I'm guessing most of us didn't grow up with a woodshed out back of the house where the kids were taken when they were bad and smacked around with a willow switch or a belt. Actually, by today's standards this sounds like something Channel 4 would cover and Social Services would intervene. But unless you were raised by Flower Children who hugged you when you were defiant, most of us know that really bad feeling when you did something you can't hide and you know "you're really gonna get it."

For far too long, I thought that as a child of God who continues to do all sorts of stuff wrong, I was still "really gonna get it" from my heavenly Father. I knew I couldn't hide my wrong from God's all seeing eyes, and that sucked. So, like a dog who ate the turkey off the table looks guilty as sin when his owner walks in the dining room, I would feel my eyes flutter to near closure around God because I'd feel such shame for my sin. I'd brace myself for a trip to the woodshed.

Then I started actually believing God's Word and what I was preaching. That "as far as east is from west, so far has God removed our transgressions" (Psalm 103:12). That "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them" (2Cor. 5:19) That "in Christ we are a new creation, the old has passed away and the new has come." (2 Cor. 5:17) Jesus went to the woodshed for me so I don't waste much time these days feeling shame or afraid.

Martin Luther said, "If thou wouldst sin, sin boldly". What he was saying is, when you screw up, just own it instead of trying to disguise it, hide it, justify it or blame someone else for it. The gospel, the good news is this, neither you nor I are "really gonna get it". Christ "got it" on the cross and like he said from vantage point, "it is finished." (John 19:30)

I hope you can say with me, "I got it, Lord, I'm not 'going to get it'".

Mark