey. He could not obey easy orders and reserve the right to disobey battle orders that could cost him his life.   Just as becoming a soldier means giving up the right to make one’s own decisions on critical matters, so does becoming a genuine Christian. Living in submission to God, however, is true freedom. Like an electrical appliance submitting to electricity, submitting to God empowers us and releases us into our full and glorious potential. It is what we were made for. Disobedience disconnects us from our life sources and renders us pathetically less than we were intended to be, like a disconnected electrical appliance that can only be turned by hand.   God, in his grace, can respond to anyone’s prayers. For instance, I’ve heard of Muslims converting to Christianity after discovering the effectiveness of using the name of Jesus in exorcism. Here’s scriptural confirmation that demons can sometimes be cast out in the name of Jesus without the exorcist being fully submitted to God:   Matthew 7:22-23  Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”   No wonder, when the seventy-two returned rejoicing and saying, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name,” Jesus replied, “ . . . do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:17,20).   Despite the occasional exception, however, no one has any  guarantee  of dominance over demons without total submission to Jesus. And even if the Lord were to graciously kick start our freedom removing a demon without us fully submitting to Jesus, we cannot hope to keep the demon permanently at bay without full submission.   John 15:4,5   . . . No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. . . . apart from me you can do nothing.   To not want full submission to God is as foolish and destructive as a branch no longer wanting the life of the vine flowing through it. Our power over evil teeters on the extent to which we are in perfect, submissive union with our Lord.   When Slavery is Good   Hebrews 9:15   . . . Christ . . . died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.   If we are truly saved/redeemed – rescued from the power and eternal consequences of sin – we are not free to make our own decisions. Jesus is our master.   1 Corinthians 7:23  You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.   Being bought by Jesus is contrasted with being a slave to a human master because biblical references to being bought/ransomed/redeemed are usually a reference to the purchasing of one’s liberty from slavery or imprisonment and often the thought of being bought at a slave market seems to be in mind.   The wondrous result of being “bought at a price” – having your freedom purchased by the blood of Jesus (Revelation 5:9) – is that you are God’s slave.   1 Corinthians 6:19-20  You are not your own; you were bought at a price.   To be God’s slave means that at last you belong to purity, royalty and divine authority. Yes, you obey as fully as a slave but with God as our master, we do so with the joy and devotion of a lover and with the dignity of a prince/princess of God.   When hoping to cast out demons, some people act as if there is something almost magical about using the words “blood of Jesus”. The sobering truth is that such words are powerless – and demons know this – unless they cease to be mere words but we are actually redeemed by the blood of Jesus. And if you are truly redeemed, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). If, however, you are “your own,” how can you be redeemed/saved from the bondage and eternal damnation of sin?   We were not freed so that we would again become enslaved and shamed by our fickle passions, but so that we would follow Christ. Pursuing our own whims would bring us back into slavery to sin again.   Galatians 5:1  It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.   If we disregard this warning we could actually fall into an even worse quagmire than before.   2 Peter 2:20  If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.   Those who follow this route could end up as Jesus described:   Luke 11:24-26  When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, “I will return to the house I left.” When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.   What Makes a Christian Invincible   The Bible insists that the devil and all his henchmen should cower, shivering in fear, before those who cling to Jesus. A baby Christian facing Satan and all his evil hordes should be as one-sided in favor of the Christian as a champion athlete facing a cunning but feeble ninety-year-old man. That word “cunning,” however, is not to be glossed over. Musclemen have handed over their valuables to weaklings armed with fake guns. Strong, intelligent men have been conned out of their money by the enticing but empty promise of get rich quick schemes. Still others have been duped into supposing they were having an Internet romance with a sexy young woman, when they were actually writing to an old man with a cruel sense of humor.   Like weaklings who can only use bluff, and con artists who in reality have nothing good to offer, defeated spiritual foes try to dominate us with terrifying, though hollow, threats or entice us by skillfully baiting their trap. The dilemma we face, however, is that most of us arrogantly suppose we are smart enough to see through his tricks, brave enough to ignore his threats and strong enough to resist the powerfully alluring bait concealing his deadly trap. Us thinking we can outwit this caged, evil genius is like a little child tinkering with a bomb, feeling sure he can dismantle it. Our enemy is supernatural. We are no more resistant to Satan than Simon Peter was able to resist denying Jesus, despite Peter being certain he could do it (Luke 22:33-34). Nothing but the most drastic action can save us – so drastic that the Bible rightly calls it death. Thankfully, dying with Christ to our old life, leads immediately to rising with Christ to a new life. It is like trading dirt for gold. Nevertheless, it seems almost suicide to those who have never experienced the unique joys and fulfillment that Christ offers.   2 Timothy 2:11-12  Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. . . .   John 12:25  The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.   Breakthrough   Christine once had eight demons. A while after being delivered, one of the most highly seductive of those demons appeared to her when she was feeling very low. Rather than yielding, she was furious at him for cruelly choosing her lowest time to try to seduce her, and immediately sent that demon packing by commanding him to leave. She then contacted me, declaring that she would choose Christ no matter what torment she had to endure. I immediately knew why Christine is a winner.   Christine had the attitude of Job: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him,” (Job 13:15, KJV) and of the three Hebrews about to be thrown into the furnace, who declared, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it . . .  But even if he does not , we want you to know, O king, that  we will not serve your gods  . . .” (Daniel 3:17-18 – emphasis mine). It is this attitude – being willing to endure anything for Christ – and only this attitude, that makes a Christian invincible.   Let me remind you of this:   Matthew 5:29-30  If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.   Of course Jesus did not mean we should injure our bodies. He was describing what it takes for a Christian not to be dominated by evil – a ruthless resolve to spare no pain or loss.   Jesus kept saying such things as:   Luke 9:23   . . . If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.   And he followed this up by sweating, as it were, drops of blood as he agonized over choosing to be tortured to death on the cross in submission to God. To be like Christ in the face of demons and temptation we must be like him in being willing to suffer “hell on earth” for heaven’s sake. When we have that determination to fight, no matter what the cost, demons sense it and flee. Ironically, that very determination to fight lessens the fight.   Let’s remind ourselves of how basic to Christianity it is to be resolved to suffer for Christ.   Romans 8:17  Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.   2 Thessalonians 1:5  . . . will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God,  for which you are suffering .  (Emphasis mine.)   The book of Revelation ends with:   Revelation 21:8  But the cowardly . . . – their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.   Earlier it said:   Revelation 13:10  If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints.   This is not the easy road that many of us mistakenly think is the Christian’s right. This promise of persecution and even death applies to the “saints” (see also Revelation 13:7). The “saints,” says Revelation 14:12, are those who “remain faithful to Jesus” – that is, true Christians.   So the Bible does not promise an easy time for Christians. To be Christians we must be willing to endure for the One who endured everything for us. “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude . . .” says 1 Peter 4:1. It then continues with a remarkable statement: “ . . . because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.” It is the person who is resolved to suffer whatever it takes to be faithful to Christ, who will be victorious over sin and evil. We must not cut this verse short:   Revelation 12:11  They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony;  they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death .  (Emphasis mine.)   You  Can Do It!   We begin to imagine all sorts of horrors are poised to savage us should we step into the security of God’s will. Such fears are largely satanic bluff, doomed never to materialize.   Nonetheless, heaven’s assignments aren’t always a piece of angel cake. There are moments when it seems the only thing more frightening than doing the will of God is not doing his will. We have as Leader and Supreme Example, One who suffered immensely.   Those who shrink from hardship or danger shrivel up inside; dead, long before their hearts stop. Don’t throw your life away, enslaved by the allure of opulence; lazing while suffering humanity floods past your door. The easy path leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13).   When people came to Jesus desiring to serve him, you’d think he would have smothered them with praise. But he knew the human heart. His blunt response shocked would-be followers into a painful realization of the great cost involved (Luke 14:25-33; Matthew 10:21-22) . “Sell all you have and give it to the poor” (Luke 18:22) . “Wild animals will have better shelter than you if you follow me” (Luke 9:57-8, loose paraphrase).   “To serve me,” he declared, “you must take up a cross” (Luke 9:23). Two thousand years later, it is easy to romanticize that brutal statement. Carrying one’s cross involves nothing less than anguish and devastating humiliation. It is suffering inflicted as a direct result of serving God; torment you could avoid by compromise. Jesus wasn’t looking for adherents; he was looking for martyrs. He wanted not admirers but imitators – volunteers who could shoulder a gibbet of pain (Matthew 20:22-3). The person more concerned about his neck than the exaltation of God, is unworthy of him (Luke 9:23-6).   The cost is exceeded only by the glory. So immense is the glory, in fact, that the cost fades, totally eclipsed by the reward (2 Corinthians 4:17; Revelation 7:16,17).   The cost frees us to express the depth of our devotion. Moreover, it’s the cost that produces the exhilaration, the fulfillment, the honor. Look at any field of endeavor: we admire heroic achievements; people who overcome the odds, who endure hardship and succeed where others would have slunk away. That’s the glory of Christ-likeness. There’s no honor in being swept along by a godless throng; no satisfaction in fleeing at the sight of a challenge; no glory in being dominated by fear or frozen by doubt. We either walk through the curtain of fear or end up a broken shell of the person we could have been. To choose the soft life is to turn our back on our bleeding Savior and lose ourselves in Satanic deception. It’s those who sow in tears who reap in joy; (Psalm 126:6) those who endure who win the crown (1 Corinthians 9:24-27; James 1:12; Revelation 2:10; 3:11). Insipid, half-hearted ‘Christianity’ is sickening to God, the world and the devil.   That’s not for you. You belong in heaven’s hall of fame. You were born with the desire for it; born-again with the power for it. You were made for daring persistence, stunning triumphs, awe-inspiring excellence. While others wallow in the mud of mediocrity, sentenced to eternal obscurity by their half-heartedness, you’re breaking free, bringing honor to the One who redeemed you.   Fired by the love of God, live life to the full.   In a heart-stopping display of skill, Blondin pushed a wheel-barrow along a tight-rope over Niagara Falls. “Who believes I could carry someone across the falls?” he asked. The crowd went wild. Of course he could. So he asked for a volunteer.   Shocked silence.   Life is like that. Anyone can slip into Christ’s embrace and be carried to startling conquests, but when the call comes, knees begin to quake. The weakest saint who dares follow Christ will excel; the strongest who stays behind will be crushed.   The last time I flirted with danger was when I decided against a double knot to tie my shoelace. I have a heart of gold – yellow to the core. Yet Christ died that I might rule. Yield to my old nature and I cower; yield to my Christ-bought nature and I conquer.   Fear will come. I can’t avoid it, but through Christ I need not bow to it. Victor or victim: it’s my decision.   The tragedy is that we are often enslaved by forces that are meant to be our slaves. Rather than being tyrannized by fear, we should rise up and let it serve us. Fear’s duty is to impel us to prayer. Deprived of this faithful servant we might foolishly expose ourselves to danger without activating God’s wall of safety.   Ensure your plans are in the will of God. Then list every fearful possibility. Pray through each point for as long as it takes to muster the faith that God has taken control. Now you have divine protection, the highest conceivable security. Fear has done its work. Bid it farewell. Like a naughty puppy, fear may still tag along, but ignore it. Reciting the fear-crushing promises of Scripture, fix your eyes on the goal and stride toward it.   Waiting for fear to fade before advancing is like Peter waiting for the lake to evaporate before stepping out of the boat. Faith is the defeat of fear – not usually by fear’s removal, but by moving us to proceed despite fear’s yelps.   If the torment is intense, the support of experienced counselors can be valuable. Be prayerful about your choice of help, however. Unwise counselors can wound.   Heaven’s heroes are natural weaklings who are willing to let Christ make them supernaturally strong.   All of heaven is on red alert when you follow Father’s orders. Help is a prayer away. Heaven’s resources – infinitely more than you will ever require – are available the instant you need them (Matthew 21:12-19; Luke 10:19; 21:12-19). As you march forward in obedience success is certain.   Freed!   Perhaps by not realizing that there are situations where a verbal contract is binding, or by some other means, many people have been tricked into contracts in which payment is taken from their bank account each month without them realizing it. Once they discover the implications they are horrified, but no matter how vehemently they protest and want it to end, payment will still be extracted month after month after month unless they formally terminate the contract.   This is almost identical to what happens when we think we are doing something innocuous but are actually getting involved in the occult without even realizing it. (For example, by having our fortune told we are submitting to anti-God supernatural forces; giving them permission to influence our futures.) There are countless ways in which we can be tricked into entering a spiritual contract that will continue despite us finally discovering the implications and wanting the nightmare to end. Only a formal termination of the contract will free you. By “formal,” I mean specifically repenting of your former involvement, breaking all ties (such as destroying objects, books, and so on associated with it) and declaring to the spirit world (preferably by speaking out loud) that through your union with the devil-defeating, crucified and now-risen Lord, you refuse all the “benefits” and curses associated with involvement with this practice.   The challenge is in identifying everything that could cause bondage. For help with this, please see relevant links at the end of this webpage.   Don’t Expect Instant Deliverance   When the all-powerful Son of God was gloriously victorious over a temptation in the wilderness, Satan did not slink away in defeat. Undeterred, the Evil One moved straight on to trying to seduce the Holy One with a completely different temptation. And when Jesus again delivered a crushing defeat on the enemy, he pounded the Son of God with yet another insidious temptation. Finally, after being beaten yet again, Satan left – but only, as the King James Version puts it, “for a season” or in the words of the NIV, “until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13).   Demons leave only with great reluctance. Like naughty children, they will test us to the limit to see if we really believe we have authority over them or whether they can bluff their way into staying by pretending to be stronger than us. Don’t be surprised or think it indicates you are weak when demons put up a fight.   When we read, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7), let’s not get so carried away with the final result (him fleeing) that we forget that the key word is “resist”. If we have to resist, it must be because he and his minions will put up a fight.   You can expect quite a battle of wills. But even when they finally leave, that is not the end of the story. Jesus spoke of a demon who left a man and then returned. The man happened to have his defenses down and so the demon not only re-entered the man but invited seven other demons to join him (Matthew 12:43-45). The point I must emphasize is that it is typical of demons to keep coming back, checking one’s defenses to see if they can re-enter.   As I so often find myself reminding Christians: Satan and his evil hordes are sore losers. Once they find something that shakes you up they will keep trying it over and over relentlessly until they are absolutely convinced that their tactics will never again work with you. When, finally, they seem to leave, it is only to bide their time for a surprise attack. Their persistence is so very unpleasant for you. The positive side, however, is that this will make you stronger and stronger as you keep resisting his lies.   The enemy of our souls is the master deceiver because that is all he can do. The devil cannot change reality. He cannot change the fact that God loves you with  all  of his unlimited love and that Christ died for the sins of the entire world, which has to include every sin you have ever committed. So all he can do is mess with your feelings, hoping that you will start to believe them rather than believe in the power of Christ and the love of God.   Conclusion   Through sin, we had sold ourselves into slavery to evil. By dying in our place, Christ paid the price required to transfer our ownership from Satan to God. By so doing he utterly stripped our spiritual enemies of power over us. While we remain love slaves to Christ, evil spiritual powers cannot touch us. They have nothing left but their evil cunning with which to try to lure us away from Christ into their fangs. And Christ has provided the way whereby even their attempts to con us cannot touch us.   If we learnt to fly a plane the way most of us approach our relationship with God, we would focus on what we suppose to be the fun parts, give little attention to how to land, and ignore safety requirements. Then we would wonder why there are so many fatalities.   If we look at the full revelation of God we see that victorious Christians are the one who are in total submission to God. They are those who, to use some of the Bible’s many different expressions, have denied themselves, died to self, died with Christ, or crucified the flesh, and are slaves of Christ. The demon-crushing, temptation-beating power of Christ flows through the veins of those who, like Christ, submit to God no matter what the cost. Their eyes are so fixed on the eternal, that pleasure or the avoidance of pain and suffering mean nothing to them relative to the matchless joy of obeying God. This is the resolve that makes them invincible. They can’t be bought and they can’t be tricked by appeals to the ego. They can’t be threatened and can’t be bribed or seduced. Against these Christians, evil spiritual powers are left weaponless.

