Friday, July 24, 2009

Forgiveness


And be ye kind one to another. . .
forgiving one another even as God
for Christ's sake has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32

Forgiveness-the act of giving up resentment or the desire to punish; the act of pardoning.

When Christ forgives us He erases the offensive deed from His memory. He deletes the error from existence. He washes away the stain. Never to bring it up to us again.

Paul tells us we should be forgiving toward one another in the same way. What would this mean to our society?
We wouldn’t have divisions in families. We wouldn’t have hard feelings among neighbors. Friendships would be deeper and longer lasting.

World-wide, the nations would be more willing to talk about their differences and concerns. We would not have divisions over issues of war. We might not have any homeless people. Our teenage pregnancy rate could be close to zero. Alcoholism would not be as rampant. The divorce rate wouldn’t be nearly as high.

I don’t want to sound like Pollyanna but all our divisive issues seem to stem from people or parties not being able to forgive one another.

“Be ye kind one to another”-is a command, a way of life, a display of one of the spiritual fruits.

“forgiving one another”-over-looking faults,loving another when they are unlovely, looking beyond one’s faults to their need.

“even as God” following His example

“for Christ's sake” because of Jesus

“hath forgiven you.” God forgives us when we ask Him. We are to do likewise when we are asked.

Monday, July 20, 2009

His Forgiveness


"As far as the east is from the west. . . ." Psalm 103:12

The first thing God does when a person comes to Him is to forgive our sins–ALL our sins. He doesn't place them in another section of our hearts for later use. He removes them from our memory, as well as from His. He deletes them.

He removes our bad feelings. Our God carries away the evil thoughts we have. El Shaddai takes away the need we feel to say suspect things. The Lord captures any motive we may have to do harmful things to another person.

In place of all these sinful deeds he deposits His grace–His unconditional love. He offers it to us but we have to be open to receive it.

“As far as the east is from the west,. . . .” is a very great distance. We should thank Him for this merciful act.

God Alone

  Jesus and the children at our church's prayer walk.          I will both lie down in peace and sleep;  For You alone, O LORD make ...