Author Archives: Steve

Guilty: True or False?

Originally Posted in Dec. 2008.

No one likes to feel guilty.  It brings feelings of shame.  We often want to run away and hide.  It’s exactly what Adam and Eve did in the garden of Eden when they sinned against God.  Guilt is this feeling of letting someone else down, including ourselves and even God.  Guilt says that some form of punishment is now required. Guilty feelings are just lousy. The truth is that there are many things that end up creating guilty feelings for us that just simply shouldn’t.  And there are many things that should create guilty feelings, but they don’t because we end up creating excuses and justifications for what we did or why we shouldn’t feel that way. Guilt can be a good thing, but it may fail to do it’s proper work if we’ve allowed our heart to be full of bitterness or resentment.

I believe guilt is always an indicator that some belief/law/rule is broken or violated. The law breaking now deserves some punishment.  That belief/law/rule and even that punishment can all be created by us in our minds.  Don’t believe me? Have you ever told yourself that “you don’t deserve that relationship, that friend, that spouse, that job, that thing that makes me happy?”  You’re punishing yourself.  Or have you ever covered up your guilt by telling yourself that “you do deserve to spoil yourself with that relationship, that get-away, that night out, that job or that shopping spree.”  The problem is if that belief/law/rule which is broken is simply just one that we have created ourselves as though we live as king/queen of our kingdom or as the God of the universe -the law maker, the lawyer, the judge and the law enforcer.

That’s the thing that we need figure out when we experience guilt. Is this something that God says in His Word that I should feel guilty about or is this simply a violation of my own created laws in which they are not at all in the Scriptures? If they are by God, then we should feel guilt.  Guilt lets us know that something is wrong.  Brushing it off can hurt our growing relationship with God because constantly pushing away guilty feelings could be creating a hardened heart that is similar to searing our conscience (1 Tim. 4.2) or grieving the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4.30).

Knowing the difference is huge. Not knowing the difference lets Satan get a foothold in our heart.  Satan desires to use our false lies to damage ourselves, damage our relationship with God, and damage our relationships with people around us.

Dare to Dream

When you’re young you dream about the future in education, love, money, career, fun.

When you’re a business executive you dream about the future growth and profit of the company.

When you’re an evil scientist you dream of world domination.

We all dream of what could be and should be.

But

1). It doesn’t mean that everyone is going to buy into your dream.

Joseph in the Old Testament had a dream that his brothers and his father would be ruled by him.  This dream caused his brothers to hate him and ultimately sell him as a slave for 30 pieces of silver.

2). There are going to be people that want to change the course of your dream with their dream.

Joseph was a finely built and good looking man (kinda like myself, ha) and his master’s wife kept trying to get him to have sex with her.  He refused. One day she created a lie to her husband that Joseph tried to have sex with her to get back at him for not fulfilling her dream.  This sent Joseph to prison.

3). Not everyone is going to continue buying into your dream even if they first do.

Joseph helped interpret a dream of a cup bearer in the Egyptian prison.  He was excited over the good news of the dream and promised to help get Joseph out of prison, but once he was out, he forgot about Joseph.

It’s awesome to dream and put your dreams to action, but beware of the hardships that are going to come when you dare to dream.

Ignorance is Bliss

Too often there are times when the phrase “ignorance is bliss” is true.

The more you know, the more you realize the things you don’t know so you work hard on knowing those too.

The more you know, the more obligation you feel to do something about it.

The more you know, the more opportunity you have to overload your life with too many things for those who don’t know.

The more you know, the more you realize that the person you thought was awesome could be just as sinful as you and you feel let down.

BUT…

The more you know, the more opportunity you have to reach out to people who are going through the same struggles you’ve experienced.

The more you know, the better chance you have seeing a problem solved.

The more you know, the wiser you can be in approaching differing people and situations.

The more you know, the more you can begin to understand yourself.

The more you know, the more “valuable” you are to yourself and the world.

What other ways is ignorance bliss or not?

The more you know, the more you realize that it’s good sometimes to be in know.