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Today, I present another sweet cyber-friend, Cecilia Marie Pulliam. I hope you’ll support Ceci and leave her a comment...

It wasn’t fair. How could they do this? (Fill in any situation – most would fit.) I was so angry I could barely wait to tell my bus mates and co-workers. I vented, I raved and I justified – until the next morning.

At 5:00 a.m., Jimmy Cricket extolled the virtues of When You Wish Upon A Star. I wasn't in the mood for a Pollyanna wake up call and wished I’d changed my alarm to something more like I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.

I rolled out of bed, shuffled out to the kitchen and made coffee. While it brewed, I stared out the window. Light was just showing in the eastern horizon. Clear sky, maybe we’d finally have a sunny, warm day.

The scene faded, receding behind a thin veil. I saw Jesus on the cross. As I watched, He transposed His face over my perceived enemy, for the second time, the first being right after my divorce. I was being reminded, once again, of God’s opinion of anger - even justified anger.

Justified. That was exactly what I had done - justified my action, my decisions, at the expense of another’s reputation. It didn’t matter that I had told the truth. It was wrong to broadcast the negative situation. My face reddened when I remembered a story I had recently told someone else.

A Christian missionary in China discovered a thief had stolen all of the mission’s blankets. The woman said nothing, demonstrated no outward anger, and went about her daily routine as if nothing had happened.

A Chinese solider staying with the missionaries questioned her behavior. “Why are you not angry with this thief?”

The woman replied, “First, God provided those blankets, and He will provide more when we need them. And secondly, the thief obviously needed them more than we did.”

Her words and behavior so impressed the solider he converted to Christianity, becoming a priest.

I sank to my knees, asking God to forgive my un-Christian-like behavior. I vowed to ask forgiveness from every person I had ranted to. Granted it would be hard to swallow my pride and admit I had been wrong, yet I had to somehow set the record straight.

My morning devotions confirmed my guilt. The Greatest Commandment was quoted in my first reading. “Love one another as I have loved you.” Remorse pounded my heart, crushing me into a black hole of shame.

The meditation continued with the gentle reminder that repentance, true repentance - coupled with the desire to change and not repeat the offense - wipes away our sin. There was no need to hang my head in shame or plot horrific punishments.

“He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor punished us according to our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
Psalm 103: 10-12 NKJV

Halleluiah. Amen.

~Be sure to visit Cecilia’s wonderful site, Out of the Closet into the Light.

Sydney is a Blue Healer, maybe even a mix of sorts. Rather hard to tell. She has brown eyes and mostly black hair, some spots are mottled with white.

She likes to stay very near us, practically clinging to our feet when one of us goes into another room, even the bathroom.

Sydney is a good dog, actually very obedient. She does drive me nuts sometimes by trying to outsmart me and see if she can get a treat, acting like she wants to go out. Sometimes, she wants out just to come back in for a treat. You see, we give her a treat if she doesn’t bark. She doesn’t always get one!

But she has one bad habit...

...she loves to get in the garbage and tear up used tissues! I don’t think she eats them, just tears them up.

If we point to the tissues and ask her, “What’s this, Sydney?” or “Who did this?” we get a hilarious response...

...she turns her head to ignore her wrongdoing. She’ll turn completely around and look in the opposite direction, as if to say, “Who me? I don’t see anything!”

Oh, my! Don’t we behave the same way with God?

Obedient, yet sometimes, when the Lord points out some bad habit or wrongdoing, we turn the other way as if to say, “Who me? I didn’t do anything!”

Recognition

Because David desired to be rid of those sins prowling around in his heart that might escape his attention, he said to God, “But how can I ever know what sins are lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults.” (Ps. 19:12 TLB)

Do we recognize our wrongdoing?

Remorse

After committing a sin, are we in anguish only that we got caught and now have to face the consequences or that we have wounded the heart of the Father?

Do we even blush? God said of the Israelites to Jeremiah, “Are they ashamed when they do these disgusting things? No, not at all—they don’t even blush!” (Jer. 6:15 NLT)

Do we say to the Father, “I am deeply sorry for what I have done” (Ps. 38:18 NLT)?

Repentance

So, how long does it take you to confess a sin? Thirty seconds? Thirty minutes? Thirty days? Or thirty years? The moment you know you have done something against God’s Word, do you confess it only to rush out the door to do it again? Where is repentance?

The proof of the pudding, so to speak, of repentance is, as Jesus said to the Pharisees, to “Bring forth fruit that is consistent with repentance [let your lives prove your change of heart].” (Matt. 3:8 Amp)

Removal of Sin

It is by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross that “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” (Eph. 1:7a NKJV)

When God forgives our sins, He removes them “as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us,” (Ps. 103:12 NKJV) tossing them “into the depths of the ocean,” (Micah 7:19b TLB) never to emerge.

He forgives and forgets our sins. The only memory of them is in our own minds, not God’s! God dumps our sins into the great abyss but we’re the ones with the fishing poles!

Repercussions

After we succumb to one of the enemy’s pretty packages of temptation, what is the aftermath? What do we forfeit? Our peace, our joy, our relationships with others, answers to our prayers, and even our fellowship with the Lord.

Consequences are attached to sin. God does not wave a magic wand over our sins to make the repercussions disappear. However, as Jesus took the punishment of sin for us, Paul said, “Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” (Rom 5:20 NKJV)

Restoration Afterwards

God gives us a sure-fire-get-back-into-fellowship guarantee, “And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.” (Rom. 5:9 NLT)

Pursuing our own ways takes us on a detour away from Home. However, the Father always anxiously watches for our return and welcomes us back with open arms.

Rejoicing in Restoration

Isaiah said in the Old Testament, “I am overwhelmed with joy in the LORD my God! For He has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness.” (Is. 61:10 NLT)

Because of Jesus’ sacrifice for the forgiveness and cleansing of our sins, we rejoice and are able to say, “Thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory [making us conquerors] through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 15:57 Amp) Amen!

Are you ignoring your sin or are you happy dancing in the victory of your forgiveness and restoration?



**This is part of Peter Pollock's One Word at a Time Blog Carnival