Stomping the Guilt Monster

Yesterday I began musing about the difference between condemnation and conviction. I’d just read a wonderful news article about a woman who single-handedly began a Christmas party for the homeless. I was so glad that she had been so successful, but I also felt a twinge of guilt. After all, I haven’t organized a party for the homeless. I don’t frequent downtown shelters. I don’t personally know anyone who is homeless; in fact, we don’t even have people standing on street corners holding “Help, Please” signs in our corner of small town Texas. These thoughts flew through my head as I drove to church. I’m not good enough. I don’t do enough. I’m feeling guilty because I have a warm coat, a full belly, and a family that loves me.

Why is that?

Condemnation is the act of finding someone guilty, wrong, or evil, usually after weighing the evidence (thank you, m-w.com!) In comparing myself to the Christians working in the shelters, to the Mother Theresas of this world, I am, in fact, condemning myself. I hold myself guilty. Sinner that I am, I do not deserve the blessings the Lord has showered down on me. So I feel guilty. I berate myself internally, telling myself that I should have stepped up to help my church with the gift-hand-outs or the women’s outreach. I should have rescheduled a doctor’s appointment so I could go with the church and deliver toys to a women and children’s shelter. I should offer my time and teach English to those who don’t know any. I should, I should, I should.

It’s been a common refrain in my mind for as long as I can remember. No matter how much I do, I feel like it isn’t enough for God. And if I spend my time on doing things that are for me, I feel guilty about it. No wonder I’ve had a month-long headache! The Christmas season fills my head with so many “I shoulds” that I end up feeling stressed and angry.

But…….

It’s amazing how God uses something so simple as a blog to shake some sense into me. My last post ended with some thoughts about there being no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and that’s what popped in my mind as I drove to church on Sunday. If the Lord himself sat in the passenger seat I could not have heard his message any clearer. It was as if I heard him speaking in my head, saying, “Stop It!” God brought to my mind how Paul experienced much of what I am going through — “what I want to do, I don’t do, and what I don’t want to do, I do…” and this is what he concluded in his letter to the Romans, chapters 7 and 8:

21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power^[e] within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power^[a] of the life-giving Spirit has freed you^[b] from the power of sin that leads to death. 12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters,^[e] you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do.

28 And we know that God causes everything to work together^[m] for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. 29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.

31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

Who am I to condemn myself? Through Christ, God himself has given us right standing with himself!

Now conviction, on the other hand, is not the same thing as condemnation. I have been blurring the lines. A conviction can be handed down, such as a thief being “convicted” and “found guilty.” A conviction is actually the state of being convinced of something, whether of guilt, such as the case of the thief, or of a belief, such as a belief in Christ. Take a look at this verse from 1 Thessalonians 4:

4For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.

I used to think that word conviction had the “guilty” connotation to it. I used to think that these brothers were convicted in their hearts of their guilt, so they changed their behavior. I have listened to sermons and felt at times as if the Holy Spirit was convicting me of a sin I needed to confess. But I need to remember the other meaning of conviction: being convinced. In fact, the Greek word used in the verse above is plerophoria, and it means full assurance, most certain confidence. When we have full assurance and full confidence, we act in a certain way.

When I let the Guilt Monster occupy my thoughts, I am not being convinced of my “right standing” with God.  I am relying on my works, not on his unfailing, beautiful, incomprehensible grace, mercy and love.  I am comparing myself to other Christians.  Have you ever tried to “out-Christian” another Christian?  Why do I think I “should” do a certain kind of work just because someone else does it?  We are all parts of the same body.

12 The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. 13 Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles,^[e] some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.^[f]

14 Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. 15 If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?

18 But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. 19 How strange a body would be if it had only one part! 20 Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. 21 The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”

Those words from 1 Corinthians 12 are like rain to my parched spirit!  Especially…”God has put each part just where he wants it.” In this season of my life, he has appointed me to be my daughter’s teacher.  What an awesome and scary part to fulfill!  He has me reaching out to the community through this blog.  He has me volunteering as editor of a homeschool group’s monthly newsletter.  He has me volunteering in a Sunday school classroom with a terrific group of second graders. He has given me my excellent husband to support, encourage, and lift up.

Rather than beat myself up with the “I shoulds,” this Christmas season I will trust and rejoice…trust in Emmanuel to convict (convince) me about which tasks he wishes to use me for…and rejoice in the birth of my Savior who has called me and given me “right standing” with him.

