Forgiveness and the License to Love – Purity 584
Purity 584 11/24/2021 Purity 584 Podcast
Good morning
Today’s photo of the surf and fading sun from the shores of Myrtle Beach
comes to us from a friend’s late October trip there to get some R&R with
some family which included “getting high” via a helicopter tour of the South
Carolina shore area.
Don’t freak out but it’s official Thanksgiving Eve! Yep it’s that day when people all across the
country will be taking planes, trains, and automobiles to reunite with family
and friends to celebrate our national holiday of feasting in the spirit of
gratitude. As some will be travelling
today, others will be cleaning the house and making deserts and other treats in
preparation of tomorrow’s festivities.
As we travel and meet up with friends and family tonight and prepare our
homes for tomorrow’s day of thanks, I would encourage my friends to also prepare
their hearts as we come together and will officially be entering the Holiday
season as Santa will be coming to town as part of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving
Day Parade.
Let’s be sure to prepare ourselves emotionally and mentally for tomorrow
by reminding ourselves that the people we will be seeing and who may be testing
our patience at times are our loved ones and that we will not have them in our
lives forever.
If we remember the brevity of life and all that we receive through our
relationships, we can appreciate our family and friends and be thankful for
them in our lives.
Let’s also be aware that some of the people in our circle may not be so
thankful because of recent traumatic losses and other difficulties of
life.
Try to be compassionate with those who are suffering by being present
with them and sensitive to their needs for patience, understanding, and
love. Reach out to those who have suffered losses in
the last year to let them know you are thinking about them and offer to spend
some time with them or to help them in whatever way you can.
And finally let’s also endeavor to listen to the commands of Jesus in the
Lord’s prayer to “forgive those who trespass against us”.
A lot can happen in a year in our relationships and the changing
circumstances of our lives. Our
relational interactions are not always smooth and by the time Thanksgiving
rolls around we could be harboring a lot of bitterness, envy, or offense
because of what people have said, done, or caused us to make us feel criticized,
rejected, or unaccepted in some ways.
This morning as I started to prepare for a holiday meal for me and my
children and was gathering the documents I need in order to pick up the license
for my upcoming marriage, I felt convicted in my spirit to “get right with God”.
Through all the changes and twists in turns of my life in the past several
months, there has been many instances where I have felt offense or sensed difficulties
in several of my relationships.
The Holy Spirit convicted me to get cleansed of any bitterness or animosity
that I was holding on to that was subtly influencing how I was feeling about
various people in my life.
So this morning I pulled out a copy of The Steps to Freedom in Christ and
decided to recommit myself to following the Lord by doing a spiritual
housecleaning that includes forgiving others from the heart.
As I went through the various prayers I was amazed at how much I had to
process with the Holy Spirit as the list of people I need to forgive was quite
extensive! Any slight, offense, or less than harmonious feelings toward others
came to the surface and regardless of whether I was sure of someone’s
intentions or not, I put them on my list and forgave each and every one of
them.
People don’t always react the way we expect them to or support us in the
ways we would like and while we may adjust to disappointments and overcome to
move on, those offenses and disappointments that we experience can build up and
cause us to make our view of the other people suffer.
Instead of forgiving our friends and family that offend us, we re-categorize
them as people who “don’t really love us” or as people we can’t trust. It is one thing to protect ourselves and to
be aware of other people’s limitations and it is another thing to draw away
from them relationally and hold attitudes of contempt towards them. As much as we may think we are protecting
ourselves by keeping others at arm’s length, those feelings of bitterness or
attitudes of rejection that we are holding onto towards others actually hurt
us. By not forgiving from the heart, we
hurt ourselves.
So to thoroughly enjoy tomorrow’s holiday of Thanksgiving and to walk
into the holiday season beyond with joy, choose to forgive from the heart all those
who have offended you in the past year by following this simple prayer drawn
from the Steps to Freedom in Christ.
Make a list of all the people you need to forgive and then for each one
pray:
Dear Heavenly Father,
I choose to forgive _(person’s name)____ for
___ (the offense)___ because it made me feel _(share the painful
feelings – hurt, rejected, unaccepted, belittled, angry etc. )__.
After you have gone through everyone on your list, pray the following
prayer:
Lord Jesus,
I choose to not hold on to my resentment. I relinquish my right to seek
revenge and ask you to heal my damaged emotions. Thank You for setting me free
from the bondage of unforgiveness. I now ask You to bless those who have hurt
me.
In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
When we forgive others and release them from our feelings of resentment,
we set our selves free to live and love the way God wants us to. We are never more like God when we choose to
forgive.
Forgiveness gives us a license to love.
Chances are that you picked up some bitterness and resentments over the
last year and the Lord can give you the power to unburden yourself of them and
to experience a renewed sense of peace and freedom. So keep walking and talking
with God, and you will continue to discover the new and abundant life is
something we can progressively experience when we walk in His ways.
Today’s Bible verse is
drawn from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (NLT2)
23 Now may the God of peace
make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept
blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.
24 God will make this happen,
for he who calls you is faithful.
Today’s verse speaks of the spiritual reality that the work
done in us to make us holy is performed by God.
One of the biggest spiritual misunderstandings that exists in
the world and in some parts of Christendom is the idea that we have to work to
be approved by God.
Ephesians 2:8-9 make it clear that we are saved by grace and
that our salvation is not a reward for the good things we do. Our salvation is
a gift from God, a gift we don’t really deserve. Our salvation is a work performed by
God.
Likewise the process of sanctification, where we become holy,
is also a gift from God. Today’s verse
tells us that God will make us holy because He is faithful, not us.
