Tag: Forgiveness

Saturday Strands

On By BrianIn Saturday Strands

Here are some loose strands for our growth:

Living From Approval, Not For Approval – Dave Harvey
Let me ask you a question: What do you think God feels about you right now? Irritation over your flaws — that tendency towards gluttony, or your inconsistency to getting up each morning to pray? Does God want to withdraw due to our failures — the impatient word with a wife or child; the angry outburst provoked by someone cutting you off on the freeway? Does he look down with a cosmic frown of disapproval on you, so prone to wander and full of weakness?

Love (All) Your Neighbors: A Surprising Test of True Faith – Scott Hubbard (DG)
So, if you want to see someone’s spiritual sincerity more clearly, don’t mainly watch him in church. Watch him with his children. Watch him at work. Watch him in traffic. Watch him when offended. For you will know him by his neighbor-love.

Can We Forgive When the Offender Doesn’t Repent? – Mike Wittmer (TGC)
Forgiveness means to pardon an offender by paying/absorbing his moral debt. When an offender repents, it’s clear we should both pay and pardon. We absorb the moral cost of being sinned against and assure the offender of our forgiveness. When the offender doesn’t repent for whatever reason—perhaps he’s hard-hearted or has died—we must separate the payment from the pardon. We don’t pardon him (and gloss over his offenses), because he hasn’t repented, yet we still must absorb the moral cost.

The Desecration of Man – Carl Trueman (First Things)
Contra Nietzsche, God is not dead. But we moderns have used Nietzsche’s claim as an excuse for desecrating man, for turning ourselves and others into insignificant, sexualized, animate lumps of meat. Only a reclamation, and a proclamation, of the living God in the vital worship of the Church will consecrate man and bring him back from the brink of a nihilistic, dehumanized abyss.

Flashback: Gentle Discipline
Paul is weary of Corinthians, who are like wayward children, and yet he wants to treat them with gentleness. He doesn’t want to come with a rod, but with gentle love. Notice he doesn’t demand, command, or threaten. But clothed with the gentleness of Christ, he entreats, he urges, he beseechs, he appeals to them. His discipline is gentle.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping God with your local church!

Consider His Compassionate Forgiveness

On By BrianIn Book of Luke

They have beaten him.  Whipped him.  Falsely condemned him.  Now in Luke 23:32-38, they hang him on the cross.  The rulers scoff at him.  The soldiers mock him.  And Jesus responds with…forgiveness.  Forgiveness!  That he would ask the Father to forgive them speaks of his own heart of forgiveness.  No bitterness.  No wrath.  No anger.  No reviling.  No malice. No hate.  Just kindness.  Compassion.  Forgiveness.

And he shows that compassionate forgiveness to us.  He hung on that cross for my sin and your sin.  He hung there for our rebellion, our rejection.  He hung there for all the times we fail to love and serve our Creator.  He hung there for all the times we become so self-absorbed and fail to love those around us.  He hung on that cross so we might be forgiven of all of our sins.

And he calls us to show compassionate forgiveness to others.  When someone hurts us, our tendency is lash out or run away.  But Jesus calls us to forgive.  To forgive as we have been forgiven.  To put away all bitterness, wrath, anger, reviling, malice, and hate.  To rather show kindness, compassion, forgiveness (Ephesians 4:31-32).  Jesus told us to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who hurt us (Luke 6:27-28).  And in this most extreme situation on the cross, Jesus lives out these instructions, and calls us to follow in doing so too.  What a challenge!  We can’t do this on our own.  We need to stay so close to Jesus.  And how convicting!  How easily we fail, and need to run back to the cross to find his compassionate forgiveness again.

Passion Points – Forgiveness

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are three good posts on forgiveness for your weekend reading: 

Paul Tripp talks about the “benefits” of unforgiveness before reminding us of a better way. 

Chris Brauns gives important counsel on how to stop thinking about past wounds. 

And then Brauns discusses the issue of forgiveness as it relates to the Casey Anthony case.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your local church celebrating our great God!

Recognize God’s Forgiveness

On By BrianIn Habit of Prayer

In Psalm 32:1-2a, David recognizes his forgiveness:

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity.

These same words are quoted by Paul in Romans 4 in the context of our great salvation through Jesus Christ.  Because Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead, we can be forgiven of our sins through faith in Jesus Christ.  Do you recognize God’s forgiveness as you approach God in prayer?

Psalm 24:3-4 tells us who can approach God:

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.

And yet none of us on our own can claim clean hands or a pure heart.  Only in Christ are we clean and pure, and so only in Christ can we approach God.  So again, do you recognize God’s forgiveness when you approach God in prayer?  It is only in Christ that you can come.  It is only in the context of salvation can we truly pray. 

As you come before his throne, consider Christ who makes it possible for you to approach God.  Recognize God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ.