All Our Sins Forgiven, Even When We Failed to Stand Up for Ourselves

Redemption is a sea that surrounds us.

We can't get away with it, once we step into it.

All our sins, paid for, forever.

Jesus accomplished a perfect work when He died on the Cross:

"And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:2)

Jesus has paid for all the sins of all the world.

His payment covers our sins for all time!

Remember, when Jesus died on the Cross, all your sins were in the future! I love reminding myself of that revelation, especially when Pharisaical Christians want to argue about the fullness of His sacrifice for our sins.

However, if that reason does not satisfy anyone, they can consider these verses:

"Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;" (Psalm 103:3)

"To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins." (Act 10:43)

"And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." (Acts 13:39)

"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;" (Ephesians 1:7)

"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;" (Colossians 2:13)

And of course, the enforcement clause of the New Covenant:

"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8:12)

There's no time limit or time period for how long our sins are forgiven. Please keep that in mind.

Now, I have meditated on this revelation for years, and I have been hearing the Gospel truth for years.

Yet, even then, there were still pockets of shame, bitterness, regret, and condemnation that would wash over me. There were bitter memories, and this sense that I still had to do something about them would wash over me.

I would be worried that I was not keeping my mind on God, and thus He would walk out on me or not be there for me.

Only recently have I seen, understood how broad, how wide His forgiveness is. All our sins are forgiven, past, present, and future. Whatever may happen to morrow will not interrupt the truth that He has already paid for any failures, faults, or follies that I engage in.

And one of the most painful follies is the sense that I allowed someone to harm me, and I let that person get away with it.

My mother taught my sister and me to live with this kind of resentment. "Don't let people take advantage of you. Don't let them hurt you or run roughshod over you." She had this unremitting sense of hypervigilance because of serious abuse that she had suffered when she was young.

Part of the problem with suffering abuse, with enduring pain or trauma, is that we tend to blame ourselves. "I should have known better. How could I let that person get away with treating me that way?"

Also, was this terrible habit of mind which had overtaken me, and I was constantly assaulted by the "what ifs" when I would go out and about in the world.

But all of that has been paid for. God is bigger than time itself, and His redemption covers us forever. I don't have to wonder or worry about tomorrow or the next day, not just because He "will be" there. More importantly:

He has already paid for my failures 

that I will commit tomorrow 

and the next day and the next day.

And the next day after that!

Ultimately, why did I fear tomorrow? It's not so much that bad things might befall me, or someone might hurt me, or I would fail or suffer some form of humiliation. The problem was that I was afraid that God would be mad at me, cut me off, be angry with me.

Yet even Isaiah prophesies that that will not happen once we believe in Jesus:

"For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee." (Isaiah 54:9)

Whatever fails, whatever screw-ups, I don't have to keep punishing myself. That barbed-wire sense of pain in the back of my head is just the condemnation of the enemy, but all of it is wrong. There is no one event or hardship which I have endured which should require me or you or anyone else to do anything else.

Now do I well understand what Peter meant when he wrote in his Second Epistle:

"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen." (2 Peter 3:18)

And even the sins when we did not speak up for ourselves, when we failed to stop evil, when we failed to speak out.

Instead of feeling condemned, let us keep receiving the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness! We don't have to keep making people pay for the past, including ourselves, because Jesus paid for all of it!

That sense of pain, that prickling burden of condemnation that would prick at the back of my head: those were the fiery darts (Ephesians 6:16) and we have the helmet of the hope of salvation to dispel them, too (Ephesians 6:17).

It's so simple and obvious now, but all the time before, I kept thinking that I had to do something else because that sense of pain was ... something else. In reality, it was just condemnation, and there is no condemnation in Christ (Romans 8:1), and therefore I do not have to care at all.

This revelation has been the hugest revelation of all! So grateful to keep hearing and hearing the word of Christ!

The Helmet of the Hope of Salvation

 "And take the helmet of salvation ..." (Ephesians 6:17)

Yes, the Helmet, the head gear to protect our minds, our thoughts, our heads.

It's really amazing how many fiery darts come shooting at us every day.

And for the longest time, I was constantly tempted to put out these fires on my own.