After coming to faith in Jesus Christ, we are made spiritually
alive by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. When we receive the Holy Spirit,
we are given eternal life and the power to say no to sin.
As much as we may pride ourselves on our newfound abilities
to overcome the sin that had entrapped us, we should realize that we are only
exercising the gift that the Lord has given us and that we should thank Him for
the power we now have.
Our power of sanctification lies in faith. We have an increased ability to overcome sin
and negative mind states that is directly proportional to our belief that we have
been given the victory. If we believe it, we receive the victory over anything
that would entrap us or hold us back.
While we must agree with what God has said about us in His
word as His adopted children, and we must act according to that truth, it is
still God who is the One who gave us the power to be sanctified.
God will make our sanctification happen because He is
faithful. If you are His, He will perform your sanctification even if it isn’t
realized until your glorification. Your
sanctification is going to happen one way or another, whether you resist it or
not.
But the thing is that our faith is not a religion, our faith
is a relationship. So because God has already given us the victory and promise of
sanctification, we can choose to cooperate with God and experience our sanctification
sooner rather than later. While we won’t
necessarily be sinlessly perfect, we can enjoy an increasing measure of
sanctification if we decide to live according to God’s word.
So thank the Lord for the gift of our ultimate
sanctification. Rejoice! But while your rejoicing, make the decision to accept
your gift of sanctification now by turning from the world’s ways and by living
for God and His kingdom by believing what God’s word says and by choosing to
live by it.
The gift of sanctification is ours. So let’s open it up by believing God’s word
and walking in the way we should go.
As
always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from
prominent Christian counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with
their walk.
Today we continue sharing from June Hunt’s “Evil
and Suffering… Why? Is God Fair?
As always, I share this information for educational purposes
and encourage all to purchase June Hunt’s books for your own private study and
to support her work.
C. Key Questions and Answers about Salvation
Question: "Since the greatest good for mankind is
that all people be saved, how can a good God send anyone to hell?"
Answer: God does
want everyone to be saved. However, for people to be saved, they must freely
choose to put their faith in Christ.
- Because God
has given you free will, it would be impossible for Him to force
you to place your faith in Him.
- People
cannot be free and forced at the same time because that is a
contradiction, making it an absolute or intrinsic impossibility.
While God desires that no one should perish, God has given you the free
choice to repent of sinful ways and yield your life to Him. The Lord Jesus
lamented ...
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those
sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen
gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." (Matthew 23:37)
Question: "Why are some people saved and others
lost?"
Answer:
God's desire is that everyone would come to salvation through His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. This point is made plain in 1 Timothy 2:3-4,
"This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be
saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." Yet God will not force
Himself on anyone. Everyone has the opportunity to accept or reject His free
gift of eternal life. God clearly states ...
"You will seek me [God] and find me when you seek me with all your
heart." (Jeremiah
29:13)
Question: "Would God send someone to hell who
never heard of Jesus Christ?"
Answer: All
human beings receive "a candle of light" from God.
- If you
refuse to respond to the natural revelation of creation made by a God of
intelligent design, your heart could become darkened and you may not be
receptive to more light.
- If you
respond to general/natural revelation of creation, He will illumine the
revelation of Himself. Light rejected brings darkness and judgment. Light
received brings the promise of more light. (Read Psalm 9:10; Psalm 19:1-6;
Jeremiah
29:13; Luke
12:47-48; John 3:19-20;
Romans
1:18-20; 10:14-15.)
"The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men ...
The Lord searches every heart and
understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found
by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever." (Titus 2:11; 1 Chronicles 28:9)
Question: "How can a good God send people to hell
who do not want to go there?"
Answer:
Those who go to hell choose to go there by the decisions they make regarding
God and their relationship to Him. God then honors those choices because He
cannot do otherwise. C.S. Lewis wrote, "There are only two kinds of people
in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom
God says, 'Thy will be done.' All that are in hell, choose it."
"The Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the
unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment." (2 Peter 2:9)
Question: "Wouldn't a fair God give people a
second chance to believe in Him after death?"
Answer: God
gives second and third chances—in fact, He gives many opportunities in this
lifetime. But realize...
- Salvation
is based on faith—choosing what is unseen, not what is seen.
- After
death, you immediately see the consequence of your choice because the Bible
says when Christians are "absent from the body," we are "present
with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8
KJV). Death eliminates the need for faith.
- "Saving
faith" willingly bows the knee to Christ when the option is available
to do otherwise.
- Even up to
the last minute on earth, everyone has the option to receive Christ.
However, at death, every knee will bow, without an option to do
anything else. In order be totally fair, God plainly communicated His plan
in the Bible. There are no first or second chances in the next life. Hebrews 9:27
says ... "Man is destined to die once, and after that to face
judgment."
Question: "How can I escape suffering throughout
eternity?"
Answer: No
one can escape evil and suffering in this life (John 16:33). You
can and should expect trials and tribulations, problems, and pain. Yet God,
because of His compassion, promises to be your "ever-present help in
trouble" (Psalm
46:1).
But make no mistake: Your suffering is designed to be temporary—to
come to an end. While there is a suffering that lasts throughout eternity, He
has a plan to save you from that suffering. Eternal suffering takes place in
the "eternal fire"—a place called hell (Matthew 25:41).
- Those who
never want to be with God in this life have, in fact, already
chosen to live without God in the next life. And those who choose not to
live God's way in this life have, in fact, already chosen not to
accept God's way into the next life.
His perfect plan, however, is that we all escape such suffering.
"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand
slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to
come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)
Biblical Counseling Keys: Evil and Suffering... Why?: Why
God? Why?.
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
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