InsaneJournal

Current mood:	working
Current music:	Law & Order

Man, when God wants to be heard...
...he always hits me square between the eyes.

This whole "Live Like You Were Dying" series at church has been kicking my butt. Talk about making one re-evaluate their walk with God and making one feel convicted! It's like Preacher KNOWS... He's like Santa Claus or something.

Actually, not really. It's God speaking through Preacher, and in a Mighty way. I am so thankful I have a pastor who is willing and ready to smack his congregation upside the head time and again with the Word of God. He's not seeker friendly, he's about building a strong and healthy foundation in Christ for all of his sheep.

But yeah... No Record of Wrongs

DAILY READING FOR MONDAY WEEK 4 May 12

“...and I gave forgiveness I'd been denying." Those seven words from the song "Live Like You Were Dying" are definitely worth pondering.

What causes us to deny forgiveness?

Revenge. When you have been hurt deeply, the natural human response is to want the person who hurt you to go through an equal amount of suffering. Even the Old Testament law calls for an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It is an equal and fair form of justice, but God's grace works on a different basis entirely. Grace refuses to seek revenge and it forgives. Jesus modeled this for us.

1 Pet 2:23 “…who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously…”

God knows that if all of us were to receive just payment for our sins that would be the end of the human race, so He has forgiven everyone and asks us to do the same. It's a remarkable turn of events but it's the only way there will be any healing or restoration in broken relationships.

Another reason we might deny forgiveness is that we want to hang on to our hurt because it has become our identity, a ready excuse, a smoke screen that blots out other problems we don't want to face. Consider the beggar in John 5:6 who had been sitting by the healing pool for thirty-seven years when Jesus came up to him and asked him if he wanted to get well. He didn't exactly say a hearty "Yes!" Instead he went into his well-worn excuse -- his catch-22 that no one was there to lift him into the pool - and skirted the question entirely. Some of us have been so identified with our anger and bitterness that we are afraid to let go and forgive. How differently we would live if we refused to use our hurt to gain attention and sympathy!

Or perhaps we deny forgiveness because we have never believed in our own forgiveness. True forgiveness begins there. If we can't forgive ourselves, we are going to find it impossible to forgive anyone else. Judgment and blame of others always grows out of unresolved guilt. Forgive yourself first by accepting your forgiveness from God, and then offer that forgiveness to others.

Living like you were dying cuts through all of these diversions. It's pointless to go to the grave with an unforgiving heart. Dying puts a real crimp in anyone's plans for retribution! Like the cartoon of a gravestone that reads: "Now will you finally believe I was really sick?" there's just no benefit for the dead! You might as well forgive now.

One of the definitions of love in 1 Corinthians 13:5 is that "[love] keeps no record of wrongs.” It's that simple. Ask God to give you short-term memory loss when it comes to people who have wronged you.

It's the only way to break the cycle of retribution that causes wars in our relationships. Start by receiving your own forgiveness from God. Then settle the issue once and for all against those who have harmed you by forgiving them first in your heart and then, if possible, to their face. Stop being a scorekeeper and throw away your scorecard. An unforgiving heart is an unnecessary tragedy that only hurts the one who possesses it. You have precious little time left. Just let it go.

Response

Is there something in your life for which you are having a difficult time accepting God's forgiveness?

Search your soul and see if there are any grudges toward someone deep in your heart. You may need to spend some time doing this because we train ourselves not to see these things and allow them to eat at us slowly. Ask your closest friend, spouse, or children who they think you need to forgive.

If you are holding a grudge against someone, forgive that person in your heart right now, don't wait another second. God is ready to embrace you in this courageous step. You are not alone. Now make a plan to extend that forgiveness face-to-face if necessary.


In other, non religious related news, I just raked part of the back yard, I smell really bad now because the back yard smells horrible! lol. I worked on the church website this morning, gotta make a lot of changes in the next two weeks, but it will be worth it in the long run. Pastor Davis is so different from Pastor Dean when it comes to this website, so the website will be getting a face lift soon.

I also got 'commissioned' to be one of two photographers (Pastor Davis wil be the other one) to shoot the new Church directory. We'll be doing that in the late fall (September/October) I may have him bump it up as work ends september 1 (for the life of me I couldn't remember how far into Sept. we were planned to go lol) and I'm worried I'll be working full time in Kenai during weekends when I need to be writing and studying. We'll see.

I somehow rubbed a blood blister on the palm of my right hand, typing hurts!

I think that's pretty much all that is going on with me. I gotta hit the shower and get ready for a wedding rehearsal dinner. For a wedding for family, that didn't even think to ask me to shoot the wedding. But then they called yesterday and asked if I could shoot the rehearsal and getting ready. I said no. If they'd asked earlier in the year I would have, but I don't have the card/disk space at the moment, and I'm not going to stress about it. I have already committed this time for the website and just some ME time when I'm not travelling to Kenai (will be there for mom's bday next weekend). *sigh*

The days are going by way too fast, btw. Anyway gonna jump in the shower in about 15 minutes and I still have email to go through so I'm gonna quit rambling here! Hope everyone's early summer is going well...