No Condemnation

So, I was sitting in church yesterday, and I am not going to lie, I was being extremely weighed down by my sins. Not necessarily anything recent, but more so the sins of my past. For those of you who know me or my testimony, you know that these things could easily weigh me down. Anyways, I was sitting in the pew at my home church, since it is reading week (praise God for time spent at home with family, friends, and good food!), and I was just feeling the weight of my sin. Why? I don't know. But on this particular day, it seemed to just be getting the better of me. 

I started to pray, because all I wanted to do was to worship God by being with His people. My first thought/prayer was "Why, God, do I feel this way?" And then it hit me. God's voice, clear as anything, saying to me, "It's not me making you feel this way. I love you, and my I sent my Son to die for you. And because you love Him, and therefore me, there is no condemnation for you." There it was, Romans 8 ringing clear in my mind, spoken to me by my loving Father. 

Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." God no longer condemns me! Is that not a sweet sound to the ears? Indeed! See, the Devil wants us to think about our past sin and how it can hold us back, how it makes us weak, how it controls us, etc. However, God says that He has already won that battle. All of our sin is already taken care of, if Jesus Christ has indeed saved us. This means everything! Drugs, sex, alcohol, lying, stealing, murder, idolatry - all of it! (Yes, I said all of it.) 

However, I want to also bring us to another text. This freedom does not mean that I keep on sinning. I think I may have put this in a couple blogs already, but so often it seems to me that in the lives of so many Christians, and even in my own life, I seem to go back to the same sins over and over again. Let me give you an example. I waste a LOT of time. Whether this is through Facebook, Twitter, XBox 360, or any other number of things, the fact is that I waste a lot of time - time that could be spent getting to know my God. I have joked around with a few people about this before, but it is a serious thing. If we spent HALF as many hours getting to know and loving and serving God as we do wasting time, I am under the very real impression that we would see some changed lives. Not just our own, but those around us, too. The text I want to bring us to is Galatians 5:13, which says, "For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." If God has truly set us free (and if you are a follower of Christ, then, as I have already stated, He has), then we need to USE this opportunity. Enough wasting time. There is WAY too much at stake for the billions of people who do not know Christ. There is a saying on the wall in the missions hallway at Tyndale, by Oswald J. Smith, and it says something like, "Why should anyone hear the Gospel twice, before all have heard it once?" Let that sink in. Read it again. How many times have you heard the Gospel? 

I have the opportunity to go to Zambia this summer, and my greatest prayer is that God would use me to change lives. Let me tell you, even writing that sentence gets me PUMPED to go. I am so pumped to serve God. He is able to do all things, including using a previously condemned sinner like me. And if He can use me, though I doubt very much that I am the chief of sinners, as Paul once claimed to be, then He can use you wherever you are at, too. (That was for free)

As a sort of Pauline conclusion, I leave you with this. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, since Christ has taken care of the condemnation (even the feelings of guilt) of our sins, let us serve and use this opportunity as free men and women to love our great God who has saved us and set us free. Let's love, serve, and actually do this faith, instead of letting it waste away. Let's do this to glorify God...