still frosty here; -15 degrees here this morningIn our Bible study, we are using the Seeking Him workbook by Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Tim Grissom. I knew we were in for a challenging study when I read this in the introduction:
During a five month time period 100,000 people came to Christ. One anecdote that I found to be rather humorous, was as a result of so many changed lives,
"the mules in the mines had to be retrained because the coalminers no longer used profanity when giving orders." pg. xiv Seeking Him.
As I read through the Old Testament, I see:
Noah being ridiculed for following God's leading
Job being visited by tragedy upon tragedy
Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers and unjustly jailed by his boss
Time after time, there are examples of Biblical characters who were unjustly, unfairly treated. And yet it was through those very circumstances that God showed His great power and was glorified.
Time after time, we feel unjustly, unfairly treated. And yet we are told to forgive. "The Four Points' mentioned above say to FORGIVE EVERYONE. Anyone else besides me have a hard time doing this?
But this is the path, not only to blessing, but obedience. The Lord's Prayer says,
"Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors." Mt. 6:12
Forgiveness is hard work. We would perhaps, like to see those who have wronged us grovel for a little while before we forgive them. That is not a necessary part of forgiveness, though.
We are to FORGIVE EVERYONE. I'm working on this. Care to join me?
- Confess all known sin.
- Put away all doubtful things and forgive everyone.
- Obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
- Publicly confess Christ as your Savior. pgs. xiii and xiv Seeking Him
During a five month time period 100,000 people came to Christ. One anecdote that I found to be rather humorous, was as a result of so many changed lives,
"the mules in the mines had to be retrained because the coalminers no longer used profanity when giving orders." pg. xiv Seeking Him.
As I read through the Old Testament, I see:
Noah being ridiculed for following God's leading
Job being visited by tragedy upon tragedy
Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers and unjustly jailed by his boss
Time after time, there are examples of Biblical characters who were unjustly, unfairly treated. And yet it was through those very circumstances that God showed His great power and was glorified.
Time after time, we feel unjustly, unfairly treated. And yet we are told to forgive. "The Four Points' mentioned above say to FORGIVE EVERYONE. Anyone else besides me have a hard time doing this?
But this is the path, not only to blessing, but obedience. The Lord's Prayer says,
"Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors." Mt. 6:12
Forgiveness is hard work. We would perhaps, like to see those who have wronged us grovel for a little while before we forgive them. That is not a necessary part of forgiveness, though.
We are to FORGIVE EVERYONE. I'm working on this. Care to join me?
1 comment:
I did a BIG one of those forgiving things 10 yrs ago. BIG. Leftover from childhood. I learned a lot.
For example, if we do NOT follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit to do what He wants us to do then we do not go any further in our walk with Christ. That is it. We are stagnant.
Move on I learned. I also learned that forgiveness, of course, is not for the other person. It is for me. The opposite is bitterness. And bitterness is like swallowing poison and hoping the other person will die.
I also learned that just because you forgive, you don't forget. The memories of a hurt are what protect you from being hurt that way again. And you don't have to trust that person just because you forgive them. Sometimes moving on means leaving them behind.
It was a hard time. But God was there the whole time.
Good lessons. That sounds like a great study. And it is great to live by those 4 rules (I almost wrote "simple rules". Maybe they are simple, but not easy.)
Enjoy! And thanks for sharing that.
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