The Truth-o-Meter

Some time ago I heard about CNN’s conservative guy Glenn Beck.  I watched him a couple of times and laughed.  I figured he was sort of like Bill O’Reilly’s counterpart.  I even bought his book, An Inconvenient Book, because I loved the name.  And while reading the book, I discovered that he is a Mormon.

Way back in high school, I dated a guy who was a Mormon.  I’ll never forget the night he took me to a high school dance.  Rather than going out to dinner, his family turned their home into a fine dining establishment.  (We lived in a very small town where the only ‘fine dining’ to be had was El Chico’s!)  His father dressed up in a tuxedo and served us filet mignon.  It was a very sweet dinner, and he was a nice guy.  Although we drifted apart, I have always been struck by how nice the family was and how courteously they treated me, a self-described Christian who attended a local Protestant church.

Now what was all that about Glenn Beck? I write about him today because he is a Mormon who steadfastly believes that Mormons are Christians, and because he called Mike Huckabee the “one-eyed Mullah Huckabee.”  Beck was incensed because of a comment Huckabee had made about Mormon beliefs (in an effort to show how little he knows about them), saying,

“don’t they believe Jesus and Satan are brothers?”

Hmmm.  Well, that bothered me a lot.  In my last post I exhorted all of you to do what the Scriptures say, and test everything.

So I did.  And I was astounded at the information I uncovered — from the LDS’s own website’s question and answer  section — about the Mormon beliefs about the relationship between Lucifer and Jesus.  Here is what I found:

Jess L. Christensen, Institute of Religion director at Utah State University, Logan, Utah. On first hearing, the doctrine that Lucifer and our Lord, Jesus Christ, are brothers may seem surprising to some—especially to those unacquainted with latter-day revelations. But both the scriptures and the prophets affirm that Jesus Christ and Lucifer are indeed offspring of our Heavenly Father and, therefore, spirit brothers. Jesus Christ was with the Father from the beginning. Lucifer, too, was an angel “who was in authority in the presence of God,” a “son of the morning.” (See Isa. 14:12; D&C 76:25–27.) Both Jesus and Lucifer were strong leaders with great knowledge and influence. But as the Firstborn of the Father, Jesus was Lucifer’s older brother. (See Col. 1:15; D&C 93:21.)

The above quote references Colossians 1:15.  As  you can see below in context, Jesus was NOT firstborn OF the father.  No, he was the prototokos pas ktisis — firstborn every, each, all act-of-creating, founding, establishing.  Notice there is no preposition in the Greek.  The NIV says “firstborn over all creation.”  The KJV says “firstborn of every creature.”  The English translators substitute the words “of” or “over” — but there was no such word in the Greek.

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

Looking at verse 16 helps us see what verse 15 is talking about.  By Christ and through Christ, all things were created.  It says it again: all things were created by him and for him.  He was not, as the LDS quote from above states, an “offspring” as we see our own offspring.  No, the Greek words show that Christ was the first Creator.  Which leads us to the Trinity — God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  It is another one of those mysteries I wrote about earlier.

Back to the issue at hand: do Mormons believe Jesus and Lucifer are spirit brothers?  Yes they do!  Does Glenn Beck not know the tenets of his faith?  I read that Huckabee later apologized to Mitt Romney (and later to Glenn Beck) for his comments.  My question is this: Why?  Hear this, Huckabee, you were right!  Speaking the truth does not mean you are standing in judgment.  Unfortunately, our politically correct society has whittled “truth” down to falsehood in an attempt to make secular humanism the main religion.  “You can have your truth, and I’ll have my truth,” they claim.  I stand on the Bible as my Truth-o-Meter.

For the record, here is what the Bible teaches us about Lucifer from Isaiah 14:

 12 How you have fallen from heaven,
O morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!

13 You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. ^[a]

14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”

15 But you are brought down to the grave,
to the depths of the pit.

Nowhere does it say that Lucifer was God’s son.  “Son of the dawn,” in the original Hebrew, is ben shachar.  It literally means the son of the dawn.  The name Lucifer means “morning star.”

There are other tenets of the Mormon faith that, when “tested” by Scripture (both the Old and New Testaments), show that they have been led astray.  This does not mean that I think Mormons are bad people.  As I said before, I have known wonderful people who belong to the LDS church.  They follow many of Jesus’ commandments.  But I believe, and apparently Mike Huckabee agrees with me, they have been deceived.

It all goes back to this:

Test everything.  Hold on to the good.

1 Thessalonians 5:21

And the good news is this: that Christ died for our sins.  There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! (Romans 8:1).

No condemnation.  I’ll have to write about that another time…