When a Christian Commits Gross Sin   Some Christians find it easier to accept God’s forgiveness for their pre-conversion sins, than to believe God would fully cleanse and forgive them of ‘gross’ or repeated sin after becoming a Christian. But since the Holy Lord forgave while you are his enemy, how much more will he forgive now that you are his friend!   It is true that for the person to whom much has been given, much is required. It is also true, however, that God’s offer and conditions for forgiveness do not change after we are saved. Cleansing is available through and only through the shed blood of our Savior, and our request for forgiveness must be accompanied by repentance, which involves regret that the sin was committed and a genuine desire never to do such a thing again.   You know how strongly Jesus attacked hypocrisy. He sees right through sham repentance – asking forgiveness when you have every intention of continuing to sin, should the opportunity arise, or being so stupid as to be pleased that you had sinned. A death-bed repentance, for example, though possible, is probably less common than is often thought, because a person who realizes he is dying knows his life of sin is over anyhow. He could be quite pleased he sinned and now imagines he can have the best of both worlds – a life of sin on earth and an eternity of pleasure in heaven. God is not mocked.   Nevertheless, if you genuinely wish your whole life (past, present and future) were sin-free, forgiveness is fully available to the Christian and non-Christian alike, regardless of the gravity of the sin. If God so loved you as to forgive you while you were his enemy, how much more does he long to forgive you now that you are his blood-bought child.   John wrote to Christians, ‘My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world’ (1 John 2:1-2).   If anyone repeatedly sins against us and keeps repenting, Jesus insisted that we must forgive that person over and over and over and over.  Dare we accuse Almighty God of hypocrisy? He asks us to be that forgiving of those who repeatedly repent because that’s the way he forgives us.   Scripture provides us with many examples of God forgiving his people of ‘gross’ sin. Let’s examine a few.   From crushing defeat to eternal fame   We find him lurking in the shadows of Scripture. He was a breath of fresh air in a whirlwind. John Mark was bad news. In the human race he led the field from go to woe. He has often been identified with Christianity’s first streaker – the man who blurred through Gethsemane’s garden with the raw grace of a plucked chicken, leaving behind his clothes and his Savior (Mark 14:51-52). More humiliations were to follow.   His unflattering nickname, stub-fingered, suggests he was physically impaired. To this he added a handicap of his own making: he was branded a deserter – a second time.   When the pressure mounts, the last thing you need is for a trusted companion to abandon you. That’s what Mark did to Paul and Barnabas.   His desertion seems to have deeply hurt Paul. The apostle was adamant that hanging out with this dodo was a no-no. Barnabas, who always stood up for the under-dog , defended his cousin Mark. The result was a rift between old friends; the shattering of a great missionary team (Acts 15:37-39). We never hear of Barnabas again.   One look at ‘stump-finger’s’ yellow face and you knew this jinx had had mistake and eggs for breakfast again. Whenever this egg-head cracked, everyone got egg on their face. Just what the church needs! He must have felt as blue as a browned off white man seeing red because he’s accused of being yellow.   Mark could have drowned in self-pity. He could have resented Paul. He could have turned back to Judaism. Instead, he redoubled his efforts, eventually being recognized even by Paul as having an outstanding ministry (2 Timothy 4:11; Colossians 4:10; Philemon 24). Peter also spoke affectionately of him (1 Peter 5:13). As writer of possibly the earliest gospel and a primary source of Matthew and Luke, Mark’s contribution even to today’s church is beyond measure. This planet is a better place today because nineteen centuries ago a ‘no-hoper’ called stub-fingered decided to tough it out.   Knowing our weaknesses, our loving Father has preserved many such stories for us to gain strength.   ‘Then will I teach transgressors your ways,’ crooned David. When? After a calamitous moral fall (Psalm 51: title, 3-5, 12-13).   ‘Simon ... feed my sheep’ (John 21:17). When? After denying his Savior.   ‘He slew at his death more than he slew in his life’ (Judges 16:30, paraphrase). When? After Samson’s greatest humiliation.   Samson and David each knew the horror of spiritual failure. On the crest of their vocation, they plunged to abominable depths. Their lapses were inexcusable. Their ministries were desecrated. Yet they refused to dwell in defeat. They were failures for a moment, but they were overcomers forever. Grasping God’s hand of forgiveness, they clambered to new heights for the exaltation of the One who washed them clean.   Oppression crushed Simon the rock into sand. On the brink of ministry, after years of grooming, he blew it. He lied. He invoked a curse on himself. He disowned his Lord (Matthew 26:74). Yet though it rocked him, this one-time rock didn’t peter. Empowered by his Savior, he again turned to stone.   Though the righteous – that’s you and me in Christ Jesus – fall seven times, they rise again. That’s a promise (Proverbs 24:16, see also Psalm 37:23-24).  It was just a hair-cut For the plaything of Delilah; And just a prayer-cut For Peter the denier. Strong they dozed But weak arose, And knew it not.    Men destroyed by fatal cuts; Left to wallow in their ruts; Left with blame And haunting shame, In sin to rot.    A seed so small and barely sown Meant to die, but how it’s grown! Things so small Grow so tall, But marvel not.    If sin can grow, So can prayer; If prayers will flow, So will hair. With faith restored Hope will soar, And blunders blot.    His repentance real, The victim of Delilah, Had victories still. And the spineless Christ-denier Shed his shame And became The church’s rock.   Please Take this to Heart: If you spoke with me face to face I could only keep pleading with you to read every webpage in this series. I know of no other way to help you. Even if you find reading very difficult and time-consuming, I assure you that writing these webpages takes far more out of me than reading each page dozens of times takes out of you. Despite me being a painfully slow writer, I have provided you with so much about support in realizing that you are forgivable that if it were put in book form it would be 300 pages long. And none of this was done to convince myself. I have never even momentarily doubted Jesus’ willingness and power to forgive everyone. And I have never benefited the slightest financially nor ever hoped to benefit. I have done my utmost. It is now entirely up to you to prayerfully read it all however many times it takes to get it to sink deep into your spirit.

Practical Ways to End Guilt Feelings   How to be Free From Spiritual Deception   Three Powerful Steps 1.   Distinguish between feelings and reality   Feelings are fickle and easily manipulated by spiritual enemies or by life experiences that distort our perception of reality.   A pilot is a danger to himself and to everyone near him until he learns to totally disregard his own feelings as to his orientation and puts his faith solely in the plane’s instruments. Likewise, we are in grave danger until we come to disregard our feelings and place all our faith in God’s instrument panel – his Word. That’s because the Deceiver can mess with our feelings, but he can never change God’s truth. God’s Word always lines up with reality, allowing us to navigate our spiritual life with precision, whereas our feelings are invariably all over the place. So whether we crash or soar heavenwards hinges on whether we rely on God’s Word or on our emotions to determine whether we are right with God.   We keep hearing such testimonies as, “I asked Jesus into my heart and was flooded with love and peace,” “A voice spoke from nowhere, telling me God loves me,” “I just  knew  I was forgiven.” Anyone having such experiences is a spiritual babe and highly vulnerable to spiritual ruin until he or she rises to the point of saying, “I am holy in God’s sight because in the Bible the God who cannot lie has put it in writing and I will cling to this fact no matter what supernatural experiences suggest otherwise. I will remain immovable in my conviction, no matter how strong the circumstantial evidence that God has made me an exception to his universal promise to cleanse everyone who puts his/her faith in Jesus.”   For more on this important subject, bookmark this page (or do something to ensure you don’t lose the web address to this webpage – it is a huge website) and go to When God Seems Far Away and the page it leads to.   2.  Turn head knowledge into heart knowledge   To flood your head with knowledge takes moments, but it takes months of effort for even a drip to soak through to that part of you – call it your heart, your conscience, your subconscious, or whatever – that most often influences your feelings.   Until we can get the truth to sink deep, everything within us is screaming against the truth; opposing every speck of spiritual progress. Until then, we have a bad conscience – not merely in the sense of a nagging conscience but in the sense of it being completely unreliable by accusing us when the divine Judge pronounces us innocent. Being lumbered with a malfunctioning conscience reduces an eternally fulfilling life into a draining, dispiriting struggle, like trying to keep pedaling a bicycle, pushing uphill against strong winds. As the truth trickles slowly into the deepest recesses of our being, however, our consciences gradually adjust. Eventually, it is as if the road flattens and the wind subsides, until finally we find ourselves coasting downhill with a tail wind, with only the occasional harder stretch.   For life to become this easy, our consciences must be reprogrammed by the Word of God. The limitation of the computer analogy, however, is that it suggests a process much quicker than it takes to correct one’s conscience. The human conscience is more complex than a machine. It is more like a pet dog trained to bark at strangers. Then its owner moves from a farm to high density housing where not only is there no need to bark at strangers, such behavior is unacceptable to neighbors. The difficult retraining process that this would require is a better picture of the frustration and effort involved in retraining one’s conscience. For your conscience to reach its current state probably took very many years and much repetition of negative messages going around and around in your head. So to retrain it will likewise take much time and repetition of messages.   The process starts in the head and, for most of us, negative thoughts have had a head start of many years. Ably supported by the enemy of our souls, our mind has been filling with lies that do not stand up to the truth of God’s Word. This head start means the devil’s lies will seem more real to us than God’s truth, and this will never change while we remain lazier than the forces attacking our minds. By in the past agreeing with the devil’s accusations against us – and before we were born again those accusations were accurate – we have developed powerful mental habits that are as difficult to break as any life-controlling addiction. The bad habit we have slipped into is thinking of ourselves as being the pathetic creature we would be if it had not been for Christ’s transforming power. Our thinking hasn’t caught up with present day spiritual realities; much less leapt to the unthinkable wonders God has planned for our future.   Although the Evil One has declared war on everyone who belongs to God, victory is yours for the taking. You have already surrendered, however, if you let his lies play in a continual loop in your mind, instead of constantly drowning out the lies by repeating God’s truth over and over and over in your mind. Any one of us can win, but I will not kid you – it takes hard mental effort. The lies will come effortlessly because they do not come from you and, having had a head start, they flow along time-worn paths. To displace the lies and to get the truth to trickle through rarely-traveled paths into our consciences takes continual effort. For years God-hating fiends have been filling our minds with lies. The only way to counteract the brainwashing is to fill our minds with truth as diligently as the enemies of Truth have been filling our minds with lies.   For this reason, despite there being so many other subjects I could be addressing, I have invested much time writing many webpages on this one subject. I have striven to produce for you a valuable resource, presenting the reality of your complete forgiveness in fresh, insightful, attention-grabbing ways. My goal is to make it as easy as possible for you to keep you meditating on the truth. The more you focus on the truth the more it will set you free. So devour the pages like a starving person. A single reading of all the relevant pages and Scriptures will not suffice, just as a single pill would not cure a physical sickness. Day in and day out, you need to keep taking the prescribed medication, even continuing for a while after you seem to be totally healed. There is no quick fix.   Why do we keep hoping for an instant, effortless cure when the Word of God is crammed with pleas like the following?   Romans 8:25  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.   Revelation 14:12  This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.   Psalms 130:5  I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.   Deuteronomy 11:18  Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  (19)  Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  (20)  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates   Joshua 1:8  Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night . . .   Colossians 4:12  Epaphras . . .  is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.   Luke 18:1  Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.   Yes, in an instant, Joseph was whisked from prison to being second in charge of all of Egypt – after years of languishing in slavery and prison. In an instant, David was brought from minding Dad’s sheep to being anointed king of Israel – followed by years on the run, hiding from Saul’s murderous thugs. In God, quick, easy transformations happen. Like times when you find cash while traveling to work, quick, easy transformations are part of our experience, but not the mainstay of our spiritual life.   Given the nature of our enemy, I predict that if you keep prayerfully reading for long enough, doubts will eventually ease – but only to return later. Whenever they return, it’s your cue to yet again refresh your mind with the truths expounded in these pages.   As perverse as it seems, some people would rather sentence themselves to hell than put in a little effort. I beg you not to let laziness give your enemy the upper hand and rob you of God’s best.   We need more than self-effort, of course. We need God. So why not pray to him right now?   Lord, I look to you for the strength and determination to cling to the truth of your Word, no matter how artificial that truth feels to me in the midst of a trial or spiritual attack. Cause me to display the faith that honors you – faith that doesn’t have to be propped up by gooey feelings or special confirmation. May I not insult you by implying your Word needs confirmation in order for you to be proved trustworthy. It’s not as if you would honor your Word if it felt right to me and you would turn into a liar if something didn’t feel right to me.  What matters is what you declare to be true, not how out of sync with spiritual reality my conscience is. May my faith rest not in the insecurity of fleeting feelings or heavenly signs but solely in the matchless integrity of the One who upholds the very universe and shed his blood for me. I seek your revelation about spiritual truth but I also seek the maturity to accept that if you have put a truth in black and white and signed it in your blood, then it is the ultimate in reliability. May I rise to the challenge of living according to your truth, refusing to yield to nagging feelings put there by the Deceiver, the “Accuser of the brethren.”   Thank you that it is completely irrelevant whether or not I’m the worst and most hopeless sinner on earth or how often I’ve turned my back on you and let you down. All that matters is that Jesus died in my place, binding his destiny to mine, and simply by asking him he has united himself to me, giving me his status and purity. Thank you that regardless of what feelings I have and regardless of what I have done and how hopeless I am, because Jesus traded places with me on the cross, I am in your eyes as spotlessly perfect as Jesus.     I cannot get physically fit for you. Likewise, no matter how much I would like to do it for you, only you can get God’s truth deep into your spirit. Like getting physically fit, it takes a lot of effort and doing the same things over and over for weeks and then maintaining it for the rest of your life. I suggest you read the following and seriously consider resolving that whenever you eat the smallest thing, you precede it by reading to yourself some or all of the following. Or maybe you could find something else you regularly do during the day and form the habit of linking that activity with reading from the list. I suggest you select those statements you feel will be most helpful, print them out and carry them with you. Memorize them if possible. When convenient, don’t just repeat them silently but say them out loud. Whenever you repeat one of them, savor it. Do your best to enjoy the truth it expresses. During your early attempts you are sure to be attacked by doubts and guilt feelings. Ignore them. Accept each statement as truth and refuse to tolerate negative thoughts about it.   *  God says in his Word that my sins are pardoned, forgiven, not remembered, wiped out, swept away, taken away, removed as far as the east is from the west (an infinite distance), trampled on (destroyed) and hurled into the depths of the sea, unable to be found, blotted out, cleansed, washed, made as white as snow.   *  Salvation is never deserved. Salvation is by faith (in Jesus’ ability to secure my forgiveness) not by works. So my salvation hinges on me choosing to believe my eternal destiny depends solely on what Jesus has done for me and not the slightest on what I have done.   I make that choice right now. I choose to regard my works (irrespective of whether they seem good or bad) as powerless to determine my fate. I believe that Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection on my behalf – and that alone – determines my spiritual destiny. I place my faith solely in Jesus and not in my efforts. Therefore, according to the promise of Almighty God, the blood of Jesus cleanses me from all sin. The magnitude of my unworthiness and the grossness of my depravity is swallowed up by Jesus’ power to save and his worthiness.   *  I am not the person who sinned. That person died with Jesus. That person is dead – non-existent.   *  As Jesus rose from the dead, so with him I have risen to a brand new life.   *  The past has passed. In Christ I am a new person; fresh, clean and completely free from my past. The person I now am – newly created by Jesus – is spotlessly pure and innocent.   *  On the cross, Jesus traded places with me. He has taken all my blame and given me his holiness. Because Jesus swapped places with me, I am sinless in the eyes of my Judge.   *  Jesus was tortured so that everyone who accepts his sacrifice could go scot-free. He bore my punishment. I refuse to torment myself because that would be rendering his agony on my behalf a waste. I choose to delight Jesus and make his suffering for me worthwhile by enjoying his forgiveness.   *  God forgives me, so lest I imply my standards are holier than God’s, I forgive myself.   *  The Bible says I am “in Christ.” As my skin completely covers my body, so Christ’s beauty and righteousness and honor completely covers and beautifies me.   *  Jesus makes me whole. In him I am complete.   *  I delight in all that I now am in Christ Jesus. I am excited about the pure, holy and loved person that I have become because of Jesus.   *  God is glorified by forgiving me. The more unforgivable I seem the more the extravagant riches of God’s love and mercy are revealed, to the praise of this glory.   *  God is in love with me.   *  Faith means pleasing God by refusing to give up despite the devastating mountain of evidence and feelings and doubts that seem to scream that it is hopeless. To have faith is to act like the Canaanite woman who earned Jesus’ praise by refusing to give up despite everything being stacked against her and repeatedly suffering apparent rejection from Jesus and his disciples. By refusing to take ‘No’ for an answer, she not only got her miracle, she gained eternal honor. I will thrill the heart of God by acting like her. No matter how much my heart fills with doubts and fears, I will persist, for the glory of the One who loved me and gave his life for me.   