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Friends, I urge you to find a church congregation that believes in confession. Avoid a fellowship of perfect people—you probably won’t fit in. Seek one where members confess their sins and show humility, where the price of admission is simply an admission of guilt.  Healing happens in a church like this.

Jesus said, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:23).  1 John 1:8-10 says, “If we say we have no sin, we’re fooling ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  But if we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust God to do what’s right. He will cleanse us from all the wrongs we have done.”

Scripture doesn’t say he might, could, would, or has been known to do so.  He said, he WILL cleanse us!  Oh, the sweet certainty of his words.

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What would an X-ray—an MRI—of your soul reveal?  Regrets over teenage relationships? Remorse over a poor choice?  You become moody, cranky…angry or irritable.  That’s understandable if you have shame lodged in your soul.

Interested in an extraction?  Confess!  Request a spiritual  MRI.  Psalm 139: 23-24 is just that:

“Search me, O God and know my heart;

try me, and know my anxieties;

see if there’s any wicked way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.”

We need a grace-based confession.  God, I’ve done what You say is wrong.  Would you wash away my guilt and make me clean again?  No chant, no candle needed.  Just a prayer of honest confession.  Try it.

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Confession!  It’s a word that conjures up many images—some not so positive!  Confession isn’t telling God what he doesn’t know.  That’s impossible.  It’s not pointing fingers at others without pointing any at me.  That may feel good, but it doesn’t promote healing.

Confession is a radical reliance on grace— a trust in God’s goodness.  The truth is, confessors find freedom that deniers of sin do not!  Scripture says “If we say we have no sin, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  But if we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust God to do what is right.  He will cleanse us from all the wrongs we have done.”

Tell God what you did.  Again, it’s not that he doesn’t already know, but the two of you need to agree! Then let the pure water of his grace flow over your mistakes!

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We are poor, spiritually for sure; monetarily, perhaps. We’ve buried our dreams, desires, and aspirations. Like the mother with Lupus or the businessman in the unemployment line, we’re out of options. Yet Christ approached us “while we were yet sinners!” “Will you cover us?” we asked him, and Grace smiled. He gave us grace. Not just mercy, mind you, but grace.

Grace goes beyond mercy. Mercy gave the prodigal son a second chance but Grace threw him a party. Mercy prompted the Samaritan to bandage the wounds of the victim. But grace prompted him to leave his credit card as payment for the victim’s care. Mercy forgave the thief on the cross. Grace escorted him into paradise. Mercy pardons us. Grace woos and weds us! Grace does this. God does this. Grace is God walking into your world with a sparkle in his eye and an offer that’s hard to resist!

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Most people keep a pot of anger on low boil! But you aren’t most people. Look at your feet. They’re wet, grace-soaked. Jesus has washed your feet. He has washed the grimiest parts of your life.

To accept grace is the vow to give it. You don’t endorse the deeds of your offender when you forgive them. Jesus didn’t endorse your sins by forgiving you.  The grace-defined person, still sends thieves to jail and expects the ex to pay child support. Grace sees the hurt full well. But it refuses to let hurts poison the heart.

Where grace is lacking, bitterness abounds. Where grace abounds, forgiveness grows. So let the hands of God wipe away every dirty part of your life. Then look across the room and wash someone else’s feet. Let grace begin and continue in you!

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Victoria Ruvolo doesn’t remember the 18-year-old boy leaning out the window, of all things, holding a frozen turkey.  He threw it at her windshield.  It shattered Victoria’s face like a dinner plate on concrete.

John 13:14 -15 says,  “Since I, the Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. Do as I have done to you.” And that’s what Victoria Ruvolo did. Months later, she stood face to face with her offender in court. He was given six months behind bars and five years’ probation. Everyone in the courtroom objected to the light sentence. He sobbed while she spoke. The light sentence was her idea. “I forgive you. I want your life to be the best it can be. God gave me a second chance at life, and I passed it on” she said!  Grace chooses to give the forgiveness that’s been received!

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Attempts at “self-salvation” guarantee nothing but exhaustion.  We scamper and scurry, trying to please God, collecting merit badges and brownie points and scowling at anyone who questions our accomplishments.  The result?  We are the weariest people on earth. We so fear failure that we create the image of perfection. Call us the church of hound-dog faces and slumped shoulders.

