In stillness we allow the world to blur out of our focus

Every Sunday at the Pursuit Project 2 junior high students sit in silence for 10 minutes learning to hear God.  Sometimes we hear God speak, sometimes we don’t.  I wanted to take time today and invite you, as you read this, to join us in the experience of silence.

Turn your phone on silent.

Turn off your music.

Close your door.

Find a comfortable position to sit in and begin to breath deeply.

Silence is about more than just listening for the Spirit to speak.  It is about that, but is is also about simply learning to be.  Breathe.
It reminds us that our value comes not from what we do, but from being children of God.  In that being lies our peace. Breathe.

In silence we allow the peace of God to be present within us, to overtake our spirit, to still our souls.  In that peace we experience His presence, we experience tranquility, we experience rest. Breathe.
It is from a place of inner peace that we experience external peace in our lives.  And it is in a place of silence, of stillness where that inner peace is realized. Breathe.

Jesus doesn’t talk just so that we can hear His voice, but to invite us to a deeper place of relationship with Him. Breathe.

We are going to do a little exercise of experiencing and listening to Jesus called “The Meeting Place”.  Please join me.  Each step is marked by a reminder to “breathe”.  Take as long as you need between steps.  The point is not to rush through, but to create space for God to speak to us. Breathe.

……………………………

As you breathe, take yourself in your mind to your favorite peaceful place. The ocean, a forest, a favorite Bible story.  Stay there.
Breathe. Look around.  What do you see there?
Breathe. Invite Jesus to join you in that place.  Do you see Him coming?
Breathe. How does He look at you?  How does He greet you?
Breathe. Ask Him what He would like to say to you.  What does He say?
Breathe. What  would you like to say to Him?  Share that with Him.
Breathe. Jesus is our healer.  By his wounds we are healed.  Notice the wounds in His hands from the nails of the cross. As Him to place His hands on any part of you that He would like to heal.
Breathe. Jesus’ position toward you is that of love.  Do you hear Him tell you of His love for you?  Stop and listen for a moment.
Breathe. Thank Him for meeting you here.  Share anything else you would like to tell Him.
Breathe.

…………………………………………………

Did you experience God?  I hope so.  Did Jesus meet you in your meeting place?  Sometimes He does, and it’s beautiful, sometimes He doesn’t.  Let us not become discouraged, but let us continue to create space in our lives where we can sit with and listen to Jesus.  For He is our peace.

Thank you for joining me in this today.

I am reminded of a teaching Jesus gave in Luke chapter 6.  He speaks of loving “sinners” and “enemies.”  Jesus said,

“If you only love those who love you, why should you get credit for that?  Even sinners love those who love them!  And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit?  Even sinners do that much!  And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit?  Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return.
Love your enemies! Do good to them.  Lend to them without expecting to be repaid.  Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.  You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.”
- Luke 6:32-36 (bold and italics added)

While we may not be prone to label friends and family who betray us – who hurt us, who take our love and stomp on it – as enemies, in that moment that is how they function.  Isn’t it?  They become the last people in the world we want to reach out and embrace, the last people in the world we want to share generously with.  Because if we do we fail to protect ourselves.  ”You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.”  How? HOw? HOW?

How do we forgive when there has been no change?  I think often we would be much more willing to forgive if the person who hurt us changed, repented, or at least recognized their mistake.  But Jesus is saying that that’s how the world functions – that is not the way the Kingdom functions.

I think many of us often claim we are walking in love toward our enemies, and even that we have forgiven them; but let us remember the words of James,

What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by our actions?  Can that kind of faith save anyone?
- James 2:14

So we can recognize that just as faith is known by your actions, so is faith, so is love.  So if we think we have forgiven, if we think we are walking in love, let us closely examine our behavior toward that individual.  And I’m not sure that, “I haven’t killed him yet” counts as walking in either forgiveness or love!

So how do we do it?  How do we forgive those who have hurt us deeply?  How do we walk in forgiveness and walk in love?

If I can be honest, I’m not sure that I know.  I am trying.  I want to.  But it’s hard, isn’t it?  I don’t know exactly how, all I can do is walk.  And as I walk I can look back and describe a little of the path I walked.

• I wake up every morning.  That is a start.  And I pray for that person. That God will bless them.  That is perhaps the hardest prayer (that God would bless someone who hurt me deeply).
• I recognize that I hurt, and that I hurt deeply, but I do not allow my hurt to determine the way that I function.  This is not to say do not take time and space to find healing and restoration.  It is simply to say that how we feel toward an individual cannot dictate how we act toward them.
• I choose to be a friend. A friend cares about their friends.  I choose to care for the person who has hurt me.  Sometimes this is really super duper hard. I know. I do it anyway.  Sometimes I have to stop for a while because my caring turns into me wishing I could change the situation.  That’s not what it’s about – it’s just about me caring enough to want what is best for that person (and what is best is always the presence of God, because God’s presence changes everything).

I don’t know if that is forgiveness.  I don’t know if that is love.  I know that love and forgiveness toward those who hurt us are two of the hardest things in the world.  It’s as if all the beauty that we built up was destroyed and stomped on, and now we are asked to play with the ashes instead.  Yes.  Perhaps it is.  But isn’t our God one who can create beauty even from the ashes?

I must hold onto that hope – that my God is the greatest; that my love always wins.  Maybe that’s why Jesus made such a big deal of forgiveness.  Perhaps more than any other single thing the way followers of Jesus forgive set us apart from the culture of anger, or betrayal, and of holding grudges.

Let us seek to forgive, even when we don’t know what that means.
Let us seek to love, even when everything in us is telling us to hate.  Because not everything in us is saying that – the Spirit is alive, and it is the love of the Spirit that will flow out of us to transform the world (and the people) around us.

They tell us to arrive early or we may not find parking.  Maybe you don’t know.  Pastor Tom Ferguson passed away this past week from his second heart attack.  I have been to a few memorial services, some for good people, but never to one for a great man.  Tom was a great man.  I never met him, but I am surrounded by people whose lives were touched by this mighty man of God.  A pastor of New Life Center for 15 years (out of which my church, Mill Creek Foursquare, was planted), district supervisor for Foursquare Northwest, planter and pastor of Hope Foursquare Church in Snohomish.  I wonder if Newlife has ever had a shortage in parking before.  They will today.

They say Tom was unassuming.  They say he was kind.  They say he was generous, dedicated, loving, caring.  They say he was great.  He will be missed.  Tears come to my eyes as I recall all that people say about him.  I think people always speak well of those who are gone, but I don’t think these people are speaking “well” of Tom – I think they are simply being honest.

I will be there among the masses of people to honor Tom Ferguson today.  I may not have known him, but that does not mean I have not been impacted by him.  Isn’t that a picture of true greatness?

As we honor this great man of God, I wonder what people will say of us when we are gone.  Will they conjure up something to “speak well” of us?  Or will they simply state the truth, and will that truth say that we transformed the world around us as we left nothing behind in our quest to make Jesus known, to bring people to healing at the foot of the cross?

Let us simply pause, and honor a great man.  Let us recognize that greatness is not found in energy, volume of voice, charisma, or any of the hundreds of other ways the culture around us tries to be great.  Greatness is found in character: in a heart that stops at nothing, but pursues God relentlessly, and facilitates a way for others to find Him too.

Thank you, Tom, for all you have done for our community.
Thank you, Tom Ferguson, for being a man of God, a model for generations to come.
Thank you, Tom, for loving God enough to love all the broken people around you.
Our community is better because you walked among us.
You will be missed. We honor you today.  

It’s a bit long, but I think it’s worth the read.

The greater question that provides the framework behind the blog is, ”how do we function as followers of Jesus in the society in which we find ourselves in the United States?”  The layout of the blog was a description of how capitalism views and treats three pillars of the way of Jesus.

Wherever you find yourself on the political/economical spectrum, I encourage you to simply allow his thoughts and questions to challenge you regarding how we live in this setting in which we find ourselves.