I have provided these statements because reading all the relevant Scriptures every time before you eat, although the spiritual ideal, might result in severe weight loss. So I have condensed biblical truth into a few brief statements. It is important to realize, however, that these statements are not a human invention. They are summaries of the very Word of God. to help convince you of the scriptural authority behind these statements I have carefully selected dozens of the hundreds of Scriptures affirming the truth of these statements. You need to absorb the power of the Scripture, the authoritative Word of God that declares your eternal destiny.  So I beg you to please study   It’s True!     3.  Escape the lonely dungeon of secrecy   James 1:23-24 speaks of people who by looking in the mirror of God’s Word see themselves as they really are. The moment they look away, however, they forget. An obvious solution is not to look away, but keep gazing on the image of yourself that you see in God’s Word.   Because self-image is so critical and is affected by other people’s opinion:   Your entire life ends up limited by how you think others think about you.   Let’s refine this still further:   How you live is limited by how you think others would think about you  if they knew everything about you.   This addition is critical. It explains why many people can receive an abundance of heart-felt praise and encouragement and it doesn’t do a thing for them. Even if literally millions of people were to think the world of them, they would still feel lonely and unloved and be haunted by an abysmally low self-esteem. Praise is wasted on them because they have no idea whether anyone would praise the person they really are. They have concealed a secret precisely because they think – usually wrongly – that the truth would completely alter everyone’s view of them.  We can go one step further in our maxim about what determines our self-image and the life we end up living:   How you live is limited by how you think others  whose opinions you respect  would think you are if they knew everything about you.  Some people respect their own opinions so strongly that they are little influenced by the views of others. As Christians, the opinion we most respect should be God’s. In theory, no other opinion should matter to us. In practice, it is almost impossible for us to think God thinks a certain way about us if we suspect that all of God’s earthly servants would think otherwise if they knew all there is to know about us.  Of course, even our refined maxim does not define exactly who you are, but it determines your self-image. It is what you end up genuinely believing about yourself. And it is as difficult as trying to act out of character to avoid acting in complete conformity with your self-image. The self-image God wants Christians to have – the one he has painstakingly portrayed in his Word – is a continual inspiration that fills us with zest for life. The self-image our spiritual enemies want us to have is an oppressive straightjacket.  The Twelve Steps Programs have a powerful saying:   "You are only as sick as your secrets”  The agents of darkness lose much of their power when hidden things are brought into the light. To hide the things that haunt us, treating them as dark secrets to be kept from other Christians, is to try to fight the forces of darkness on their own turf. It is to play into their hands, foolishly putting ourselves at a dangerous and totally unnecessary disadvantage in our spiritual fight.   “ . . . in; the multitude of counselors there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14). The cunning enemies of our soul are well aware that their chances of hoodwinking us soar if they can somehow pressure us into isolating ourselves from our greatest human sources of comfort and spiritual wisdom. Their evil strategy is to keep us from sharing with other Christians our deepest concerns because these spiritual con artists know that feedback from God’s children will bring us back to reality and help us see through the lies deceptive spirits have kept whispering in our lonely ears. The forces of evil want exclusive access to the most vulnerable area of our lives   Every street-wise city dweller knows that to walk alone in the dark is the scariest, most unwise place to be. There is security in numbers.  Beasts of prey are forever on the prowl for sheep that become separated from the flock. To try to isolate us from the counsel and comfort of every Christian on the planet is a truly devilish trick. And this is exactly what happens when we are conned into condemning ourselves to the icy loneliness of keeping an area of our life hidden from even the most trusted of our friends and the most warmly accepting, Christlike person we know. The enemy is happy for us to receive affirmation in those parts of our life in which we don’t need help, as long as we are duped into cutting ourselves off from every trace of love and support in the very area of our life that is causing us the greatest torment. Refusing to unburden ourselves to anyone Christlike makes us terrifyingly vulnerable to spiritual blackmail, demonic delusions, groundless fears, suicidal despair, and being cheated out of all the wondrous privileges that cost Christ everything to lavish upon us.   Child molesters have the condemnation of society and the full force of the law against them and yet still they turn innocent children into long-term helpless victims. It would almost seem impossible they could get away with it, and yet they do because they fill childish minds with false guilt and with despicable lies about the consequences of spilling the beans. They might say, “If you breathe a word of this, whoever hears it will know it is all your fault and that you are the most repulsively wicked person on earth. They will tell your parents who will be so angry and cry for days, wishing they had never had you and punishing you worse than you could ever imagine. Then they’ll have to tell the police, who will arrest you and keep beating you to make sure you tell them every single detail. The story will be headlines in all the newspapers and television, and everyone in the whole world will hate you. Mobs will march through streets burning photos of you and demanding you be executed. The police will throw you in jail for life and all the other prisoners will be do cruel things to you because they know you are so much worse than any of them.”   Such threats are made to seem so real to little children that they dare not say a word, but in terrified silence they suffer unspeakable horrors alone, cut off from all the comfort and protection that would have been theirs.   Thus these law-breakers keep their victims suffering horrifically when in reality help is so close at hand and it is the molesters who should be guilt-ridden and terrified of being discovered. Demonic powers – the slimy agents of evil that lust after your soul and long to dominate you – use the same evil tactics, hounding you with groundless fears in the hope that you won’t breathe a word to someone who could give you the love and comfort and relief you so desperately deserve.  The spiritual lowlife arrayed against us aren’t too excited about us having good, Christian friends that we let into 99% of our life. Nevertheless, they are thrilled if there is just a small but vulnerable area of our life in which we act like loners. We give our spiritual opponents the upper hand whenever by giving in to false shame we in effect block everyone out of the very part of our life that is under spiritual attack. That way our enemies have a wounded part of us that they can cause to fester because we won’t let others touch it with the healing balm of their love and understanding and acceptance. They seek an area of your life into which they can keep pouring in false accusations unchallenged by the truth that God imparts through other Christians.   Throughout history, one of the hallmarks of genuine revivals has been the open confession of sin. What seems scary, turns out to be one of the most liberating experiences known to humanity. The ending of guilty secrets brings heaven – that joyous place of transparent honesty – to earth.   One of the most astounding tragedies is that many of those who feel the loneliest, most unloved people on the planet have wonderfully loving friends, families and marriage partners. Their lives seem flooded with love and yet to them it feels like a sham because they are living a lie. You are doomed never to know you are capable of being loved if you shrink from letting anyone know the real you. You can never feel loved while hiding in the bleak, scary, lonely hole of secrecy. Holding on to a guilty secret is the loneliest place in the universe. It is locking yourself up in a haunted dungeon filled with ghosts from the past. It is sentencing yourself to being constantly on edge, afraid of shadows.   The time will come when every secret will be exposed. Get it over with now so that you can start living. Leave it much longer and it could be too late. To freely confess will be your glory. To have it exposed against your wishes will be to your eternal shame.   You might suppose you have no need to share your secret with anyone because it is a matter between you and God. There is no question that God’s view is paramount. If, however, you are too ashamed to tell others about something God says is totally forgiven and is no longer a part of you, it would seem most peculiar. It means you are cutting yourself off from much of the comfort God wants you to have through his children. Moreover, it suggests you are struggling to believe the past has really been cancelled. If so, you would greatly benefit from the support of other Christians and from the knowledge that they accept the real you.   Furthermore, by maintaining the secret, you are keeping others from blessing. Too many of us act as if our mighty Savior is as pathetic as petty humans who can only forgive “small” sins. We reinforce this heresy when we participate in the giant cover up in which Christians dare not glorify their Savior by declaring the extent of God’s forgiveness in their our lives for fear fellow believers prove unable to believe – or at least unable to act as if they believe – that God is as forgiving as the Bible says. Open confession helps break the satanic conspiracy of silence that causes so many Christians to clam up and makes each think that they alone in their congregation have serious battles with sin. It is the breaking of this silence that helps power revivals.  Let me share something I wrote elsewhere:   Who would have guessed that a religion stressing lofty morals would cram into its holiest book the slimy details of King “Peeping Tom” David, “lover-boy” Solomon, fish-breath Jonah, sleazy Jacob, and two-faced Judah (Genesis 38:11-26), to mention just a few of the seething swarm of con-men, backstabbers, rapists, murderers and whores that fill the Word of God?   Few Christian biographies are as fiercely honest as Scripture. If there were more books that gently peel the plastic off famous Christians, it would be easier for us to realize that we belong in the big league. For instance, John Wesley’s godly parents had a marriage so stormy it still puts the wind up people. His own string of abortive romances continued until finally he married, at age forty-seven. “The marriage started poorly and went downhill from there,” wrote Petersen. “Perennial mutual resentment” was how another writer described the union that spluttered and flared for twenty torturous years until ending in permanent separation.   Dwight Moody’s Christian graces have rightly been extolled, but have you heard of his temper? In public he once pushed someone with such violence that the man was sent reeling down the stairs. “This meeting is killed,” gasped a friend of Moody, “The large number who have seen the whole thing will hardly be in a condition to be influenced by anything more Mr. Moody may say tonight.”   Martin Luther wrote things about Jews that, to say the least, are highly regrettable. And many of our early Protestant heroes in Europe, Britain and America, favored killing their theological opponents at the stake or gallows.   It takes a special life to win the devotion of natives the way David Livingstone did. Stanley glued himself to Livingstone day and night, week after week, and the experience melted his hard journalist’s heart. Four months of intense scrutiny led him to praise Livingstone’s piety, gentleness and zeal. “I never found a fault in him,” he marveled. Yet though we could dwell long on the virtues that gilded Livingstone’s soul, slag touched the gold. It is said that throughout his life serious personality defects dogged his service.   John Sung has been called rude, stubborn, a poor family man, and China’s greatest evangelist.   Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision had one driving passion: “Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.” An experienced biographer and researcher lauded him, declaring that “few people in history” have “demonstrated greater compassion for suffering humanity than Bob Pierce.” Yet just sentences later we read that “the love that he gave so freely” to others “was given so sparingly to the ones who needed it most – his wife and his daughters.”   If you knew C. T. Studd personally you would probably be offended by his authoritarianism, his sledge-hammer bluntness, his harsh ultimatums. Like his own mission committee, you might worry about his use of morphine and want to suppress his book  Don’t Care a Damn.  In common with those who knew and loved him most – even close family members – you may feel compelled to withdraw from this great missionary.   We cannot idolize our heroes without falling into heresy, such as the satanic lie that being used by God is a reward for living an exemplary life. Service – like salvation, holiness and every other spiritual gift – is always an undeserved gift received by childlike faith (Galatians 3:2-5). God broke into the apostle Paul’s life and assigned to him his enormous ministry, not after he had proved himself, but when the man was fuming with murderous rage against Christ; while he was still – as he later confessed – the “chief” of sinners, torturing Christians in the hope of making them blaspheme (Acts 26:9-11,15-18; 22:4-8,10,14-16).Though it was years before he was released into its fullness, the timing of that original call is both illuminating and liberating. May the implications ricochet within our heads until our dying day.   Yes, our character flaws grieve and defame the Holy One. Yes, we must move heaven and earth to root out our defects. And yes, as impossible as it sounds, God’s holy power can trickle through flawed, sin-stained channels to a thirsty world.     God does not use synthetic saints petrified in stained glass or mummified in strained biographies. If the paper people squashed between book covers or exhibited in special Sunday services seem real to you, you’ll love the Easter Bunny. If you were thinking of cornering the market on your brand of inadequacy, forget it; heaven’s databanks bulge with the triumphs of people with quirks like yours. Heaven’s heroes are people with pimples and stringy hair; people with wrinkles and pug noses. If you’d like to see a real saint-in-training, a cheeky Master’s apprentice poised to gelignite Hell’s gates, someone on the brink of eternal acclaim, go to your mirror.   If we think confessing our sin could hinder someone’s spiritual walk, how come the Bible got is so wrong in blabbing about everyone’s sins, including sins of the people it exalts as being the most godly? Just how much wiser than God are we? Is it just a “happy” coincidence that trying to “protect” others from the truth about our sins happens to pander to our pride?   What partnership can trying to protect one’s reputation have with the Bible’s insistence that we must die to self? Do we believe that “he who humbles himself will be exalted” or did God get it wrong? Humbling ourselves by confessing our failings usually opens more doors to ministry than it closes. People will regard you as someone who can have compassion on their failings and so they will open up to you like they would never have otherwise done. Others will be inspired to believe that if you can overcome your past, so can they.   1 John 1:7  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  (8)  If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  (9)  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  (10)  If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.   Can we walk in the light, having fellowship with one another if we are doing our utmost to keep everyone in the dark about our past? How can we believe we are clean if we are unwilling to come clean with people? How can we glorify our Savior if we are acting as if past sins he has forgiven still have the power to ruin us? How can we help others find the forgiveness they need if we refuse to testify to what we have been forgiven of?   Feelings are of no eternal consequence. It doesn’t matter if we feel as if Jesus is powerless, but it matters much if we give in to those feelings and by clamming up act as if Jesus is powerless to save someone who seeks his forgiveness.   Stop acting like a cockroach afraid of the light. Christ went through hell so that you could bask in the light. End the misery. Crawl out of the dark, musty hole of self-imposed solitary confinement. Share your secret with someone Christlike.   The obvious obstacle to confession is that not everyone is Christlike, or even trustworthy. And anyone admitting to a problem – be in bereavement, depression, addiction, or whatever – is in the firing line for hurtful “advice” from people with more mouth than knowledge. Even if done in private, confessing to a crime could also have legal implications that you might need to think through. For example, in many parts of the world, almost anyone – in some countries certain professions are exempted – who hears of a crime is required by law to report it to authorities.   It is so important for you to break out of your self-imposed prison of secrecy, however, that I have three suggestions as to how to make it easier for you to take this courageous step to freedom.   The most important of the suggestions is that you earnestly pray about this matter – especially that the Lord stop you from saying the wrong thing and that it is not misinterpreted or reaches the wrong people.   The next suggestion is a way to get a feel for how people would respond if you were to confess to them. If you are considering confessing to a friend, tell the person, “I have heard of a game to improve friends’ understanding of each other. Could I play it with you? It simply involves dreaming up weird, largely out-of-character scenarios and taking it in turn asking how the other thinks he/she would respond to that situation. It takes us beyond what we have experienced with each other and so gives us new insights into each other’s attitudes.” Use your imagination to list every shameful and embarrassing thing you can think of. Fill in the dots below and add any other situations you can think of. If you feel the response you receive is too shallow, question your friend deeper about how he/she would react if the situation were true. Ask your friend, “How would you feel and what you do if I told you that:   *  I had lied to you all my life about . . .   *  I am addicted to . . .   *  I have told others that you . . .   *  I have secretly thought . . . about you   *  I have these spiritual doubts . . .   *  I have these daydreams and longings . . .   *  I have cheated you out of . . .”   Don’t restrict yourself to just one possibility per statement. You might like to make it even harder for your friend to guess why you are doing this by adding some scenarios that are not confession, such as, “What if in the future I . . .”   If you find your friend’s response favorable, slip in your confession, but treat it just like the others, not letting on that it is genuine. Then later decide if you can trust the person sufficiently to confess.   Another gentle, non-threatening way to break out of the prison is to e-mail me, telling me your secrets. What makes this easy is that chances are I live the opposite site of the world to you and you can remain anonymous. You don’t even have to tell me what country you live in, much less your family name. If you feel the need, you can even set up a new free e-mail account. Nevertheless, authorities have the power to trace e-mails, so you should not share anything that could get you arrested if authorities heard of it – unless you are willing to confess directly to them.   If you write, however, please be thoughtful. Many people write with deep, genuine needs. It would not be fair to them if my time were taken up by dishonest people presenting bogus needs. To abuse my offer would be a waste for all concerned, when you could be getting real help for real needs.   Vital Scriptures:  It’s True! There’s More:  Understanding the Unpardonable Sin Warning:   These Pages Won’t Help Everyone Some people terrified about being unforgivable just need Bible-based reassurance or an explanation of a disturbing Scripture. If vast amounts of rational support and biblical exposition are the answer, keep following the links. Many Christians, however, presume this is what they need but it turns out that no amount of biblical proof or sound, theological argument or even spectacular spiritual experience can put their minds to rest. If you have already sought much help but worries keep resurfacing, you most likely need a totally different approach. You should skip these pages (you can return later if you wish) and go straight to  Scrupulosity .

