Pondering on shame.

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” Romans 1:16The fellas on Monday night had a look at this pearler of a verse. I have reflected and meditated further on what Paul is writing here about not being “ashamed” of the good news of Jesus.As humans we are not made to handle shame, we don’t know what to do with it. Mostly we decide to lie to ourselves, deny it and suppress the truth and hide it.  We foolishly hope that if we don’t admit the shameful act(s) then it will fix itself by magic. When the shameful act rears its ugly head again and we are challenged about it from somebody who may see it or realize that we are hiding something that is causing us harm, we can be very quick to hide it by lying to that person or only revealing part of the truth. The spiral of sin quickens and we don’t control it. It is our master and we are trapped.Many a sport star has fallen for this old chestnut of shame and sin when hopelessly denying drug allegations. Actually this old chestnut goes right back to our first parents who mucked it up big time. They wanted to be equal with God. Once they had committed this first sin of idol worship they felt shame and realized that they were naked.Then they made what would have been some pretty awful threads out of a few leaves to hide their nakedness and hid from God in the garden. Seriously, did they really think they could hide behind a few privot hedges from The Creator of everything? I’m glad none of us do things so ridiculous or do we?Shame and sin damage relationships horizontally (marriages, family, friends, strangers) and vertically (The Father). Even as so-called ‘mature’ Christian’s we can look at our lives and see they are broken in areas, but often we are too ashamed to admit that we have to change. It seems too painful. What do we do?The truth that sets us free from this shame is (drumroll) Jesus! He has taken the shame by becoming the shameful one, the scapegoat hanging on a cross. We are invited to place our shame on him so we don’t have to bear its load. Only he can take the weight; only he can defeat it!If you feel the shame is just too heavy and you need to hide, hide in Jesus, for you will be hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).Have faith that Jesus wants you to become clean in Him.If shame has you by the throat, please feel free to come and see one of the leadership team and receive God’s grace. We can pray together and you will be freed from hiding in sin (James 5:16). This is the start of true freedom and discipleship and this is what we are all called to be part of and do (Matt. 28:18-20).Blessings, James