We may all arrive at differing conclusions, but let us never forsake the asking of the questions.  And in the midst of conversation, dialogue, and debate, let us remember the apostle Paul’s call to unity.  Even as our minds may disagree, let our hearts be united in the love of God for one another and for a world that is broken and in desperate need of the light that we possess.

David wrote (in a blog entitled: Christianity & Capitalism: A Match Made in Hell),

“I’ve had a growing concern over the last several months that the capitalistic way of living is keeping the Body of Christ from growing and maturing. I’ll try and unpack this idea a little more…

THE BODY OF CHRIST: From my understanding, the Body of Christ is a community of people who choose to love and serve each other, with each member using his or her strengths for the good of the community (I Corinthians 12). For example, someone who is good at and enjoys brewing beer can brew a large batch and then everyone can relax and have a drink on the weekend. Another person may be good at and enjoys working out at the gym. This person can design exercise plans for everyone so that people can work their beer bellies off. : )

GROWING AND MATURING: I used these words because a physical body grows and matures (height, weight, deepness of voice) and I think the Body of Christ should grow and mature too. To be more specific, the members of the community must be acting out the teachings of Jesus and his early followers, which from what I’ve read, seem to center around equality, reliance, and sacrifice.

EQUALITY: Can members engage in side-by-side, egalitarian relationships or do some try to claim superiority?
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

RELIANCE: Is each member getting his or her needs met and giving to the needs of others?
“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms” (I Peter 4:10).

SACRIFICE: Is each member willing to sacrifice his or her comfort for the good of the community?
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

TO SUMMARIZE: The Body of Christ is growing and maturing when members are valuing each other as equals, serving each others needs, and making personal sacrifices for the well being of all.

Alright, now that I’ve offered some criteria for healthy Christian community, let’s pull out the litmus sticks and test how capitalism holds up.

EQUALITY: NO
In a Capitalistic society, members are systematically ranked byincome and then grouped into different social classes (i.e. SES, lower/middle/upper classes). With marketing a key aspect of both political and economic success, and marketing being driven by monetary resources, the rich are able to use money to gain much more power and influence than the poor.

RELIANCE: NO
In a Capitalistic society, members are in competition with each other for jobs/promotions and companies are in competition with each other for market share. Can FOX ask ABC for help when American Idol fans migrate over to Dancing with the Stars? No, it would be bad for business for ABC to promote a show on a competing network. On a more personal level, this emphasis on individual success leads to a mentality of self-sufficiency and isolationism in which people live in large houses, watch television on big screen TVs, and never meet the people living next door.

SACRIFICE: NO
In a Capitalistic society, there is no incentive to sacrifice personal comfort. Do CEOs choose to work for free so that their employees can have 401k plans? No. In fact, in recent years, companies such as ENRON, have done just the opposite. This makes complete sense from the capitalist perspective of competition. The ENRON executive board cared about the bottom line: making as much personal profit as possible. How else could Ken Lay buy a pimped out yacht?

CONCLUSION: While Christian Community promotes the equality of its members, Capitalism promotes the inequality of its members. While Christian Community promotes mutual reliance among its members, Capitalism promotes self-sufficiency and isolationism. Finally, while Christian Community promotes the sacrifice of personal comfort for the well being of all, Capitalism offers higher ranking members too many toys and incentives to make personal sacrifice appealing.

So there you have it.  I recognize that David paints a very stark

contrast between capitalism and Christianity, and allI will say is that if we are determined to find the way of Jesus within the United States, we must be willing to hold everything – every lifestyle, every political view, every economic practice – up to the light of Christ and ask, “is this what Jesus had in mind for His people?  I am grateful to my friend David for his willingness to ask the hard question.

Let us not allow ourselves to be influenced by anything without asking whether or not that influence is of the Kingdom.  Not everything in the world is necessarily bad in itself (politics, capitalism, etc), but if we are not aware of what it is speaking and promoting, then we stand in jeopardy of being controlled by the culture around us and not by our God.

May your day be blessed.

