PLEASANT VIEW CHURCH
  • Home
  • New to Pleasant View
  • Announcements
  • Church Calendar & Newsletter
  • Missions
    • Maize for Malawi
    • Dzaleka Refugee Camp, Malawi
  • Church Online
  • Ministries
    • Pre-school
    • Children's Ministry
    • Youth Ministry
    • Adult Ministries >
      • JOY Fellowship - Senior Adults
    • Bible Studies
    • Music Ministry
    • Hispanic Ministry - Manantial de Vida
    • Prayer Ministry
    • Helping Hands
    • Food Pantry & New Hope Outreach
  • Online Giving
  • Pastor's Blog
  • From the Second Chair
  • Our Team
  • Contact
​Guilt
I stood staring at the scales in disbelief. I was in the Doctor’s office, weighing on the same scales I’ve stood on for five years. Somehow, in four weeks’ time, I had gained 17 pounds.
 
I was left in the exam room to deal with my demons. “You idiot! How could you have gained that much weight that fast?” “Your fifth-grade teacher told you that you would always be fat, because you can’t control yourself!” “Remember what Coach Hobbs said? He said you loved food more than football, and that if you loved football enough, you’d shed the extra pounds.” “Remember Dr. Smith? He told you years ago that you’d better start eating right, or you would be a really heavy man someday.”
 
I’m really good at guilt. Person after person, and scene after scene from my past all joined in chorus in that exam room: “you’ve always been fat, and you will always be fat!”
 
The only thing that ended the self-shaming was when the Doctor walked into the room. “Mr. Gilbert, we’ve messed up your medication. All that weight you’ve gained has got to be from that.” By the time I removed my shoes and socks, it was evident where all that extra weight was residing: in my feet and around my ankles. Fluid retention. It could all be fixed by changing me back to the medication they had discontinued. She reassured me that all my lab reports looked good. My diabetes remains well-controlled. It was just a medication change that didn’t go as planned.
 
I’ll say it again: I’m really good at guilt. It’s likely that you are, too. Voices from our past, and demons we see every time we look in the mirror try to convince us that we’re no good, and we’ll never be any good. Some carry guilt for past behaviors. Some carry guilt for past failures. Some carry guilt for not living up to their potential. Yet, the stain of guilt sticks out in our souls like black ink spilled on a white garment. We’re so good at messing up, and even better at reminding ourselves of how bad we are. “If anybody really knew how bad I am…”
 
The Bible doesn’t hide the reality of our wrongdoings, but it does offer the rest of the story. Jesus died on a Roman cross, a righteous, sinless man giving his life to pay my penalty. I don’t have to listen to the messages from my demons. Instead, I hear the words of a loving Savior, “All is forgiven.”
 
We’ve been singing these words each Sunday during Lent: No guilt in Life, no fear in death. This is the power of Christ in me.
 
It’s time to get off the guilt train. Fire your demons. Love your Savior. Then, you can love yourself. No guilt. No guilt. No guilt.
 
Welcome to worship. What we do here matters.
 

a lITTLE hELP

11/5/2018

0 Comments

 
​The story I share with you today is purely fictional.  The fact that it sounds a lot like a real incident should be ignored. The fact that it sounds like Dale and Angela Gilbert should also be ignored.
 
A husband and wife recently went to a gathering where parking was at a premium.  While the husband was pulling into the parking lot, his wife’s phone rang.  She answered it, and it was her sister calling her.  Since the husband was thinking ahead about exiting the event, he chose to back the car into a parking space, so that when the event was over, he could pull forward and be a bit ahead in the line to get out.  Since his wife was on the phone, she paid no attention to what her husband was doing.  Now, I know this couple well, and I know that the husband rarely backs his car into a parking space, because that husband isn’t really good at backing his car into a parking space.
 
The phone conversation finally ended, and the couple went into the event and had a good time.  On the way to the car, the husband had to remind the wife where their car was parked because she had been on the phone with her sister.  The husband pointed to the car and told his wife to get in.  The wife informed the husband that this was not his car.  She reminded him that he never backs his car into a parking place, so this couldn’t possibly be his car.  The husband told the wife, “It’s OK.  We’ll just take this car.”  The wife couldn’t believe that the husband was able to open someone else’s car.  It was only after seeing inside the car that the wife realized that this was, in fact, her husband’s car.  She asked, “Who backed this car into the parking space for you?”  “I did,” replied the husband.  “No, really, how did this care get backed into the space?”  It took some convincing, but the husband finally convinced his wife that while she was concentrating on the phone call, he had backed the car into the space.  The wife, who knows full well that her husband can’t back a car into a parking space, was both surprised and impressed.
 
What the wife didn’t realize was that the husband’s car is equipped with a back-up camera.  She didn’t realize that with this extra help, her husband has become pretty good at backing into spaces.
 
We all need a little help sometimes, don’t we?  And then there are times that we need more help than we think we can ever find.  Today, we come to the Lord’s Table.  More than once, I’ve found help there. May we find the help we need today.
 
See you at the Table.  What we do here matters.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    ​Pastor Dale

    Dale has been in ministry for over forty years. He's a teacher, singer, and story teller.

    Archives

    April 2021
    March 2021
    August 2020
    March 2020
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • New to Pleasant View
  • Announcements
  • Church Calendar & Newsletter
  • Missions
    • Maize for Malawi
    • Dzaleka Refugee Camp, Malawi
  • Church Online
  • Ministries
    • Pre-school
    • Children's Ministry
    • Youth Ministry
    • Adult Ministries >
      • JOY Fellowship - Senior Adults
    • Bible Studies
    • Music Ministry
    • Hispanic Ministry - Manantial de Vida
    • Prayer Ministry
    • Helping Hands
    • Food Pantry & New Hope Outreach
  • Online Giving
  • Pastor's Blog
  • From the Second Chair
  • Our Team
  • Contact