The guilt-ridden: close to the heart of God   Matthew 9:11  When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and “sinners”?’  (12)  On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  (13)  But go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’   Matthew 11:19  . . . they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners”.’ But wisdom is proved right by her actions.   Matthew 21:31  . . . Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.  (32)  For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.   Luke 7:37  When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume,  (38)  and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. . . .  (40)  Jesus answered him . . .  (41)  ‘Two men owed money to a certain money-lender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  (42)  Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he cancelled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?’  (43)  Simon replied, ‘I suppose the one who had the bigger debt cancelled.’ ‘You have judged correctly,’ Jesus said.  (44)     Then he turned towards the woman and said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. . . .  (47)  Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven - for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.’ . . .  (50)  Jesus said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you, go in peace.’   Luke 14:11  For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.   Luke 14:16  Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests.  (17)  At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’  (18)  But they all alike began to make excuses. . . .  (21)  The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’  (22)  ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’  (23)  Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.  (24)  I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’   Luke 16:15  . . . What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.   Luke 18:10  Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  (11)  The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men-robbers, evildoers, adulterers-or even like this tax collector.  (12)  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’  (13)  But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’  (14)  I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.   Galatians 2:16  know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no-one will be justified.   Romans 3:20  Therefore no-one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.   Romans 9:30  What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;  (31)  but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it.  (32)  Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the “stumbling-stone”.  (33)  As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”     Return to the webpage that will set you free

Soothing a Troubled Conscience   Practical Tips . . .   Forgive others   Forgiving others is so critical to your healing and spiritual well being that I have devoted an entire  webpage  to this matter. If you have the slightest difficulty with this often misunderstood subject, I urge you to carefully read it.   Confession   Admitting your guilty secret to someone is extremely therapeutic. It can greatly relieve the burden of guilt, help you see the past in it’s proper perspective, and empower you to get on with life. There are dangers, however. I draw them to your notice not to discourage you from this step but to help you make a wise choice.   Legal implications   If you admit to a crime, the person you reveal it to might be legally obligated to inform the police. I have no idea of the legal intricacies where you live, so if you are concerned about this you should consult a lawyer. For instance, there may be some people (such as your lawyer) who are not legally required to report confessed crimes. A lawyer will be able to advise whether in your state this privilege extends to a pastor.   Scripture says we must keep our word  and  obey the law. If, before revealing your secret, you make someone promise to tell no one, and the person is required by law to break that promise, you are obviously creating a real dilemma for that person.   People you confess to might not be emotionally equipped to handle what you share.   They might be so shocked or hurt that they lash out at you and so increase your feeling of condemnation.   They might blab what they hear.   You might cause them serious problems. For instance, if you confessed to someone with a low self esteem that you had felt ill towards them, you could devastate them or severely tempt them to resent you.   Emotional implications   Confessing to someone who accepts your long kept secret in a non-judgmental way can cause immense relief. This can create within you a strong emotional bond with the person you confessed to. The result could be an unhealthy emotional dependence upon the person, or what you misinterpret as romantic feelings.   Despite the obvious need for caution, however, the benefits of confession are immense and, in general, Scripture urges us to do so.   It is written   James 5:16  Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.   Numbers 5:5  The LORD said to Moses,  (6)  ‘Say to the Israelites: ‘When a man or woman wrongs another in any way and so is unfaithful to the LORD, that person is guilty  (7)  and must confess the sin he has committed. He must make full restitution for his wrong, add one fifth to it and give it all to the person he has wronged.   Matthew 3:6  Confessing their sins, they were baptised by him in the Jordan River.   Matthew 5:23  ‘Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,  (24)  leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.   Acts 19:18  Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds.     Restitution   Making amends by such means as paying back what we have wrongfully appropriated, or giving financial compensation for damage we have caused, is also a significant biblical principle.    It is written   Ezekiel 33:14  And if I say to the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ but he then turns away from his sin and does what is just and right –  (15)  if he gives back what he took in pledge for a loan, returns what he has stolen, follows the decrees that give life, and does no evil, he will surely live; he will not die. 16 None of the sins he has committed will be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live. Leviticus 6:1  The LORD said to Moses:  (2)  ‘If anyone sins and is unfaithful to the LORD by deceiving his neighbour about something entrusted to him or left in his care or stolen, or if he cheats him,  (3)  or if he finds lost property and lies about it, or if he swears falsely, or if he commits any such sin that people may do –  (4)  when he thus sins and becomes guilty, he must return what he has stolen or taken by extortion, or what was entrusted to him, or the lost property he found,  (5)  or whatever it was he swore falsely about. He must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the owner on the day he presents his guilt offering. Numbers 5:6  ‘Say to the Israelites: ‘When a man or woman wrongs another in any way and so is unfaithful to the LORD, that person is guilty  (7)  and must confess the sin he has committed. He must make full restitution for his wrong, add one fifth to it and give it all to the person he has wronged. Luke 19:8  But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.’  (9)  Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.     Again there are dangers:   Legal implications   In the eyes of the law, such things as returning what you have stolen does not make you innocent of the original crime. You are still liable for prosecution, and your attempt to offer restitution could result in police involvement. You may well decide that it is the right thing to do, regardless of the consequences.   Restitution is not a means of gaining divine forgiveness   Just as restitution does not make you innocent in the eyes of the law, neither does it make you innocent in the eyes of God. Restitution may greatly reduce your guilt feelings, but don’t let it rob you of your gratitude to God for his forgiveness. Do not imagine your attempt to make amends makes you more deserving of forgiveness or acceptance by God. You are accepted because of the immense, undeserved love of God that moved his Son to die in your place. There can be no other reason.     Prayer   What a tragedy it would be to miss out on heaven’s best! Prayer transports us into the realm where the impossible is possible. Try never to underestimate the wonders your loving Lord wants to do for you in response to believing prayer.   Reprogramming your mind   Literally thousands of times you have probably let satanic lies and slander go unchallenged through your mind. To undo all the damage demands equal and opposite effort. I wish I could invent a lazier method but I do not think one exists. You have a tough mental habit to break. You need equal and opposite truth to counteract every lie, and permeate your whole being until it becomes a part of your subconscious. Anyone can do it, but it takes determination.   Memorizing Scripture about forgiveness is a powerful way to let healing truths soak into the deepest part of you. Even while feeding them into your mind they can do you good, and afterwards you’ll have them there like a loaded gun the moment Satan’s intruders enter your mind.   I am convinced that it is vital for your well-being to keep saying the following, preferably out loud. Even though it may feel stupid, it really helps affirm it when you hear yourself say it. It would be most helpful to carry a copy of these words around with you and re-read them whenever you can. More than this, you need to memorize them word for word. This will do you more good than almost any other conceivable thing. Just as Jesus could only defeat the devil in the wilderness by quoting the word of God, so it is the only way you can defeat the evil one in your life. No therapist, no one else's prayers, nothing will work like this. The repetition may seem silly but it is critical. It is the only way to counteract all the devil's repetition in your mind over all those years. You must fight back, and this is how you do it: by memorizing the following words. If past or present suffering haunts you, you’ll need the later verses. By all means, add Scriptures to them, but this is a good place to start. Repeat the following:   2 Corinthians 5:21   says I am the righteousness of God in Christ.   2 Corinthians 5:17   says I am a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.   The end of  Romans 8  says that nothing – not even suffering or calamity or persecution – can separate me from the love of God.   Romans 8:18   ‘I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.’   In  2 Corinthians 4:17 , Paul, who was frequently tortured, says my sufferings are light and momentary and are achieving for me an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.   Romans 8:35-37   ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.’   Set free! You were once enslaved by sin, says the Bible, but now you are freed, like a person released from jail. Sin was once your Master. Now you have a new and far more powerful Master – the Lord Jesus. For guilt to take you back it would first have to deal with Jesus.   Freedom!   Romans 6:18  You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Romans 8:2  through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.     You are the righteousness of God; holy and blameless That’s what God says about you over and over. Dare you deny his Word? Soak in the Scriptures that declare this, as if you were soaking in a soothing bath. Dance for joy in them. Throw a party!   Take a long bath!   2 Corinthians 5:21  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become  the righteousness of God. Philippians 3:9  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ –  the righteousness that comes from God  and is by faith. Romans 3:22  This  righteousness from God  comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,  (23)  for all have sinned . . .  (24)  and all are justified freely by his grace . . . Ephesians 1:4  For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be  holy and blameless  in his sight. 1 Corinthians 1:8  He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be  blameless  on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:2  To the church of God in Corinth, to those  sanctified  in Christ Jesus and called to be  holy , together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ – their Lord and ours       White as snow   ‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the LORD. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.’ (Isaiah 1:18) The image in this verse is of hands dripping with innocent blood. They are cleansed so that not the slightest evidence remains. It is saying you could be guilty of the vilest crimes and be made spotlessly pure. You are washed clean; cleansed of all impurities; purified.    Spotless!   Psalms 51:7  Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.   Ezekiel 36:25  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.   1 John 1:7  . . . the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.     Perfect! The apostle Paul, before his conversion, had devoted his entire life to doing his utmost to impress God. He lived the best life he possibly could and performed all sorts of religious duties – studying Scripture, praying, following the law to the letter and then going even further. For instance, he was the proud member of what was sometimes called the bleeding Pharisees. They got their nickname by trying so hard not to look at a woman (and so open themselves to the possibility of lust) that they bumped into things. And yet Paul didn’t want God to remember any of the good he had done. He would no sooner display his own bodily filth than present to the holy God the very noblest things he had done. He regarded as trash all the good he had ever done – all the things that had impressed people and caused them to honor him as a man of God.  The Source of Righteousness   Philippians 3:4  If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:  (5)  circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;  (6)  as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.  (7)  But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  (8)  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ  (9)  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ –  the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.  (Emphasis Mine)       Paul had discovered that the only goodness that counts is Christ’s goodness. God’s only standard is perfection, and only Jesus is perfection. Imagine that instead of your every real or imagined sin you had done something exceedingly noble. Suppose you had committed none of the offences, the memory of which still haunts you, but instead of each you had given everything you own to the poor, witnessed to gangs of thugs who beat you to a pulp for uplifting the name of Jesus, resisted the severest imaginable temptations, frequently devoted 40 days to prayer and fasting, read the Bible from cover to cover 100 times, and so on. Had that been your past instead of the one you remember, could it make a difference to the way God views you now? No! You have the righteousness of Christ. Nothing can add to that. Christ’s perfection is yours by virtue of your union with him. No one can improve perfection. If your past had, in fact, been filled with outstanding acts of devotion, you would be in spiritual danger because of the great temptation to place your faith in your own goodness, rather than in Christ’s. Remember Jesus’ story of the two men who went to the temple to pray (Luke 18:10-14). They were totally different. One was an outstanding citizen, a man renowned for his lofty moral standards and devotion to God. The other was the scum of society, someone whose lust for money drove him to collaborate with the Roman occupation force and to rip people off. The Pharisee thanked God for all the good he had done. The tax collector could do nothing but hang his head in shame, agonizing over his wickedness. There wasn’t one good thing he had done that he could ask God to consider in his defense. All he could do was beg, ‘God have mercy!’ Only one of them left with God’s approval – the one who put his faith not in his goodness, but in God’s mercy. On another occasion Jesus said money grubbing turncoats and hookers would enter the kingdom of heaven before the good-goody Pharisees.  (Scriptures) Satan has no power over God’s children. All he can do is to try to bluff and lie his way into our minds. He has been disarmed by Jesus. All he can do is to try psychological warfare, and at present your mind is a battleground. You need to keep holding on to the truths in God’s Word, even though Satan makes his lies seem like truth and God’s truth seem like lies. Remember, for instance, 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! I strongly urge you to memorize this Scripture. ( Verse 21  is a great one to memorize as well.)   Word of God   2 Corinthians 5:21  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.     There’s Still More: Easy, Comforting, Practical Help Warning:   These Pages Won’t Help Everyone Some people terrified about being unforgivable just need Bible-based reassurance or an explanation of a disturbing Scripture. If vast amounts of rational support and biblical exposition are the answer, keep following the links. Many Christians, however, presume this is what they need but it turns out that no amount of biblical proof or sound, theological argument or even spectacular spiritual experience can put their minds to rest. If you have already sought much help but worries keep resurfacing, you most likely need a totally different approach. You should skip these pages (you can return later if you wish) and go straight to  Scrupulosity .