Stop it!  Once and for all, enough of this frenzy!  Hebrews 13:9 tells us, “Your hearts should be strengthened by God’s grace, not by obeying rules.”  In Matthew 11:28  Jesus promises, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”

There is no fine print.  A second shoe is not going to drop.  God’s promise has no hidden language.  Let grace happen.  You have His unending affection.  Stretch yourself out in the hammock of grace.  You can rest now!

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I became a Christian about the same time I became a Boy Scout, and I made the assumption that God grades like the Boy Scouts do– on a merit system.  Good scouts move up.  Good people go to heaven.

So I worked toward the day when God, amid falling confetti and dancing cherubim, would drape my badge-laden sash across my chest and welcome me into his eternal kingdom where I would humbly display my badges for eternity.  But some thorny questions surfaced.  How many badges does He require?  How good is good?

Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”  Unearned.  A gift.  Our merits merit nothing.  So, let grace happen.  Of all the things you must earn in life, God’s unending affection is not one of them.  You have it!

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Christ took away your sins.  He endured not just the nails of the Romans, the mockery of the crowd, and the spear of the soldier, but he endured the anger of God!  God didn’t just overlook your sins, lest he endorse them.  He didn’t punish you, lest he destroy you.  Instead, He found a way to punish the sin and preserve the sinner.  Jesus took your punishment, and God gave you credit for Jesus’ perfection.

As long as the cross is God’s gift to the world, it will touch you but it will not change you.  Precious as it is to proclaim, “Christ died for the world,” even sweeter it is to whisper, “Christ died for me!”

For my sins he died.

He took my place on the cross.

He felt my shame; and he spoke my name.

Thank God for the day Jesus took your place,

for the day that grace happened to you!

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We are incarcerated by our past.  We have been found guilty!  Our executioner’s footsteps echo against stone walls.  We sit on the floor of the dusty cell, awaiting our final moment.  We don’t look up as he opens the door.  We know what he’s going to say.

“Time to pay for your sins.”  But we hear something else!

“You’re free to go. They took Jesus instead of you!”

The door swings open, the guard barks, “Get out.”

And we find ourselves shackles gone, crimes pardoned, wondering what just happened?  Grace just happened!  Christ took away your sins. Romans 3:24 says, “God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins.  We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us.”  What happened?  Grace happened!

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When Christ rose from the dead, he never reminded the disciples of their betrayal and desertion.  They outran the guards, but they couldn’t outrun the love of Christ.

Desert God—he’ll still love you.  Deny God—he’ll still love you.  Doubt God—he’ll still love you.  You have never lived a loveless day.  Not one!  You never leave God’s mind, escape his sight, or flee his thoughts.  He knows you better than you know you, and he loves you still.

The greatest discovery in the universe is the greatest love in the universe—and that is God’s love.  Remember Paul’s words in Romans 8:38,  “Nothing can separate us from his love.”  Step to the well of God’s love and drink up.  Once filled by his love, you’ll never be the same.

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In Romans chapter 8,  Paul asks five life-changing questions:

1. “Won’t God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?”

God won’t leave us to fend for ourselves.

2. “If God is for us, who can ever be against us?”

God’s presence tilts the scales of security forever in our direction.

3. “Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own?”

Once God accepts you, what other opinion matters?

4. “Who then will condemn us? Will Christ Jesus?”

The answer is NO!  Christ sits next to God as our divine defense attorney who mutes the voices of our accusers.

5. “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love?”

Paul’s “Eureka!” conclusion:  Nothing and no one can drive a wedge between you and God’s love!

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In Ephesians 3:17, Paul says, “May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.”  The supreme surprise of God’s love is that it has nothing to do with you.  “God is love” the scripture says.  God loves you because he is he.  You don’t influence God’s love.  Your actions don’t alter his devotion.  Success signals God’s love no more than struggles indicate the lack of it.

When you feel unloved, take a trip to the cross and look at Jesus, cross-nailed and thorn-crowned.  Choose God’s love.  For the sake of your heart.  The prayer is powerful and simple:  “Lord, I receive your love.  Nothing can separate me from your love.”  Take a breath and descend so deeply into his love that you see nothing else.

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“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything” (Philippians 4:6).  God offers you and me the possibility of a worry-free life.  Jesus said, “Can all your worries add a single moment to your life!  Of course not” (Matthew 6:27).  Worry is irrelevant.  You don’t add one day to your life or one bit of life to your day by worrying.

