Forgiveness

Recently, we learned that a couple who are friends of ours are separated and contemplating ending their marriage. It seems the husband committed an indiscretion that the wife cannot bring herself to forgive. In fact, she is repulsed by his actions to such a degree that she can barely stand to be in his presence for very long, so they are permanently temporarily separated. Forgiveness is not even on her list of response options. Murder, maybe, but not forgiveness.

Please understand that I am not writing this to judge either of these great people. I love them and pray that God will perform a miracle of reconciliation in their lives and restore them to effective service in the ministry of the church. Nevertheless, real-life events like this often bring the things of God into sharp focus. This event turns my mind toward the meaning of forgiveness.

First of all, consider the reaction of this wife to her husband’s breach of trust and then put the entire event in the context of eternity. In other words, multiply the wife’s feelings of revulsion by infinity. Then consider the sin of Adam against an infinite, eternal, holy and righteous God. Now you can begin to get a feel for the separation that existed between holy God and fallen man. Yet God forgives! In fact, He had the plan of redemption – which includes the response of forgiveness of sin – in place before He ever created Adam. (2 Tim. 1.9-10)

God is omnipotent – He knows all things – past, present, and future. This means that He planned to forgive Adam even before Adam sinned. Forgiveness was built into the relationship package. Adam was God’s creation “for better or for worse.” One might argue about when God knew what and how much control He had over Adam's actions, but the fact is that He planned to forgive even before Adam sinned.

If marriages were built on the same premise, then spouses would respond to indiscretions of their mates in a very different manner. Even if we were repulsed by the others actions, we would be drawn toward them,willing to make a sacrificial effort toward reconciliation. The problem is that we are flesh and blood. We are not God.

I am convinced that forgiveness is an attribute that is uniquely God's. Only God can do it. There is no other power in the Universe that can forgive. It is that hard. For this wife to forgive her husband will require the intervention of the omnipotent Holy Spirit empowering her to do what she could never do on her own. Only He can heal such glaring wounds. We are powerless against them. All of our efforts will never mend a broken heart or restore a violated trust. Such mending requires the touch of the miraculous – something which is no challenge for God.

Here is another point: To forgive requires our complete surrender of self to God. This is not a call to fatalism, but to surrender. Forgiveness is extremely hard – virtually impossible – but forgiveness must begin with the offended: God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5.8).

I am sure in her anger this wife probably would like to kill her unfaithful husband, but God even thought of that and did it for us in substitution: In Christ we have redemption through his blood (that means someone killed Him on our behalf), the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace (Eph. 1.7).

Now for a moment consider the husband. If he could take it back, I am certain he would. But that, too, is impossible. He can never undo the wrong. I am sure he is making every effort at retribution, but there is nothing that a person can do to restore trust back to its original condition, no matter how hard we might try or how good we are in the future.

Again, put that in terms of eternity. How could a finite man think that he could ever be good enough for God to accept his works as retribution or as payment enough to restore the broken fellowship that existed before sin? The sin of man was of infinite proportion and thus it cannot be atoned for apart from an act of infinite love – better known as grace. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God (Eph. 2.8).

When it comes to love between a husband and wife, we tend to want to lean away from the sacred and holy for various reasons – especially when the subject concerns intimacy. Yet in light of all that I said above, we should think about this: When we say to each other, "I love you," it must include such an idea as God taught us by His actions:

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4.10).

With this kind of love, when we say to each other "I love you," we are confessing that, no matter what happens – even when I am offended and repulsed by your behavior – I will pay the price for reconciliation. "I love you" means that my desire for you will always outweigh your transgressions – that even when you step back or even if you step away, I will not move except in our direction. I love you so, that I give to you that which means more to me than anything else in all the world – myself (John 3.16).

As with most marriages, I fear, this couple did not make this kind of covenant. After the trust is broken, the covenant cannot easily be restored short of the supernatural. Of course, the best thing would be never to violate the others trust, but such things are common among humans. So the next best thing is to make the commitment before the flesh has an opportunity to fatally wound our spirit and our relationships.

A Great Historical Principle

It's been almost three weeks since the presidential election, but here is a reminder for all those who are still struggling with the outcome.

"...all representative characters act, consciously or unconsciously, as the free and responsible organs of the spirit of their age, which moulds them first before they can mould it in turn, and that the spirit of the age itself, whether good or bad or mixed, is but an instrument in the hands of divine Providence, which rules and overrules all the actions and motives of men." (Phillip Schaff, History of the Christian Church Vol. III, 1882)

Thus President Obama is simply a product of our culture and an icon for the moral, ethical, spiritual, and political principles which have come to define this age of history. Even so, he and the world in which he governs serve as instruments in the hand of God. Whatever President Obama's legacy, whether for good or for evil, he will have served the purposes of God in the fulfillment of His plan for the creation. By the willful decisions of men God's will is fulfilled.

