The Grace of God – Part II

Editorial View Point:

Someone asked me why my posts are SO long. There is a specific group I am targeting. They like the information I provide. If you are not one of them, I am grateful that you work your way through my posts. I am working at developing several styles to convey Biblical truths. I suppose I could give you those “FB” style one liners, or even a daily devotional style of writing. And I am working on that. But when the subject is as important as the one below, I would rather include something that will bore you, the educated Christian, than leave out information that someone seriously desiring to hear God might miss. For that, I make no apologies. I simply write about what I, myself, had to go through to understand the difference between a religion and a relationship to God.

INTRODUCTION:

I had a very interesting, and fulfilling, conversation with a brother in the lord, last night (Thank-You, Casey).

The subject was over what I had written in my post, “The Grace of God”. That post dealt with how Satan tries to trip you up, and how God carries you through this experience. My brother, Casey, correctly pointed out the dangers of the belief that God’s grace is like a giant bandage to all sins you will commit. That you may mistakenly fall under the same error that the Romans did, that it is OK if you sin because God has already covered that sin.

The Grace of God – Part II will cover this case. This post is also in two parts. In Part A, I will cover what God does with your sin if you are an unbeliever, and how he offers us hope through Christ. This part is the cornerstone of what it means to belong to God through Jesus Christ.

The second part of this post deals with what to do about sin AFTER you are saved, and what the believer should do about specific sins. Thank you for reading it all the way through, and please, leave a comment. I am very interested in your opinions.

Part A

SIN and sins – Or what was the whole Jesus thing for, in the first place?

In my post, “The Grace of God”, I described what happened in the first place to separate Humans from the face to face presence of God. We were given free will, because God didn’t make a bunch of robots. The Angels have free will, which is why we had the wars of the angels in the first place. God gave Humans free will because he literally wants only people who want to hang out with him to be with him. The down side of our having this free will is, we bought the lie that Satan gave us, and ended up just as condemned as Satan. Satan’s eternal abode will be Hell. This is the second death. SIN brought real death, real decay, and real evil into this Earth. The eternal covenant God has with ALL of his creation is that God will not tolerate Sin in His presence. It isn’t like he is allergic to it. It is more like, God is HOLY and will only have HOLINESS around His home, which is in the highest heaven. SIN = death. GOD is life. You can look at world history to see how all that turned out.

We are born separated from God. While you are an unaccountable child, you live in a kind of grace. When you reach the age of accountability,then all bets are off.

So, now is the right time to ask “WHO really needs salvation, anyway?”

Short Answer: Humans.

All the World Guilty

…as it is written,

“There is none righteous, not even one;

There is none who understands,

There is none who seeks for God;

All have turned aside, together they have become useless;

There is none who does good,

There is not even one.”

Romans 3:10 – 12 NASB

and

“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23 NASB

You can be “good”, you can give to every charity you can imagine, you can live in a way that the worst thing you ever did was steal one extra cookie when you were 4. But, SIN, still lives in you. You know this is true when you ask yourself, how much do I hate, how angry do I get over things, how many times have I coveted, how many times have I told a lie, how many times have I heard about someone getting killed, and thought to myself , “That bastard deserved it!”. These are evidences of SIN. The Bible makes it crystal clear that all Humans are born in sin, and live a life separated from God. You can feel it in your heart. Like something is missing, or you get a serious longing in your heart for a love that you cannot define. You spend your entire life trying to fill that gap in your heart, and never reach it. You turn to drugs, alcohol, sex, or whatever, but nothing can fill that hole that exists, that yearning for peace that you crave. You can feel it.

We are all born separated from God.

So, now is the right time to ask “WHY do we really need salvation?”

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23 NASB

and

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. ” John 3:16 NASB

Because original SIN separated Humans from God for all eternity. God loves you, but His own law is “For the wages of SIN is death”. The only way Humans can receive forgiveness was that a PERFECT Human had to voluntarily and willingly die in your place for your sin. After the fall of all mankind in the garden of Eden, there were no perfect Humans. God is all-powerful and sovereign. In His own might, HE came to earth in the form of a man. His name was Yeshua (Jesus). Jesus voluntarily filled the will of God the Father, and died in your place for all the SIN in the world. He did this out of His enormous love for you. Jesus rose himself from death in order to prove He had the Authority to call himself the “Son of God”. You need salvation because you are born in sin. You receive eternal life with God if you accept this FREE GIFT of Jesus dying in your place. You have the hope of eternal life after your body dies. Jesus proved this by His resurrection from the dead.

JESUS IS HOW GOD PROVIDED SALVATION

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8 NASB

How Do We Receive this Salvation??

“…if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” Romans 10:9-10 NASB

and

“Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13

When you believe in your heart that Jesus died in your place for your sin, and confess with your mouth (Say it out loud), you are saved from eternal death. You have been rejoined to fellowship with the Living God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. The Holy Spirit will come to you, and will guide you. You have peace with God, now. You are no longer His enemy, as Satan still is, but you are now, eternally, God’s own beloved child.

Our Victory in Christ

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” Romans 5:1 NASB

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

You have admitted that your SIN separates you from God. You understand that as a sinner, you deserved eternal separation from God (This is the second death). You believe that Jesus Christ died in your place, on the cross, to free you from the curse of SIN and death (The second death). You have repented by turning from your old life of sin to a new life in Christ. And you have received, through FAITH in Jesus Christ, His free gift of Salvation.

OK, But what about all the sin I keep committing???

I am glad you asked. I will tell you. Jesus promised you that He will send the Holy Spirit to you.

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. “ John 14:16 NASB (Words of Jesus are in red).

and

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” John 14:21 NASB

and

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” John 14:23-26 NASB

Once you are sealed in forgiveness by the Blood of Jesus Christ, you will not be able to be removed from His hand. But you will still be able to be tempted by your old habits, and by Satan. As long as you are on this Earth, that is how it is. We are called to be IN the Earth, not OF the Earth. We are still here after we were saved so that we can tell others how it is we have eternal life, how it is we have such joy in our hearts, how it is that we suddenly are at peace.

Now that you are saved, God’s grace covers all your sin, past, present and future. THAT IS TRUE! There is a heresy being taught today, that was being taught in the Apostle Paul’s day. The heresy teaches that you can sin, and it will be covered by God’s grace, so don’t worry about it. This doctrine is a religious point of view that God never allowed for.

The truth of the matter is that God’s grace covered all your sin from the foundation of the world. But that is not a license to sin, in order that God’s grace can be demonstrated:

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? ” Romans 6:1 NASB

and

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. ” Galatians 2:20 NASB

and

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” John 14:20

and

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. “ John 15:4-5 NASB

The evidence of your salvation will be revealed in your life. If you abide in Christ, you will grow to be like Christ. Yes, because you are human, you will slip and fall, occasionally. That is why Jesus promised you the Holy Spirit, so that when you trip up, the Spirit of God will LOVINGLY convict you, and you will be led to repent, and you will have learned from that lesson, and will grow to be like Christ.

Any unconfessed sin is a barrier YOU place between YOU and God. Has God covered it? In his sovereignty and foreknowledge of you, he knew you would sin. In His grace, he allows that sin. In His mercy, He forgives that sin. But it is not a license to continue in sin. Jesus pointed out that if you continue to live in sin, you are not His. If you ABIDE (A word that means to move in with, or literally “Pitch your Tent”, establish your dwelling with), then you have willingly given up YOUR own way to pursue the way of Christ. We are to become like Christ. This takes a daily effort. This takes you intentionally laying aside YOUR will in the pursuit of the will of God for you.

God’s grace is not a license to sin. It is the covering God gives you so that when the Spirit of God convicts you, you will be able to go to God and confess, and repent, and be restored. If you are intending to be like Christ, and His Spirit has filled you, then you will not WANT to sin.

Let’s put it this way: If you are still living a life of sin, chances are you have either never been saved, or you have intentionally chosen NOT to walk in a life to be like Christ.

