Transforming me in 2014: Practicing all aspects of authentic forgiveness

Sins damage the human soul.  Education does not bring healing.  Practicing forgiveness does! Forgiveness is the key to freedom. Fully receiving God’s forgiveness, effectively forgiving other people and sincerely asking others to forgive us allows God to heal the damage caused by sin.

 Colossians 1:13-14 says; “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Practicing forgiveness is like having someone repair damaged hardware in your computer. The truth has new meaning when you truly forgive those around you. This is the activity most commonly left unattended and hinders transformation.

Developing a lifestyle of forgiveness is essential to life-transformation and spiritual formation.

Seeking transformation in 2014...You know I love ya, Don

I am not Ashamed!

The following is an excerpt from my sermon yesterday. It is good review for me and a great reminder that I would much rather see a sermon than hear one.

Ephesians 4:31-32 (NRSV)

³¹ Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, ³² and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.^[1]

Forgiveness is free but it is not cheap. When Dr. Gene Nichol, president of William and Mary College ordered the cross removed from Wren Chapel on that campus, he failed to anticipate the outcry from alumni and others. He now admits he acted hastily and has ordered the cross returned, at least all day on Sunday. I understand the offensive nature of the cross. It’s too blunt, too brutal for our refined minds to encounter. All that stuff about a pierced side, nail-scarred hands, and a thorn-torn brow sounds gross in refined houses of worship. When you watch a movie such as Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ…It is rough, blinding in the gruesome flesh ripping, and brings tears to know that was for me.

I can tell you from experience…if you cannot tell me when you have been to the foot of the cross, then you have never been there. For at the cross of Jesus our sin is forgiven. Debts are canceled because somebody paid the price. Jesus paid the price. The cross was offensive in the first century too. Yet, as one that has bowed at the foot of the cross and received the forgiveness of Jesus, I am still content to sing:

Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.
Sin had left its crimson stain;
He washed me white as snow.

It is the cross that demonstrates the ultimate act of forgiveness.

It is the cross the sets us free.

It is the Cross the holds us tight in hard times.

It is the cross the sets us free!

I am trying to live out forgiveness as a way of life. You know I love ya, Don

---

The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Eph 4:31–32). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Forgiveness is life restored!

Forgiveness is life restored. What transformed the woman of Luke 7:36-50. She arrived, kissed and wiped Jesus' feet with her tears. She was a woman of the night being transformed into a servant of the light Jesus is working nothing less than a miracle of love!

Tony de Mello tells this story: “Everyone kept telling me to change. I agreed I needed to change but I couldn’t — no matter how hard I tried. I felt powerless, trapped, confused. Then one day a friend said, ‘I love you just the way you are.’ It was the most freeing thing I’ve ever known in my life. Suddenly I relaxed. I came to life. I found the power to change. He taught me the very deep nature of God’s love for me.” God starts with us where we are. He is willing to forgive us right here and right now.

Colossians 2:13-14: “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

Forgiveness is a debt canceled but forgiveness also brings a life restored.

Clemmie Greenleaf is a 46-year-old advocate for the homeless in Nashville, Tennessee. She has lived in Nashville all her life. She lost her parents when she was 13. They were both alcoholics. Prostitution became the only way Clemmie could make enough money to take care of her younger siblings. So she turned to the streets, and drugs, and violence. Then as Clemmie tells it, “God called me by name when I was 40. I entered the Magdalene Recovery Program in 2000. By 2003 I was clean, sober, and able to hold a job.” Let us never forget that God takes people where they are and loves them back to life. He not only restores our souls, He restores our self-worth, our value. That’s what forgiveness is all about. It’s a life restored, brought back to life.

Forgiveness is a debt canceled.

Forgiveness is not cheap.

Forgiveness is your life restored.

Forgiveness returns to us what our sinful nature stole from us.

I am in no way perfect or even close, but I am forgiven. I am thanking God for His forgiveness today! You know I love ya, Don

Sincerely Forgiven!

¹⁵ When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?" ¹⁶ So they sent word to Joseph, saying, "Your father left these instructions before he died: ¹⁷ 'This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.' Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father." When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

¹⁸ His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. "We are your slaves," they said.

¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? ²⁰ You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. ²¹ So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children." And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. (Genesis 50: 15-21 NIV)

Joseph wept at the message from His brothers. He had already sincerely forgiven them, yet they still feared Joseph's wrath...even many years later. I can see why he wept.

God has sincerely forgiven me, yet I forget how sincere God was while He was on the cross. He said "Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing." The great part of today is that He is still saying that for me and you. He is sincerely forgiving us and interceding for our benefit. I am reminded of the old saying, "I am not perfect, but I am forgiven."

You know I love ya - a fellow forgiven Christ-follower, Don

P.S. - I am preaching in the Solid Ground the next two weeks and we are going to talk more about detours in life and Joseph is the first. For the story of Joseph read the last ten chapters of Genesis.

Redeemer - A Sail Boat

Isaiah 47:4 - "Our Redeemer-the Lord Almighty is His name-is the Holy One of Israel."
Job 19:25 - "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth."

