Forgiveness Revisited

Everyone has at least one person or group of people in their lives that have caused them deep pain. We all have to deal with this issue of forgiveness, and it is admittedly a tough issue. The problem with unforgiveness is that it holds us prisoner. We think our bitterness punishes the other person or protects us, when in reality we are greatly harmed. Sometimes we may truly desire to forgive and try to forgive, but the wounds are so deep that complete forgiveness seems impossible. Sometimes we may have to face that hurtful situation day in and day out, and just when we think we have reached forgiveness, something happens that reopens that old wound. These are real issues. I find myself struggling in this area at times. It bothers me that the well of bitterness and unforgiveness seems to go deep and have an endless supply! The deeper the heart issue, the deeper I must dip into God's Word...

The first mention of forgiveness in the Bible is in Genesis 50:17. As a brief background, Joseph was the youngest of 12 brothers. Joseph was favored by his father, and Joseph flaunted it a bit. His brothers were extremely jealous and eventually plotted to kill him. The oldest brother talked the others out of killing Joseph, and in the end they sold Joseph into slavery. Joseph ended up in Egypt in a series of unpleasant circumstances, but was faithful to God through it all. Finally, God elevated Joseph to the position of second in command under Pharaoh because God had given Joseph wisdom to interpret dreams and Pharaoh had had two very troubling dreams. Through the dreams, Joseph predicted seven good years of harvest and seven years of famine. Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of preparing for the famine. During the famine, people from all over came to Egypt to buy food, including Joseph's brothers. Long story a bit shorter, Joseph's entire family ends up moving to Egypt, and years later when their father dies, Joseph's brothers are a little nervous that he will now seek revenge on them for all the evil they did. When Joseph realizes their fear, this is his response: "And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them."

What can I learn from this? Keys to forgiving:
1. Am I God that I can choose not to forgive?
2. God is in control of all my circumstances, even the ones that appear evil.
3. How I should respond out of forgiveness to those who hurt me.

I want to spend some time on the response. First, I should be willing to nourish them. The Hebrew word translated "nourish" means: to seize, contain, measure...to sustain, maintain, contain...to support, nourish... to endure...to be supplied. In other words, nourish is not necessarily an emotional response, but a calculated response – a choice to support and sustain.

My second response to should to comfort them, which means exactly what we think. Again, this is a choice, not necessarily an emotional response. Though, admittedly, emotions help in this regard!

Finally, I need to speak kindly unto them. This is where it gets interesting. Look at the definition of the Hebrew word translated "kindly": inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding, inner part, midst, heart (of man), soul, heart (of man), mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory. inclination, resolution, determination (of will), conscience, heart (of moral character), as seat of appetites, as seat of emotions and passions, as seat of courage.

Yes, nourishing, comforting and even words are all calculated responses and clear choices. There is a reason, though, that "words" was translated that way. You see, words are tricky. Yes, my words are my choice and come from my will, but ultimately, my words come from my heart. In Matthew 12:34, Jesus says, "...out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Though forgiveness IS a choice, it cannot be feigned. It MUST be a heart understanding that I have no right to hold on to unforgiveness. Ephesians 4:32 puts it this way, "be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you." If I stop and truly consider my own need for forgiveness and the price Christ paid in order that I can be forgiven, it should melt away every hard place in my heart that wants to close against the possibility of forgiving and loving with the love of God.

If you read the joy blogs, you might remember in Psalms 51 that we have "inward parts" and "hidden parts" that we tend to purposely or inadvertently block off from God. I believe a vast majority of those "parts" have unforgiveness at their root. This is HUGE. If we can allow God to do His work in those areas and we choose to forgive from our hearts, we will experience healing and joy such as we have never known. This is what I seek. I pray you will as well.

Why Have You Done This?

"And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?" (Judges 2:1-2)

Translated -- I did what I said I would do, why didn't you? The bottom line is, God is faithful. Humans are not. We cannot be perfect because we still have our sin nature to contend with. I think the problem lies in the very obvious fact that most of us don't bother to contend with sin in our lives. We don't try to be different at all. We justify it in all kinds of ways, "I need to develop a relationship with them so I can witness to them...", "It may be a sex chat room but it is a perfect place to share Truth...", "I have liberty in Christ...", "I don't have that gift...", "I can't help it, it's just the way God made me...", "If that person wouldn't have done this to me...", etc. Jesus echoed God's desire for us to "make no league with the inhabitants of the land" when he prayed for us in John 17, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth."

Many of us know God's truth, but knowing and living are two very different things. Knowledge alone guarantees we will still have to answer that haunting question, "Why have ye done this?" If we fail to allow the Truth to sanctify us -- separate us, make us different, desire a holy lifestyle -- we have missed the point. God is not interested in how much we know or even how much we help others along the way by sharing that knowledge with them. God is interested in our obedience. He wants us to pursue Him more than we pursue anything in life. He wants us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

This question strikes fear in my heart. Why doesn't the Truth impact my life more? Why doesn't it impact the average Christian's life more? Why have we made no difference between ourselves and the rest of the land? Why have we done this? May God in His great mercy deliver us from ourselves before we find ourselves unable to look into the eyes of the One Who gave His all for our salvation, unable to use our old standby answers when He queries, "Why have ye done this?"