Grace is not a license to sin, it is your opportunity to repent when you do.

Go and sin no more.

Faith

I Renamed My Lawnmower

I am not playing the sympathy card, here, but I have really bad lung problems.

The problem is SO bad that if the local humidity gets above 50%, I start having problems breathing. When it gets above 60%, I am virtually a prisoner in my own home. My lungs are bad because of all the times I have had pneumonia, and have been exposed to really corrosive chemicals.

To make matters worse, I am allergic to almost every thing that exists in Missouri. I live in Missouri. If I were sitting in my favorite cafe, in the mountains of Montana, sipping a good hot tea, and my wonderful wife, Sandy, were to sit down next to me, holding a package just shipped up from Missouri, I would probably have a collapsed lung, right there. I hope God smiles on me soon and allows me to move to the Mountains. I can breathe there, and enjoy the great outdoors with no hindrances.

I think I am allergic as a judgement. See, I used to make fun of my First Wife (Let’s call her Cinnamon). She has allergies that can, sometimes, be pretty bad. I used to tease her incessantly. Not only was that an unkind act, in and of itself, and I am genuinely sorry for that, but it was cruel. This is when I first realized that “You reap what you sew.”

So, here I am, in Missouri, allergic to every organic object that exists, and it is hot and very humid here. Grass grows in my yard. It wouldn’t be a problem if I could hire Skippy McDork to come out and mow my lawn, but I cannot. SO, I mow the yard.

Today, it is hot and humid. I can barely breathe. So I get really exhausted pretty fast. When it is this bad, I fade between seeing and graying out. I wanted to get this over with.

But, as I mowed, I was able to overcome these obstacles. And I remembered:

“The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.” Psalm 118:14

Remembering that verse lifted my heart, and I swear I felt a cool breeze go right through me. It felt good, and I kept mowing.

As I got fatigued, I noticed that I had left a few patches. I was tired, and didn’t feel like going back for the patches I missed.

Then I remembered:

“What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?” Luke 15:4

and THAT made me think of Christ dragging his beam to the hill of Golgotha. He was tired beyond reason. He had been beaten nearly to death. Because HE was a workman worthy of His hire, he completed all the things God set before him to do.

And I also remembered that God intends us to harvest until he returns, and the even the corners will be harvested.

So, I did the whole Job. I know mowing isn’t one of the “High Spiritual Callings” but if I am to believe the word of God, I need to develop the habit of practicing it. And the word says: “And whatsoever ye do, do [it] heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;” Colossians 3:23

Jesus didn’t die for only a few of our sins. He died for all of them. He didn’t cut corners. He drank deep of the cup God had served Him.

“And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud [one] sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.”” Revelation 14:14-16

The fields are ripe for the harvest. I was reminded that, because of the Grace of God, I am still here to reap. I remembered all this while I mowed and wanted to quit. When we are faithful in these little things, God will trust you with bigger ones. I have only recently returned to God, through Jesus Christ, but I have no intention of getting it wrong this time.

I have renamed my Mower “Grace” so every time I mow, and struggle to breathe, and get fatigued, and want to lay down and die, I will remember why I am still here.

“To live is Christ, to die is gain.” – The Apostle Paul

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More on The Ethics of Hell (What Makes Us Unworthy of Christ)

“For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”16:7b NASB

from http://www.blueletterbible.org/

C.S. Lewis is one of my most favorite Authors. In his great work, “Mere Christianity“, Lewis had this to say about ethics:

All quotes are from “Mere Christianity”:

“One man may be so placed that his anger sheds the blood of thousands and another so placed that however angry he gets he will only be laughed at. But the little mark on the soul may be much the same in both. Each has done something to himself which, until he repents, will make it harder for him to keep out of the rage next time he is tempted, and will make the rage worse when he does fall into it. Each of them, if he seriously turns to God, can have that twist in the central man straightened out again; each is, in the long run, doomed if he will not. The bigness or smallness of the thing, seen from outside, is not what really matters.”

“Good people know about both good and evil. Bad people do not know about either.”

“While the rule of chastity is the same for all Christians at all times, the rule of propriety changes. A girl in the Pacific Islands wearing hardly any clothes and a Victorian lady completely covered in clothes might both be equally ‘modest’; proper or decent, according to the standards of their own societies; and both, for all we could tell by their dress, might be equally chaste (or equally unchaste).

It all boils down to what is in our hearts.

It doesn’t matter what others think about what is in our hearts, although most of us crave the adoration and approval of some one.

In fact, outward appearances can be quite deceiving. Planned Parenthood is a very good example. They claim to offer medical services for females, that, without their help, all females would be deprived of. The intent of the founder of Planned Parenthood was that all “undesirable races and people” be either eliminated or reduced to manageable numbers. It was the writings of that founder that inspired Hitler. He wrote about it in his own diseased journals. Both Planned Parenthood and Hitler have lived up to the intent of their desires.

Now, that may be an extreme case of the ethics of Hell. But let that serve as a good example.

As Christians, we are to be more like Christ. As we grow in the knowledge of Jesus, and the Spirit of God works in you, to become more Christ Like, you will find that the decisions you make are more eternal than you think.

I will give you another example. Say you, as a Christian, run across a person in genuine need. It doesn’t matter what that need is, you fill in the blanks. I actually heard a brother in the Lord say, “I would have helped that person, but I don’t know but that God may be putting that person through that thing in order to grow that person up.”

What that brother failed to realize, as he was doing the wrong thing for the right reason, is; Maybe God put that person in YOUR life just to see what YOU would do, and in failing to do that, whatever act of Grace, or Mercy you should have done, you yourself missed out on the growth, the blessing, the grace and the mercy for yourself. None of us, unless God has spoken directly to you about a person, knows what is really going on with someone. But when God places them in our path, we are to act toward them just as we would want God to act toward us. Let us stop making excuses for our unfaithfulness.

So you will know, and we will all be accountable for our gifts of knowledge, I am going to spell out some of the “Ethics of Hell”.

1. Doing the wrong thing. example: Orphaned children in Puerto Rico are being rounded up daily, and used as sex slaves. After they are used up in that trade, they are taken out to the edges of town and used as target practice for criminals, gangs, and some police officers, and their police dogs. God forgive me and all the rest of us who know this and do nothing about it. God make us able to do something about it.

2. Doing the wrong thing for the right reason. example: I see someone in need, but I do not have the resources to meet that need. Instead of asking for God’s provision for that person, or consulting someone who is in a better position to help, you steal something and give it to them, believing God will look the other way. That is the Robin Hood stuff that our current Government is made of. If you do harm to one person in order to do good for another, you have still been part of the harm.

3. Doing the right thing for the wrong reason. example: You know of a family in need. You meet that need, but not in the way that your right hand does not know what your left hand is doing. You meet that need simply so others will recognize how “spiritual and Christian” you are. Publicity is probably not your only motive, either. You probably are slowly positioning yourself so that enough people will think highly enough of you so you can impose your personal agenda on others. God has His own agenda, and doesn’t need yours.

4. Doing Nothing at all. example – Take any of the examples above, and do nothing at all about it. Don’t pray about it, don’t help, don’t get involved. don’t feel compassion for others. Don’t feel mercy or grace. I guarantee, if you do this, you will get from God exactly what you have put into it.

You don’t need anyone’s permission to obey God, and do the right thing. You WILL be laughed at, despised, called names, and people will actually try to stop you, some will even be “Christians” and other well-intentioned dragons.

Do it any way. Cross that street. Give to that person in need. Stand between evil and the ones who will commit that evil. The reason you weren’t raptured the day you got saved is that God is not done with your NEW LIFE. It will be better for you to do this and lose everything than to commit the ethics of hell and save your own skin.

The simple fact of my writing this means I will be put to the test. If you have actually read this far, then you are also accountable. Just be careful of your intentions. Whatever you do, what ever you don’t do, say, or think (As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he) know that God is seeing your INTENTION. Whatever it is you intend, it will also be done to you, in the same measure. This is why we are not to worry about what others will think of us.

We are free, by the Blood of Jesus Christ to be called the sons and daughters of God. We have been given the authority of Jesus to do what Jesus has commanded all of us to do.

Let’s be about it.

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Do You Love Me? (The Concentric Circles of Love)

So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.” John 21:15

This is for all of us who are looking for home. This is for all of us who have been rejected and condemned by the church. This is for you who, in one form or another, walked in service to Christ, but did something stupid, and have fallen out of relationship to Him. This is for those of us who have, for a season, felt the loss when God let you have your way, cut the moorings from his shore, and your ship drifted, alone, lost at sea.

You miss the joy of your salvation. You miss the sweet fellowship you had in your Bible studies, worship, and prayers. You miss the embrace and fellowship of other, like-minded, servants of Christ.

You have been shunned by friends, family, and strangers. You think, “But they don’t know what is in my heart!” No, they don’t, and chances are, they never will. You have to accept some realities, and it is not easy.

Is the joy of your salvation an echo of things past? Is the sweet embrace of the Holy Spirit now just an ache of longing?

Is the weight of your sin so unbearable that sometimes, you wonder if people are right about you, that you cannot be redeemed, that you are better off dead, that you would do more people a favor if you just went away?

I have good news for you. You are wrong. People are wrong. And God is waiting with His arms outstretched, waiting with all his heart for you to come home.

I can tell you this because I have just gone through this.

There was a time in Peter’s life that he swore to Jesus “Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away.” (Mat 26:33) Jesus told Peter, “Truly I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” (Matt 26:34)

Peter was a strong and courageous, if not a bit hot headed, man. The thought of denying Jesus never occurred to him. He rested in his own strength to stand with Christ when things really hit the fan.

But when they did, Peter denied Christ three times before the rooster crowed.

“And Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said, “Before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.” Matt 26:75

Now, you weren’t at the arrest and trial of Christ, AND you are not Peter. But, you were saved, and you were serving. And you did something that separated you from God’s loving fellowship. You suddenly understood what the first part of the verse in Isa 54:7 meant: “For a small moment have I forsaken thee;” and now you want to have the rest of that verse apply to you as well: “but with great mercies will I gather thee.”

After my fall from God, I went out and wept bitterly. I could feel His absence as loudly as a clap of thunder. I know it is not conventional theology to say that for a season God will separate Himself from you, but He will, and does as He is the same, yesterday, today and forever.

I used to tell my wife that I want to return to His fellowship, but I have no way of knowing how to get back to Him. The good news, as you will eventually discover, is that you have not even left the palm of His hand. He has simply left you to your own devices for a season.

Eventually, and my wife will attest to this, eventually, if returning is your hearts true yearning and intent, then you will have the support of the entire Kingdom of Heaven.

CIRCLE 1: Draw a circle around yourself (Not really, but in your mind). Include in that circle everything that is currently you. You have to be totally honest, here. Include all that you perceive is good and from God, and in a separate pile, include all you have said, or done, that is not of God. You will know what those things are by the way they reveal your relationship to God. Everything you do either accepts Christ as your Lord, or it rejects Christ as Lord. Even though the hurt you have caused was to others, as well, in the end, it is a behavior that ultimately denies Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

God may do you like He did me, and have me pick up every little behavior that denied Him, and address each one on an individual basis. But I am, and you can ask my wife, a Jack Ass. It takes me longer to do things because I am stubborn.

Eventually, God will show you that, because you have confessed your sin, He has dealt with them. He promises us all that He has thrown them as far away as the East is from the West. That he has trampled them underfoot, and remembers them no more. That He has cast them into the sea of forgetfulness. Jesus died for ALL of our sin, past, present and future. That is not a license to sin, it is the permission to forgive yourself if you have repented.

Accept this forgiveness, and forgive yourself. Your judgment is not greater than God’s. If He has forgiven you, then you are forgiven, PERIOD. This may take time, or it might be instant. In the end, you will know the joy of your salvation. There is no sin you can commit that is so bad that God will not forgive you, if it is in your heart to repent. All sin is a denial of Christs work on the cross. Be forgiven. You will be free.

CIRCLE 2: Now, draw a larger circle around that first circle. The first circle represents God dealing with you, and you doing business with God.

Circle 2 contains all the people your sin has directly affected.

You are forgiven, but not forgotten. You have hurt people you love. You must lay your offering at the alter and seek forgiveness for all the hurt you have done. This is an ongoing process, and may not be able to be accomplished overnight. But it is necessary. And it is good, albeit a hard thing to do. You have to overcome your fear of rejection, your fear of not being taken seriously, and possible the reality that you may not be forgiven. There really is nothing you can do about that, but you must, with all Godly intention, seek forgiveness for the harm you have done. Whatever happens from your effort, God will show you how it is a blessing. Some loss happens, but if you stand in your faith, God will see it through. Many times, healing happens. And it will be good, and fruitful for both of you.

CIRCLE 3: These are the people that you did not sin against, but are really angry because you have hurt someone thy love when you sinned. Listen closely. You still have to do business with them. You have to obey God in this. Forgive their hatred and the terrible, and hurtful things they have said to you and about you. And seek their forgiveness. It would help a lot if the person or persons in the second circle would go with you, and help smooth things over, so that they can see that a genuine change has happened in your heart.

They will either accept that you are redeemed, or not. They will either forgive you or not. You do not know the hearts of men (or women), but God does. He knows where they are in their walk, you don’t. He knows where they need work, you don’t, and unless God uses you to affect their changes, you have no business interfering with the work God is doing in their lives. BUT, you do get to love them. You do get to pray with them and for them.

Take care of this business. Don’t worry about the outcomes. Your walk doesn’t depend on how people in the second and third circle treat you, what they say about you, or if they believe you. Your walk depends ONLY on your obedience to God. He has called you to return to His embrace. He has cleansed you of your sin. He has demonstrated His overwhelming love for you.

Peter denied Christ three times. In order to restore Peter, Jesus asked Peter, three times, if Peter loved him. This sealed Peter in his love for Christ. Peter eventually did die for the sake of the Gospel.

This leads to

CIRCLE 4: Now you have done all you can to be redeemed to God, your beloved friends and loved ones, and the people who were affected by your behavior.

YOU ARE FREE!

Be free to serve. Be recklessly abandoned to Christ and His service for you. This is the 4th circle. Jesus said:

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, [even] unto the end of the world. Amen.” Matt 28:20

Now you feel his call. You do not need anyone’s permission to obey. Lay your hindrances at God’s feet, and He will clear the way for you to serve Christ. It IS your call, and God’s gift is without repentance.

Go, be about it.

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Faith

Forgiveness, the Test of Authenticity

“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil [souls][humans]. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. Luke 6: 35 – 37 NASB

Also, do not take seriously all words which are spoken, so that you will not hear your servant cursing you. For you also have realized that you likewise have many times cursed others.. Eccl 7:21 – 22 NASB

SCRIPTURES COPIED FROM: http://www.blueletterbible.org/

THIS ONE IS PERSONAL. I HAVE CHOSEN TO EXPOSE MYSELF IN THIS REGARD SIMPLY BECAUSE MOST OF THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW ME ALREADY KNOW MUCH THESE EVENTS. I AM NOT LOOKING FOR YOUR PITY. I WANT TO USE THIS VERY PERSONAL EVENT TO SHOW YOU HOW I FIRST LEARNED FORGIVENESS.

IT IS TO THEM, THE WELL INTENTIONED DRAGONS, THAT I DEDICATE THIS INSTALLMENT ON FORGIVENESS. I REALLY LOVE YOU, HONESTLY, COMPLETELY. AND IN THE NAME OF JESUS, I LOVE YOU.

I am going to share with you a special case under the heading of Forgiveness. It is a case that I struggle with. To forgive and to be forgiven. This is about accepting God‘s forgiveness, yet dealing with the unforgiving souls who insist that you are still damaged goods, in spite of what God has done. In a later installment (Which I have not decided if I will post) I will deal with an extreme case of hatred, and where forgiveness comes into the picture.

20 years ago, God told me that my first marriage was going to end. I knew a week before it happened that it was coming. God let me know in no uncertain terms that, if I will cling to Him during this storm, He would sustain me, restore me, and make me stronger in the Lord than I could imagine. The clouds were in the sky, but the storm had not hit, yet.

Although I could see this storm coming, I had not prepared my heart for the intensity of the storm. And it was intense. The year leading up to this storm, I had really begun to stray from God, through various acts of self righteousness. I had become a Pharisee of the first order. God had given me the privilege of seeing Moslems come to Christ in my ministry. God had given me the privilege of seeing witches, satanists, and gang members come to the Lord. He used me as His pen to draw the picture of salvation. But in my pride and arrogance, I felt I could take it from there, and pretty much excluded God from His work in me. I had stopped bible reading and prayer. I began to allow the little foxes of sin and pride into my garden. Eventually, I was screwing up my life, and didn’t understand it was my fault.

Then the storm hit.

My heart was not prepared for it, even though God had let me know in very clear terms it was coming. The right thing for me to do would have been to repent of my sin, humble myself before the Lord, seek His forgiveness, and cling to Him for all I was worth. But because I didn’t heed God’s warning, I was not able to withstand the unbearable intensity of losing my wife.

Even then I had the opportunity to repent and turn to God. I failed that test, too. I was letting my confusion, frustration and anger do my thinking. I was allowed to have my way, and I was left to my own devices. And I fell into even more sin than I could imagine was possible.

I left behind a trail of destruction.

Later on, I met my current wife. I was still damaged goods. The day I met her, the very instant I saw her, I had a vision of things to come. I saw us married, and I saw my child. I actually saw Hannah, years before she was born. (There is more to that, and remind me to tell it to you).

What I saw scared me so badly, I ran away from her and hid for 6 weeks. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t back down from anything. But THIS vision truly horrified me. See, I knew deep in my soul that I had not done business with God. I had a lot of repentance to do. I had a lot of forgiveness to seek and give. I was seriously damaged goods.

Eventually, I screwed up my courage and called her, and we dated and eventually got married. A year later, Hannah was born.

But I still lived in rebellion to God. By this time, I genuinely began to crave that sweet relationship with God, but I wanted that relationship on my terms. I didn’t want to go through the very hard time of repentance. And I had some repenting to do.

Eventually, I let sin get the best of me again. It was one of the big ones, and it caused a great deal of hurt in my marriage.

The details are none of your business. But I sinned. And I never sin in half measures.

The damage was bad. Family on both side of the fence let me know in no uncertain terms what a schmuck I was. Some even told me I would be better off dead. Some cursed me to my face, and spared no expense telling everyone and everything that would listen what an incredible sin I had committed. It affected my ability to make friends, it affected my ability to get a job (I live in a small town). I was given the scarlet letter. In the view of these well meaning dragons, I was irredeemable, and there will be no forgiveness to be had. People told me to my face that they want me to leave, go away, never return, to do my wife a favor and disappear. I genuinely got to see the dark side of the children of God.

Eventually, people I had never known would confront me about this sin. I learned that, not only do religious people love to hate, but they love to gossip, too.

I had begun to crave the presence of God in my life, and I wanted so bad to have a prayer partner. While I was at work, one day, the guy that delivers our welding gases drove up. He was very nice, very friendly. Somehow, we began to talk about God. I told him that I had fallen out of fellowship with God, and want to know the presence of God in my life. He prayed with me and for me. He told me I can come by his work-place anytime I wanted to pray with him. He gave me his phone number. I was so overjoyed, I actually started crying right there, in front of my co-workers. I actually had someone to talk to, who wanted to work with me on the return to God.

A week later, I needed to go to that guys’ work place to buy an additional bottle of acetylene gas. While my order was being filled, I went to that guy. Instead of shaking my hand, I was met with a great deal of hostility. It turned out that he was also a prayer partner with one of the well intentioned dragons who told me my family would be better off if I were dead. I saw genuine hate in this man’s eyes. He let me know what that well intentioned dragon had told him. I was devastated that in an instant, a person I just met, who would pray with me, would turn on me with such vengeance.

My wife had a heart attack.

While she was in surgery, and I was waiting in the waiting room, I was told that one of my wife’s friends wanted to talk to me. I got her phone number, and after I got home, late that night, I called her. It started out alright. I wanted things to go well, as I have always admired this person. I mean I genuinely loved this person. The conversation suddenly turned ugly. She let me know that there is no way that healing in my relationship with my wife would happen. That this friend had been trying with all her might to get my wife to leave me and move in with her. I was, once again, informed that the local world would be better off if I just went away.

I think it was this turn of events, my wife having a heart attack, her friends and relatives continually letting me know that it would be best if I just went away, seeing the dark hearts of Christians who couldn’t forgive, that I knew then I was genuinely lost to God.

I wrote in another installment on Forgiveness how to return to a forgiven state, and how to forgive. The above events in my life are where I had to learn this process.

1. I turned to God. I had to get back to the fundamentals of the faith, here. I confessed that I know there is a God. I confessed that I know that this God is THE creator, the great I AM of Scripture, the one who created us Humans. I confessed that man fell from God just as I had fallen from God. I confessed that God gave His only begotten Son to die for the sins I have committed, so I will not have to face God’s wrath, but have eternal life in Jesus Christ. Then I confessed my anger.

I was angry at me. A Lot.

I was angry at Christians who could not offer a healing hand, but offered only condemnation. I was angry, angry, angry. It was a deep and abiding anger that burned hot. This was the hardest thing for me to face. My anger. God showed me how my anger does not further the Kingdom of God.

Until I could learn to place that at the feet of God, and let Him take it out of my heart, there would be no further progress in my restoration to Him. Period. This kind of anger has no place in the Kingdom, and I cannot return to the service of God if I insist on being angry. It took from around 2007 to 2012 to work through that. But God did His wonderful work in me, and helped me be rid of that hate and anger. It is gone, now. It is a distant echo. God has shown me what I need to learn from it, and has healed me. The lesson I learned here is, I cannot turn to people for help. I must first turn to God. People will be too married to their opinions and agenda to be able to help. And I learned that that, too, is OK. We are all human, and have things to work out with God. It is not my place to judge them, or be angry with them.

2. BE WILLING. I was in love with my anger. It was all that drove me. I had forgotten that there is more power in a whisper of God’s love than there is an a ton of anger and hate. So this was a hard one foe me. Here were people speaking death into my life, into my marriage, and “In the name of the Lord” letting me know just how irredeemable I was. I was hurt, disappointed, angry, and these feelings had become so familiar, and so normal to me, that letting go of them was worse than having surgery with out pain killers. (That happened to me once, it was awful).

But, Just as Jesus prayed in the garden, the night before His arrest, “Not my will, but thine.” It took a lot of work for me to be willing to give up my anger. I loved having an excuse to throw tantrums. But God wanted to turn me into a man of God, not a child of the world. I had to be willing to release that anger, hostility, rage, and resentment of all those well meaning dragons. And, with the power of God’s grace, I did, and do, and will. I willed that my will align with God’s will. Not for their snakes, but mine. My attitude had no place in God’s will for my life. If I want to truly return to Him, I had to let go of anger. And the more my will aligned with God’s desire for my life, the more anger diminished, until it was only a memory. And I was surprised by the intense JOY that replaced the anger. Obedience to God brings joy, even when you think your world is going to hell. I understood grace. I felt mercy. From there, it was a simple thing to let go of my hurt and anger, and forgive all the well intentioned dragons. It is easier to accept those Christians who speak death in my life. They honestly think they are doing the right thing. How often had I thought that about my anger and hurt. I get it. We are all saved, but we are all incomplete. We are all having to grow. Now I am able to understand what Jesus meant when he prayed on the cross, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

I AM FREE!. I AM FREE! I AM FREE!!! Free to dive deep into the word of God, free to love. Free to pray for those who hate me. Free to serve God. Free to pray with my wife, who has forgiven me my sin. What a joy it is to be married to the most incredible woman in the world. I could search all my life and not find a woman as wonderful and great as she is.

