Thom Rainer did a study a number of years ago asking formerly unchurched people the open-ended question, “What factors led you to choose this church?” A lot of surveys had been done asking the unchurched what they would like in a church. But this study asked the formerly unchurched why they actually were now in a church. The results were surprising: 11 percent said worship style led them to their church, 25 percent said children’s/youth ministry, and 37 percent said they sensed God’s presence at their church. For 41 percent, someone from the church had witnessed to them, and 49 percent mentioned friendliness as the reason for choosing their church. Can you guess the top two responses? Doctrine and preaching – 88 percent said the doctrine led them to their church, and 90 percent said the preaching led them there, in particular, a pastor who preached with certitude and conviction… When it comes to reaching outsiders, bold, deep, biblical preaching is not the problem. It’s part of the solution.
Kevin DeYoung

Forgiveness A Powerful Force

Forgiveness A Powerful Force

FORGIVENESS – A POWERFUL FORCE

. Forgiveness is not something we do once, but is a total way of living. We have the power to totally and completely forgive all others, because Jesus gave us that power. We experience His power of Forgiveness the moment that we accept Jesus Christ as our savior and Lord. This forgiveness that we receive from Jesus is a total forgiveness of all of our sins and a washing of all our unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
. In this forgiveness there are two points to consider:

  1. He forgives us freely when we truly repent.
  2. He forgets our sins. He never remembers them again.

. Here we see the power of forgetting and forgiving. Sometimes you and I have both said that “I will forgive, but I will never forget.” But the forgiving and forgetting of the sins of others are part and parcel of the same package, they cannot be separated. How can we both Forgive and Forget? There is a very simple 1 word answer. It is by Faith! Faith is NOT an emotion. It is not a set of circumstances which we can see. It is acting uncompromisingly on God’s Word. The apostles learned this powerful truth in their walk with Jesus. They knew the difficulty they had in forgiving those who had seriously offended them. Jesus told them specifically how they were to act toward offending brothers. Luke 17:3-5: “Take heed to yourselves: if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, Forgive Him. And if he trespass against thee 7 times in a day, and 7 times in a day turn again to thee saying, I Repent; thou shalt forgive him.”
. And the apostles said unto the Lord, “Increase our Faith.” Please notice the answer of the Apostles, “Increase our Faith.” They knew that they could not act on their emotions or the surrounding circumstances which they could see. They must act on His spoken words. They needed increased faith for increased forgiving. Hearing and acting on God’s word will increase your faith, and increased faith will give you increased power to forgive.

. When you forgive by faith, you can also claim divine power to forget by faith. It is divine to forgive, but it is also divine to forget. Forgiveness is a powerful force. We can loose others with our forgiveness, or we can bind them with our unforgiveness. We can loose ourselves from torment by forgiving, or place ourselves in torment by not forgiving.
. In Matthew 18:23-25, Jesus told a story about a man who owed a king 10,000 talents in Gold. (Today that is worth at least $290,850,000). To even begin to pay the debt, that man would have to sell his wife and children into slavery. But the King had compassion and loosed him by forgiving the debt. How free the servant must have felt and how overwhelmed he must have been with the compassion and goodness of the King! But then the roles in the story were reversed. The forgiven servant also has a debtor who owed him the equivalent of $17. What a contrast on the amounts of money owed. Also, in contrast to the benevolent King, this servant becomes irate with his debtor and throws him into debtors prison. The king hears of his servants behavior and is greatly disappointed. He turns the ungrateful servant over to the tormentors until his debt is paid. The end of this story is very sad. One man is bound in prison because of another’s unforgiveness and the unforgiving servant is being tormented.

. We are living in a very dangerous condition if we don’t forgive, for we will live in torment. If we don’t forgive others, then Jesus will not forgive us. If we plan not to forgive those who have wronged us, we better make plans to never sin again, for there will be no forgiveness for us from our Heavenly Father. But, when we do forgive, we loose our forgiven offender. We have freed him by our faith, for whatsoever we loose on earth is loosed in heaven. Heaven will begin to work on him and our prayer power will increase. Jesus said in Matthew 18:18 “Verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.”

. We can either eradicate people with our unforgiveness, or we can edify them with forgiveness. But that is a decision we must make. Joseph made a decision to forgive. If he had not forgiven his brothers, he could have wiped out the whole Jewish nation by refusing them food. Instead he forgave them and edified them by giving them food.
. The Apostle Paul decided to forgive, also. He said that he would be accursed that his brethren might be saved. The Jews had him beaten many times and treated him cruelly; but instead of wanting to eradicate them, he chose to edify them. . Jesus could have eradicated us because of our sins but, instead, His one desire was to edify us. Therefore, He forgave us. Paul said in Philippians 3:10 “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.”

. If we are to know Jesus and His sufferings, we will feel what He felt for those who offended Him. He died on the cross for our sins because He Loves us and Forgave us. Paul felt the same feelings of Jesus for he wanted to die for his persecutors.

. These are truths to live by. If we take the feelings of Jesus for our offenders, it will not be the end of our forgiving, only the beginning; for forgiveness is a twin to faith and is the DIVINE way of living.

Marilyn Hickey
Charisma Magazine, 10-81

Computers for Christ – Chicago