There is a story that some of us heard as children. A young boy made for himself a beautiful little sailboat, sanding, painting, and gluing each of its parts with great care. It became his favorite possession, and almost daily he went to sail it on the river near his home. One day a storm came up suddenly, the string on the boat broke, and the boat got away from him. He spent many days searching for the boat along the banks of the river, and he began to fear that he would never see it again.

Months later, his grandfather took him to town, and as they were poking around in a second-hand shop, the boy spotted a familiar-looking boat, high on one of the shelves, with a price tag attached to it. "Let me see that boat, " the little boy cried. "This is it, see, these are my initials! I carved them in the bottom! This is my boat!"

"I am sorry, son. I bought that boat from the man who brought it into the shop. If you want the boat, you will have to pay for it," said the shop keeper.

Sadly the boy left the shop. For the next few weeks he worked hard doing every odd job anyone would give him, carefully saving every penny. At last he had the money. He went back to the shop and redeemed for himself the boat he had made.

The seeming injustice of having to pay for something that was one's own in the first place is not pleasant. This is a perfect illustration of what it means to be redeemed. Christ our Creator made us and stamped us with his own image. Then we became separated from him. Christ our Redeemer bought back the right to own us by paying a price so awful we cannot comprehend it.

Over the next few days, The Christian community will be celebrating Easter. May we never forget that it is a celebration of redemption.

You know I love ya - Don

Confrontation - Unavoidable!

The Confrontation Principle (John Maxwell's): Caring for people should precede confronting people. Conflict is hard…Conflict is like cancer: early detection increases the possibility of a healthy outcome. In order to connect with people we need to care for people before we confront people. In the second phrase of 1 Peter 2:17, it reads, “Love the brotherhood of believers.”

The illustration I have for this is Jesus himself. At a time when the world is literally spitting at Jesus, he had the power to vaporize them. They are mocking him and crucifying him, and Jesus could have called angels to rip their tongues out of their mouths he created and then had the nails shoved up their noses (now you know what I would have done!)….but what do we see Jesus say, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” Jesus was able to forgive because He cared for them and he was also confronting sin…

There will always be conflict when we connect with others. How we handle the conflict will define “who” we are in Christ Jesus. May we be bold and confront conflict with conviction and compassion. You know I love ya - Don

Restitution...seventy times seven...get over it.

The day of the LORD is near for all nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you;
your deeds will return upon your own head.
- Obadiah 1:15

Not much has change over the last 2.5 thousand years. If you bring injustice to another, you will eventually have injustice return to you. I found this verse interesting today. I know that it applies to the prophets of old and the ancient countries/nations, but the principle that God is establishing still stands true today. Do unto others as you have God do unto you might be a new way of rephrasing the golden rule.

What about the times that injustice is done to you and you did not deserve it? The sinful man in me will twist this rule to say, it is time FOR ME to return the favor...but Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 18:21 and following:

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.^[f]

"Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents^[g] was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

"The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. "But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii.^[h] He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.

"His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' "But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.

"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

So, the lesson for me today is: Yes, things have not changed much, there are will always be ignorance, injustice, and hatred this side of heaven. As for me, I have been forgiven "much" and it is my responsibility to act in response to being forgiven much.

My mother used to say to us (My Sister and I) when we would get in trouble for something we did not do, "Consider it punishment for a time you did do something wrong and did not get caught." So, I think it good to remember who went to the cross and that He has forgiven us and the next time I get the hit from another person I will consider it punishment for a time when I caused someone else grief and Jesus took my punishment. My job is to forgive and God will judge and bring restitution.

Praying for you as you read this and You know I love ya - Don

Seeking Forgiveness, a place to begin.

We are home from our vacation and I am thinking about worship services tomorrow. We are seeking the heart of God just as David pursued God's Heart. I was reading through 1 Samuel 28 and recalled a Beth Moore Study on King Saul's lack of pursuing God. I want to share with you my thoughts along with Beth's.

Saul expelled the spiritualists and the mediums from the land. A time later he asks God a question concerning the battle with the Philistines and God is quiet. Paul turns to an attendant and says, "go find one of those mediums I expelled...." (My Paraphrased version)

there are times when I forget Psalm 40.... and we have to wait patiently for the Lord. Sometimes it feels like we have to wait and wait and wait. At first we may wonder why we have to wait...in Saul's case we might even feel sympathetic towards him. God seems a little unfair, BUT GOD NEVER responds in haste, or flippant, or without regard to the response and outcome. Isaiah 59:1-3 gives a very valid explanation for God's occasional silence. "Your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear" (Isa. 59:2)

Saul was being disobedient to God. He killed an innocent man, he slaughtered the priests, and wiped away an entire innocent village. He has some regret, but never truly repents or seeks righteousness. Its not that God does not hear the prayers of the unrighteous, but that He wont. (There is a thought to ponder for awhile.)

I can vividly remember times in my life when God seemed silent, and I realized He was waiting on me to confront and confess certain sins in my life. His silence suggested, I will not go on to another matter in your life, my child, until we deal with this one." - Beth Moore

The first prayer in our pursuit of God and one that God will always be willing to hear is a prayer of sincere repentance. Our reliance on God is demonstrated in our faith. Our submission to Him allows Him to bless us beyond our imagination.

Pursuing Him...you know I love ya, Don