*you will find David King’s blog in its original context along with conversation and comments about it at: http://www.facebook.com/notes/david-king/christianity-capitalism-a-match-made-in-hell/391576570892

What is there about life that would make it just as worth living for someone trapped in cycles of poverty in third world nations as it would for someone as rich and free as we are in the United States?  Is it the dreams and aspirations?  Is it the realm of possibilities?  I became sad as I thought of the limitations experienced by those in poverty.  I thought, it would be awful to be limited like that.

But isn’t that perspective simply infused with our cultural driven for performance?  That perspective is based in one that says the purpose of life is to do more, is to be more. What if we’re wrong?  I mean, if that is true, then those who start lower on the ladder are simply handed a crappy hand in life and will never be able to find fulfillment in life.  That can’t be.  That’s not the God that I know.

So what could it be?  What purpose  could there be in life that would allow the rich and the poor to find equal fulfillment in life, even if their bellies and heads are not full to the same extent?

I realized the answer that night.  It was a Sunday, and the local church was having a night of worship.  As I stood watching the people – the same people I passed by in the trailer parks and apartments – I saw so clearly that the one life-giving factor in life is worship of God. The purpose of life is to worship God. That is why those restricted by life circumstances can be just as full of life, just as “successful” as the richest CEO or the employed iron worker.

Life is not about how much we do, or who we become.  Life is about who we are. We are children of God, and in worship we declare back to Him the joy that being His children brings to our lives. That is the purpose of life.

Let us not be distracted by our jobs, by our activities, even by our relationships.  Those are not bad things – many of them are good (I’m sure some are bad, that’s why God gave us the ability to evaluate!).  Let us not consider ourselves better than others because we have more, or we have “arrived” into the purpose and value of life.  That is what culture says.  Culture is not God.  Culture is usually wrong. Let us recognize that our band of brotherhood (and sisterhood) is not from our status in life, or our aspirations, or anything we can do.  Our bond of siblingness is that we are all children of the Most High God, Master of  the Universe, and Lover of our Souls.  It is He that we worship.  And in worship we find all purpose, all success, and all value in life.

Therefore, let us worship.

So here it is.  Michelle and I have moved.  We handed in our keys to our apartment at the Bluffs yesterday.  We are no loner residents of Casino Road, or, in the vernacular, “the hood”.

We have been asked a lot of questions over the past month since we decided we were going to move, mostly questions like:

What about your ministry on Casino Road?
Didn’t God call you there? or
What about all the kids?

Well, without desiring to be tr

ite, it was never our ministry anyway – it all belongs to God anyway, right?  Not that that truth made it any easier to say goodbye to all of our friends and the many children who we have come to know and love.  God did indeed call us to Casino Road, God did indeed cal us to learn what it could look like to live intentionally in a community.  We fell in love with a neighborhood, we fell in love with the kids, we fell in love with living in a way that shares and cares.

All that being said, there are two reasons we are moving.  First, we feel very clearly that God is calling us to consolidate our life, to simplify, to focus and to go deep.  This past year we have been a part of communities in Mill Creek (through Mill Creek Foursquare), Everett (through Casino Road), and Snohomish (through Youth for Christ), and ha

ve felt stretched beyond health.  We thought last May as we moved to Casino Road that perhaps God would simply move us completely in the direction of Casino Road, but that has not been the case.  We have definitely discovered how we want to live, but our hearts have grown fonder toward Mill Creek as the year has progressed.

Sometimes a forward step in one area of life is a sideways or backward step in another area.  The next step for Michelle and I is to have us both in full-time ministry.  Michelle has spent the last year working at Starbucks, and it has supported us and been flexible enough to allow her to really begin leading our Internship at Mill Creek and to become official staff at Mill Creek Foursquare Church (Associate Student Ministries Pastor).  However, the early mornings (up by 4am 4 days a week) and the late nights of ministry are simply a drain on life, and on our marriage.

So when we received an offer to come and live with some friends, we felt it right to step out of a particular lifestyle (intentionally in a community – a lifestyle we will go back to as soon as we can), to step into a new phase of ministry for Michelle.  So, the hope is that whatever the fall holds, Michelle will be able to be in full-time ministry.  Please pray along those lines as finances remain a significant concern for us.

