Forgiveness and Bitterness

I have some thoughts popping about and thought I'd walk some of them through here. I find that blogging gives me a little outlet for tossing stuff out, so it can further develop later on, and at least I have gotten the thoughts going. Ok, on with it...

After praying consistently with people for a couple years, particularly in the healing rooms, and being involved in conversations here and there, I am shocked at the number of Christians dealing with unforgiveness issues. I am talking about people who know they should forgive, but don't think they can or are waiting for some kind of recompense for the original issue or don't even realize it's there. Oh the ways we can be offended and let that thing blossom into unforgiveness and bitterness!

Matthew 6:14-15 says "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

Right here we have Jesus saying if you don't forgive people, My Father WILL NOT forgive you either. We have tons of opportunities to be offended and let unforgiveness enter. It's just about how we deal with those offenses. For example, has a family member done something you disagree with or are offended at that you now are bitter and have not forgiven them that offense?

Hebrews 12:14-15 says "Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord; looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled..."

A root of bitterness can spring up and cause trouble, and defile you. Bitterness and unforgiveness go hand in hand. As Christians, it is not an option to let those things remain. You just can't. Ok, so someone did something you're offended at; ok, you were legitimately wronged; ok, your feelings got hurt and you feel like you deserved better; ok, you want control and don't want to do it another way.... being bitter and not forgiving feels pretty good right about now.....ok, let me tell you one thing: the Cross of Christ.

The fact that Jesus went to the cross and died is the VERY reason why those offenses cannot be allowed to take root. If we are holding unforgiveness or bitterness against ourselves, God or particularly others, we are saying that we deserve something, that in fact the cross of Christ does not matter or is not good enough for us in this regard.

I do understand though. Our flesh loves those feelings. We feel strong when we hold on to that because it makes us feel like we are getting something we deserve or are keeping our hearts safe from being really hurt and so forth. But you know, Jesus went to the lowest place and served those who wronged Him. We reject Jesus and His sacrifice for all that will ever be done to us when we say no to forgiving, making amends with someone, and letting bitterness grow. We must say that Jesus is enough, and that He is the one who will avenge us (if the wrongs have been legitimate) and lay it at His feet.

Forgiving does not mean forgetting or that the hurt goes right away. It means releasing them to the Lord and letting Him mend the hurt and also move in the other person's life.

That person who did something to hurt you that you won't forgive is desperately in need of your love and forgiveness because that is what Christ would do. Especially if you are a believer and they are not. They MUST see Jesus in us, and the love that He gave us must be demonstrated. If there are 'feuds' going on, how can we expect that person to see the fragrance of Christ leading to life upon us? It's so hard to let go and let Jesus have it... I've been there. But the truth is, in the laying down of our lives and our hearts and accepting the finished work of the cross as enough, and loving our brother (even if they are unbelievers), is the place of greatest freedom. It hurts for a moment to give up control, but it is given to the One who alone deserves it.

The point of this rambling on is that the Cross is sufficient, and by allowing bitterness and unforgiveness to take root, we are despising the cross and saying it is insufficient. That can remain head knowledge unless we take it to prayer regarding those issues and let the Lord touch us and reveal the Truth to our hearts where it will transform us. Really loving God is walking out the Word, and loving others. And we can't love others if we hold those offenses away from the cross.

So let's all examine today if there is bitterness or unforgiveness toward our family members, or friends, spouses or children. If so, we must humble ourselves and give our hearts and their hearts to the Lord and lay it down and ask for forgiveness, and also for the grace to make amends if need be. This is serious business. We aren't talking about gigantic signs and wonders here, but we are talking about the little things that really matter in a believer's life. It's also serious because unless we forgive, we can't be forgiven... the implications of that are intense. Christ bought it all for us at the Cross, let's receive it today.

Gotta go, baby cries.

Overdue Fall Album

Fall 2009

Also on Facebook, with captions

Insightful

One of the bloggers I follow put up a link to this Do/Don't list for dealing with a friend or someone who has experienced a miscarriage.

I know it happens to a lot of women and many in our midst here at the HOP, so I thought I'd link it for anyone who is interested.

Miscarriage Do/Don't

Reflections from college...

... in my Islamic Societies class. As I mentioned in my last post, I actually had intended not to write about what I did, but rather on this class from college. So here I go:

In the midst of all the hub-ub(?) in America about various topics (economy, schools, homosexual agenda, abortion), there is an increase in the Church today on all those issues. We are starting to see more and more deviations from what has for decades been held as Truth. How? Some of the comments I have heard tossed about are to the effect of "how can people get swept up in this and actually believe it's true and that it's ok" and so forth about topics a, b, and c? Which leads me to my class.

I took this class called Islamic Societies so that I could learn a bit more about them. Practically, the class did a great job of informing me about different Islamic societies and their ways of life, but it did much more too. My professor did not practice Islam, but had lived in Iran (I believe) for some years and had traveled back and forth on occasion since then and she know a LOT about Islam. Anyway, when I was immersed in that class for that semester, I was constantly bombarded with all the theology of Islam and the roots of it and the like. However, as I learned more and more, I started to get a little soft on 'Jesus being the only way to Heaven' even though I knew He was. I mean, these Islamic folks are nice and they are devout and they "have a lot in common" with Christianity.