The past two weeks, it has fully and finally dawned on me how fully encompassing is the Cross of Jesus Christ!

He has paid for all our sins: past, present, and future.

There is nothing more that needs to be done. There is no more extra work or effort needed to pay the price, to count the costs, to settle the bill.

Jesus dropped the charges because He took on the entire punishment!

If there is any tension, any shame, any condemnation, or sense of fire or anger or bitterness or condemnation in the back of my head, the answer is "It's already paid for."

That has been Satan's scam with me for the last fifteen years. I constantly thought all those bad feelings or those fearful feelings were something that I had to deal with.

All of that was mere aftereffects from wrong believing.

Now that I no longer see bitterness from bad memories through any other lens, the bitterness is all gone!

It was never about suppressing the memories or running away from the bad events in my life. It's ALL about seeing that the condemnation is gone!

"I should have done this!" -- PAID

"I wish I had said that!" -- PAID!

"I can't believe I let him get away with that!"  -- PAID!

"Why didn't I see that coming?!" -- PAID

There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). It's all been paid for, and the feelings, the upsets, all of that was paid for, too!

I cannot describe the wonderful rest and refreshing that I have felt in my mind, especially in the back and the base of my head. There's the ongoing feeling of a river, of a fountain just surging in the back of my head. I feel real peace!

I get the fullness of the Cross, and I now understand why it seemed that so many of my prayers were not answered. The issue was that I didn't see all of those negative feelings as already paid for!

Now, there is no confusion!

Thank you, JESUS!

AA, The Evil Bewitching Cult Which Takes Away the Only One Who Can Take Away Your Sins, Shame, and Condemnation

"O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?" (Galatians 3:1)

The last two weeks have been more than a wonder.

They have been a god-send of real revelation.

I have so much to write about, that I worry that I cannot finish it quickly enough, for all the other projects that I want to write.

The blood of Jesus covers all of my sins forever, past, present, and future. Pastor Prince has been stressing the importance of this crucial revelation, and "crucial" as in Cross is the crux of the point.

It's all about the Cross. Jesus did indeed complete a perfect work at the Cross.

And yet, for the longest time, I did not connect all the pain and hurt that I was feeling, with the fact that I simply did not realize that those pains, that sense of condemnation, was merely the misunderstanding that all of that pain, all of that condemnation was paid for, too.

Let me go back in time, just a little bit.

When I worked at a high school in the Los Angeles are, I struggled with this fear, that God's presence would be taken away from me or that I would fail, and then God would go away from me. I didn't know how to fail, let alone succeed, because I was so worried about incurring God's wrath.

There was this constant pressure to "keep my mind on God," and with this pressure, there was this constant fear of losing God's presence (favor) in my life, and that I would end up doing all kinds of bad, wrong, or terrible things.

Why did I have this struggle? This fight is going back almost twenty years, and from time to time, the fearful lingering would still rise up in my mind: "What if I take my mind off God? What if I am not thinking about Him enough? What? What if?! What if?!!"

That kind of bondage will drive you crazy, and that is precisely what happened to me.

2008 was a good year, in that I got that great job at the high school. I was on my last leg, had no money, didn't know how I was going to get through the year. Then I saw the ad, I told them the kind of job I was hoping to find, and they took me in.

So many good things were happening in my life, and I was connecting all of this with a proper, broad confession of faith: "I am the righteousness of God. I am righteous."

But the peace didn't last long. There were always fears of failure. There was always that frustrating premonition that something bad could happen, and it would be my doing, and therefore my undoing.

I didn't have an understanding of what it means to be righteous. I had understood what righteousness was, in that it was some kind of a magic charm or word, but I didn't realize that all of my sins, tomorrow and the next day and the next day, were paid for forever. 

I am righteous because Jesus paid for all my sins. There is indeed power in the Blood!

Yet, I did not know about this power at all. Why?

I was raised by a Stepper Mom. AA was the answer to everything. We were taught that if we felt bad, if we felt guilty, if we had some kind of "Resentment," that we need to take our steps, take an inventory, work a program, etc.

I recalled one of the constant themes pressed in the AA membership in the rewms, and it's this:

"All you have is a daily reprieve."