Worry is also irreverent; it’s distrusting God…an “unconscious blasphemy.”  The Apostle Paul urges us to “be anxious for nothing.”  How?  Our part includes prayer and gratitude.  Instead of looking forward in fear, look upward in faith and backward in appreciation of past victories. God’s part is peace and protection.  God enjoys perfect peace because he enjoys perfect power.  And he offers his peace to you to guard your heart.  Do your part, and God will do his.

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Drink deeply from God’s Lordship.  He authors all itineraries.  He knows what is best.  No struggle will come your way apart from His purpose, presence, and permission.  What encouragement this brings.  You are never the victim of nature or the prey of fate.  Chance is eliminated.

You are more than a weathervane whipped about by the winds of fortune.  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, he promises.  And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.  When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched; nor will the flame burn you.  “For I am the Lord your God.” (Isaiah 43:2-3).

We live beneath the protective palm of the sovereign king who super intends every circumstance of our lives, and delights in doing us good.  Be encouraged.  God’s ways are always right.

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Paul once asked the Galatian church a question.  “You began your life in Christ by the Spirit.  Now are you trying to make it complete by your own power?  That is foolish” (Galatians 3:3).

I used to think there were two kinds of people: the saved and unsaved.  Paul describes a third: the saved, but unspiritual.  They blend in with nonbelievers.  They let God save them, but not change them.  Their lives are marked by joyless days, contentious relationships, and thirsty hearts.  No wonder they’re tired.

Paul gives the solution in five rich words.  “Be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).  Do you desire God’s Spirit?  Ask.  The Spirit fills as prayers flow.  Try this!  Invite the Holy Spirit into every room of your heart!

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The apostle Paul wrote, “God sent [Christ] to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so he could adopt us as his very own children” (Galatians 4:5).

Heaven knows no stepchildren or grandchildren.  God says we are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17).  What Christ inherits, you inherit.  We are adopted but not yet transported.  We have a new family, but not our heavenly house.  He has claimed us, but has yet to come for us.  What do we do in the meantime?

Paul tells us in Colossians 3:2 to “let heaven fill your thoughts.  Do not think only about things down here on earth.”  Let today be a day full of heaven-thoughts.  Every homeless day carries us closer to the day our Father will come.  You, my friend, are headed home.

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No culture, no nation, no person sidesteps the infection of sin.  You can blame the plague of sin on a godless decision.  Adam and Eve ignored God’s will…and sin, with death on its coattails, entered the world.  The sinful mind dismisses God and becomes self-centered.  Sin, for a season, quenches thirst. But, given time, the thirst returns, more demanding than ever.

God refuses to compromise the spiritual purity of heaven.  Here’s the awful truth.  Lead a godless life, and expect a godless eternity.  Spend life telling God to leave you alone, and he will.  So what can we do?  Acts 16:31 says, “Put your entire trust in the Master Jesus.”  Christ not only became the sin offering, he overcame the punishment for sin—death—through his glorious resurrection from the dead.

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Your body is 80 percent fluid.  Stop drinking and see what happens.  Coherent thoughts vanish, skin grows clammy, and vital organs wrinkle.

Deprive your heart of spiritual water, and your dehydrated heart will send desperate messages—hopelessness, loneliness, resentment.  Where do you find water for your soul?  Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).

Let Christ be the water of your soul.  Church activities might hide a thirst, but only Christ quenches it. Drink him.  Receive Christ’s work on the cross, the energy of his Spirit, his lordship over your life, his unending, unfailing love.  Drink deeply and often.  And out of you will flow rivers of living water.

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The Beatitudes end with this compelling promise— “Great is your reward in heaven!” (Matthew 5:12).

The Book of Revelation could be called the Book of Homecoming.  In Revelation 21 verse 2, John describes heaven as a “bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”  Verse 4 says “there will be no more death.” The most hopeful words are in verse 5 , “I am making everything new.”  The Master Builder will pull out the original plan and restore the vigor, the energy, the hope, and the soul.

Each step you take brings you closer to home.  Before you know it, you’ll enter the City.  You’ll hear your name spoken by those who love you.  And maybe, just maybe—in the back, behind the crowds—the One who would rather die than live without you will remove his pierced hands from his heavenly robe and…applaud.

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