Why it is Normal for Christians To Feel Guilty and Ashamed   Compassionate help and powerful insights for all of us suffering a guilty conscience   It is inevitable that Christians be plagued with guilt feelings and for people God is proud of to feel hopeless moral failures. Condemnation and shame are powerful, potentially lethal illusions afflicting us all and yet we will discover that these very feelings have propelled famous Christians to spiritual greatness. To understand why every child of God suffers these devastating feelings, we need to understand the nature of spiritual reality and the under-hand tactics of our spiritual enemies.   I am acutely aware that almost always there are natural psychological factors behind a nagging conscience. Understanding the non-spiritual component of our affliction is so vital that I dare not fail to address it. It could literally be a matter of life or death for some readers. Before getting there, however, I’d like us to peep over the fence and glimpse the other side.   Whether we admit it or not, we live in a war zone, with all the danger and horror that implies. In the deadly clash between the two spiritual superpowers, Planet Earth is perhaps the most strategic place in the universe. We fight not flesh and blood – not beings that show themselves and follow the Geneva Convention – but supernatural intelligences so determined to ruin us that there is no level of evil to which they will not stoop. Relative to us, these malicious, nonphysical life-forms have terrifying powers. Relative to the Almighty, however, they are pathetic. They are powerless to stop God from loving us, forgiving us and keeping all his glorious promises to believers. These enemies of truth cannot change reality. They can only look on in frustrated fury at all the blessings God has for us. There is only one thing these jealous ghouls can do. They can fight dirty by trying their utmost to trick us out of everything that is rightfully ours.   For insight into the supernatural power games each of us is thrust into, imagine yourself in the following natural situations. Suppose:   *  You have a million dollar check in your hand, but you believe it is worthless.   *  You are languishing in a dungeon, wrongly believing that the unlocked door is wired to blast you to pieces the moment you touch it.   *  You could become the greatest pop star, but after years of being ridiculed by your family, you believe your voice is so pathetic that you feel too ashamed to use it.   *  You are madly in love with someone who is equally over the moon about you, but you are too shy to make this discovery because you believe that person despises you.   *  A sickly weakling seeks to humiliate you, threatening you with a harmless imitation of what you believe to be a deadly weapon.   Once our beliefs are affected, we can be robbed, stripped, cheated out of almost anything. You can be conned out of the spiritual equivalent of a billion dollar inheritance unless you believe the right thing.   Ultimately, our beliefs drive our actions. So even more important that what anyone does, is what a person believes.   Your belief system is both the engine room and the control center of your entire existence. Your destiny teeters on what you believe, and the spiritual lowlife who lust after your destruction, know it. So your beliefs about God and about what he has done for you is the key area of spiritual attack. The enemies of your soul know that you will inevitably act, not according to the astoundingly wonderful things God has done for you, but solely according to what you  believe  God has done for you. As important as reality is, reality will do you no good if you are tricked into not believing reality.   God’s spiritual enemies want to cheat us out of all the love, dignity, power, freedom, fulfillment, peace, and every other extravagant gift that Jesus shed his last drop of blood to lavish upon us. Demonic, hate-crazed con artists long to hoodwink us out of priceless things that are rightfully ours, and they succeed more often than we dare think.   Spurred to Spiritual Greatness by Satanic Condemnation?   Astounding things happen to everyone serving a God who promised to work  all things  together for good. With a God able to outsmart the devil at his every turn, the devil’s attack could even become God’s secret weapon. People have become outstanding men and women of God precisely because they were hounded by severe guilt feelings. Had assurance of salvation been an easy thing for them, I cannot imagine them becoming the great achievers for the kingdom that they are now famous for. Likewise, I believe your torment could be a sign that you are headed for spiritual greatness. That’s certainly what history suggests.   Every Protestant denomination on the planet owes its existence to Martin Luther’s tender conscience. Had, in his earlier years, he not suffered from what to him seemed an endless list of sins, he would not have made the exciting rediscovery of justification by faith. And had his struggle with his conscience not earlier caused him such agony he would have lacked his tremendous motivation to see the lives of multitudes of people spared the agony he has suffered.   John Bunyan’s spiritual torment was horrific. With a severity that few of us could even conceive, year after year he was repeatedly overwhelmed by a consciousness of sin, hopelessness and the seemingly certain prospect of an eternity in Hell. No wonder  Pilgrim’s Progress  is such an outstandingly powerful book. Much of it was virtually autobiographical.   Great men like George Whitefield and John and Charles Wesley suffered enormously in their struggle to find peace with God. Whitefield’s spiritual need was so all-consuming that his fastings almost killed him. The Wesley brothers were inconsolable until at long last they found how to receive Jesus’ forgiveness by faith. Spurgeon – the revered preacher of the past who is even today read by millions – suffered so greatly with his conscience that he wrote, “I had rather pass through seven years of the most languishing sickness, than I would ever again pass the terrible discovery of the evil of sin.” Not surprisingly, their subsequent ministries eclipsed that of almost all Christians who have been spared such anguish of soul.   Permit me to paraphrase two of Jesus’ teachings: The most important thing in life is to be in love with God, and the person who loves God most is the one most overwhelmed by the magnitude of his sin and yet realizes that God has erased every trace of it from heaven’s databanks.   Scriptures:   Matthew 22:37  Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  (38)  This is the first and greatest commandment.” Luke 7: 40  Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said.  (41)  “Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  (42)  Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”  (43)  Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.  (44)  Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  (45)  You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.  (46)  You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.  (47)  Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven-- for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”     Since salvation is by faith, not works, our eternal destiny is determined by what we believe, not by the good or bad we have done. Keep reading these webpages and you will find multitudes of Scriptures affirming this truth. For the moment, I’ll simply remind you of a Scripture you are sure to know:   John 3:16  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that  whoever  believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ( Emphasis mine. )   “Whoever” is so all-inclusive that, no matter what you have done, it has to include you, or God is a liar. God’s promise is that if  you  believe in Jesus as your Savior, entrusting your life and destiny into his care,  you  will have eternal life. Neither your past nor present struggles can negate God’s promises to “whoever believes.” What to you seems more believable: that “whoever” includes you, or that God is a liar?   People are excluded themselves from eternal life not because of what they do but only because their faith is not in Jesus’ salvation. In the previous webpage,  Feeling Rejected by God,  we gained insight into the struggles this faith involves. We saw that feeling rejected by God can be our invitation to spiritual greatness.     Twisted Thinking     Perhaps the most twisted thinking that we Christians commonly fall for is the ridiculous notion that to be strongly tempted to sin suggests a person is ungodly. To be tempted is to be attacked by anti-God forces, just as Jesus was attacked. The more one refuses to be defeated, the more furious the fight becomes. Someone who always quickly gives in to the slightest sinful whim will never experience sinful urges with a fraction of the intensity that a more godly person suffers.   Picture Jim, a heroin addict reeling in the pangs of withdrawal. Whenever he let himself, he could steal a chemical fix. His flesh craves relief so intensely that the torment could not be greater if he were being flayed alive for his faith and at anytime could end his agony by denying Jesus. Nevertheless, moved by his newfound passion for Jesus, he clenches his teeth and endures the horrors. Now see Darren, lounging in idle ease, blissfully unable even to imagine what a torturous craving for a chemical high would feel like. Never in his life has he even been offered an illicit drug. Who is the hero in this story? The one who has never had a drug battle in his life; who thinks his world is coming to an end if he so much as gets a pimple? If, later on, both were actually being tortured for their faith, which of them is more likely to honor his Lord?   To be tempted is to be afflicted with ungodly yearnings. It is only when temptation rages – only when sin seems the most desirable thing in the universe – that you have the chance to prove that you are committed to doing God’s will, rather than selfishly following your own desires. If to you a sin seems undesirable, there is nothing heroic in avoiding it. Anyone – even the most self-serving, anti-God person on the planet – would avoid a sin that repulses him. The proof of righteousness is when a person denies himself something his flesh cries out for.   Of course, to deliberately stir up a desire for sin is itself sin. I’m not for a moment suggesting you do that. My point, however, is that lack of temptation does not make a person holy, anymore than lack of opposition makes one a champion. Lack of desire for sin is no more proof of spiritual life than lack of desire is proof of physical life. Christlikeness means acting like Jesus in Gethsemane sweating as it were drops of blood. Everything within him screamed to flee from God’s will, and yet he forced himself to submit. That, not lack of temptation, is true holiness.     It’s About the Size of God, Not the Size of the Sin   I am about to very forcefully state my case because the jolt will empower some readers to see through the lie they have been fed. For them, reading this section could be the most liberating experience they have ever known. I am most concerned, however, that you could be one of those readers for whom this heavy-handed approach is inappropriate. The dilemma I agonize over is that very different people will read the same webpage. I lament not having the privilege of knowing you thoroughly as an individual and receiving divine insight to tailor my writing specifically to your situation. So although life-changing and uplifting for some readers, this section is one of several parts of my writings that might not be what you need in order to receive the comfort and relief you deserve. If so, please bear with me. Before long, we’ll get to other parts better targeted to your situation.   Everyone is forgivable, not because what they have done is minor but because what Jesus has done is enormous. You have indeed done awful things. None of us deserves forgiveness. So to regard yourself as unforgivable is not to insult yourself but to insult the magnitude of God’s forgiveness and to label a liar the God who has promised forgiveness to every single person who comes to Jesus seeking it. To regard yourself as an exception to God’s universal promises is to say you have managed to turn the Holy One into a liar and hence rendered him unfit to save anyone.   If God cannot forgive the world’s most depraved repeat offender or backslider who sincerely seeks forgiveness through Jesus, then God can forgive no one. It is never about whether anyone is lovable or forgivable, but solely about whether God is loving and forgiving. And since God is always loving and forgiving, that is all that matters.   To imagine that God could accept you only if you had sinned less, is not only an insult to God’s love and what Christ’s suffering achieved, it is an insult to God’s perfection. Only if God himself were less than absolute perfection would his standards degenerate into relativism. Relative to you, someone might be less sinful, but from the stance of God’s perfection, all of us are utter moral failures, equally worthy of eternal damnation.   The moral difference between any of us is miniscule relative to the infinite gap between anyone’s sinfulness and God’s perfection. Do you suppose you have gone too far to be forgiven, but that you – or someone else – could have been forgiven had the sinning or abuse of God’s grace been very much less? That is as ridiculous as thinking, “I could be forgiven if I had stopped when I had only murdered fifteen people, stolen half a million dollars and blown up two buildings, but now that I’ve also lied about my age I’ve finally gone beyond forgiveness.”   Even if we wrongly supposed that the moral difference between some of us is enormous, it would make no difference. The most distant star might be billions of times further away than the closest star, but it is impossible to jump up and touch either of them. Likewise, it matters not whether we are the most saintly or the most wicked people on earth, God’s standards are still infinitely beyond our reach.   We glibly say no one is perfect, but since perfection is the Holy Judge’s minimum standard, we’ve all missed our chance. If people miss the only flight to safety, it makes no difference whether some missed by far less than others. If none make it, the result is the same for the one who tried hard, as for the one who didn’t bother. When the wages of sin is death, there can be no consolation prizes. Nor can there be no greater penalty for a million sins. It takes no bigger miracle to resurrect one rotting corpse than another. For God to be able to save anyone, he has to be able to save you.   The tiniest sin is so horrendous in God’s eyes that if he can forgive anyone of the smallest sin, he can forgive you if your sins number in the trillions. And what is required is exactly the same – repentance and faith in the cleansing power of Jesus dying in your place.   People are accepted by God, not because of the smallness of their sin, but solely because of the greatness of God’s love. There are no exceptions.   Don’t suppose you have failed too many times. Your Judge is the Person who said if someone sins against us and asks forgiveness we must forgive not seven times but seventy times seven. If there is no limit to how many times we should forgive, there is no limit to how many times God will forgive anyone who keeps seeking forgiveness. To think anything else is to accuse the holy Lord of hypocrisy.   There is a particularly tender place in my heart for people riddled with false guilt over the fact that a sexual predator molested them as a child. It is perfectly valid to insist that these victims of crime are suffering false guilt, because what happened was not their fault. I worry, however, when some Christians are content to only take this approach in comforting these dear people. It suggests there is no greater solution to guilt feelings than what a non-Christian could offer. The danger is that it implies that Christian survivors of abuse might not have been able to find the same peace had what they suffered been their own fault. It implies that Jesus is powerless to offer innocence in God’s eyes to some particularly wicked people who truly regret their past. Such a thought is a slur on the One who died for us all, and a failure to grasp how equally sinful we all are. Not only can little children find innocence in God’s eyes, but so can the world’s most sadistic serial killer who sees the error of his ways and wants Jesus to take all sin from him.   A Christian is someone who goes through life not thinking “look at what I’ve done” (whether good or bad) but “look at what my Jesus has done.” With God, the issue is not what we can do for Jesus but what he has done for us. God is in the salvation business for what he can give, not for what he can get.   Some people mistakenly suppose God must be selfish to want his glory. What they forget is that God’s greatest glory is not his raw power or ability to force submission. God’s greatest glory is in displaying the extravagance of his love and flabbergasting his enemies by transforming into his princes and princesses earth’s most depraved, seemingly unredeemable human wrecks. As an antique restorer wins the greatest acclaim by transforming seemingly worthless pieces of junk into objects of beauty proudly displayed in mansions, so the more hopeless you seem, the more God yearns to win for both you and him the eternal acclaim that comes from beautifying you.     Our Lord keeps emphatically stating in his Word that gaining God’s approval flows not from good living but solely from trusting what Jesus achieved by dying for our sins. To make this point, the apostle Paul lists all his spiritual achievements. Not only was he born to the right family, he was renowned as a highly qualified and respected theologian and Bible scholar. He followed God’s Word to the letter from childhood; his whole life devoted to serving God. And yet if challenged as to why he should go to heaven, he regarded all his clean living and sacrificial devotion and prayer and tithing and training and reputation and position among the cream of the religious elite of God’s chosen people, as being so much trash. When he stood before the x-ray eyes of the fearsome Judge of all humanity, he would sooner display his own bodily filth as hold up any of these as reason why Almighty God should accept him. He was resolute in this determination to put all his eggs in one basket and, on that fateful day when his eternal destiny hangs in the balance, ditch all his qualifications and declare, “Lord God, my one and only hope of your acceptance is that the holy Son of God died for me, the chief of sinners.”      Scriptures:   Philippians 3: 8  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ  (9)  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 1 Timothy 1:15  Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst.     “ . . . I consider them rubbish,” wrote Paul about his every moral achievement, “that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own . . . but that which is through faith in Christ . . .” (Philippians 3: 8-9). Paul did not want any righteousness that could be called his own.   With more reason than almost anyone on the planet, Paul used to pride himself on his moral achievements. Then he encountered the terrifying holiness of Jesus and the unattainable beauty of his goodness. Suddenly, in the brilliance of Jesus’ purity, his own attempts at righteousness looked repulsive. Then he discovered that he could be credited with everything that Jesus has done, simply by asking for it in faith. No wonder Paul wanted credited to his account not the slightest good that he had ever done. To try to be credited with both Jesus’ righteousness and one’s own would be like being given sparklingly pure water and mixing it with one’s own filth.   