There is no certainty, peace, or lasting hope in the AA cult. You are taught that you have to keep "working your program" every day so that you don't slip up and drink again.

Does anyone not see how debilitating this kind of life can be? Every day, you are ultimately hounded by this dread that you could screw up and lose everything. You go through life uptight, fearful, constantly looking over your shoulder, worrying that you might fail.

I have also written many times about that toxic Tenth Step (Although all of it is toxic.) Living a life of having to promptly admit your wrongs every time you are wrong, every day looking over your life and seeing where you have failed: what kind of life is that?

And with human beings who have a severe tinge of shame and regret--for whatever reason--the searching never ends.

That's what Bill W. wanted. He desired to build himself into a guru who would have all the answers for everyone else. 

That constant soul-searching and fear-mongering in the back of my head dominated me for a few years, especially before, during, and after that teaching job in Los Angeles.

I walked around constantly trying to control my feelings, watching over my thoughts, constantly full of self-reflecting and self-loathing. It was an awful, empty life, one that I would not wish on my worst enemy.

All of that trauma and fear in the back of my head was nonsense, because there was no need to be afraid since all of my sins had been paid for and forgiven forever. But I did not know that, since I had not heard the fullness of the Gospel.

One of the questions that constantly nagged at me was: "What if you sin tomorrow? What if you do the wrong thing?" Finally, today, by the grace of God--THANK YOU, JESUS--I can fully answer that question:

"All of tomorrow's sins are paid for. Jesus has covered, paid for, wiped out all sin!"

I also struggled with a sense of loneliness and abandon during that very difficult time. What was I supposed to be doing with my life, then? Is it just an arbitrary free-for-all?

Not at all. Why?

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:" (Hebrews 8:10)

This is the NEW COVENANT! This is the will of God the Father, of Daddy God, which Jesus accomplished at the Cross (cf Hebrews 10:9)

The same verse above describes how God will put his laws in our minds, and write them in our hearts. The original Hebrews word is "Torah," and that is not just law, but direction, guidance, and leading! It's a personal set of conduct given to us, imparted to us by His Holy Spirit!

"And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left." (Isaiah 30:21)

But there's more than getting mere direction. He will cause us to know Himself intimately! 

"11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest." (Hebrews 8:11)

This was the key part. Daddy God is a real, personal Savior, a real, living God who is watching out for me. He is not some distant, faraway business leader or potentate. He is not someone whom I have to will into existence in order to live and breathe and have any being!

All of these wonderful promises were awaiting me--but I did not know about them. I read the Bible every day, sure, but everything was interpreted through the corrupt, evil lense of Alcoholics Anonymous. I have railed against this blasphemy many times before, and I will continue to do so to this day. Why would any of us limit or ruin God's Word by forcing it through the deceptive sieve of some empty cult?

Because that's what I was taught to do.

So, what makes all the amazing promises and guarantees of the New Covenant come to pass?

"12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8:12)

All our sins are forgiven! ALL OF THEM!

That is not what AA teaches. The awful cult tells you that you have only a reprieve, and that you have to take your inventory, and that you have to work amends. The work never ends in AA, and the sense of fear, dread, worry, sorrow, pain, bitterness, and worst of all condemnation just never goes away.

Why did I have such trauma and such difficulty? Because I was head deep and Acoholics anonymous, and this stupid lie that I had to take my inventory all the time. 

I did not know anything about the new covenant.

I did not understand that He has everything, paid for because that's what the Cross is for. If there were tinglings or bad feelings in my head, or fears or premonitions, the answer is the Cross. Now I understand more than ever what 2nd Corinthians 10:5 is talking about. I understand what the Helmet of salvation is all about (Ephesians 6:17)

The Thirteenth Step

You need to know that AA meetings are not safe. 

 Not safe at all.

            

What is Humility and the Humbling Process

 

"Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:" (1 Peter 5:6)

What does it mean to be a humble?

Some people have said: "It's thinking less of yourself."

Others have shared: "It's thinking of yourself less."

Still others would say: "It's not thinking of yourself at all."

But there is still a better way:

Thinking more of God, seeing more of Jesus.

It's not about us at all, but seeing how big HE is!