I have given up “my right” to anger and hate, and unforgiveness. For the first time in 20 years, I feel free, loving, forgiven, and I feel hope. I feel JOY. I can dance with King David and sing that the Lord my God, the Living God, has restored my soul.

It doesn’t matter one whit what people will say to you, about you, against you. There is NOTHING on this earth you can do about it EXCEPT FORGIVE THEM. Then you can let it go, and you will find you actually really love these well intentioned dragons. REALLY love them and care about them.

The are just as fallen as you are. You need to worry about your own walk in the Lord. Even if you have to do what I did and return to the fundamentals and grow from there.

I have not ever felt this freedom before. EVER. What a glorious God we serve. What a powerful God he is that he can root out my sin and hold me close, and tell me he loves me. It no longer matters who else loves me, not now that I know where I stand with God.

Listen, people who have their minds made up about you will only change when God deals with them. Not a minute sooner. You may raise people from the dead, right before their eyes, and they might still speak death into your life. It is OK, the religious of Jesus’s day did the same thing.

Now, go, sit at God’s feet, and do business with the Lord. I can tell you, as one who has come out of that bath, it is good, it is joy, it is clean. God is GREAT. And I thank God for this freedom.

I really want to hear from you if you need prayer. I don’t care what evil you have done, I will not turn you away. I can do this because it is what God has done for me.

I genuinely love you in the Name of Jesus, and because of God’s great love in my heart.

Now, go be about it.

David G. Perkins.

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Faith, Uncategorized

The Jewels in Your Crown: Forgiveness, Part 2

“and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Matt 6:12 – Part of “The Lord’s Prayer” given by Jesus Christ

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matt 6:15-16 – Spoken by Jesus Christ

I apologize for the inevitable length of this installment. I am doing my best to condense this without leaving out the important stuff. There will be other parts following this one, but this part will help complete the groundwork of the battlefield of life where Forgiveness is our greatest weapon.

A great deal of this depends on you. It depends on the state of your heart, and your willingness to genuinely forgive. I will be covering this in this installment. I appreciate your patience and indulgence with the length of this article.

In part one I covered a few of the stumbling blocks in our daily walk in Christ, where it comes to forgiveness.

1. Being willing and desiring to forgive. It is MY WILL that is forgiving or unforgiving.

2. Rehearsing over and over again the litany of wrongs done to you.

3. Pride – the belief that the person who offended you ought to know you are offended and ought to come to you to ask for forgiveness, that YOU shouldn’t have to go to them. (This one is a whopper, as Jesus himself went to the people who needed forgiveness instead of the other way around.)

4. Fear – Fear of being taken advantage of, Fear of rejection, fear of being misunderstood.

Most of our unforgiveness toward others can be boiled down to these 4 things. I have no doubt you can come up with more than this list, but I think these are the roots of unforgiveness.

Sometimes these stumbling blocks hang around, impeding your walk for various reasons. Perhaps you have to continue to forgive someone who insists on hurting you. Perhaps you are angry at them, or angry for some other reason. Perhaps you harbor anger and don’t even know it.

Before anyone decides I should walk in their shoes, let me tell you. I have been hurt deeply by people I love completely. The details are none of your business, but I genuinely do understand the intense pain of betrayal, of intentional deception, of abandonment by brothers in the Lord. I have been disowned, cursed, gossiped about, lied to, and some have done far worse things than this to me. So believe me when I tell you, I understand the pain of the deep hurt by loved ones.

When this type of hurt happens, you feel as if you are in an explosion. Nothing is the same again, ever. It takes time even to realize how real this situation is. It takes time to regain your bearings from the intensity of this sudden hurt. Your friends may abandon or betray you, your loved ones will offer you anything but hope and mercy and grace. Those closest to you will judge you.

These are hurts that take time to get over. The hard part about this hurt is, if you are not careful, you will let anger and bitterness grow roots and take over your heart and mind. When this happens, your ability to love and trust and commune with the Living God is impeded by the bitterness that flows in your veins.

I am begging you today, if this is you, find a way to stop yourself from getting deeper involved in the anger and bitterness. The last 20 years of my life are the result of me losing my bearings, and taking matters in my own hands.

When Jesus was instructing the disciples on how to pray, He included this phrase, “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Matt 6:12. After that, He continued to instruct his disciples saying, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matt 6:15-16

You will know when you have unforgiveness because your joy in the lord is diminished, your communion with Him feels incomplete. You have a stumbling block keeping your walk from being joyous,, fulfilling and growing. You are at a standstill with God.

Listen to these hints from the Spirit of God. If there is unforgiveness between you and God, it is likely because you have unforgiveness between you and someone else. Or unconfessed sin. God will wait right there with you, as long as it takes until you take care of your business. The good news is that God will be with you because He always empowers obedience to Him.

If God acted in any other way toward you, while you hold bitterness and unforgiveness and anger in your heart, then He would be contradicting His own nature. He would be condoning sin.

Jesus taught that we reap what we sow. An unforgiving spirit affects every aspect of your life. It will come back to you with interest. When it does, this is when anger and bitterness can set root.

An unforgiving spirit will generate in you a critical spirit. Unforgiveness is detrimental and destructive, and will influence everything else you try to do. If you find yourself being overly critical or overly cynical, there is a chance you are harboring unforgiveness, that has given root to bitterness.

When Jesus was teaching the disciples about forgiveness, Peter (A man I can clearly identify with), asked Jesus: “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?”

“Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” Matt 18:21-22

Was Jesus telling Peter you have to forgive someone 490 times, then all bets are off? No. Forgiveness takes practice, and Jesus was telling Peter you must forgive repeatedly. The good news is that, the more you do it, the better you get at doing it.

In other words, Jesus was telling Peter, and the others, that there is no measuring rod. I can tell you that, by the time you get in to the habit of forgiving, you actually lose count. We do not return insult for insult, but we bless those who curse us, and pray for those who despitefully use us. When you get in this habit of this kind of Grace and Mercy, forgiveness will grow in your heart until you have a joy about forgiving. In other words, When you can learn to forgive, you will find there is NO LIMIT on forgiveness.

Forgiveness comes from your heart, not your lips. How many times has someone said or done something to offend you, and immediately they said “I’m Sorry”, and you said “I forgive you”. Then after they left, you couldn’t wait to tell everyone you know how you were wronged?

So the burning question here is, since Jesus has forgiven you ALL you have done against God, how many times and things will you forgive others?

Unless forgiveness comes from the heart, it is not forgiveness. You don’t really have to forget, either. If it is genuine forgiveness, when it comes to your mind later on, it will be in the form of lessons learned.

To not forgive means you would rather wear the chains of slavery to anger and bitterness. Some people actually fall in love with their anger and bitterness. It gives them something to wallow in as an excuse to not do business with God. It feeds our vanity to be this way. We get to present ourselves as the wronged ones, and try to illicit sympathy form others, so you can look like you are really suffering for your faith.

THIS is really a faithless act, and is sin, too. It is pride and fear that keeps you in chains.

Who are you angry with? What did they say or do that means they can never be forgiven? What have you said or done that means God can never forgive you? Do you want differential treatment over this issue? In order to be forgiven, you have to forgive. You cannot get rid of this anger or hurt by running away from it. You have to put your offering down and go deal with it. You have to let the Holy Spirit deal through you for healing to really happen.

Hurt is hard, Especially when it is repeated hurt, willful hurt, intentional hurt. No person who deeply loves can just switch off the hurt. It is a process. It may not come instantly.

Here is the process that leads to forgiveness. You may have to do this every 5 minutes, or every day, or as often as it takes until the Spirit of God has worked in you to forgive.

STEP 1: ANGER You have to acknowledge your anger. Confess it before the Lord. Lay it at His feet. He loves you and cares for you.