What separates people spiritually is not how much they have sinned but how much they abandon faith in themselves and cling to Jesus as their Savior. We dare not dissipate our faith by trying to hedge our bets. All our faith must be in Jesus alone. We must avoid putting even a microscopic speck of faith in our own devotion or in the presumption that there are others even more sinful. Our certain but sole hope of gaining God’s approval is that on the cross Jesus swapped places with us.     Why Your Guilt Attack Might Be Purely Psychological   It would be irresponsible of me to think I could be of any help merely by explaining that as a Christian you have no rational reason for feeling guilty. My efforts could be as pathetic as finding someone shaking in fear of a mouse and thinking myself a hero for informing her that the mouse cannot hurt her. I would merely have insulted her intelligence by telling her what she already regards as obvious. I would leave her not only be still trembling, but justifiably angry at me.   If a person is petrified of what she knows is a harmless creature, it would be cruel and ignorant to say, “Where’s your faith? Why can’t you trust God to protect you?” She knows she is safe. It’s not a question of faith. It’s not a spiritual issue at all. It’s a psychological condition.   For most of us, there is a psychological component to our guilt feelings and for quite a few of us, our guilt feelings are an overwhelmingly intense psychological phenomenon that has almost nothing to do with our faith or spiritual understanding.   If a person is distressed because he is trapped in a burning building, he needs not preaching, but the practical help of a fireman. Likewise, if a person is distressed by psychologically-induced guilt feelings, he needs not Bible-bashing, but the practical help that a counselor or therapist might offer. And if someone trapped in a fire should feel no shame in calling for help, neither should anyone feel shame in calling for professional help for psychologically-induced guilt feelings. Such a person is by no means a nutcase. We humans are such complex beings that I doubt there is a person on the planet who for psychological reasons has not at some time suffered feelings that do not line up with reality. Who of us, for example, has never experienced at least one minor phobia – feeling fear or anxiety about something that deep down we know is really no need for concern?   Some people (hypochondriacs) are convinced they are sick when they are not. Anorexics are sure they are fat when they are not. Many people feel unloved when they are not. Some wrongly feel lazy or are so convinced that they can only succeed by overwork that they become workaholics. Still others feel stupid or inadequate or poor or insecure or the object of ridicule or doomed to failure when there is no rational basis for the awful feelings that harass them.   We could fill a library with accounts of irrational feelings that dog us all. In my case, I feel so ugly I’m sometimes ashamed to show my face in public. Whether my distress is rationally justified, I’ll let you decide, but I’m in no doubt about the extent to which some people have multiplied my inner pain by claiming that as a Christian I shouldn’t be attacked by such feelings. We’ve all met Christians endowed with a special gift for finding people suffering in ways they have been graciously spared and, instead of being thankful for their blissful ignorance, they beat up their unfortunate victims by accusing them of lacking faith. If people discover you are hounded by guilt over things Christ has forgiven, there will be those who blast you for your “lack of faith,” when the mere fact that you are still clinging on could mean that you have a hundred times more faith than them.   It’s not lack of faith that causes a person to fear heights. It’s a psychological condition akin to ones that afflict us all, and it needs to be treated as such. The same could well be true of your guilt feelings; in which case, the intelligent response would be to seek out someone skilled in providing psychological help.   It is also true that psychological afflictions can be exploited by our spiritual opponents. Their involvement could become so intense that direct spiritual counter-attack is required. Perhaps someone experienced in this ministry could help by specifically addressing the demons harassing you. One of the links below explains more about the demonic, but you also need to keep reading these pages.     The Vital Step   What you want is not talk but practical help in enjoying freedom from guilt. This is what makes the next page vital. Both the spiritual and psychological components of your guilt will benefit from reading it.   There’s More: Soothing a Troubled Conscience Warning: These Pages Won’t Help Everyone Some people terrified about being unforgivable just need Bible-based reassurance or an explanation of a disturbing Scripture. If vast amounts of rational support and biblical exposition are the answer, keep following the links. Many Christians, however, presume this is what they need but it turns out that no amount of biblical proof or sound, theological argument or even spectacular spiritual experience can put their minds to rest. If you have already sought much help but worries keep resurfacing, you most likely need a totally different approach. You should skip these pages (you can return later if you wish) and go straight to Scrupulosity .

What Your Fantasies Reveal Finding the perfect partner Deep within us there seems an empty chasm that not even a hundred lovers could fill, yet still there is hope. Your dream can come true. Lasting love has eluded many of the most envied and lusted-after people in the world. For you, however, it can be different. Dare to dream How beautiful must a woman be before she no longer needs love? How many times does the average man need to see naked porn stars to block the pain of rejection? No matter how we try to suppress it, our need for love is inescapable. Behavioral scientists have discovered that even people who focus almost exclusively on impersonal sex – porn, phone sex, fetishism, solitary sex, exhibitionism, bestiality etc – are usually driven to their obsession by a need for love. (How cruelly misunderstood many of these people are.) Note: "Believe it or not, the driving force behind most sex addicts'compulsion is a desperate need for love." write psychologists Dr. R. Earle and Dr G. Crow in Lonely all the time: Recognizing, Understanding and Overcoming Sex Addiction New York, 1989, page 23 Being in love, however, is a risky, potentially agonizing experience. We might kiss with our eyes closed, but relationships are frighteningly fragile. Beauty sags. People change. Death or disagreement can so easily rob us of the one we love. The deeper our love the deeper our insecurity. But if reality is cold, dreams are too hot to hold. Our passions seem so insatiable that we shrink from them, yet still they haunt us. Just for a moment, release the iron grip that keeps your longings suppressed in the dungeons of your mind. Let your longings waft free before your gaze, no matter how unattainable they seem. Dare to see what they reveal. You burn for unwaning intimacy; a companion who will never fail you; a friend who can always be with you, no matter what the hour or place, the instant you want this special person. Too often you are misunderstood. You crave a lover who can slip inside your mind; ideally, someone who has not only heard of your every trauma and triumph from birth, but experienced them with you. You need to unburden yourself with an admirer who knows your blackest secrets, yet delights in you with unswerving devotion. When life’s blows send you reeling, you ache for someone who not only passionately longs to meet your deepest needs, but is always able to. You need a partner so capable that when crisis swallows crisis you can trust your friend to comfort, protect and power you to success. Yet you don’t want to be smothered. On the contrary, you want someone who will nerve you to reach the heights you were born for. You pine for someone changeless, yet someone you will never tire of; someone who fits your needs so exactly it feels you were made for each other; someone you will be forever proud of; someone whose love for you is so vast that it always satisfies; someone faithful, genuine, open and warm, yet so resistant to the ravages of aging, sickness and tragedy as to seem immortal. You don’t want death to rob you of the one you love, plunging you back into icy loneliness. There’s hope! Not a person on earth fits the bill, yet the ache remains. A few dreamers keep chasing the elusive high of starry-eyed love, forever groping for the perfect relationship. The rest of us give up. A person would have to be God to meet our criteria! And how could he help? We’re flesh and blood; God, if he exists, is some nebulous, unapproachable Spirit. The notion of a friendship with God is preposterous. Or is it? Within the realms of the unknown almost anything could dwell – even a God poised to shatter our insensibility to him. If there is an Intelligence behind creation, why were we made with cravings that could never be satisfied? Is God a sadist, or were those yearnings for the ideal companion planted within because he longs to fulfill them by being your most intimate friend? Could it be that God seems impersonal only because you’re not on close terms with him? If God were impersonal, that would make us superior to our Creator. That’s absurd. If we can speak, feel and love, our Maker can do all that and more. God is warm. But God is a killjoy! Or is it sin that ultimately kills joy – promising so much yet delivering the hangover, the downer, the unwanted pregnancy, the disease, the cancer, the rejection, the hurt, the shame? Ask sin’s victims – the victims of theft, violence, addiction, divorce, hate, selfishness and slander – whether God’s ways kill joy or make joy. But God is dull! Really? The God whose power and creativity defy imagination; whose wonders are inexhaustible? Wouldn’t it be a never-ending adventure to be in love with the one Person who is continually able to exceed your wildest dreams? This exciting Person, whose never-ending companionship and limitless power are able to fill the unfillable hole within us, is the perfect partner you ache for. But I need someone I can touch. God knows your every need. The ultimate romance You are passionately loved. In the eyes of the one Person who really counts, you are special. To other people you might be just one of thousands, but not to the One who made you. You mean so much to him that what God wants with you is like a perfect marriage in which you can enjoy each other forever. Believing in the opposite sex does not make one married. Neither does believing a creed give us the right to live with God. It is not enough to walk down a church aisle. True marriage is believing in someone so completely that you commit all that you are, and all that you have, to that person for life. Your Maker is eager to be that devoted to you, but for marriage to work, the commitment must be mutual. If a street kid married a millionaire, she would get his riches and he would get her debts. He would be tarred with her shame and she would gain his honor. For this to happen, she must turn from rival relationships and bind herself and her meager possessions to this man in marriage. Everything he owns would become hers, if she lets everything of hers become his. Similarly, if we entrust to God everything we have – our time, abilities, relationships and possessions – he will reciprocate, embracing us with divine extravagance. We hand our depravity to Jesus, relinquishing even our fondest sin. It becomes his. That’s what killed him. In return, Jesus’ sinless perfection envelops us, enabling us to be on intimate terms with the Holy God. In entering this love pact, we give God the right to do whatever he likes with our assets, but the Owner of the universe makes his riches available to us. We trade our talents, for his omnipotence; our attempts to run our lives, for his unlimited wisdom. We give him our time on earth and he gives us eternity. In every way we benefit from this proposal and God gets the raw end. But God is in love with you. He wants this holy union more than you can imagine. Don’t break his heart and miss out on the ultimate human experience by holding back. A marriage made in heaven The following corresponds to wedding vows in which you give yourself to the Lord, thus making him your God. In turn, the King of kings makes you worthy of spiritual fusion with him and pledges to devote himself unreservedly to you. If the following accurately describes your feelings, you can make it your prayer by reading it to God. Wonderful Lord, It hurts to admit how selfish I’ve been. I have caused you grief, yet you sent your Son who gave his life and defeated death to secure my pardon. You have given yourself totally for me and I long to respond to your overwhelming love, by dedicating all I have to pleasing you. I take you to be my God from this day forward. I will love, honor and obey you. I yield to your loving protection and guidance. I surrender my sins to you, renouncing even those things that entice me. And in exchange I receive your pardon, your purity, and your power to live a life worthy of you. Thank you that we have now commenced a union so unique and powerful that not even death can break it. The Lord of heaven and earth knows your secret thoughts. If you prayed the entire prayer honestly, you have entered a new spiritual realm. That’s hard to believe. Everything seems the same. But not from heaven’s perspective. The spiritual contract is sealed. The proof lies not in your feelings (such as whether you feel guilty or happy), but in the integrity of the Holy One. He has given his word (in the Bible) that whoever turns from sin and looks to Jesus for cleansing, has a radically new destiny. God is no liar! If this is the first time you have genuinely offered such a prayer, you need further support immediately. E-mail me now on grantley.morris@gmail.com . I’d love to hear all about you. Even the briefest e-mail saying you have prayed the prayer or asking a question allows me to pray for you and to send you more information. The perfect partner In old-fashioned romance, young lovers, leaving reality behind would let their emotions and dreams run wild. Not surprisingly, their language was laced with religious expressions: * She idolizes him * He adores her * You’re divine * He’s heavenly * He worships the ground she walks on * A marriage made in heaven Religious words dropped spontaneously from the lips of people who weren’t religious. As they discovered, throbbing just below the surface of our consciousness is the awareness that religion and the euphoric love we crave are inextricably linked. The craving deep within you will remain insatiable until you enjoy a thrilling and fulfilling union with the One who made you. God is the perfect partner you pine for. Yet his very perfection makes him unapproachable. The Almighty is awesomely holy; incomparably virtuous; incomprehensibly pure. We are not. If the intensity and purity of God’s moral perfection were thought of as blinding light, we are like darkness by comparison. And darkness cannot exist in the presence of light. Back to reality We come hurtling back to reality. There’s a solution, but to appreciate its grandeur, we must consider the magnitude of the problem. This is so distasteful that we instinctively shrink from it, like dungeon dwellers recoiling from sunlight. We’ll expose facts that challenge the limits of our ability to grapple with reality. Yet facing them is the most liberating experience a human can know. If we burst into a hospital and chanced upon a doctor sterilized for surgery, he could not touch us. We may seem immaculate, but not by the standards he must keep. We are like that in the presence of the holy Lord. We may be as good as the next guy, but by the unreachable perfection of God’s standards we are moral lepers. God must keep his distance. That seems an over-reaction. Being surrounded by imperfection all our lives has clouded our ability to see ourselves objectively. Deep down we suspect the worst but we flee from it like people refusing cancer checks, even though early diagnosis brings life, not death. We try to fill our lives with endless activity so that we do not have to think of it. Yet deep down we know we stand guilty in the presence of a holy God. Even when we imagine we have pushed it out of our minds, it controls us more than we realize. A favorite, rarely conscious, technique to silence our suppressed but nagging conscience is to concoct a doctored moral code that lets us entertain the delusion that we are morally superior to some people. What drives us to despise certain people, or to gossip, is not unkindness or snobbishness so much as a desperate attempt to drown the shrieks of our own conscience. We are driven to all lengths – even to accusing God of injustice – to try to ease our guilt. We spurn God’s laws, hurt each other, and then have the audacity to blame God for the mess. ‘Why do the innocent suffer?’ we sneer, conveniently forgetting the times our anger, greed and lies have hurt the innocent. For some suspicious reason, there is a degree of hurt we deem excusable, and the hurt we have inflicted happens to compare favorably with the standard we have arbitrarily set. God cannot be party to such hypocrisy. (I warned this horror story would take you to the edge of your tolerance. Rich rewards, however, await those with the courage to face facts we inwardly know to be true. When approaching a God who can make us more beautiful than we dare dream, we have no need to act like burns patients smashing mirrors.) If God is a God of love, why does he allow the evil that’s rampant in this world? For anyone not entranced by his/her own hypocrisy, the reason is obvious. God longs to destroy all evil, and the time is fast approaching when he will (2 Peter 3:9-13). But how, without unprincipled favoritism, could he do this without destroying you and me? Becoming beautiful Should we reform and never so much as think another wrong thought, it wouldn’t help. If water is contaminated, adding pure water doesn’t help – the water is still contaminated. There’s corruption in our past and we cannot change the past. Some things God cannot do without violating his integrity. Consider a man in court found guilty of dangerous driving. The judge happens to be a close friend of the defendant. Would it be right for the judge to declare his guilty friend innocent? Or could he fine the offender less because he is his friend? Only a corrupt judge could condone law-breaking or display favoritism. And God is our Judge, because there is no such monstrosity as a self-made person. None of us decided to come into existence, or can even design our offspring’s fingerprints. God formed the brain cells we think with. We owe him everything. The Lord is maker – and therefore owner – of every molecule and organism we have ever used or abused. Like it or loathe it, that makes us accountable to God for our every action. Our selfishness has hurt people. It would be an outrage for the Supreme Judge to ignore our offenses. We’re the ones who bellow at God when we see wrongdoing go unpunished. Though his devotion to you defies explanation, he cannot do other than declare you guilty. And justice demands the penalty be paid. That leaves just two alternatives. Either you pay the penalty, or someone pays it for you. It would be sheer conceit for me to consider taking your punishment. I have my own wickedness to answer for. But the eternal Son of God, two thousand years ago, left his celestial judgment seat and came to earth. He became the sole human who has lived a perfect life. In the brilliance of his purity, our highest moral achievements look like mud. So when Christ voluntarily endured the pain and shame of a criminal’s death, something of cataclysmic significance was happening. The innocent Son of God was taking upon himself full blame for your sin. Physical torment choked in a sea of spiritual agony. On the cross the only person who has enjoyed eternal oneness with God cried, ‘My God, why have you abandoned me?’ Father God was compelled to desert his beloved Son, treating him as the vilest sinner, until the horrific penalty was paid in full. After absorbing the full consequences of our depravity, Christ broke through to life again, blasting a path for us to follow. You are the focal point of this heart-stopping display of love, the greatest love the universe has known. Will you continue to spurn it? Enjoy the ultimate love affair Christ’s sacrifice has provided a legal way whereby anyone, though guilty, can go scot-free. But that does not make forgiveness automatic. To be intimate with the Lord of the galaxies; to have divine power flowing through your veins; to reach the peaks you were made for, requires a response on your part. To explain, let’s return to the reckless driver. A judge would have to fine his friend for breaking the law. It is quite legal, however, to offer a friend money to pay the fine. It is then up to the offender whether he accepts the judge’s gift. It would break Jesus’ heart if you slight his offer to suffer for you. The only alternative is for you to bear the penalty. That’s the last thing he wants. God is anxious to save you from the horrors of hell and grant you a fulfilling, life-changing partnership with him. But you must accept the gift. That involves admitting that you need the gift – that only Jesus’ sacrifice can absolve your guilt. There is one more consideration. If our lead-footed friend, the dangerous driver, intends perpetuating the same offenses, he is a danger to the community. It would be wrong to pardon someone who plans to continue flouting the law. Similarly, it would be wrong for God to forgive us until our attitude to sin has changed. I reel at the thought of the hordes who have tragically missed this point. A second analogy will confirm its centrality. You are trapped in a sea of sin. Bottomless waters lap towering cliffs. No one can tread water forever. The murky depths terrify you, except for one spot. You’ve found a place where the deadly waters seem beautiful and the sensual waves exquisite. How can anyone take seriously your cries for help if you’re splashing around enjoying yourself? And what’s the point of saving someone who is hell-bent on plunging back after every rescue attempt? No one with a suicidal commitment to a sin can be saved. This doesn’t mean you must initiate a sinless life to enjoy forgiveness. We’re in sin’s death grip. Only Jesus can break it. But do you want him to? Do you want to be rid forever of your favorite sin? The Almighty gives us dignity by respecting our wishes. If we don’t want him to be our God – ie in total control of our lives - it grieves and appalls him, but in his gentleness he will permit us to go our own way. No one has suffered the pain of rejected love like God. You can never be forced to love someone. Nor can you be forced to desire purity of heart. The Giver has done all he can. It’s over to you. To ignore our Creator is the height of selfishness. He is the Source of every good thing we ever enjoyed. (Even sin’s fizzle of pleasure, that slippery shadow of the real thing seized while defying him, is possible only because of our God-given ability to experience pleasure.) Every wonderful thing we take for granted comes from him. He even holds our atoms together. He protects and nurtures even those who ignore him, providing abundant opportunity for them to respond to his astounding love. They don’t want God to interfere, but he does anyhow – showering them with a myriad soft, warm, beautiful, delicious, refreshing, thrilling and inspiring gifts. At death, however, those who on earth wanted to be independent of God are finally granted their wish. That’s the ultimate horror. To be eternally severed from the Source of all love, beauty, fulfillment and joy is a prospect too terrifying to contemplate. With a repentant attitude towards ungodly ‘pleasures’, however, and a reliance upon the pardoning power of Jesus’ sacrifice, you give God free rein to do what he longs to do – pay your debt to justice and credit to your account the moral perfection of Christ. That makes you so pure in his eyes that you need no longer be isolated from him. You can then commence an endless communion with the most wonderful Person in the universe. Would you now like to pray to give your life to God? Yes Do you feel it is too soon to give your life to God? If so, choose one of the following: What’s in it for me? I want to think about it some more

God’s Mysterious Ways   Help and InspirationWhen God Seems Cold and Indifferent   Insights into the Mysteries of Prayer   This is part of an inspiring series for those times when we fear that God has rejected us or is uncaring. Perhaps you fear you have abused God’s grace too often or secretly suppose you are not a high priority with God. In this page we will continue to plunge deep into the heart of God, as revealed in his Word. Our goal is to see if our fears and suspicions about God have a genuine basis or whether, despite surface indications, God is more loving that we dare hope and longs to lavish us with blessings. When the resurrected Lord walked with the two to Emmaus, “Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.’ So he went in to stay with them” (Luke 24:28-29). Taken in isolation, Jesus acting as if he had no desire to stay with them might seem peculiar, but we have already seen in previous pages ( Feeling Rejected by God,   Damned by God?  and  Punished by God ) that the Lord, through prophets, often seems to give no hope when in reality there is much hope. Jesus’ behavior in Emmaus fits the pattern that is beginning to appear. We see something similar in Mark 6:48. Jesus was on the land praying. The disciples were in the boat on the lake. Jesus saw them straining at the oars because the wind was against them, so he went out to them, walking on the water. What baffles Bible commentators is that the text seems to say Jesus acted as if he were going to walk on past the boat. This never eventuated because the disciples reacted and Jesus responded and the sea calmed. We, too, know what it is like to feel that Jesus is going to by-pass us. Urgent word was sent to Jesus that Lazarus was dying. Jesus stayed put. Eventually he turned up days late. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” sobbed Mary (John 11:32). It felt like Jesus was uncaring. The feeling was wrong. “God is love” means God  always  cares. No exceptions. The God who longs to pour out his blessings upon us keeps making it seem as if he has no intention of blessing us. He is forever trying to coax faith out of us, and faith can only grow where there seems good reason for doubt. Just as muscles will not only not grow but will waste away unless they repeatedly come against resistance, so faith can grow only when it meets resistance. Making it Hard for Us John 6:52  Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”  (53)  Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. . . .  (60)  On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”  (61)  Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? . . .  (63)  . . . The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.  (64)  Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” . . .  (65)  He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.”  (66)  From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.  (67)  “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.  (68)  Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.  (69)  We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” Note how Jesus did not make it easy for them. He could have simplified his teaching, making it far more intelligible, but he refused. Those worthy of salvation – those desperate for God – will cling to Jesus even when he doesn’t make sense and belief seems almost impossible. Never do we prove ourselves unworthy of salvation by our past, but only if for the remainder of our lives we refuse to believe in Jesus as our Savior. To say, “I don’t understand, so I’ll reject Jesus as my Savior,” or “I don’t feel anything but rejection, so I won’t believe Jesus is my Savior,” is to miss out. To say, “I can’t understand it or feel it, but I will still do my utmost to believe that Jesus is my Savior,” is to win eternal life. For top athletes to develop, they must be pushed to their limit. God knows our exact capacity for faith. He will not ask us to go beyond our capacity, but faith – more precious than Olympic gold – grows best by being stretched to its limit. So that is precisely what our loving Lord seeks to do. Wrestling With God It is startling to think that Jacob received God’s blessing not because he yielded to God but because he wrestled with God. Genesis 32:24  So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.  (25)  When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.  (26)  Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” This was a fight that seriously injured Jacob. “The man” asked him to let him go. Instead of complying, Jacob refused and held out for a blessing. Every indication was that this was not what “the man” wanted and yet we learn later that Jacob’s stubborn battling for a blessing thrilled God. From then on Scripture honors him with a new name: Israel, meaning “he struggles with God.” How peculiar! Doesn’t God want us to submit to him? Yes, but to submit to the true God – the God we know to be loving and longing to bless us – not the God of our nightmares whom we fear is out to crush us and cruelly rob us of what is best for us. The Lord is thrilled when we refuse to surrender to the fear that he is selfish and stingy and harsh. He wants not people who fight  him  but people who know him so well and love him so passionately that they fight any hint that God is less than infinitely good and kind and generous. Faith is not about selfishly getting our own way, but neither is faith resigning ourselves to supposing our prayers will not be answered. Faith is deciding that God is so generous and so in love with you that no matter how things seem, you will fight the doubts and stubbornly cling to the belief that he longs to gives you good things. The Mystery of Prayer Jeremiah 33:3  “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Have you ever thought how strange the above Scripture seems? If God wants to show us things, why doesn’t he just do it? Why does God in Scripture over and over plead with us to ask him so that he can bless us? He obviously longs for us to have these things or he would not beg for us to ask him for them. And yet still he refuses to act until we dig our heels in and determine not to give in to all the superficial indications that God has little desire to bless us. In Jesus’ parable about how God wants us to pray, the widow was spurned over and over by the judge. She ended up with everything she had hoped for, but only because she refused to take rejection as the final answer (Luke 18:1-8). Clearly, this is the never-give-up, always-believe-that-God-will-bless-you attitude that God wants to build within us. The Lord, who always has our best interest at heart, knows that more important than instant answers to prayer is that we develop an unshakable conviction in the integrity of God’s character – a conviction that will withstand the strongest assaults from the evil deceiver who longs to slander the Perfect One. Our Lord is a prayer-answering God of compassion. Every indication to the contrary is a divine invitation for us to grow in faith so that not only is our Lord glorified but  we  will be praised forevermore, just like that Canaanite woman who had felt so despised. My friend Leona loves gardening. She told me, “When young plants that still have shallow root systems look wilted, I immediately want to revive them with a good dose of water. They quickly perk up and I seem to have done the right thing. If I always water them as soon as they seem to need it, however, the plants will never seek the water already available to them at a deeper level. Instead of developing a strong root system as God had intended, they will eventually die from root rot or fungus. For their sake, I must resist my urge to ‘rescue’ them the instant they seem to need it, or I will literally kill them with kindness. Too much of a seemingly good thing is not a good thing.” I keep getting the sulks when I don’t get instant answers to prayer. I keep thinking a loving God should shower me with constant blessings without me even having to ask, much less having to fight for years and years for them. I feel hurt, not merely because I don’t get what I want, but because I keep falling into the trap of wrongly guessing how a wise and loving God would act if he really wanted to build up my faith in his goodness and wanted to help convince me that I am special to him. It turns out that for God to act the way I want, would be like Leona giving in to her longing to pamper her plants. God’s pampering would seem to do wonders in the short term but it would actually stifle my faith. What would seem like building faith would actually be building a dependence upon circumstances and feelings, not building faith in the love and integrity of God. Faith is not about thinking of God as little more than a machine, but thinking of him as the passionate, tender-hearted person he truly is. It is not believing God is a vending machine – you push a button and out come goodies. Faith is about believing in the love and goodness and dependability and wisdom of your glorious Lord, no matter how many challenges to that belief occur in the short term. True faith comes not from being doted on but from having to hold on when all the outward signs keep screaming that God must be selfish, stingy and uncaring. God spoiling me would truly spoil me. Second Rate in God’s Eyes? I’ve endured years of fighting the feeling, and all the apparent evidence, that I’m second rate in God’s eyes and overlooked by him. I could have spared myself much of the pain. I should have known that the wise and loving God of the Bible is not like that. Nevertheless, with the wisdom of hindsight – I felt the opposite at the time – I’m so thankful to God for not pampering me but letting me endure seeming rejection. Those painful times when God did not respond to what seemed an urgent need for confirmation of his love, toughened me. What seemed a never-ending endurance test forced my roots deeper into God so that now, after years of feeling hard done by, I  know  that the Lord is not like the God I had feared he might be. No one is second rate in his eyes. To seem singled out for special rejection by God is to be blessed with unique opportunities to grow in God. Like a little boy having a fun filled wrestling match with his daddy, play fights with Father God make us strong and prove how special we are to him. It takes great faith and spiritual maturity, however, for us to see it that way at the time. While we are in the midst of our trial – which in some cases will last for years – it doesn’t feel as if God is building our faith and making us stronger. On the contrary, everything within and without screams that we are getting weaker and weaker. It seems God is killing our faith. We’ll think that if he cared he would give our faith the boost it desperately needs by giving us some sort of sign that he has not abandoned us. It seems unthinkable that a God who cares about our faith would treat us this way. If we puzzle at the enigma long enough, however, we’ll discover that it makes perfect sense. Consider an athlete during a training session. Perhaps his coach has him doing bench presses with weights, but it applies to any attempt to strengthen him. The athlete lifts the weight and is immediately asked to lift it again and again and again. Each time he lifts the weight, it feels heavier, even though it is exactly the same weight. There is no denying that he is getting weaker with each bench press. Eventually, he ends up exhausted and, for a few moments, almost unable to move, much less lift a weight. It seems almost unbelievable that the only way for him to get stronger is to go through a process that, in the short term, makes him weaker and weaker. If the athlete were not smart enough to understand the coach’s wisdom, he would find the process bitterly discouraging. It would seem that a caring coach should encourage the athlete by making the weight significantly lighter each time the athlete lifts it so that he feels he is getting stronger. With such a training schedule the athlete’s spirit would soar. He would feel he is improving but in reality he would be blissfully heading for shame as he trains in ease for the event he has set his heart on winning. This is why Jesus indicated that there will be many shocks when we stand before our Judge. Many who were sure they were miserable failures will be crowned as heroes. Many whom everyone thought to be strong will be shown to be weak. They had seemed to excel only because life had been a breeze for them and they had coasted when they should have striven. On that momentous Day, many praised on earth as great men and women of God will be shamed, and many who had seen themselves as insignificant or even failures, will suddenly find themselves acclaimed as spiritual giants and forever exalted. So when God seems harsh and seems to be favoring everyone but you, keep pressing on. You are headed for spiritual greatness. It is when life seems easy that we are most in danger of shrinking our eternal reward. Prayer Puzzles The first lie the Evil One ever attempted with humanity was that God is selfish. The slimy snake conned Eve into thinking that by forbidding certain fruit, her loving Creator was trying to keep something good from her (Genesis 3:1-6). The lie worked so well that the Evil One has been trying it ever since. The fact that God is love, combined with the intensity with which he does everything, means that your best interests are more important to God than they are even to you. Either God is longing for you to press through the challenges and receive that good thing you have not yet received, or eternity will prove that what you have craved is not as good as the alternative God is planning for you. If you fear God would rather condemn you to hell than respond to your sincere longing to be rid both of your sin and its eternal penalty, your fear is groundless. There is no way that hell could be better for you than finding the forgiveness you long for. There are other prayer requests, however, when not knowing every fact in the universe, nor having the ability to see the future, nor having infinite intelligence, means that your certainty that you know what is best might be misplaced. Take careful note of our Lord’s prayer life. Jesus said that if he had asked, God his father would have answered Jesus’ prayer to send angels to rescue him from crucifixion (Matthew 26:47-54). I shudder to think of the consequences for our eternities had Jesus prayed that prayer. Nevertheless, Jesus insisted that God would have answered that prayer. Three times he wrestled in prayer with this issue. The stakes were so horrific that his sweat was like blood dripping from him. Nevertheless, he each time battled through to the point where he told God he wanted God’s will, not his own (Matthew 26:36-44). Jesus is our role model. He could have got his way with God and ended up with less than God’s best. So can we, I believe – although often God has mercy on us and holds off on granting us a request that would end up disastrous for us. So there are two dangers. We must be careful not to settle for less than God’s best by not persisting in faith-filled prayer. On the other extreme, we could miss God’s best by insisting God do a certain thing when he has a better plan. Scripture makes it easy for us to know that God wants for us to ask in faith for his forgiveness. With less obvious things, however, knowing what to ask for can sometimes be beyond us. That’s why the Holy Spirit comes to our aid, helping us to pray (Romans 8:26-27). What you can know with utter certainty, however, is that God wants the best for you and that he is thrilled when you refuse to settle for anything less than heaven’s best.