Explanation of behavior aside, it was definitely sad yesterday as we handed in the keys and said goodbye to many of the kids we have come to love.  Hopefully we leave behind an experience of being loved.  We hope that no matter where these young people go or find themselves, they can always remember back to “Michelle and Brian” and see how their creator God loves them.

Thankfully we won’t be far away and can continue to visit and help with homework club on occasion.

I know for me personally, the hardest thing in the world is to walk out of a child’s life.  As a child I was constantly left by adults, and was hurt to the point that I went almost a decade without a serious relationship because of the belief that in the end it would die.  My greatest fear has always been doing the same thing to other kids.  I guess somethings are just a part of life, but hopefully we will not be gone forever from Casino Road!

Yeah, so that’s the news.  We moved this past weekend.  We are staying with some amazing friends within walking distance from our church for the summer.  We don’t know what the fall holds in terms of living location (or whether or not we will yet be able to afford our own place), but we continue to follow as the Spirit leads.  We know that wherever, whatever, He will provide for us (although we are well aware His “provision” may not look like our desire!).

Thank you for your support for us over the past year.

Just to clarify, this changes nothing about who we are or how we live.  We simply are now in a different location.  We still believe in loving as much as you can, as fully as you can, as well as you can, for as long as you are wherever you are.

Life simply looks simpler now.  And that is a good thing.

“Thus says the LORD, the God of ISrael: I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul; I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into  your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more.  Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight?” (2 Samuel 12:7-9 italics added)

How the mighty fall.  How did David get to this place?  I am reminded of the exhortation that Joshua gave to the people of Israel before his death (Joshua 23-24).  Basically Joshua told them,”Remember who you are, remember who God is, remember what God has done for you, and do not forget, for if you forget you will become just like the people around you, and in that day I will be far from you.” We know the story of the Israelites, of how they constantly forgot this plea and as a result endured pain and suffering because they were not faithful to serve and worship the LORD their God, and Him alone.

Isn’t that what happened to David?  And it didn’t take long either.  We see in 2 Samuel chapter 7 David praising the LORD and giving Him all glory and honor for all that He had done for David.  Yet by chapter 11 he had fallen all the way to forget his responsibility to lead his men into war and instead stayed home and slept with another man’s wife, got her pregnant, then called her husband back from the front line and got him drunk so that he would sleep with his wife to cover up the affair.  But because the man had too much integrity to sleep with his wife while all his other men were still fighting, David sent him back into the place in battle where he would be surely killed and brought Bathsheba to his home to be his wife.  From honoring God and giving Him glory to massive sin and cover-up in 4 chapters.

How long does it take you and I to forget our story and God’s redemption of us?  How long does it take you and I before we forget our boundaries and place ourselves in situations in which we are primed to fail.  And then when we fail we become full of shame that we run to cover it up.  When we choose to walk in sin for a moment, there is only one direction to run: into the light.  However, usually we run further into darkness.

It is never the choice to sin that destroys us - for there is forgiveness for sin (1 John 1:7) - but it is the path we walk after that first choice that holds the potential to destroy us.

After God’s rebuke of Davie (the verses quoted at the top), the prophet Nathan informs David that his choices will have consequences (the death of the baby, as well as violence entering into his family).  The pain of consequence is not an excuse to stay hidden in the darkness.  It is only in the light that there is freedom.

What choice(s) are you hiding for fear of exposure?  Is that choice leading you to add to it to protect yourself from shame?  It is time that we begin to walk in the light.  Our God is a God of restoration and reconciliation – it is the enemy who is out to kill, steal, and destroy.  We allow him to operate when we stay in the dark.

May the God of truth guide you today.
May He be your hope, your strength.
May He grant you courage to walk the road before you.
And may He comfort you as you do.

“I lift up my eyes to the hills – from where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD, who made Heaven and earth” (v1-2).

