"It makes the hairs on the back of my neck bristle when I remember the worst rumor that anyone ever spread about me. It was so bad that I used to get sick to my stomach just thinking about it. I wanted to hide from it.
But there is another piece of gossip about me that frees me from shame. Nothing was more character-defaming than the news that was announced about me at the cross. That I am so full of sin and worse… that sin is my nature. That my self-righteousness is a theatre mask to cover my evil heart, that my good deeds are soiled rags that I use to wipe the guilt off of my conscience. That my murderous thoughts are just as bad as murder. That I am so far beyond rehabilitation that no behavior modification program could curb my appetite for vileness. That I need to be born again into a new creation. That to rescue me from the damnation I deserve it required the death of the perfect Son of God.
Truly this is the worst gossip– but gossip that turns shame on its head. Milton Vincent says about the cross, “With the worst facts about me thus exposed to the view of others, I find myself feeling that I truly have nothing left to hide (A Gospel Primer for Christians).” The cross of Jesus Christ liberates us from the heavy facade of self-righteousness."
Our friends Dave and Gloria posted this and it described what i have been discovering these last weeks away...we are home...will begin writing again soon...