Make this confession after you have asked forgiveness for sin and anger: “Because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, I have experienced God’s total forgiveness in my life”. “I have been saved by his grace, His love, and His mercy.” “All of my forgiveness has come from God.”

FORGIVENESS is one of the very first gifts God gives you. Forgiveness is ongoing in your life, because you are human, and make mistakes. But God is HAPPY and DESIRING to forgive. It is His joy to do this in your heart. He will show you, that the forgiveness that began at the Cross, is still going on today, in you, in your life. He will give you the gift of forgiveness. Do business with God first. Forgiveness is a gift that will grow in your heart the more of it you give away. God has been doing this for you every day of your whole life.

Make this confession: “I AM FORGIVEN!” Keep doing this until it becomes real to you. It is oftentimes a process. But the anger has to go away.

STEP 2: BE WILLING. Be willing to confess your anger, hostility, rage, resentment, and whatever feelings you have toward that person. Ask God to forgive your anger and hurt for that person. BE SPECIFIC. When you are specific, it breaks the bondage. You must be willing to deal with it specifically and personally. If you are genuinely confessing something, you have to deal with it. God will wait for you to do this, and He will empower your obedience.

STEP 3: THE WORD. Learn that your unforgiveness is a violation of the word of God. If I have an unforgiving spirit, I have sinned against God and others. Know what the Bible has to say about forgiveness and unforgiveness. Look it up in your Bible index. You have to know the word, confess the word, and recognize this in your heart. Out of the overflow of your heart, comes the issue of your lips.

STEP 4: ASK GOD to forgive you. Be specific about what you have said, or done, or felt in your heart against the person who hurt you. God will take that and relieve you of it. Confess all of it. You may have to do this a few times as things float to the surface.

There is nothing in the scriptures about CONDITIONAL forgiveness. The Bible doesn’t say, “Ask your brother to forgive you UNLESS…he rejects you, misunderstands you, or it is just too painful for you.” You will not find that in the Bible.

We are to forgive no matter what. No matter the outcome. No matter the consequences. Even if that person doubles up on your pain, forgive anyway.

So, here we are dealing with the root of the problem. It is an act of will that you forgive. It was an act of will that Jesus died for you. Jesus prayed at the garden, “Not MY will, father, but thine.” God helped Jesus align Jesus will with the father’s will. In the same manner, God will empower you to align your will with His if you ask from deep in your heart. You have to be willing.

You may have to go to that brother and ask him or her to forgive you for your unforgiveness toward him or her. You have an attitude in your heart. You have judged him unworthy of forgiveness. Even IF he has wronged you, you still need to go to that person and ask him to forgive you of your attitude for him.

Pray this: “By an act of MY will, Father, and by the power of the Holy spirit that lives within me, Father, I lay down my anger, my bitterness, my ‘right’ to be offended, my hurt. I lay them all down at your feet,.”

This stops being about your feelings when you do this. It becomes an act of your will. Say, “I choose to lay it down”. You will that God takes it from you. If you leave this at the Father’s feet, God will remove the hurt from your life. Acknowledge His forgiveness as you lay down your anger. There may be MANY people you are angry with. Be willing to do this for each and every one of them.

It is a process.

God will let you know if you need to go to that person or not. God will strengthen you to admit and gracefully confess to that person the conflict, as you seek forgiveness from that person about your attitude toward him.

If God sends you to that person, and you talk to him, DON’T ENUMERATE THE LIST OF THINGS DONE WRONG AGAINST YOU. Remember what it says in II Corinthians that Love does not keep an accounting of the wrongs done against it. God is Love, and His Spirit abides in you. You don’t need to rehearse all the wrongs done against you to that person. It will only make things worse. Confess the attitude you have had toward that person, ask his forgiveness for your attitude, and leave it at that. God will do the rest.

Genuine forgiveness does not build up a legal case, or a defense for your hurt, and say, “I will forgive you BUT.” There are no buts to forgiveness. You either forgive or you don’t. Forgiveness is an act of grace, mercy, and unconditional love. Forgiveness is given with no limitations or demands.

Don’t front-load your imagination about forgiveness. In other words, don’t try to predict what his reaction will be. You may be surprised at his reaction.

When you genuinely forgive others, not only do you set yourself free of the chains that bind your walk with God, but in the act of forgiving, you also set that person free of those same chains.

There is a true and genuine feeling of freedom when you allow God to work in you to remove the stumbling blocks of unforgiveness and anger. I know this because I have been doing this. The more I do this, the more free I feel in my heart and soul. Anger becomes a last resort for me, instead of a first reaction.

BUT SUPPOSE THEY LIVE 1000 MILES AWAY, OR ARE ALREADY DEAD?

Ask yourself, “Is the unforgiveness still in my heart?” If the answer is “yes” then you have a stumbling block. Forgive them anyway.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Get two chairs. Set them 2 feet apart facing each other. You sit in one, and and you imagine that that person is sitting in the other one. Tell that person exactly what you would say if they were really sitting in that chair. Confess your attitude. Ask forgiveness. Chances are, if that person were a real difficulty in your life, you will have to do this several times before it gets real, and you forgive. Just do it. Ask their forgiveness for your attitude. (I got this exercise from Charles Stanley).

Once you deal with that issue, claim the forgiveness by faith. then tell yourself, “That is the end of THAT!” If it turns out that it is not the end of that, do it again until it is. I promise you, one day, you will get up from that chair, and you will be genuinely free of unforgiveness.

HOW Will I KNOW WHEN I HAVE REALLY FORGIVEN THEM?

I’ll tell you how you will know. And I have experienced this repeatedly, so I know this is a fact.

The next time you think about them, there will not be any “static” in your heart toward them. You will have a sense of freedom from that burden. The harsh feelings are gone. You will feel compassion for them and hope the best for them. Somehow, you will be able to accept them as they are. If the grievance is over a terrible wrong this person has done, let God have His way with that person. It is not your place to hold unforgiveness.

When you are really and truly set free, you will be able to say in your heart, “Thank you God for teaching me about your grace. Thank you for this lesson I would have not have learned if you had not brought me through this. You have genuinely turned my curse into a blessing.”

This is not a one time thing. You will have to forgive over and over in your walk. How many times? 70 X 7.

I love you in the Lord.

Let me know if you need prayer for anything.

I am your little brother in Christ Jesus.

David G. Perkins

Faith

The Jewels in Your Crown: Forgiveness Part 1

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. EPH 4:32 KJV

Definitions:

kind – χρηστός – chrestos – good, be ye good…., gracious, be ye gracious…., easy, take it easy on each other.

tenderhearted – εὔσπλαγχνος – eusplagchnos, – pitiful, tender-hearted. Have pity. The Greek workd picture here is a picture of it coming from your guts. The Greeks felt that strong emotion, passion and genuine emotion came from your guts. Have pity flowing out of you. Have tenderheartedness flow from you.

forgiving – χαρίζομαι – charizomai – to grant as a favor, that is, gratuitously (freely, undeservedly), in kindness (see def above), pardon or rescue: – deliver, (frankly) forgive, (freely) give, grant.

Keep on becoming kind to each other. Have pity, and favor, and grace, however undeservedly, forgive even as God forgave you for the sake of Christ.

A few years ago, a brother in the Lord told me he forgave me. He had been very angry with me. Somehow I was not convinced that he meant it, but I accepted the effort, as I love this person, and want to grow in the Lord with him. Later on, I went to his property to help him with an electrical problem. I did the work, shook his hand, and left. That evening, someone else told me that the whole time I was there, he was bad mouthing me to anyone who would listen, and that he had been bad mouthing me all over town. As I suspected, I knew that that brother was still angry with me.

Forgiveness isn’t easy.

I am not talking about whether I forgive him, because I honestly do. I honestly love this person. I am telling you something that I would normally not consider any of your business in order to illustrate a point.

Forgiveness is not easy.

The root of unforgiveness is anger.

The root of anger is fear.