Do we look at our meager hands to get the job done?

Or do we trust in His mighty hands?

His hands are bigger than your hands.

Do you still see your hands only, or are you willing to hand your problems to bigger hands?

That is what being humbled should be about.

It's about seeing Him, and seeing how big He is!

Jesus: Bigger Than the Future

Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega (Revelation 22:13).

God tells the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).

Daddy God is bigger than time itself.

This is beyond our conception, something that we cannot fathom or understand on our own.

AA invites adherents to "choose your own conception of God." That is a recipe for disaster!

We have to receive the truth about God as a revelation, based on God's Word. There is no scientific experiment, there is no amount of research to help us understanding these realities.

These eternal verities are too big for our limited understanding.

Resting in this broad revelation has helped me have greater peace now than ever before.

I realize now that no matter what is going on in our minds, in our hearts, faith, our spirit, sees bigger and better things.

We can understand that God is in control, based on how He has kept his promises, first giving us His Word--literally, His Son dying on the Cross for us, and from there we can trust that He is taking care of everything, even when events don't seem to be going our way.

For too long, I saw the future as bigger than God. I worried about the future, wondering if He would be on my side, taking care of me every step of the way.

I soon realized, as I meditated more on God's Word, that it made no sense to fear tomorrow. He is bigger than my tomorrows, and I can trust Him to be there for me tomorrow, because all of my sins have been paid for--past, present, future--have been paid for. I don't have to worry about God abandoning me or rejecting me if I fail.

I don't have to know what the future holds, because I know who holds the future, and He holds me!

"28And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. 30I and my Father are one." (John 10:28-30)

Rooted and Ground

 

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love ..." (Ephesians 3:17)

When we believe in Jesus, we are rooted in Him, we are grounded in Him.

We don't shake or fall away when times get tough, when we sin, fall, or fail.

And yet, for years, I used to believe that God would come or go depending on how I felt.

There was no certainty in my life, especially in regards to God's eternal love and never-ending favor for me!

I cannot tell you how many times in my life I had this constant sense of anxiety and worry.

There was this constant nagging in my mind, wondering if God would be there for me or not. 

It's really stunning to what extent I was trying to control my emotions, keep my thoughts and feelings in line so that everything around me would feel stable and security.

For the last few months, I have been learning about trauma and parent-child issues. I can attest that when I was growing up, there was a great degree of instability and insecurity.

In 1995, My mother abandoned me at the Torrance airport when I was 14 years old. She had taken us away from our father the previous year, and then she cast me off when I simply told her that I was depressed. There was no excuse or justification for what she did to me.

Today, I am no longer angry or bitter about what she did. I understand how lost and misguided she was, due to all the wrong believing she had imbibed from the AA cult. Today, I can write about what happened to me.

And AA plays a big part in this vile confusion. That terrible cult tells people that we can get shut off "from the sunlight of the spirit" when we get resentful or angry. 

Of course, that's not true.

God spoke directly to Cain after he plotted, rose up, and murdered his brother Abel. Let's not forget that God spoke directly to Jonah, even questioning him whether he was justified in being angry because God showed His true spirit in being merciful and gracious to the pagans of Nineveh (Jonah 4:9). God does not disappear or go away when we get angry. He does not leave us when we sin, fall, or fail.

We are rooted and grounded in His love!

In sad and stark contrast, any kind of separation and abandonment harms children deeply. Even my father, despite his many flaws, was really upset that my mother just threw me away like that in 1995.

That is trauma, and that fear does not go away easily. It takes time to realize that painful memories from the past have no bearing on who God is in our lives today.

He is an ever-present help for us, no matter how bad things may be around us.

The mistake I constantly made, and many Christians make as we grow in grace, is that we struggle with thoughts and feelings, as if they color or define the ultimate reality in our lives. It really doesn't matter how I feel. God is real, living and moving in our lives, even if we don't understand everything happening around us.

It's amazing how much I tried to clean up and clean out how I was feeling, what I was thinking so that I could believe that all was well, that everything was under control. Today, I am not worried about the potential chaos and upsets of tomorrow.

I am rooted and grounded in His love, and nothing can uproot me.