We take the word guilt from the word guilty. Guilt by definition means “fact of being responsible for the commission of an offense”. Guilt is a fact not dependent on a feeling. The only reason to feel guilty is for committing an offense against God (sin).

James 2:10 says that if we just stumble in one area of the Law, we are guilty of breaking the whole Law.

“Just because I feel guilty, am I?” NO. Often times we use the word “guilty” when we really mean to say “bad”. Let’s say that your friend is pitching you baseball and you hit the ball shatters a window of a car speeding by. The car wasn’t even visible when you swung the bat. Do you feel guilty? NO. You feel bad, and regretful that you broke the window, and that’s how you should feel. Ultimately, it was an accident and no sin was performed. Therefore you are not guilty nor should say you feel guilty.

Just because sad emotions are present, it still does not mean that you are guilty (Heb. 12:17).

Guilt is also attributed to those who are ignorant of the Law. Leviticus 4:27 says, “Now if anyone of the common people sins unintentionally in doing any of the things the Lord has commanded not to be done, and becomes guilty.”

I hope this helps you in thinking differently about guilt or having guilty feelings. Before assigning yourself to being guilty, check your heart and your actions against God’s Word to see if you should feel guilty or not.

This should cause us to be encouraged to do a couple things.

• 1. Go to God’s Word to see where we sin. This will help us know God’s Word better and also help us to see sin for what it is. The great thing is that God has an answer for our sin. Redemption through the blood of Christ.
  
• 2. Go witness to the unsaved. They are already guilty of breaking God’s command and they might not know it. They will serve their punishment in Hell unless someone shares the truth of saving grace.
  
• 3. Go counsel your friends, when they say they feel guilty. You can now help them figure out whether they should feel guilty or not. Ask them:
  
  • A. How did you come to the decision to…?
    
  • B. What was your motive for…?
    
  • C. Does the Bible say that you violated one of God’s commands when you…?
    

I was reminded of a simple yet profound truth today at the Faith Biblical Counseling Conference.

Jesus is greater than everything or Jesus>Everything!!!

This was the way my instructor summed up the Book of Hebrews.

The way that Hebrews shows that Jesus is greater than everything is that the author compares Jesus to a few different things. He is much better than angels (1:4), given more glory than Moses (3:3), the only perfect high priest (5), a guarantee of a better covenant (7:22), obtains a more excellent ministry (8:6), and offers the best sacrifice for sins once for all (10:9-10). This is not a list made up of some shabby things. This list contains the best of the best, yet Christ is greater than all.

How differently would your life looked like, if you truly lived out the fact:

Jesus>Everything!

”...He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.” ~Colossians 1:18

Let our lives reflect the preeminence of Christ.

Hebrews 2:9 – “But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.”

We often associate the grace of God along with escaping suffering, and rightly so. When a friend gets in a car accident and is not injured, we say that it is due to the grace of God.

When a loved one escapes losing their job among many lay offs, we acknowledge the grace of God at work as we should.

Hebrews 2:9 might be way off our radar. How can the grace of God end in death? It is the reason for this death that needs to be seen in order to see the grace of God. The death of Jesus “tasted death for everyone”. The grace of God is seen in our life because now, we do not have to taste (spiritual) death. What a blessing!!! It was all in God’s gracious plan to have His only Son to die for OUR sins.

I believe that this verse also helps us to see that hard things can come into our life by the grace of God. We might not want to sere it at the time. Everyone of us will undergo hardships or trials. We need to see this as the grace of God in our lives. When we see trials this way, we will be able to see much easier how we need to respond to become more like Christ (Romans 5:1-5;8:28-29).

When trials come, don’t try and avoid it, but use it by the grace of God, for the glory of God.

After the Super Bowl, i have heard of countless references to Ben Roethlisberger and Kurt Warner securing their spot in Canton, OH. Canton holds the memories of all the greatest pro football players in the history of the NFL.

(Caution: Sarcasm included in this paragraph) I also watched as two young men went head to head in amazing feat. The show lasted an hour as the audience was on the edge of their seat just waiting for the intense tournament to come to the pinnacle of the final battle of wills. The battle of intelligence, endurance, trash talking and ultimately the battle of thumbs. This was the Madden Challenge. Where young guys who obviously chose a career of playing video games and for one it would make him $50,000 richer.

All this to say, “What would you want to be in the Hall of Fame for?” Hall of Fame for virtual games or physical games? Hall of Fame for being a genius or just not looking dumb in front of other people? What do you prize the most in your life?

In Hebrew 11, it gives a list of a few people in the Bible who ended up what we like to call the Hall of Faith. Their chief goal in life was not to impress those around them. On the contrary they often did what was foolish in the eyes of men, but was pleasing in the eyes of God (i.e. Noah, Rahab, Moses, etc.). Their chief goal was to have faith that God would accomplish all that He had promised.

What is your chief goal in life? Is it, to please people, or please your Savior?