I had a conversation with a lady in our town just before the election. She was extolling the greatness of God and how times like we are in now require us to put all our faith in Him. I replied that Christians should be setting the example for the world of what it means to have peace because God is in control of all things. At this point in the conversation, she was in agreement with me.

Then I said, “Daniel 4.17 says, ‘God chooses the rulers of nations and he always chooses the basest of men.’”

She immediately responded with “Oh, I don’t believe that. God is never going to override our free will. He allows us to choose our rulers then He works with whomever we choose.” She went on to add that God did not put Hitler or Stalin in place.

I tried to point out the examples of Pharaoh and of Nebuchadnezzar, but she was not prepared to hear my explanation, so I tactfully let the subject drop.

Free will. Men will not let it go. Man will not willingly surrender to God that which he seized from Him in the Garden.

A New Revival

Yes, I know. I have started and stopped posting to this blog on several occasions. So this should not be a surprise. I will give this another effort. Maybe this time, maybe the revival will stick. If you would like to comment, click on the title of this article. Comments will be at the bottom. Thanks for visiting!

I am subscribed to several sites that send daily emails. This morning one of them posted an article that I really liked entitled "Why You Cannot 'Do All Things' Through Christ." If you are like me, you probably had a knee-jerk reaction that said something like, "What!" You should read the article to get the whole gist of what the author was saying, but in summary, he pointed out that Paul wrote this verse (Phil 4.13) from prison - a place he could not get out of, even though his faith in Christ was so very strong. The verse does not give us permission to claim that we can accomplish any goal we set our hearts simply because we depend on Christ to accomplish that goal through us. Sometimes, we fail. How would we explain that?

What the verse means is that, even in the midst of prison or any other adversity or time of blessing, we can still praise the Lord of Heaven because of Christ. It means that we can be content with having much or having little, in good times as well as in bad, when the news is uplifting or crushing. Christ does not change and has promised to never leave us. Therefore, we can face anything that comes our way through faith in Him.

Oftentimes, we must re-evaluate our traditional interpretation of what "thus saith the Lord."

I pray you have a great day.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday. This picture is actually from her birthday in 2010, but it's the only one I have handy. I hope she doesn't want to whip me for using it.

It certainly would not be fair to say that everything I am today I owe to my mom, Reba. There are things in my life that she would not be so proud to own. But I must give her credit for the good things anyway.

There are so many stories in the news today of moms who abandon or harm their own children that I know I am blessed to have a mom who has sacrificed everything she has and everything she could have personally achieved for the sake of her children, her family, her friends, and her God. There are very few things that she does that do not have as their motive the welfare and the happiness of others.

God has been more than generous by the gift of the heritage passed along by Mom to me, my wife and family, to my five brothers and sisters and their spouses, to the 14 grandchildren and the spouses of the eight that are married, the eight and soon-to-be ten great-grandchildren and one spouse, and the two great-great-grandchildren. (Sorry if I left anyone out! With the two great-grandkids on the way, the total will soon be 40 if I've counted right!)

One of my fondest memories of life is hearing my Mom sing, especially when she was younger. I can still hear her singing a song that is probably a statement of her faith more than any other song in my memory. She may have sung other songs, but the one that sticks in my mind is "I'm a Child of the King."

It is a statement of her testimony. That makes everyone in that list above part of a family of royalty.

Thanks, Mom.

(This isn't Mom. It's Skeeter Davis, but the song is the same.)



I'M A CHILD OF THE KING

1. Once I was clothed in the rags of my sin,
Wretched and poor, lost and lonely within.
But with wondrous compassion, the King of all kings,
In pity and love, took me under His wings.

CHORUS:

Oh, yes, oh yes, I'm a child of the King
His royal blood now flows in my veins.
And I who was wretched and poor now can sing
Praise God, praise God, I'm a child of the King.

2. Now I'm a child with a Heavenly home,
My Holy Father has made me His own.
And I'm cleansed by His blood, and I'm clothed in His love,
And some day I'll sing with the angels above.

All I Have Is Christ

I used this video in church a couple of Sundays ago just before I preached. It is a great song with a great testimony and the video made even better, especially in light of world events. The video was created by Chris Powers and can be accessed for download at vimeo.com.


All I Have is Christ - An Animation from Grace in Cranberry on Vimeo.

