Forgiveness is about making a fresh start in the most important and fundamental part of life —relationships. Would you like to get along better with your husband, wife, sister, brother, friends and significant others….. Would you like to have less anxiety, less destructive conflict, less ill-will, and less fault finding and replace this behavior with more genuine affection, more respect, more appreciation, and more real love? Praise the Lord because this is what God wants for your life as well. In fact, God is doing everything in God’s power to convince us to make some adjustments in who we are. God desires that we have better relationships with God and everyone in life.
Forgiveness is about repairing relationships that have been bent, bruised and broken. Forgiveness is about restoring relationships with those who have hurt us—and with those whom we’ve hurt. Forgiveness is about resurrecting relationships which have been so damaged that they’re all but dead. It’s about taking the high road and doing what is right for the sake of God and our soul salvation. This is why Roman 3:10 says that there is no one righteous; it’s so that we can get real with ourselves and realize that all of us stand in need of forgiveness. All of us stand in need of being restored.
The good news about forgiveness is that it doesn’t require the approval of those who won’t and don’t receive it. But the difficulty is that those who won’t and don’t allow the devil to steal, kill and destroy that which God has deemed good. Therefore, in order for forgiveness to manifest itself in positive ways in your lives, we’ve got to be willing to be open to the Holy Spirit moving in our lives and changing who we are. We’ve got to resolve in our own spirit that if God forgives us, then we MUST forgive others, and allow others to forgive us. Then and only then will we be able to let stuff go and move on in the name of Jesus. We must accept the fact that this can only happen in the supernatural and not the natural realm; forgiveness comes from the author of peace and not the author of confusion and the father of lies. And so, in order to embrace forgiveness as the solution to the problems in our lives, we’ve got to be convinced and convicted that there really is a problem, and we’ve got to understand the nature of that problem.
Just to be clear, the problem is sin. And the nature of sin is that we all do it. So don’t think you’re exempt just because you’re in the church. We sin against God, against ourselves and others; and this is why relationships are so bad today. It’s all because of our sinful nature and our sinful condition. Unless we forgive, life will be full of conflict and tension. Unless we forgive, life will be one problem after another and it will destroy our chance for everlasting life.
And so, the doctrine of sin says that all of us need to be forgiven; first by God, and then by others. Unless we’re willing to recognize our own sin and our own need of forgiveness, we’ll never be able to truly forgive others. If we can’t forgive others, we are implicitly saying that we are comfortable with the confusion and conflict in our lives. But if we see our need for extending forgiveness and being forgiven, we will be on our way to a higher quality of life based on God’s will for our lives.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
A Break And A Blessing
A Break and A Blessing
In the Old Testament book of Genesis chapter 32, is the story of how God deals with Jacob as a part of God's plan of salvation history. Since his birth, Jacob has been a manipulative, conniving and calculating opportunist. While it would seem that Jacob's actions would not make him a worthy candidate for God's affection and adoration; we are reminded that God's ways are not our ways and God's thoughts are not our thoughts. Ultimately, God has to break Jacob and his undesirable ways in order for Jacob to recognize blessings beyond measure. Said differently, until we are broken by God, we will never realize the magnitude of God's desire for our lives.
The Hebrew word used in this text for break is the same word used for offering a sacrifice to God; a lifting up. In order for Jacob to be lifted up, he first had to be broken. In order for us to present ourselves as living sacrifices unto God, we must first come to God with a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart; these are the sacrifices of God. We must be broken. Even our Lord Jesus demonstrated this in his life. The Bible says that Jesus took two fishes and five loaves, blessed them, and broke them. Once broken, over 5,000 were fed with 12 baskets left over. On the night in which he was betrayed, he took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it. The broken bread represents the prophetic breaking of the body of Jesus that we may have life and life more abundantly. Therefore, the real blessing for Jacob was in his breaking. Because when he was broken, he could no longer stand on his own. All he had was God to hold on to. He went from defying God to depending on God; from rebellion to reliance; and from striving to surrendering. Jacob was able to get a blessing when he gave up depending on his own wit and will and leaned and depended on God.
Many of us wonder why we are going through what we are going through. Maybe just maybe, God wants us to totally depend on God. When we allow our self reliance to give way to God's sanctifying grace and when we allow our inadequacy to give way to God's sufficiency we will discover the joys of living by faith and not by sight. Depend on God. Hold on to God. Trust God to bless you and provide your increase.
I welcome your comments in the space provided at the end of this post.
In the Old Testament book of Genesis chapter 32, is the story of how God deals with Jacob as a part of God's plan of salvation history. Since his birth, Jacob has been a manipulative, conniving and calculating opportunist. While it would seem that Jacob's actions would not make him a worthy candidate for God's affection and adoration; we are reminded that God's ways are not our ways and God's thoughts are not our thoughts. Ultimately, God has to break Jacob and his undesirable ways in order for Jacob to recognize blessings beyond measure. Said differently, until we are broken by God, we will never realize the magnitude of God's desire for our lives.
The Hebrew word used in this text for break is the same word used for offering a sacrifice to God; a lifting up. In order for Jacob to be lifted up, he first had to be broken. In order for us to present ourselves as living sacrifices unto God, we must first come to God with a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart; these are the sacrifices of God. We must be broken. Even our Lord Jesus demonstrated this in his life. The Bible says that Jesus took two fishes and five loaves, blessed them, and broke them. Once broken, over 5,000 were fed with 12 baskets left over. On the night in which he was betrayed, he took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it. The broken bread represents the prophetic breaking of the body of Jesus that we may have life and life more abundantly. Therefore, the real blessing for Jacob was in his breaking. Because when he was broken, he could no longer stand on his own. All he had was God to hold on to. He went from defying God to depending on God; from rebellion to reliance; and from striving to surrendering. Jacob was able to get a blessing when he gave up depending on his own wit and will and leaned and depended on God.
Many of us wonder why we are going through what we are going through. Maybe just maybe, God wants us to totally depend on God. When we allow our self reliance to give way to God's sanctifying grace and when we allow our inadequacy to give way to God's sufficiency we will discover the joys of living by faith and not by sight. Depend on God. Hold on to God. Trust God to bless you and provide your increase.
I welcome your comments in the space provided at the end of this post.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
The Casey & Caylee Anthony Case
The trial is over, the jury has gone home, the cameras are in search for their next made for TV docudrama or Courtroom TV case and the lawyers have either bit the dust or are preparing to be elevated among the best attorney’s on the planet.
Casey Anthony is acquitted and is about to become rich, her family is going to cash in on their role in the process, some publishing house is about to write a number one best seller, some movie studio is about to produce a box office hit and some TV anchor, or TV personality is about to increase their stock by receiving the first official interview of prime suspects, witnesses and jurors.
Pundits are analyzing the case after the fact as their ratings continue to skyrocket while millions of viewers are glued to their favorite TV station in hopes of hearing new information about a trial that is history and will make history. Law schools all across the country are preparing to use this case in comparison to the O.J. Simpson case as mandatory study material in consideration of receiving an earned Jurist Doctorate degree.
Analyst and commentators are committing the “paralysis of analysis” as they intrigue their viewers with thoughts like “being found not guilty is not the same as being innocent,” “the justice systems continues to work,” “A good defense or a bad prosecution” and “I wonder who is the father of Caylee.”
Stop the madness. A child is dead; justice for Caylee has not been served and it seems that nobody really cares. I wonder if there is no interest in the death of Caylee because there are no financial opportunities attached to it. Nonetheless, Casey is going to be free, and as she is set free, I can only think of the phrase “liar, liar, pants on fire.” And in the words of Dr. Drew, “If she’s (Casey’s) the monster people think she is, she will have her day.”
If you wish to comment, please do so at the end of this blog.
Casey Anthony is acquitted and is about to become rich, her family is going to cash in on their role in the process, some publishing house is about to write a number one best seller, some movie studio is about to produce a box office hit and some TV anchor, or TV personality is about to increase their stock by receiving the first official interview of prime suspects, witnesses and jurors.
Pundits are analyzing the case after the fact as their ratings continue to skyrocket while millions of viewers are glued to their favorite TV station in hopes of hearing new information about a trial that is history and will make history. Law schools all across the country are preparing to use this case in comparison to the O.J. Simpson case as mandatory study material in consideration of receiving an earned Jurist Doctorate degree.
Analyst and commentators are committing the “paralysis of analysis” as they intrigue their viewers with thoughts like “being found not guilty is not the same as being innocent,” “the justice systems continues to work,” “A good defense or a bad prosecution” and “I wonder who is the father of Caylee.”
Stop the madness. A child is dead; justice for Caylee has not been served and it seems that nobody really cares. I wonder if there is no interest in the death of Caylee because there are no financial opportunities attached to it. Nonetheless, Casey is going to be free, and as she is set free, I can only think of the phrase “liar, liar, pants on fire.” And in the words of Dr. Drew, “If she’s (Casey’s) the monster people think she is, she will have her day.”
If you wish to comment, please do so at the end of this blog.
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