Month: February 2014

Forgiveness
28 Day Love Challenge · branch and fruit · Christian. · February · Love

Forgiveness

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Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 13

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

A conviction hangs heavy on my heart.  The negative aspects of this statement regarding Agape love hits dead on.

It keeps no record of wrongs?  Love does not delight in evil.

In thinking about love, it becomes clear to me that before I can love others with Agape love I must learn to forgive.

Not superficial forgiveness–not just me saying it’s okay when you say you are sorry.  But the type of forgiveness that does not keep score.  The kind of forgiveness that does not plot subtle revenge.  And this forgiveness is not just for the big things that happen, but the resentments I have collected over time.  The ones where the perpetrator doesn’t even realize I am holding a grudge.

I must forgive people not just for harming me, but for hurting the ones I love.  That is a lot harder.  I must forgive them when they spread gossip and tell lies.  And when they do not stop others who are gossiping and lying.  I must forgive them when they verbally attack my friend.  I must forgive them when they act mean and cruel.  I must forgive them when they choose to turn a blind eye to what is wrong because they personally benefit.  I must forgive them when I feel like they only friend me when they want something.

My thoughts about how to get even are wrong.  When I believe I am fighting evil, but do not wish good for the person involved; then I am wrong.  Their evil does not make it okay for me to wish them harm.  I should not meet evil with evil.  But even more than that, everything on my list above could be said about me at some point.  My lack of forgiveness acts as a fertilizer to my unjust anger and the absence of love in my heart.

Look up forgiveness and an interesting lesson appears.  Jesus discusses forgiveness in Matthew 6 in the mist of his teachings on not making a show of your righteous acts.  Here is what he says:

Matthew 6

14 For if you forgive people their trespasses [their]reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

15 But if you do not forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses.

God forgives us as we forgive others.  Can you imagine reaching heaven and having God point out every time you failed Him?  What if each time I fail HIm, the Lord said, “There you go again!  I knew your weren’t really sorry or you wouldn’t keep doing it.”  Or what if God, angry with me, plotted against me and not for me?

I want my sins to be forgiven and forgotten.  I want them to be as far as the East is from the West.  I don’t want them listed in the book of life.  I want them erased and forgotten.

So how do you forgive?  There seems to be two types of things here.

The small thoughtless slights.  The pain that comes from being forgotten or betrayed.  These I need to take to the Lord.  I need to follow Christ’s example and ask God to forgive those who hurt me.  I am more and more convinced you cannot wish harm for someone if you are asking God to intervene and to help.  So in these situations, I think you have to say to God “Forgive them they know not what they do”  Ask God to take the pain from you or to allow you to grow from the pain.  I don’t think this can be a general thing.  I think it has to be a very specific thing.  God I am feeling resentment against Joe and I ask you to forgive Joe for this sin and I ask you to forgive me for these feelings. Please take them from me.

The second type of harm is more deliberate and harmful.  People making up lies.  People gossiping.  People attacking someone who cannot defend themselves.  People stealing.  People breaking vows. People plotting to harm another.

Galatians 6
6 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

When we see a fellow Christian hurting others, we must take steps to restore them.  But it should only occur after prayer.  And before dealing with another person, be sure you have looked at your own life and dealt with similar sin.

Then you can approach the person who causing harm.   As you go to them, your first concern is for the people involved.  The person who is at fault and the person being harmed.

Today I am specifically asking God to forgive me for my unforgiveness.  I am praying for each resentment I hold and for each person I resent.  I am asking God to prune my tendency to hold grudges so I may learn to love in the spirit.

Love Challenge
Branch and fruit · Christian. · February · Love · Valentines · Vine · Vine

Love Challenge

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In the flesh, I cannot love with Agape love.  This level of love is a self sacrificing concern for others in the small day to day and in the big lay your life down type of thing.
But this month of Love, I am Challenging myself to seek to be a person of Agape love.

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul tells us that without Agape love our Christian walk is like loud clanging bang.  I take his words to mean that if we do not have this level of love everything else we do as Christians is worthless.  We are called to love.

1 Corinthians 13

New International Version (NIV)

13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

We are told in Galatians 5 that Agape love is a fruit of the Spirit.

Life by the Spirit

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

 

So how does a person live by the Spirit?  This is what Jesus said in John 15.

John 15

New International Version (NIV)

The Vine and the Branches

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.14 You are my friends if you do what I command.15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit —fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

Tomorrow, I start my February Challenge.  To walk in the Spirit.  To allow Christ to love others through me.  To be aware of those around me and to ask Jesus to create fruit from my branches even if it means God, the father, has to do some pruning.

Pray for me and if you are up for it, join me, as I ask God to create the fruit of Agape love in me (1 Corinthians 13) as described by Paul.