This Point

There's a finger in my face,

and I cannot see around it.

Now the whisper "There's no grace"

slowly burrows in my hair --

It surrounds me with the fear

that It is right.


It's so easy to live here: in a permanent state of guilt. And yet, in that state it's so hard to face life.

Today I read a passage from Zechariah (it's chapter three, verses one through ten). I don't remember ever seeing this before! It reminds me of a story Mr. Bollenbacher handed out on Sunday, which showed a Christian in a court custody battle: Satan was accusing him, and recommending damnation...

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?"

Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, "Take off his filthy clothes."
Then he said to Joshua, "See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you."

Then I said, "Put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the LORD stood by.

The angel of the LORD gave this charge to Joshua: "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.

" 'Listen, O high priest Joshua and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,' says the LORD Almighty, 'and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.

" 'In that day each of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and fig tree,' declares the LORD Almighty."

What a picture! Satan lives to accuse. In fact, his name means "accuser"! But God, our God, doesn't delight in accusation. He loves mercy, not condemnatation. He does not point the finger. Instead, when we confess it all to Him, He lifts us up.

See also...
Confronting Guilt in Motherhood
How to Handle Guilt
Matthew 11:28-30
Hebrews 10
John 3:17
John 8:31-34
2 Corinthians 3