As I thought about the history of the Israelites and all the times the people left the LORD their God to worship other God, I began to wonder if this was not a description of God being in the hills.  I began to wonder if in the moment the psalmist was writing this he was looking at the hills and seeing them covered with the “high places” the “ashteroth poles” and other idolatrous places of worship that culture had established in its incredible brokenness.  Perhaps the psalmist is describing a state of faith: that though surrounded by cultural lies regarding salvation and hope, He is boldly proclaiming here that,

You can present me with every other belief, yet still I know that my help comes from the LORD who made the universe.

The psalmist continues,

“He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is your keeper;
The LORD is your shade at your right hand.
The sun will not strike you by day, nor the mood by night.
The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in
from this time on and forevermore” (v3-8).

What an incredible state of confidence and faith!  What a psalm of trust and hope. My God will save me.  There are no exceptions in this psalm.  No “outs” – places where it is understandable for God not to be there.  Because God is always there.

I have recently been walking through a difficult time with some of the relationships in my life; a time when they were not what I thought they were; a time when I experienced the full cycle of emotions and grief.  It was in this time that this psalm was shared with me and I remember being stuck on the first 2 verses with the thought of all the junk in the hills around me.  I remember praying at the end,

God, give me courage, that as I gaze upon the hills around me – the hills full of brokenness, of lies, of discouragement – that I may not stare at them, but I may lift my eyes up and beyond them in recognition that my help does not come from the hills, but from you.  My help does not come from some point in the future.  My help does not come from some external source, some person, some vacation down the road, some change in scenery or job, but from you – the author and perfecter of my faith.

My God, fill me with your strength to lift up my eyes and gaze upon you.  To look within and encounter your Spirit in me.  For you are not what culture tells me.  You are not the brokenness in my world.  You are my keeper.  You are my shade.  You never sleep, and you will keep me.  Thank you.  Please give me courage to lift my head beyond my present circumstances to see you.  O my God.

may you be encouraged today in the love and faithfulness of God.

There is a conversation in 2 Samuel 11 between David and the husband Uriah (who David would eventually kill to cover up the affair) that freshly caught my attention this morning.  David had already slept with Bathsheba and had just been informed that she was pregnant.  So he called Uriah back from fighting in hope that he would sleep with Bathsheba so the child would be seen as being theirs (and the affair could be kept a secret).

Here is Uriah’s response to David’s encouragement to take a night at home:

Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah remain in the booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house and to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife?  As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.” (2 Samuel 11:11)

I get so angry at God when He makes it impossible to hide my sin.  Because the revelation of my sin is painful, shameful, humiliating.  But the secrecy of my sin keeps me from God.  So I read this today and could only think, God was too gracious to allow David’s sin to remain a secret. David tried so hard.  He didn’t want to get caught.

I can imagine David’s shame at Uriah’s response – what a slap in the face.  God often slaps us in the face as we sit in sin, giving us the opportunity to confess and repent.  David, as I often do, chose to ignore that confession and instead run harder into the secrecy of shame.  As we get wrapped up in the secrecy of our sin we are capable of things we never thought possible.  That is why God goes to such great lengths to reveal us.  David, the man after God’s own heart, became a murderer out of the shame of his sin.

What lengths have we gone to protect ourselves from exposure?  Yet as far as we go, God still comes after us – not because he wants to punish us (His goal with David was not to punish, but to restore relationship).  David had broken relationship with God, and it was only through the exposure of his sin and his choice to repent that relationship could be restored. I imagine that although God’s heart broke with David’s sin, his heart rejoiced at David’s repentance.  And although David had a difficult road to walk (the death of the child from that adulterous relationship), the restoration of relationship with God was sweeter yet.

Let us recognize when God is stopping us in our sin – not to punish us, but to restore relationship – and walk into that pain and consequence because the restoration of relationship with God is of far greater value than any protection of self from suffering.

Let us recognize our sin, as David did, and repent, crying

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:1-2, 6-12)

Let us pursue at all costs relationship with the Master of the Universe.  It comes through confession and repentance that we may be forgiven.  Let us not delay, but run to the throne of Jesus Christ where there is forgiveness for sin (1 John 1:7).