After my ponderings and posting yesterday I thought I would share with you what happened to be a follow up on forgiveness posted on the Desiring God blog.
"Forgiveness of an unrepentant person doesn't look the same as a repentant person. In fact I am not sure that in the Bible the term forgiveness is ever applied to an unrepentant person. Jesus said in Luke 17:3-4 "Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying 'I repent', forgive him." So there's a sense in which full forgiveness is only possible in response to repentance.
But even when a person does not repent (cf Matthew 18:17), we are commanded to love our enemy and pray for those who persecute us and do good to those who hate us. (Luke 6:27) The difference is when a person who wronged us does not repent with contrition and confession and conversion (turning from sin to righteousness), he cuts off the full work of forgiveness. We can still lay down our ill will; we can hand our anger over to God; we can seek to do him good; but we cannot carry through reconciliation or intimacy."
This is definatley giving me more to ponder and I hope it does the same for you.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Desiring God
About 6 weeks ago I found a blog titled "Desiring God" the contributors are pastors at Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis. Some of their posts are informational about work their church or projects they are connected with are working on and others are truly thought provoking as they reflect on the Bible. Yes, sometimes I disagree with their theology but I overall the blog is well worth my time and is helping me grow in my faith.
The angle they approach some topics with makes me stop, look and think about the Bible in ways I have never done before. My thinking and beliefs are challenged and for this I am thankful as it causes me to learn and grow. Yesterday, Tyler Kenney posted on Forgiveness and Forgiving. It was actually a post that was an extension of a previous post. I was entrigued by this excert:
"If we tell others "I forgive your sin" even though they refuse to acknowledge their sin, we remove the very incentive the gospel places upon them to confess their sins and to seek forgiveness. If we take preemptive action by granting forgiveness of sin to those who do not repent, on what basis could the church ever follow the procedures of Matthew 18:15-17?"
This excert truly spoke to me as I have had several conversations with people where I talk about feeling wronged by another person and the response I receive is "you need to forgive them". While I do not deny the need to forgive them I tend to respond with "why should I forgive them if they've never asked for forgiveness? Aren't I telling them what they did was ok if they never had to say they're sorry?" For this reason the post made me feel a little better about my reaction to people when they tell me I need to simply forgive the other person. But it also causes me to reflect on the fact that the real missing element may be my lack of going to the person, calling them on their sin and seeing if they will repent so that I can offer forgiveness. That is the scary thought because it forces me to action when I feel wronged. It also puts me in a vulnerable position of making a situation worse.
So ultimately what do I take away. 1) that we should openly confess our wrong doings to people, say we're sorry and ask people for forgiveness 2) that we should offer forgiveness to people when they ask for it 3) we should follow the words of Matthew 18:15-17 by confronting people when they have wronged us in the hope that they will see what their actions have done to us and through that they can ask for forgiveness, we can give forgiveness and our relationship will be repaired and improved and our relationship with God will probably be even better too!
The angle they approach some topics with makes me stop, look and think about the Bible in ways I have never done before. My thinking and beliefs are challenged and for this I am thankful as it causes me to learn and grow. Yesterday, Tyler Kenney posted on Forgiveness and Forgiving. It was actually a post that was an extension of a previous post. I was entrigued by this excert:
"If we tell others "I forgive your sin" even though they refuse to acknowledge their sin, we remove the very incentive the gospel places upon them to confess their sins and to seek forgiveness. If we take preemptive action by granting forgiveness of sin to those who do not repent, on what basis could the church ever follow the procedures of Matthew 18:15-17?"
This excert truly spoke to me as I have had several conversations with people where I talk about feeling wronged by another person and the response I receive is "you need to forgive them". While I do not deny the need to forgive them I tend to respond with "why should I forgive them if they've never asked for forgiveness? Aren't I telling them what they did was ok if they never had to say they're sorry?" For this reason the post made me feel a little better about my reaction to people when they tell me I need to simply forgive the other person. But it also causes me to reflect on the fact that the real missing element may be my lack of going to the person, calling them on their sin and seeing if they will repent so that I can offer forgiveness. That is the scary thought because it forces me to action when I feel wronged. It also puts me in a vulnerable position of making a situation worse.
So ultimately what do I take away. 1) that we should openly confess our wrong doings to people, say we're sorry and ask people for forgiveness 2) that we should offer forgiveness to people when they ask for it 3) we should follow the words of Matthew 18:15-17 by confronting people when they have wronged us in the hope that they will see what their actions have done to us and through that they can ask for forgiveness, we can give forgiveness and our relationship will be repaired and improved and our relationship with God will probably be even better too!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Prayer Requests
We had our call meeting today and now we must pray even more for Zion that our hearts would be seeking the will of God. We must also pray for Bethel Lutheran as they face the call process with their pastor and we must pray for Pastor Jeff that he may follow the will of God in his life and ministry.
Trusting Jesus
Last week we did trust walks which can for some of us prove to be very challenging. When we are asked to put on a blind fold and listen to the directions of another person we did not choose trusting that they will guide us carefully, keeping us from harm can be difficult. Then when we took the aspect of talking away the challenge increased. The level of concern definately rose when you heard running water and weren't certain what was being done, would I be pouring water over your head, running your hand under water or making you take a drink probably all crossed your minds. It was definately amusing to watch you try and drink the water which for some was very difficult! In the end you all did well and said that trusting your guide was not difficult.
Often our relationship with Jesus is this way. We make choices knowing that he is guiding us but also knowing that we are very uncertain and trusting what we believe Jesus wants us to do. Prayer and Bible study help us in this endeavor but stil there are times when we question what is going on because we do not see the path that Jesus is seeing clearly. At these times we need to trust through faith that God will continue to keep his promise to take care of us even when we doubt him. My prayer for you is that as you make decisions and face difficult times that you would seek God and his will for you.
Often our relationship with Jesus is this way. We make choices knowing that he is guiding us but also knowing that we are very uncertain and trusting what we believe Jesus wants us to do. Prayer and Bible study help us in this endeavor but stil there are times when we question what is going on because we do not see the path that Jesus is seeing clearly. At these times we need to trust through faith that God will continue to keep his promise to take care of us even when we doubt him. My prayer for you is that as you make decisions and face difficult times that you would seek God and his will for you.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Happy Resurrection!
Happy Resurrection to all of you! Holy Week definately ranks in my favorite of the holidays as it reminds of Christmas time when the hype is big. Holy Week is the same for me as it builds the hype for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday what an eventful 4 days in the church! I hope that your Holy Week was Christ filled and allowed for great times with family and friends. It was great to have so many of you over last Wednesday to hang out, enjoy pizza and enjoy Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. I don't believe I've watched a movie where everyone collectively made fun of it throughout, definately a high light. We'll see you tomorrow and hopefully many of you can make it to the voters meeting on Sunday. It will be amazing to see how God is working in us at Zion as we call a new pastor.
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