Often it is said that God in Heaven is like a kind of tax-man. It is said that we owe taxes, because we have sinned, and if those taxes are not paid by the time we are dead, down we go. And it is said that one person paid these taxes for us, if we will only accept it, by submitting to being sent to death by Jews and being killed by Romans.

Now personally, I found this quite confusing. I had read that God is a compassionate and loving God, who sent people downward because of their evil, not because of anything like taxes to be paid. After all, payment is payment; there is always more payment, if payment is the problem, and God can create anything He wants to create. So where is the problem?

Well, there is one general problem. What is this feeling called "guilt"?

And why do feelings of guilt never go away from so very many people?

There is another word for "guilt" in today's language. When we have guilt which is settling into us deeply, many say we are "dying inside." Or, "a part of me died today."

And I suggest that this is true: when guilt settles into us deeply, a part of us dies. And from then on, we carry around some dead weight in our thoughts and our being. Perhaps the best example of this is the "first crush" of a teenager. It is said that "no one forgets their first crush". I suggest that when that crush finally dies, it is dead weight which that person then carries around with them, a drag on their inner energies. Sure, there is widespread denial, but nevertheless, there is this statement which few dispute: "No one forgets their first crush."

I do also suggest that there is false guilt, guilt for things that do not matter at all. There are many people in the world with so much trouble in their being, that they cannot eat a simple breakfast, without feeling guilt. I am suggesting that some guilt is real; and I am wondering about a solution for it all, both true guilt and false.

So what can we do, to stop dragging around dead bits of our being? How can we cast them off? Or if not, what can we do to make it all easier?

I would like to suggest that there is an answer within these words (Lev. 17:11): "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life."

I would like to suggest that a long time ago, God gave certain people some things to do when they felt guilt about many different things -- and if they wanted the guilt to stop, they did those things, and God responded, and took their guilt away. When those people did as God asked them to do, God took the life in the blood of animals, and brought the dead bits of those people back to life. And they did not feel guilt for those things they had done, anymore; it was as if the things had never been done, because God rewarded their desire to stop offending Him. Of course, there were many who did not participate, because they were convinced they could handle their guilt on their own.

There are people today who are using animals to try to get God to do the same thing or other things to them. But if one studies them, it is clear that it doesn't work. Their cultures are as filled with guilt as any other. God has withdrawn the promises. He chose to begin something else, a bit less than two thousand years ago.

God caused One of They who are Him to be born as a human being, and He gave the blood of that One to be spilled into the world, so that the immensely more powerful life of His, might be available to heal the parts of us which have died.

Please, reader, talk to God, desire to love Him and not offend Him, and ask Him to take the death out of your being, using His Blood. He will, if you are willing.

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