Nothing Is Impossible with God

When the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would give birth to the One who would be the Savior of the world, he gave her assurance by telling her, “With God nothing shall be impossible.” (Luke 1:37)

From this, we have the common saying, “Nothing is impossible with God.”

Typically, we interpret this verse to mean that anything that can be conceived within the mind of an infinite, eternal, omnipotent, omniscient God can be accomplished by Him. He is only limited by His nature and His holiness, such that He can neither die nor tell a lie. (1 Tim. 1.17; Num. 23:19)

That is why anything we request in prayer will always meet with success as long as it is circumscribed by the boundaries of His will. For whatever God wills, He will do. (Ezekiel 24:14)

Yet there is another way of expressing the relationship between “nothing” and God. The idea is not original with me, but it is an interesting perspective on the power and the authority of God.

From the Common Book of Prayer:

Eternal God,
protector of all who put their trust in you,
without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy;

The prayer affirms our belief that the world offers nothing that is strong and holy apart from God. But C.S. Lewis took expressed this thought from a different perspective.

C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters

And Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man's best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why...

I also read a sermon from the pastor of The Parish Church of St. Michaels’ Cornhill in the city of London that reflected this same sentiment. Read or download the entire message here.

Reflect on how strong nothing actually is. For nothingness, denial, the void, the abyss is the very strong and potent force of evil.

In practice our society operates on the basis that there are no moral absolutes. You are, as the saying goes, free to make up your own mind. This leads to the dereliction of reason, to depravity and to moral and social chaos.

…poisonous intellectual posturing and satanic destruction of all values has produced the vicious society in which we all now live. This is the society without God. It is bound to be a culture of death.

When there are no real values, when there are no absolute standards of judgement, then we must expect our education system to collapse too. And that is just what has happened.

When God created Adam, He breathed into him the breath of life and Adam became a living soul, made alive by the indwelling Spirit of God. When Adam chose to rebel against God, he died – he lost the indwelling Spirit and left a void – a “nothing” – within man’s soul.

Satan has multiplied the strength of that “nothing” to create a world where God is rejected and where the dominant themes are tolerance and even the promotion of evil as if it were good.

Nature abhors a vacuum. It cannot tolerate “nothing,” and thus seeks to fill it with something else. Man may confess that there is no God or that he does not need to worship God, but God has place eternity in the hearts of men and thus there is a desire to worship.

Man has attempted throughout his existence to fill the void left by the departure of the Spirit of God following the fall of Adam. Yet eternity is a driving force within his being, and man will forever seek to replace that which was lost with something that is worthy of his worship – something that man deems worthy of the sacrifice of his time and health and fortune – even his very life. Man will worship.

Nothing is strong, but with God, nothing is impossible. He is infinite, eternal, transcendent, and perfect in all of His ways, expressing His love for His creation through inconceivable gifts and ultimate sacrifice.

Thus, even when the world is at its worst, the child of God can join Jeremiah in his song, “This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness (Lam. 3:21-23).

The Practice of Prayer

I am currently in the midst of a sermon series on the practice of prayer and how prayer works according to what God has revealed to us in the Bible.

The first sermon dealt with two fundamental points:

Point 1: We must pray because the will of God is not released for action until we do.

In Matt. 16:19, Jesus told His disciples, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (ESV) He repeated these words in Matt. 18:18.

2 Chron. 7:14 If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (NKJV)

Notice the contingency in the verse: If my people…pray…then…I will heal their land

We do not command God to do anything, but God seems to be willing to wait to see His will carried out based on our obedience to His command to pray.

I heard about a room is Heaven that will surprise all of us when we see it. The room has within it large boxes, each neatly decorated with a lovely ribbon on top, and with a label with each of our names on them. The label reads, “Never delivered to Earth because never requested from Earth.”

Point 2: We must pray according to God’s will and not our own.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught His disciples how to pray. He said, “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’” (Matt. 6:9-10, ESV)

So, we must pray to release God’s will, and we must pray according to God’s will.

The question, then, is “How do I pray God’s will?”

The short answer is that you must know God’s will – a subject for another lesson actually. We come to know God’s will by spending time with Him in prayer and by spending time studying His word.

Yet even then, we may struggle to know that we are praying God’s will. But God already knew that we would have this challenge. So He made provision for it, as He did for every other aspect of spiritual growth.

Romans 8:26-27 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

How do we pray God’s will? We submit ourselves completely to the Holy Spirit who fills us and carries out the task of molding us into the image of the Son (Rom. 8:29). He who knows the thoughts and purposes of God (1 Cor. 2:10-11) brings to us the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).

As the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, He always prays according to the will of God.