Anger is a chain that binds you to sin. Sometimes we get angry with others over things we know we ourselves are tempted to do. Sometimes we get angry for a genuine wrong committed. Sometimes we get angry because we are afraid. We know in our heads that perfect love casts out all fear. But how do we get that into our heart? How do we let go of Anger?

It is a process.

Some people do not even know they harbor unforgiveness. They remain slaves to the unforgiveness. Unforgiveness will stop you from growing spiritually. Eventually, the poison of unforgiveness will consume you untill you become heard hearted and bitter. It will rot your bones.

So a decent definition of Anger that leads to unforgiveness is that Anger is a strong feeling of INTENSE displeasure or indignation or hostility as a result of a real or imagined threat (fear), or insult (pride), or frustration (impatience), or injustice toward yourself or someone who is very important to you.

Forgiveness is the willful giving up of that rage, displeasure, indignation, hostility, threat, insult and frustration. You give up the “right to get even”.

Unforgiveness is a deliberate refusal to forgive. It is the belief that you have the right to hold a grudge because: Someone has got to pay!, He has hurt me. , She lied to me. , She said I was this or that., She didn’t say “HI” to me yesterday., He is two faced., He lies about his faith by saying one thing and doing another.

However, saying you forgive, and experiencing it are two different things.

Forgiveness says, “I give up my right to pay you back.”

Look at the book of Mark 11:25 –

And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your tresspasses. But if you do not fogive, neither will your Father which is in Heaven forgive your tresspasses. Mark 11:25

Until we can forgive, we have to lay down our progress, our gifts to god, our growth in the Spirit of God, our effectiveness to demonstrate grace, love and mercy.

What are the obstacles to Forgiveness? There may be many, but they can be reduced, by thoughtful analysis to 4 things:

1. YOUR WILL – It ias to be your WILL and Desire to forgive. Unwillingness and not wanting to forgive are deliberate acts. You have to do this on purpose.

2. PRIDE – The arrogance of pride gives you the self righteous attitude that says, He or She should come to me to ASK for forgiveness. I shouldn’t have to go to them. Or if you are the one who needs forgiveness, you say to yourself, “Sure it bothers me that this happened, but I don’t think I did any harm, and besides, I was right when I did it.”

3. REHEARSING – This one is something every humand being does. This takes real discipline to overcome, and can be overcome by a lot of prayer, and realization of just how much GOd has forgiven you. The more you go over it in your mind, the farther from grace you get. You rehearse in your mind and heart the wrongs or offenses done against you. This will only strengthen the chains that bind you, and will eventually become a poison that turns into a well spring of bitterness. The Joy of the Lord evades you. happiness becomes a memory. Anger becomes your reputation. You get stuck right where you are in your spiritual growth. Eventually, you become content with stunted growth, or your heart becomes so hard that you no longer desire a working relationship with God.

4. FEAR – Wether you are the one who needs to forgive, or needs forgiveness, FEAR can stop you dead, too. Maybe you are afraid you will be taken advantage of by the person that you need to do business with. Maybe you have a fear of being rejected. Perhaps you are afraid of rejection. These fears are real, and it is possible that these things will happen. But you have to have the courage to face this fear and do the right thing. THere is nothing you can do to control the reactions of others. You can only obey God, and leave the rest to him. This is letting go of fear.

Dealing with these 4 things above will give you FREEDOM from the enslavement of Anger and Fear. It will free you from the spirit and heartlessness of Unforgiveness. The flow of living water will return to you, and you will know the joy of your salvation again.

Sometimes forgiveness is stalled by the following things:

Friendly but bad advice. Your brothers and sisters in the lord love you, and they mean well, but they are just as human and fallible as you are. They will tell you, “Well, if I were you, I’d…”, or “He needs to suffer…” “Why don’t you just leave him, he is not good for you…”, or “Buddy, we need to go have a talk with him ‘in love’ and straighten him out”

Have you been told this? Have you said it to others. Friends mean well. You should always be glad of the number of friends you have. But you MUST ask yourself, “Is this FRIENDLY advice GODLY advice?” Do nothing that will contradict the nature of God, or reflect poorly on your walk with God. Taking matters in your hands, with the heart felt endorsement of your friends, is till wrong.

PARTIAL FORGIVENESS.

Maybe he or she did several little things, or one big and several little ones, or some combination like that. Do you list them (rehearse) and say, “Well, I can forgive that, but not this, and I can forgive those, but not these!”? Partial forgiveness is just like partial obedience. Partial forgiveness IS unforgiveness. Partial obedience is DISOBEDIENCE. Don’t take half measures when God showed His love for you by going all the way to the cross for your sins.

MAKE EXCUSES. This little fox is a sly one.

This is what some people do to avoide genuine forgiveness. They might say things like, “THey probably didn’t mean that.”, or. “It was probably a mistake.”. If you use excuses to justify someone elses wrong, not only are you deluding yourself, and setting yourself up for more of the same, but you short circuit your ability to discern between right and wrong, and you stop the other person’s chance of learning from his mistakes. Forgiveness is just as much an act of love, as it is an act of grace. When you love the unlovely, it pours coals on his heart, and will ultimately lead him to repentance. This is the same behavior you hear about when you read the testimony of the battered woman. She made excuses for the batterer. Forgiveness is not for sissies.

Unforgiveness puts you in danger of the judgement of God. “But if you do not forgive neither will your Father which is in Heaven forgive your trespasses ” Mark 11:25

You risk your growth in the Lord. You risk having God stop dealing with you until you have done business with those who you need to forgive, or who you need to seek forgiveness from.

Forgiveness sets you free. It cleanses your soul. It teaches you about Godly love in a way that no other action will. You will become like Jesus Christ the more you obey.

I will finish this up in part 2, at least this part of the facet on the gem that is Forgiveness. There is more, and it is not all fire and brimstone. Hang in there. It gets better.

OH! And yes it is a process. How long does it take until you can come clean and forgive? I don’t know. Sometimes it takes a long time. It took me a very long time to forgive someone I used to know. The hurt was deep, and God had to do a work in me. With that brother who said he forgave me, but didn’t, I am good with that, and I forgive his dishonesty, and his gossip. I am free of the harm he has done. I love this person and would take a bullet for him without hesitation.

I have to keep in mind this verse: Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse thee: For oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others. Ecc 7:21-22See you next time for Part 2 of this facet on Forgiveness.

I love you

David Perkins

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Faith

FAITH TO BE RECKLESS

“FAITH IS NOT BELIEF WITHOUT PROOF, BUT TRUST WITHOUT RESERVATION.” – Anon

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Heb 11:1 – ESV

FACTOID: “The assurance of things hoped for (elpizomenōn hupostasis). Hupostasis is a very common word from Aristotle on and comes from huphistēmi (hupo, under, histēmi, intransitive), what stands under anything (a building, a contract, a promise). ” From Robertson’s Word Pictures

In this case, it is used as a contract of deed. Faith is the TITLE-DEED of things hoped for. It is the document that states clearly that you can have confidence in God‘s promises.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Faith is the Title Deed That says, “Because you have believed in Jesus Christ, you have inherited eternal life.” Almost everyone knows John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” That is the language of the Title-Deed.

The details of that title deed are detailed in the verses that follow:

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” John 3:16-18 – ESV

Here you can see that there is spelled out a distinction between who inherits and who doesn’t inherit. Because you have believed, your first inheritance is Eternal Life. Those words are from Christ Himself. You can rest assured of your salvation, which is the language of the second half of the verse: “the conviction of things not seen.” Heb 11:1 – ESV

The number of Humans who have been to Heaven and returned to tell about it are few and far between. Chances are that you and I are not in that group. Because we hold the title deed to an eternal life, we can hold to the conviction that it has already been granted to us. You don’t have to stop what you are doing and go see the real estate. It is already your inheritance. Nothing in the world can take your inheritance away because it was signed over to you in the blood of the one who promised it to you.

BUT WHAT ELSE?

THAT is the bazillion dollar question!

