Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Happy Sunday Lads and Lasses

Today we are thankful for:

1) Naps!!!! Holy cats guys! Naps are the absolute best!! Sunday’s call for the peeeerrrrffeecttttt day. Spend the morning praising Jesus and the afternoon taking a nice long nap!

2) Clean rooms! I kid you not, I have to clean my room at least once a week. Everytime I clean my room it’s messy by the next day! Even though I constantly have to clean my room, I always feel accomplished when it’s done!

3)Having! A! Clean! Slate!!!

Today in church we covered Acts chapters 24-26. These chapters cover Paul being put on several trials in front of different judges.

I don’t know about all of you guys, but the ID channel is on 24/7 in my household. And if the ID channel isn’t on Criminal Minds or Law & Order is. So I feel like I know pretty much everything about crime and I could be a lawyer right now! ;)

Obviously, that isn’t true. All of the courtroom drama on TV is suuupppeerrrr over played. A real trial isn’t anywhere near as exciting.

Now, I have never been to a really trial but, I feel as though I am tried every day. BY MY SIBLINGS. My patience is tried allll of the time!!

I’m constantly accused of absurd things!!

“Is that my shirt?!”

“Are those your clothes on the bathroom floor?”

Unfortunately I AM constantly guilty of both of those things and lots of other things as well. I don’t have a right to be annoyed at my siblings for saying these things because they are true! However, I don’t like being called out for my mistakes.

It’s easy to feel that way about our faith as well. The Gospel is AMAZING!!! The best message ever! I absolutely love hearing that I am saved by Amazing Grace! The Law on the other hand, is not as fun to listen to.

We are all sinners. It’s as simple as that. If I myself were on trial to get into Heaven based on my own nature, God could look at a single minute of my life and see that I am GUILTY!! We, as sinners, don’t deserve heaven AT ALL.

The evidence against us is stacked high. The devil prowls around us like a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8), the world is full of sin and temptations that are hostile to God (Romans 8:7), but our biggest enemy is ourselves.

Our sinful nature! We are constantly doing wrong even if we don’t want to.

Romans 7:21-25

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

THANKFULLY, when we look at the Law we can look right back at the Gospel and be reminded that WE ARE SAVED. Jesus went on trial in our place and he took the life sentence we deserve.

We are no longer guilty!!! We are forever seen as innocent heirs of eternal life! What a surprising verdict and an AMAZING blessing to have our slate wiped clean.

Things to work on this week:

1) Getting in the mindset for school. Sadly, it starts in a week…. Gross.

2) Staying up to date with my polaroid journal! I’ve been super behind on it lately and need to catch up!

3) Saying thankful prayers!! I’ve fallen out of practice and need to remember to thank God for everything!

Hope you all have an AMAZING week and enjoy what is left of your summer!

Sharing my love for Jesus and his love for you!

Annika Bilitz