Don't Dwell on Your Past

 One of the biggest challenges I have faced in my walk is the challenge of leaving my past behind. For a lot of us, our pasts are full of stuff that we feel ashamed of. I will be the first to admit that letting that shame go is hard. I personally felt unworthy and unwanted when I thought of my past and the mistakes I made. There are few people that actually know the story of my past, and even fewer still that have heard the worst of it. Those that have heard displayed nothing but good will toward me; never once did any of them turn around and tell others, none of them threw it back in my face, and all of them said that they had been in a similar boat at one time. Yet I still to this day feel shame when I think about telling people my full story, and I was still full of the feelings of being unwanted and unworthiness constantly picking at me. However, the bible tells us, through a culmination of verses, that God forgives and forgets our sin. If you confess your sins to God, then the shame of those sins is wiped away, and you are made anew in Him. While at the Motion Conference in Alabama at the end of this summer, the big thing that God was laying on my heart was that our pasts should not dictate our futures. The events of the past cannot be changed, and they have been forgiven and forgotten. But at the same time we should not totally abandon our pasts. You must keep your guard up, or those mistakes of the past may come back to attempt to trap you again, and you need to be prepared with God to defend against them. And I know a key thing for this type of devotion is for the writer to practice what is preached, so I will let the shame go and let you all in on my past. I was an addict. Not of tobacco, or drugs, or self-image. I was addicted to pornography. It’s a serious addiction that comes back to nip at my heels constantly. And I am very ashamed of the choices I made that led to that addiction. But I am letting that shame go. This is my freedom day. The day that I let the world in on my secret. And I have to be totally honest with you all; I still have to fight this addiction. It’s not easy, and the shame will probably continue to creep in on me whenever it gets the chance, but now I have nothing to hide. And that shame will fade. As Isaiah 61:7 says, “Instead of shame you shall have double honour.” Now it’s your turn. Find a buddy, and just pour out your shame. Let go of the secrets in your past that bite at you. Turn from your shame and when it tries to come back into your life, push it away. Pray for God to help you fight the shame, the addictions, the secrets that haunt your thoughts.

A Word From WCACYouthGroup

Jesus Takes Our Shame


“Living Out the Lyrics: What Does That Even Look Like?”


During youth group and on Sunday mornings we sometimes sing Judson W. Van Deventer’s, “I Surrender All.” The refrain is repeated throughout the song and goes…


“I surrender all, I surrender all; All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.” 


Whenever I sing this song I get a little scared inside. I’m hesitant to commit to my words. Surrendering ALL is an extreme statement. When we sing praise to and worship God we want to mean the words we say and offer them up from the bottom of our hearts, but how can we make such a big commitment without knowing what it means or looks like?


Slowly Read Colossians 2:6-15 
“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”


When you think about Christ’s physical suffering and death on the cross, do you see a triumph? Honestly, it’s easy for me to see the shame, the pain and suffering, and the degradation. Yet here the Bible tells us that the powers and authorities of this world were paraded around in humiliation by the cross. I think deep down it’s easy for most of us to look away from the sight of Christ on the cross; a suffering and bleeding savior makes us uncomfortable, so we only think of it when we have to. What should really make us uncomfortable is that Christ’s body reflects our sin and brokenness. Take a good look inside and you don’t have to go very far before you see your own humiliation and degenerateness apart from Christ. However, Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf turned the world upside down. Those of us in Christ understand the triumph that Christ has over sin, over the powers that bound us. We can look at the cross and see that Jesus in being humbled to death absorbed our humiliation and brokenness. Is there any brokenness that you still need to surrender?


In versus 6-10, Paul starts off by reminding us that accepting Christ is no one time spoken proclamation, but a process to be lived out. We forget so often that we are living to glorify God, and in the large scheme of things, nothing else matters. The world might be saying otherwise, but we need to kill the selfish mindset and pointless stress, look heaven-wards, and become alive in Christ. We know that HE is the ruler of everything, and already has great plans for us. HE is the one who loves us and died for us. Take Christ off the back burner, and give everything else to Him, the one who controls everything. What is holding you back?


In versus 11-12, Paul again reminds us of the past when we accepted Christ into our hearts. He gets metaphor heavy and throws two big ones at us; “circumcised” and “buried with Christ.” In the NLT, it does a great job of telling you straight up what he’s talking about, “When you came to Christ, you were ‘circumcised,’ but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.” Also, not all of us have been literally been baptized, but when we accepted Jesus into our hearts, we surrendered our sinful nature and were raised to new life. In 12-15, he stresses the importance of the cutting away, and in verse 14, he explains why we can be alive in Christ. “He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.” We’ve all sinned plenty in our lives but we don’t need to be fixated on it because Jesus took it to the cross and wiped us clean. He loves us and wants to be with us; we shouldn’t be ashamed to go to him. Surrendering shouldn’t be a mundane task we’re hesitant to perform but a joyous one that we are more than willing to do in order to have a closer relationship with Christ.

Be a Light in this Dark World

"For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. -Ephesians 5:8
Sometimes we wonder, how can we be living in a cruel world filled with pain and sin? We wonder why we have to suffer, why we have to be different. God has given us the answer in His Holy Book; He has called us to be children of light. This passage is very clear and makes lots of sense.
A light in the darkness really stands out. It never blends, and it is the center of attention. God has chosen us to be His light in a world filled with darkness. He wants us to stand out to tell others about Jesus. The Bible says in Ephesians 5:15, "Be very careful, then, how you live- not as unwise but as wise." We as Children of Light must know what to do in times of temptation.
You do not need a sign on your shirt that says that you are a Christian. People must know just by looking at how you dress, how you talk, and your attitude. In a public school, it is very difficult to have courage to be a Child of Light, but that is why it is always good to talk to your parents or any adult you trust. If not, just pray to God. He will be your guide.-Manny" http://www.tddm.org/ 
Along the same limes that this post talks about, you don't have to be ashamed of your beliefs. The world of Darkness wants you to feel like you can't talk about God without someone trying to fight you on it. Well, fight back. And sometimes you won't have the answer. Sometimes you won't feel like you have "won" the fight. But that's ok. Don't feel shame from that. Take that as a victory in itself. Learn from what you didn't know before, and be better prepared. But also, and maybe more importantly, don't let that scare you! Not everyone will be accepting of what you have to say, but those people are there for a reason. Either God has put them there for you to help or the devil has put them there to try and discourage you. So when you feel like you are totally surrounded by darkness, throw off all shame, and let your light shine out. Shine brighter then you have ever shined before! And when the darkness tries to stop your light from shining, just shine right through all that, too.