Take the time today to figure out what you want to be in the Hall of Fame for. Take the time to decide and purpose in your life to the fear of God and not the fear of men.

*On a totally different note, I want to do an experiment to see how many people are actually reading this blog. So to do this, YOU ARE NOT TO TELL YOUR FRIENDS TO READ THE BLOG. Just come up to me this Wednesday night and tell me the codeword. The codeword will be your favorite ice cream flavor. After you say the codeword, give me a huge “I’m in on the secret” wink. Without this combination you will not receive the free soda and candy bar of choice. I am extending this offer all the way through till when i get back in a week.

I want this blog to accomplish 2 main things.

1. To be relevant to teens
2. To provide truth in a relativistic world

What is going on in your life? What topic matters most to you? If you have a questions that you would like answered in this blog, please email me. I will keep all questions anonymous if you wish.

I don’t want this blog just to be things that I’m learning, but a place where teens are encouraged and equipped to take on the world with the power of the Gospel.

I Thessalonians 4:13-18, speaks clearly that Jesus will be coming back. Christians who have died will rise first and then those Christians who are alive will be caught up with Christ. This is called the rapture.

If you’ve read or seen or heard anything about the Left Behind series, you know that they depict a world right after the rapture happens. It’s definitely an interesting take on what events might look like when the rapture happens. Christians who were driving cars and flying airplanes are suddenly missing causing many wrecks and costing many lives.

So, we know that the Bible says that the rapture will happen, the question becomes is this a comfort to you or does it only seem like a calamity?

In I Thess. 4:18, Paul tells the Thessalonians to “comfort” one another with these words. There is only comfort for those who have a personal relationship with Christ (Rev. 3:10). All others will be put through the 7 yrs. of tribulation. So for those who are not in Christ, the rapture will only bring calamity.

What a merciful God to save us from the time of tribulation!

Our response, in knowing that the rapture will take place before the tribulation and that it could come at any moment, should be:

1. Share Christ with our unsaved friends. If you truly love them and care for them, then we would want Christ to save them from the tribulation

2. Prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord. If Christ came back right now, what would he see you doing? We need to always live in light of the fact that Jesus could come at any time.

For more info about what the Bible teaches concerning the rapture, go to the Youth TEAM Doctrine page. Scroll down to Roman numerals XVIII and following.

If you want to learn more about the rapture or other topics surrounding that, make sure that you come to the Prophecy Seminar tomorrow. Here are the times:

Session 1 @1pm – “Issues Related to the Rapture”
Session 2 @ 2pm – “The Future of the Church”
Session 3 @ 3pm – “Christian Rewards”
Break
Session 4 @ 7pm – “Salute to Israel” (A preview of the Holy Land tour)

Preparing for YT last night again challenged me with how often i remember and rely on the grace of God. It is a hard thing to see our sin for what it truly is. Our sin lands us in Hell for all eternity. We deserve it. Because we are enemies of God, we should be tormented forever.

Romans 6:23 has the best “but” in all of Scripture. “For the wages of sin is death, BUT the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We deserve death BUT God’s grace is so amazing that we can have eternal life. When we view our sin as “not a big deal”, we believe that God’s grace is “Un-Amazing”.

Follow this with me. If you are generally a good person who has made a few mistakes, then how much grace do you need to get into Heaven? Not much, because you already made it most of the way. BUT, if you are a totally depraved person who sins all the time, then how much grace do you need to get into Heaven? All the grace God has to offer.

Speaking again of the grace of God that is needed to get into Heaven, the Apostle Paul says in Romans 11:6, “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” You can’t have both. Either you get to Heaven based on the grace of God or on the basis of works. You CAN NOT have grace and works.

“Grace never ignores the awful truth of our depravity. In fact, it emphasizes it. The worse we realize we are, the greater we realize God’s grace is.” ~ Randy Alcorn

Questions to ask yourself:

1. How does God view my sin? Even my “little” sins.

2. How do I view God’s grace?

3. How should I live in response to how amazing God’s grace is?

Hebrews 1:4

“having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they”

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there’s just something about that name.

Let’s think about the power of the name of Jesus.

Hebrews 1:4 tells us that it is a more “excellent” name than the angels.

Colossians 3:17 says that everything we do should be in the name of Jesus.

John 16:23 shows us that we need to pray in Jesus’ name.

Acts 4:10, miracles were performed in Jesus name.

Acts 4:12, Jesus’ name is the ONLY name by which you can be saved.

Philippians 2:9-10, at Jesus’ name, from the most powerful person in the world to poorest of the poor, will bow at Jesus name and declare that Jesus Christ is Lord.

What a great and powerful truth! How should this affect our life?

1. We need to fear Jesus above man. Jesus is Lord of all and His name demands that we live our life, in worship and fear of Jesus. The more we treasure and fear Jesus, the less we will let man control our actions and thoughts.

2. We need to encourage our unsaved friends and family that no efforts of themselves (even church attendance) can save them from their sins. It is ONLY in the name of Jesus.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there’s just something about that name.