The reason we were not raptured the second we accepted Christ as our Saviour and Lord is because he has a work for us to do here. Jesus has given you the authority to do those things. Jesus said to the Disciples: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” John 14:12 NASB

Anyone with one eye and half a brain can tell things are going terribly wrong on this planet. THe reason we are still here is so we can bring the gospel to anyone who will listen. We have been given the authority to do that by Jesus Himself. You do NOT need your church’s permission to obey Christ. You do not need anything but a solid understanding of the scripture and faith. And Jesus has guaranteed that you will have all the tools He had at your disposal, PLUS more.

These facts are in the Title-Deed of our inheritance. While we are still here on this planet, we have the promise of salvation, and the promise that, if we believe, and obey, we are empowered to do all that Jesus Himself did to bring others to Himself.

BUT IT IS HARD!

Yes. It is hard. And most likely, people will think you are insane. People will hate you. People will run from you. People will lie about you, try to trip you up, and basically call you nuts…and it may begin with your family.

I can attest before God, I have, on more than one occasion, seen people try to kill me for the sake of the Gospel, but God always delivers. In fact, one of the would be assassins became a Christian, and later his wife became a Christian. Today, they live in California, and have a pretty good church going out there. They reach people that most ordinary Christians would run in fear from.

These things can be done because FAITH is your Title-Deed that assures you that whatever you ask in Jesus name will be done for you, if you are praying in God’s will. This assurance is the conviction of the thing hoped for.

“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. “ – Mat 18:19 NASB

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” – Mat 7:7

“For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” – Mat 7:8

BE RECKLESS ABOUT IT, TOO.

My favorite devotional is written by the daughter of Oswald Chambers. Chambers was the Chaplain for the British Airmen during WWI, while they were stationed in the Saudi deserts. Chambers wrote a diary that later became the famous devotional book called “My Utmost For His Highest”.

In several of the devotionals, Chambers describes this faith, this assurance, this conviction of things hoped for, as something we have to throw ourselves into with “reckless abandon”. Have no thought for yourself image, for your safety, for anything other than being willing to take that one step off the cliff, knowing that God is there to see you through to a path of His design.

There is a child like freedom in this kind of faith. When my daughter was a toddler, she had no problem or hesitation about running as fast as she could and jumping into my arms. She knew without hesitation that I would catch her. We have to put aside our practical worldliness. We have to put aside all concerns for how we will look to others. We just have to have the Joy of our salvation, and the faith that whatever it is that God asked you to do, you can do it with out fear or concern. Jesus promised you that you have eternity as your reward, and all the power in the Kingdom of Heaven to accomplish what God has asked you to do.

Do we really want revival? Start with yourself. Be recklessly abandoned to the assurance of the things hoped for, and stand on the conviction of the things not seen.

We need revival in this land. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do that thing that God has asked us to do. We can do this because we have our salvation. We have our salvation because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. The fields are ripe for harvest. Let’s be about it.

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Faith

The Return to God, Part II: God Will Then Let You Know He Is Aware of Your Situation

Part II: God will then let you know he is aware of your situation.

(All Bible quotes used herein are from the ESV, by means of the excellent software: e-Sword. )

I think the thing that slowed my return to God was me…my thoughts, my fears, the dread of being judged as irredeemable.

I was in the way of my own redemption. I had strayed pretty far. I didn’t know how to return to where I was. I didn’t know the way back. I could recall the day of my Salvation. But it seemed a lifetime ago, and I had done SO many things, much of it on purpose, to anger the Living God. I figured I had become irredeemable. Incurable. Incapable of being acceptable to God. Chances are you might feel that way too.

I had completely forgotten what Jesus said about any who are saved.

John 6:37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Do you remember the day you were saved? Maybe it was a long time ago, and you have not lived the “victorious life”. Maybe the burden of separation from God seems like it is too much for you.

But take it from me, one who recently returned, Jesus meant it when He said: I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. And: whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

I had forgotten this. I can remember the day of my salvation. But I had forgotten the above. When I recalled these verses, and finally realized what these verses mean, I realized that A: When Jesus said, ” and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ” He also meant that I myself cannot snatch ME out of His hand. Jesus said repeatedly throughout His ministry that we can curse and blaspheme God and Jesus, and do all manner of wickedness, and be forgiven, as long as we have not blasphemed the Holy Spirit. I knew I was saved. My doubts of being able to be forgiven was standing in the way of my redemption to God from my sins.

This Psalm describes how I was feeling:

Psalm 42:1- 2: As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

I missed God. I missed serving Christ. I knew I was lost, and thirsty for the sweet presence of God in my life. I had to get out of my way. and that is when the changes started to happen.

First, I prayed:

Psalm 5:1-2: Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray.

AND

From Psalm 51: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

This is what I discovered:

Psalm 145:8 – 9: The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

So I unloaded everything on God:

Psalm 55:22 – Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

And, Psalm 57:2 – I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.

I have to confess. I mean I was prepared to hear Him tell me to go to hell. And I felt I deserved it. But God let me know he has been aware of what I had been up to all along, that he had never taken His eyes off me. And He didn’t do it in a way that was accusative. He did it in a way that let me know I can stop it now, and be forgiven. He knew anyway.

Psalm 44:20-21 If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.

And:

Psalm 138:8 The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Psalm 145:8 The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Psalm 145:9 The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

Because you were saved, and because of the Blood of Christ you can rest assured:

1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

You will suddenly know: Psalm 40:1- 3 I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD.

God knows you are in a plight. He always knew. He quietly intervened on your behalf, in ways you will discover after your return to Him. He led you to the point where you understood how far you strayed. No one who belongs to Him is irredeemable.

You discover: Lamentations 3:21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Understand this, when you began to feel the weight of your guilt for leaving God, it was God making you aware he knows what plight you are in. It was God drawing you back to Him. It was the Holy Spirit convicting you of your need to return. He was letting you know that He knows. That you were the only thing standing in your way.

God gives you the strength and courage to confess, to return, to repent. You have earned this right because you were and are saved by the blood of Christ Jesus. Jesus has made it possible for you to go before God and do business with Him:

Hebrews 10:19-21 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Christ prayed for you. That you will never be snatched out of His hand. He came after you because of His love for you. The fact that you began to miss God, and desired to return to Him is a sure sign that the Spirit of God was at work in your heart. HE KNEW your plight and came after you.

Matthew 18:12-13 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.

You are home now. God went out of his way to find you, and heaven itself rejoiced over your return to Him.

THIS is where things get really interesting.

Stay tuned for Part III: God has made you exactly the way you are, so that you can do exactly what He intends for you to do.

If you would like prayer, please write me at: sammysnardfarkle@gmail.com

David G. Perkins

Writer At Large

Tag Archives: Christ

The Grace of God – Part II

Editorial View Point:

INTRODUCTION:

Part A

SIN and sins – Or what was the whole Jesus thing for, in the first place?

So, now is the right time to ask “WHO really needs salvation, anyway?”

Short Answer: Humans.

All the World Guilty

So, now is the right time to ask “WHY do we really need salvation?”

How Do We Receive this Salvation??

OK, But what about all the sin I keep committing???

I Renamed My Lawnmower

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More on The Ethics of Hell (What Makes Us Unworthy of Christ)

Do You Love Me? (The Concentric Circles of Love)

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Forgiveness, the Test of Authenticity

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The Jewels in Your Crown: Forgiveness, Part 2

The Jewels in Your Crown: Forgiveness Part 1

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FAITH TO BE RECKLESS

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The Return to God, Part II: God Will Then Let You Know He Is Aware of Your Situation

Editorial View Point:

INTRODUCTION:

Part A

SIN and sins – Or what was the whole Jesus thing for, in the first place?

So, now is the right time to ask “WHO really needs salvation, anyway?”

Short Answer: Humans.

All the World Guilty

So, now is the right time to ask “WHY do we really need salvation?”

How Do We Receive this Salvation??

OK, But what about all the sin I keep committing???

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