2002-10-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
One of the central issues to God's plan is to provide a way for forgiveness of mankind's sins. Unconditional forgiveness of every person who sins wouldn't have worked out, because God understood that there needed to be some way for us to communicate our heart-attitude and intent to Him. It's the reason He unselfishly ceded some of His power to mankind, enough to allow us free agency. This decision has laid God open to a lot of trouble and aggravation from those who have no intention of choosing to repent and come to faith. However, because of His great love for us and need to wrest dominion over the earth back from Satan's evil hands, He has endured it. In addition to that aggravation, God also had to make the greatest sacrifice ever made-the death of His own beloved Son on the cross to make the choice possible for mankind. EPH 4: 32, "Instead, be kind and tender-hearted to one another, and forgive one another, as God has forgiven you through Christ." This remarkable command brings us face to face with God's will for us in view of all that He has done for us.
RO 5: 10-11, "We were God's enemies, but He made us His friends through the death of His Son. Now that we are God's friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ's life! But that is not all; we rejoice because of what God has done through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has now made us God's friends." The magnificence of what has been accomplished through Christ's Atonement is often under estimated by us. It's the reason God keeps leading me to repeat certain citations; He knows that it takes awhile for this to sink in. We've all met people we didn't like and who didn't like us. We've all had our petty squabbles with others. But, as EPH 4: 27 says, "Do not give the devil a chance." This means do not let the devil gain a stronghold in our lives, by holding grudges, refusing to work out our differences, and remaining enemies. It's true that we won't win everyone we encounter over to our side of things, but we need not let it be for lack of acting righteously toward our opponents.
In many cases, our God is a God of second chances. That means that in many cases when their has been trouble between two or more people, it is possible to turn things around before Satan gets his evil hooks into them. When one feels sweaty, dirty, and miserable, he can take a shower in clean, fresh water and wash away the grime that has made him so uncomfortable. Our baptism is such a shower. It's like this in human relationships. Exactly how this is accomplished may differ depending upon the people and the situation, but one thing is paramount. We must ask: "What would Jesus do?" to figure out the best way to proceed. Remember what God did for us? 2 COR 5: 17, "Whenever anyone is joined to Christ, he is a new creation, the old is gone and the new is come." This renewal, restoration, and reconciliation in relationships can even be accomplished when the problem has been long-standing. As a believer, God expects us to set an example to those with weak faith or no faith in whom faith needs to be built. I remember God's strategy that He would allow believers to have such love and peace that non-believers would want that for themselves and ask how they can get it. When this happens, a wonderful opening has been provided by God for the believer to witness to his faith. It must also be remembered that often the same person who sows the seeds of faith is not the one who brings in the harvest. We must not let that daunt us from sowing the seeds anyway.
How can we set this example that leads the weakly faithful or those without faith to faith? COL 3: 5-11 gives us some salient guidelines. We must put to death such earthly desires as sexual immorality, indecency, lust, evil passions, and greed (a form of idolatry). At one time our lives were led by these desires. We must get rid of anger, hateful feelings, passion, insults, obscene language, and lies. COL 3: 10b-11, "This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in His own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of Himself. As a result, there is not longer any distinction between Gentiles and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, savages, slaves and free men, but Christ is all, Christ is in all." We, who were once the vilest of offenders have been forgiven, because of Christ's Atonement and our repentance and coming to faith. As we have been forgiven, so should we forgive others.
PRAYER: O Lord, the issue of forgiveness brings us face to face with the human propensity to want to grind our axes and hold back on forgiving others. Refusing to forgive others and to set the example of reconciliation flies in the face of the very example Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Messiah, set for us. It wastes the blood He shed for us on the cross, and it keeps us from producing spiritual fruit. You have made Your will for us clear by the very example of Your forgiveness offered to us when our lives were still under Satan's control. Christ's death on the cross bought us out of the marketplace of slavery to sin. This one heroic and unselfish sacrifice was good enough to suffice for all time [HE 10: 10]. We come before You today as sinners who desire to conform to Christ's standards and not those of the world [RO 12: 2]. We acknowledge and understand that we cannot accomplish righteousness on our own. We need and desire You and Your guidance in our lives. Allowing You to lead us directs us away from Satan's temptations and evil. He cannot establish a stronghold in our lives unless we allow it. Our will is to close him off from entry into control of our spirits and to allow the Holy Spirit full access to them. We accept that being forgiving toward others is living out the model Christ set for us. It is the way through the narrow gate to the hard path that leads to eternal life [MT 7: 13-14]. We also understand that You desire to provide openings for us to plant the seeds of faith in others. Help us, O Lord, to find an effective and sensitive way to carry out this and to witness to our faith so as to join You in the work You do through the Holy Spirit. We confess our sins in humility and offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, trust, obedience, glory, honor, praise, and thanksgiving. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.
The issue of forgiveness to too important to leave it to one message. That is why I'm led to continue discussing it tomorrow. Have you ever felt the gentle yet strong of a loving parent on your shoulder, offering you guidance and encouragement? That is what our Father in heaven and His Son, Our Savior, do for us. We need never feel alone or abandoned, no matter how much pain Satan's arrows cause us. When we endure in our faith, God is always there for us, eager to help, eager to guide us around the land mines of our lives. I know this personally, and witness to its truth to you. God's love for each of us is real and palpable every day of our lives as believers. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn