Author, educator and commentator Dr. James Denison has been pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas since June, 1998. Prior to that, he was pastor at churches in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as Midland (at First Baptist!) and Mansfield, Texas. History is hard to rewrite. President Obama's prime-time news conference last night warned us that "a failure to act will only deepen this crisis," a quote which summarizes coverage in today's New York Times. He asserted that history would judge us more harshly for doing nothing about the economy than for passing imperfect legislation. When the present becomes the past, it can no longer determine the future.
Hindsight is always 20/20, Billy Wilder claimed, but foresight rarely is. Baseball's Alex Rodriguez will forever be linked to the steroids admission he made yesterday to ESPN. I'm guessing he wishes he had made a different choice when he had a choice to make. Today's Times reports that at least one of the deadly Australia wildfires was set by an arsonist. You can't bring back the dead or unburn a forest.
When I ask you about regrets in your life, what springs to mind? The problem with skeletons in the closet is that they don't want to stay there. We find them rattling through the hallways and bedrooms of our souls, years after we locked them away. A guiltless human is an oxymoron. It's hard to find a significant figure in the Bible who doesn't have a past they'd rather I not preach about this Sunday.
But guilt is not of God. He forgives all that his people confess and then "remembers their sins no more" (Jeremiah 31:34). Jesus was courageous in exposing and condemning the sins which polluted his nation and corrupted their worship. But he was quick to forgive and receive all who came to him in honest repentance. God hates the sin but loves the sinner, the way an oncologist hates her husband's colon cancer but loves her patient.
So what do we do with the guilt which followed you to your computer this morning? First, name it as specifically as possible. Write it down, honestly and bluntly. Complete the sentence, "I'm feeling guilty because . . ." Second, determine what sin led to this guilt, and confess it completely and honestly to God. Claim his promise to forgive your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
Third, expect guilt to return. When God refuses to punish us for our failures, we punish ourselves. We torture ourselves long enough to feel that we've earned the right to be forgiven. So don't be surprised when guilt arrives soon after confession is claimed. Last, take guilt to grace. Every time it returns, remember your confession and claim God's love. Do it 100 times today and 90 tomorrow, but eventually grace will win and guilt will leave. You can't change your past, but God can forgive it. Why not start today?
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