Lesson from the Dog

This morning the neighbor's dog started barking. My dog, Gracie, not to be outdone, immediately started growling and doing her "pre-bark woofing" as she made her way to the window to see what all the commotion was about. I started to give Gracie my usual, "Dog, you don't even know what you're barking at...." speech, when I was suddenly struck with this amusing thought. (Well, it amused me anyway...) How often do we humans practice premature or misdirected barking?

Gracie, as it turned out, was joining the neighbor's dog in barking at the school bus -- not an unexpected visitor on the block. Gracie also barks at the daily visit from the mailman. It seems silly. You would think she would begin to expect the bus and the mailman to appear nearly daily at about the same time. For some reason, she thinks it is her duty to bark. I often wonder if she would bark to warn of real danger!

The human parallel can be made in many different walks of life -- professional, parental, educational -- but, I like to pick on Christians :o) It seems Christians often "bark up the wrong tree". We seem surprised at the actions of those who do not share our faith when in reality, they are just living out their lives in the most expected fashion. Why, then, do we carry on so? Did you know Jesus barked more at the religious folks than anyone else? Perhaps we should stop to investigate the things that make God bark before we join the masses in their paroxysmal barking...

Revival

Bear with me today. My heart is very heavy for this nation -- for those of us who claim the name of Christ in this nation. We are failing miserably. We are playing church. We are practicing religion. We are not earthen vessels displaying the power of God to a dying nation. We are "bloodguilty". I studied a couple of verses in Isaiah today. Mind you, these are things God said to His people, Israel. He could say these words to His people today as well.

ISAIAH 1
3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

Doth not know mean the obvious plus to perceive and see, find out and discern, to discriminate, distinguish, to know by experience , to recognise, admit, acknowledge, confess, to consider, be acquainted with, to have knowledge, be wise

Doth not consider means to discern, understand, to perceive, discern, to understand, know (with the mind) , to observe, mark, give heed to, distinguish, consider, to have insight, to be intelligent, discreet,

Sinful nation means to sin, miss, miss the way, go wrong, incur guilt, forfeit, purify from uncleanness.

Laden with iniquity mean heavy, great, massive, abundant, numerous, dull, hard, difficult, burdensome, very oppressive, numerous, rich... plus perversity, depravity, iniquity, guilt or punishment of iniquityity, consequence of or punishment for iniquity

Seed of evildoers means to be bad, be evil, to be displeasin,to be sad, to be injurious, to be wicked, be evil, to break, shatter, to be broken, be broken in pieces, be broken asunder

Children that are corrupters means to destroy, corrupt, go to ruin, decay, to be marred, be spoiled, be injured, , be rotted, to pervert, corrupt (morally) .

Forsaken the Lord means to leave, loose, forsake, to depart from, leave behind, leave, let alone, to forsake, neglect, apostatise.

Provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger mean (provoked and anger) to spurn, contemn, despise, abhor (spurn – reject with contempt; contemn = look down on with disdain)

Will you join me in prayer for Christians in this nation? We have so much, but we do not know God. We do not consider God. Pray that God will mercifully draw us. Pray that we will no longer be satisfied with playing church. Pray that our praise and programs will be born from hearts that are broken and spirits that are contrite before a Holy God. Are we really ready to meet our Maker and Redeemer? If Christians aren't ready, how much less the rest of the world? They are rejecting Jesus because we are not showing them Jesus. How can they know Him when we don't know Him. How could they desire to be Christians when we even make God sick? We would do well to consider and take heed!

"And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." (Rev 3:14-18)

Filter Failure

This morning I had filter failure. It's quite distressing to pour a cup of delicious-smelling coffee, raise it toward my lips with great anticipation and then see the dreaded coffee ground or two floating on top - yuck! My coffee was rendered useless...

As a follower of Jesus, I have "filter failure" from time to time, too. Jesus said we are in the world, but not of the world. (John 17:15 and others) Allow me to expand on the coffee analogy. In this case, I would be the coffee maker (Mrs. Coffee). The water would represent the Holy Spirit of God and the Word of God, which are pure and a vital part of my makeup. The coffee grounds represent the world that I live in. The filter would be my sensitivity to the Spirit and the Word. See where I am going with this?... As a Christian, I am indwelled by the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation. I have access to the Bible and a billion Bible study helps. These are the things by which my "new man" is driven. In coffee making, when the water mixes perfectly with the grounds, the result is very satisfying -- even powerful for some of us! When God in us mixes with the world in which we live, the results can also be very satisfying -- even powerful. I believe it is what the Bible calls "abundant life".

If, however, my filter isn't working, my new man mixes a little too much with the world. Just as filter failure destroys the purpose of my coffee (drinking), so does spiritual filter failure destroy my purpose as a Christian. I am not effective as a tool through which God's power can work, nor am I of much use to those who do not know Christ personally. I have lost my purpose, and that's a pretty miserable place to live. Ever been there? I certainly have...

The good news is, filter failure is fixable! Hebrews 12:1 instructs us to lay aside the weight and the sin that slow us down in this Christian race. The weights are the things that are not necessarily sin, but are not necessarily helping us along. The sin is -- well, sin! I John 1:9 says we simply confess our sins and God is faithful and just to forgive us AND to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When we become sensitive to God in our lives and purpose to obey Him, past failures are just that -- in the past. He wants to take us where we are right now and brew up a fresh, good pot of coffee -- something in our little lives that will be useful and powerful. There's a worthy goal...