Punished by God?     Understanding the Love and Grace of God   When you Feel God is Angry at You       We saw in the previous webpages ( Feeling Rejected by God  and  Damned by God? ) that when it seems certain that God has rejected us and even damned us to eternal destruction, it is simply our Lord displaying his love and mercy by doing all he can to jolt us back to reality and get serious with God so that we can receive his cleansing and the eternal fulfillment he longs for us to enjoy with him.   If God’s words can sometimes lead us to wrongly suppose we’ve been rejected, an even easier to make but way off-the-mark presumption is to suppose that God’s discipline or punishment implies his rejection or lack of love. Over and over Scripture stresses the very opposite. It insists that God’s punishment is proof of his love for us, and confirmation that we are genuine children of God. Hebrews 12:5  And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,  (6)  because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”  (7)   . . . God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?  (8)  If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.  (9)  Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!  (10)  Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.  (11)  No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.   And there are many similar Scriptures.   Correctly administered, parental discipline is short-term discomfort that protects loved ones from long-term pain. It should be an act of parental care provided for their loved one’s safety and well-being. As implied in the above Scripture, parents often get it wrong, but God never gets it wrong.   We all die. To “save” someone’s life is merely to delay their death for what, relative to eternity, is an infinitesimal speck of time. So if, when it is a matter of life or death, severe action is sometimes required, how much more must this be so when one’s eternal destiny is at stake!   God’s punishment is temporary unpleasantness tailored to maximize our eternal pleasure. It is a loving act designed to nurture and protect and train. To mistake this act of love for rejection would cause enormous confusion and needless distress.   The loving necessity of punishment when one’s eternity is in danger is something we need to understand, not just when we ourselves are being punished, but also when reading in Scripture of God punishing people. For God to strike someone dead means that person did wrong and a strong warning needs to be sent to his or her contemporaries and perhaps even subsequent generations but it usually says little about that person’s eternity.   Of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, the Bible says:   1 Corinthians 10:9  We should not test the Lord, as some of them did – and were killed by snakes.  (10)  And do not grumble, as some of them did – and were killed by the destroying angel.  (11)  These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.   In Scripture we see people losing a ministry, or even dying prematurely, through God’s judgment, but this does not necessarily mean those people were sent to hell. What might send thunderous shockwaves on earth – God striking a Christian dead – might hardly rate as a ripple in that person’s eternity. In stark contrast, the peaceful passing of an elderly person destined for hell is a cataclysmic event for that person and can lull observers into a dangerous spiritual complacency.   To be punished by God might be most unpleasant now but when viewed from eternity it is one of life’s greatest blessings. It is our God-given opportunity to come to our senses, learn from our mistakes and find God’s forgiveness while we still have time. If a person’s eternity is at stake, after death is too late. God’s punishment in this life is a manifestation of his love and grace. In contrast, the greatest conceivable horror would be the Lord letting people go in blissful ignorance of their fate as they drift towards everlasting disaster.

Feeling Rejected by God Has God Really Forsaken You?   Could You Be Damned And Without Hope?   This is part of a series of webpages exploring why it is not uncommon for people in a good relationship with God to mistakenly think they are spiritually doomed. If you have not already done so, I suggest you start at  Supernaturally Confirmed Unforgivable or Damned by dreams, Visions & Miracles?   God has rejected me!  There is hardly a Christian on the planet who has not at some time been haunted by that fear. Feeling rejected by anyone is painful, but for a devout Christian to feel rejected by God can be devastating, even terrifying.   In this webpage we will discover that not only did people in the Bible suffer such feelings, it is actually a manifestation of God’s loving goodness. As astounding as it seems, it was feeling that God had rejected them that catapulted various Bible heroes to spiritual greatness. They became heaven’s superstars precisely because God made everything seem hopeless for them. You will even discover that the Bible teaches that even if you were to receive an authentic – that’s right,  authentic  – personal word from God proclaiming that you are doomed, you still have oceans of hope.   Through reading this webpage most of us will see God in a way we have never before seen him and the result will be both thrilling and life-changing.   God is terrifyingly holy and yet more loving than we could imagine. The Almighty’s fearsome holiness can force him to reluctantly reject people, but a person’s sin is the sole reason for any divine rejection. So if you or I could truly be made as if we had never messed up, any reason for the Holy Lord rejecting us would vanish. All that would be left is God’s incomprehensible love for you.   You might be familiar with some of the words in the next few sentences, but bear with me. It will lead to the unfamiliar. It has rightly been said that the biblical term  justified  means to be made  just as if I’d  never sinned. If this were really to happen to you this instant, it would be impossible for you to be rejected by the God of the Bible, since it would remove the only reason for divine rejection.   The exciting thing is that Scripture promises that this total removal of sin is possible – not just some time in the past when your sins were less blatant, but right now, when you have abused the grace of God more than ever before. Moreover, the Bible not only says that  anyone  can be justified, it stresses that this divine miracle becomes ours not by works – not influenced by our achievements or shameful repeated failures or depravity – but solely by faith. This being so, we need a new understanding of the biblical conception of faith. So let’s examine what Jesus exalted as a prime example of faith. It reveals some startling things.   Matthew 15:22  A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.”  (23)  Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”  (24)  He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”  (25)  The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.  (26)  He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”  (27)  “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”  (28)  Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.   We find the woman pleading with Jesus, detailing her desperate plight to him. Without so much as uttering a word, he turns his back on her and walks away.   Despite reeling in the pain of rejection and being emotionally flattened by the hopelessness of it all, she still follows Jesus, crying out to him.   As if Jesus’ reaction were not enough, his chosen followers soon pile on their own rejection. Her persistence so annoys them that Jesus’ disciples plead with him to tell her to get lost. So Jesus tells her that his divine mission – the command of God on his life – is to minister exclusively to Jews, not Gentiles like her. Instead of resigning herself to the sovereign will of God, she begs even harder. Jesus is unyielding. He states even more emphatically that it was not right for him to do what she is asking.   This woman was a Gentile before Jesus’ sacrifice opened the way for Gentiles to be included in God’s Covenant. But not only was she a Gentile, she was a Canaanite – the worst of the Gentiles. She should not even have been born. Had God’s people been obedient to God’s command, her family line would have been wiped out generations ago.   Then, as astounding as it is to imagine our loving Savior doing this, he seals his rejection by calling her a dog – a bitch, if you like. This was the grossest possible insult. Jews despised dogs as unclean. Jesus refers to the people he is called to minister to as “children.” She, however, he labels as not even human but an animal – and an unclean one at that. On another occasion Jesus said it is not right to give what is holy to dogs, nor to cast one’s pearls to swine. Not only did Jesus say it should not be done, in the same breath he linked dogs with pigs, as does Scripture elsewhere. So, in biblical thought, dogs are the most repulsive of creatures, totally unacceptable to God, and yet this is the label Jesus slaps on this woman.     By now her devastating feelings of rejection could have turned to anger and a determination to reject Jesus like he has rejected her. Yet despite all the pressure to give in to feelings of hopelessness and bitterness, she still refuses to take ‘No’ for an answer.   Why was Jesus so hard on her? Because he knew she had what it takes to rise to the challenge and that her doing so would bring her rich reward. Jesus’ seeming rejection brought out the best in her. Yes, she got her miracle like so many other people, but because Jesus let her seemingly suffer rejection, she soared far beyond getting her miracle to gaining Jesus’ high praise resounding through the tunnels of time for two thousand years around the world and continuing for all eternity. Her refusal to accept Jesus’ apparent rejection not only thrilled the heart of God, it has inspired countless multitudes of Christians throughout every successive generation.   And the same is true for you. God has faith in you. You can rise to the challenge and refuse to be defeated by all the surface indications of rejection. You can ignore all the worrying superficialities and by faith see past them to the loving heart of Jesus. You can keep following Jesus even when he seems to have turned his back on you and walked away. And as you persist, you will thrill the heart of God, gain for yourself eternal glory, and inspire other Christians.   Singled Out for Special Rejection   The Canaanite woman’s experience was not an isolated case. For assurance, let’s consider another woman. Ruth was not just a Gentile; she was a Moabite, and as such she was singled out for special rejection from God.   Deuteronomy 23:3  No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even down to the tenth generation. . . .  (6)  Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them as long as you live.   How’s that for rejection! In contrast, this Scripture immediately goes on to mention other Gentiles:   Deuteronomy 23:7  Do not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not abhor an Egyptian, because you lived as an alien in his country.  (8)  The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD.   Ruth wanted to join the Israelites, but every indication was that God did not want her. Her only contact with God’s people had been with a family who seemed cursed. They had arrived in her country as economic refugees – hardly a sign of God’s blessing. Moreover, their impoverishment – due to God withholding rain – had forced them out of the land of God’s people. Then, one by one, every male member of the family died, including Ruth’s own husband. Then the surviving family member said:   Ruth 1:11  . . . “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? . . .  (13)  . . . the LORD’s hand has gone out against me!”   Over and over, Naomi kept insisting that it was unwise for her daughters-in-law to go with her to the land of God’s people. They would be better off where they were. Eventually, Ruth’s sister-in-law gave in to Naomi’s pleas. Ruth, however, kept pushing through all the objections and rejections. The result? God chose her over all the women in Israel as ancestress of King David and of the Messiah.   It is said if you take pity on a moth struggling to break free from its cocoon and make its passage out easier, the moth will be forever deformed. What seems an act of kindness ends up being cruel. The hard struggle to emerge is essential for the initial pumping of blood into its crumpled wings. I don’t know enough about moths to know if this is an urban myth, but I know my Lord well enough to be certain that if he makes something hard for us, it is for our own good. It is because making it easier would ultimately be less loving and cripple our spiritual development.   Like a good coach giving an athlete tough training sessions, God makes it hard for you because he longs for you to succeed.   I know this because I  know  God is love. Scour the planet, seeking the purest, selfless compassion. When at last you’ve found this rare and priceless treasure, blend in full-blooded passion. Add empathy – the ability to feel other people’s pain and their every emotion. Stir into the mixture flawless wisdom. Then multiply the result to infinity. What you now have is a shadow of God’s love. God is warm, passionate, highly personal and yet consistent and utterly dependable. His intelligence soars far too high above us for his ways to be predictable by mere humans, but his loving heart never changes. Everything God does – even his anger and judgments – is driven by love. Behind his every action beats a tender heart that longs to forgive and bless.   My certainty that God is like this is not book knowledge – though Bible knowledge was the critical starting point – it is something I know in every cell of my body. This unshakable conviction became mine only by enduring years and years of tough times. I cannot give you your certainty about God’s nature. I could hand you spiritual maturity no more than I could hand you physical maturity. It only comes through prolonged experience with God. It slowly forms after years of feeling you are forever hanging on by your fingernails to what seem almost unbelievable Bible truths. There are no shortcuts. What I can do in this webpage, however, is share some of those Bible truths and urge you to hold on in the exciting, hair-raising, and sometimes lonely, roller coaster ride to joy and fulfillment.   The process whereby hard times slowly transform Bible knowledge into heart knowledge is difficult to explain. For insight into one aspect of the process, we must understand that immature Christians tend to be spiritual honeymooners who think they are in love with God but are actually more in love with his gifts that anything else. The trials I have endured have refined my love for God. I no longer need God to bribe me to keep me loving him. By holding on to God when there seemed no obvious benefits, my love has become genuine. You, too, can reach that point by clinging to God when the illusion is strong that he seems to favor everyone but you.   There’s More: Don’t miss this next page   Could You Have Exhausted God’s Grace and Patienceand be Condemned to Eternal Damnation ? Warning:   These Pages Won’t Help Everyone Some people terrified about being unforgivable just need Bible-based reassurance or an explanation of a disturbing Scripture. If vast amounts of rational support and biblical exposition are the answer, keep following the links. Many Christians, however, presume this is what they need but it turns out that no amount of biblical proof or sound, theological argument or even spectacular spiritual experience can put their minds to rest. If you have already sought much help but worries keep resurfacing, you most likely need a totally different approach. You should skip these pages (you can return later if you wish) and go straight to  Scrupulosity .