Those were some of my subtle thoughts. Mind you now, it wasn't overt or on the forefront of my mind at all, it was much more faint. It was merely being exposed several times a week to another religion and other "truths" where my heart started getting soft to the hard truth of the Gospel. Islam does not believe in Jesus as the Messiah and the way of salvation thus, they will not go to heaven...period.

What I am trying to convey here, is that we wonder how people in the body of Christ can get so "off" yet still be labeled Christian. There are LOTS of reasons, but I believe one is that they get exposed to some thought or 'new doctrine' that looks good and without searching it out then, get swept up in something that is a misinterpretation or a deviation of the Bible and think it's true. They do not know the Word of God and so they are tossed about by everything.

I considered myself a pretty strong Christian in college when I was taking that class. But somewhere toward the end of that class, I had to sit back and shake myself up and say "hold the phone sister and wake up, you are starting to get off course here". I KNEW Jesus was the only way, but somehow, Islam was ok too or kind of ok or something. Surely God still heard their prayers and they were going to go to Heaven too. Um, sound a little contradictory? I think so.

If the lines can blur on Truth so quickly concerning Islam, I can see how slapping on the label of "Jesus" and the "Bible" can blur the lines of what it really means to follow the Word of God and be a Christian. I mean, we have people who call themselves Christians and deny the deity of Christ? What is the deal with that? Subtle deception over time culminating in blatant heresy, that they don't think is deception or heresy, and then they think everybody else is 'religious' or heretical. Yikes.

We are perhaps in one of the most intense times in human history, but more so, a time when the Body of Christ today does NOT know the Bible. They do not know the Word of God because they read it and memorize it and pray and fast, but they 'know' it because of what is preached on Sundays and maybe a good quiet time here and there. They know more intimately what is happening on the latest sitcom than what's going on in the Word of God they claim is everything to them.

As the end of the age approaches, it is only going to increase. We have to be found firmly rooted and grounded in Him, and that's not just a nice idea, it's life or death, heaven or hell style. We can't rely on how strong we think we are to resist the enemy or deception. I'm preaching to myself here too. Let us be found on our faces in prayer before the Lord, knowing the Holy Spirit, and with our eyes glued to our Bibles instead of the TV or computer screen.

I think it really is that easy...

Lewis was 3 months old yesterday. It really does go fast. He is a delight and my little sweetie #2. Love him, but that is not the purpose of this blog today.

I have had a lot of random thoughts lately that I have wanted to blog about, but when I try to remember what they were, I can't and so there have been no blogs. But I did remember one thing and will kind of spew my wonderings/thoughts about it.

I got saved in the Fall of 2002, but really 'soundly converted' in January of 2003. So that was the start of my sophomore year of college. It seriously changed my life, and everything about me (particularly in Jan). I lost friends, and the 'old man' lifestyle was instantly old to me. I didn't want to do the same things I did before. I had total distaste for secular music, most tv shows/movies, foul language, and so forth. It was the holiness and righteousness of God that got a hold of me and I knew that those things that had sin/sinful language in them couldn't stand in the face of God. My eye/ear gates were again sensitized to the heart of God after being seared by the world for the majority of my childhood/teen life. This "God thing" was so real and the Cross so in my face that my unsaved friends thought I was nutty I think. But I guess a real encounter with the Cross and the reality of Christ will mess a person up.

As a child, I had conviction of sin and a tenderness to the Holy Spirit, but over time it got cold and without salvation, lots of things happen. I remember too the place i was and who I was with the first time I ever said a swear word, or when I littered my gum wrapper. Stuff I 'knew' was inherently wrong or sinful as a child. It's amazing. It all came rushing back to me that Fall/Winter when I got saved for real. I just told my conversion story to a friend the other week and the goodness of God in that season was again touching my heart. I was lost. I was really lost.

I was an all out sinner. (As if that isn't the case with any unbeliever) But I sometimes look at the condition of old friends (from high school or earlier on facebook) and I wonder about them and when God will save them and if they will turn. I see some of them with the greatest talents and abilities and it is being used for the wrong people/reasons and oh who they could be in Christ. I sometimes wonder if it's possible or how it will be that they could leave all their friends (in part) and give themselves wholly to Christ.

Then I look at my story.

I was lost too, with lost friends. Then it just took one touch of God, one prompting to seek Him out and I was saved and all together different. My current status at the time had nothing to do with what I just encountered. I found Jesus and nothing else mattered, what people thought didn't matter because I found the Truth. So it can happen to any of the ones I wonder about in a moment. They can have a kiss from Heaven through any means and their lives can be radically different. Salvation really is that easy. Oh God, bring salvation to those ones who are lost!

Well, that is NOT at all what I was going to write about. Well, a preface to where I will go next then. My Islamic Societies class in college is the next topic. Until then...