Forgiveness in Christian preaching centers on releasing resentment and extending grace as God does to us, fostering reconciliation and peace among believers (Ephesians 4:32). Illustrations often depict forgiveness as a transformative act—like forgetting offenses, softening enemies, or offering fragrant grace after injury—that requires humility, continual commitment, and a willingness to overcome bitterness and jealousy (Colossians 3:13).
Karl Menninger, the famous psychiatrist, says that if he could convince the patients in his psychiatric hospitals that their sins are forgiven, 75 percent of them could walk out the next day. So often we do not take God at his Word.
We all have seen and used those little electronic calculators. What happens if you get your information confused or make an error? You press the “clear” button and automatically all of the information is eliminated from the calculator. Then you begin again, without trying to sort out the previous mistake. In fact, there is no record of your mistake! It is lost forever!
That’s what happens to our sins when God forgives us. The consequences may remain, but the guilt - the legal condemnation for the offense - is gone.
For the last several years an Olathe, Kansas, lawyer has engaged in
a most amazing practice. At Christmastime, James Conard, has forgiven
from $5,000 to $10,000 in past-due debts owed him by clients.
Two insights led conard to do this. First, he realized debt
creates bondage and that God intended forgiveness to be material as
well as spiritual. Second, he realized the unpaid debts produced
resentment in his life.
His first experience of forgiving the debts felt so good he has
continued the practice. Prior to Christmas, clients who haven't paid
on their bills in several months receive a letter explaining the
canceled debt.
A portion of the letter reads: "Your bill, a copy of which is
enclosed, is forgiven in its entirety. In exchange, I would ask two
things of you if I could. First, would you forgive me if I have
offended you during or since my representation of you? Second, would
you during the next month forgive at least one person who owes you
money or has offended you? May you have a most blessed Christmas and
New Year." 1
Conard knows he risks being taken advantage of, but for him the joy
of forgiveness is worth the risk.
Forgiveness is always costly, risky business. But hasn't that been
the message of the cross all along? __________ 1. From {The
Reconciler} The newsletter of The Christian Conciliaion Service of
Kansas City, March, 1991
By ROBERT WELLER Associated Press Writer edited by Shelton Cole
LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) - John Robert Tomlin was remembered today as a shy teen who liked his Chevy truck, the Green Bay Packers and Jesus.
His was the first of many services for victims of the Columbine High School shooting that will be held in Colorado through the weekend.
A friend recalled his devotion to religion - he was a member of the non-denominational Christian church where the service was held, and a member of a Baptist youth group.
After the service, John's mother, Doreen Tomlin told reporters: ``He was such a good kid. But he was shy.'' Last summer the teen-ager worked as volunteer building homes for poor people in Juarez, Mexico.
``What got John to heaven was his faith not his hard work,'' Youngblood said. ``John, I'm on my way. You just beat me there.''
Tomlin's father, John, told reporters: ``First I'd like to say to the families of the children who did this we'll be praying with them and we feel no hatred toward them.''
The father also didn't want to blame school administrators for failing to recognize that some members of the Trenchcoat group were a danger.
``The only system that failed is that God is left out of everything,'' he said.
Many reconciliations have broken down because both parties have
come prepared to forgive and unprepared to be forgiven.
A man who was telling his friend about an argument he'd had with
his wife commented, "Oh, how I hate it, every time we have an
argument; she gets historical."
The friend replied, "You mean hysterical."
"No," he insisted. "I mean historical. Every time we argue she
drags up everything from the past and holds it agains me!"
Prospero, when finally given a chance to punish those who had
removed him of his rightful place as king, states, "Let us not burden
our remembrance with a heaviness that's gone.
- William Shakespeare, {The Tempest}
Nome, Alaska, on the edge of the Bering Sea, is like many villages of the Arctic. The ground on which the community sits is frozen, sponge-like tundra. Burying the dead is a real challange. Sanitation landfills are unheard of. Garbage trucks do not haul off the kind of refuse we leave curbside in the "lower 48." Instead a typical front yard displays broken washing machines, junked cars, old toilets, scrap wood, and piles of nondegradable refuse.
Tourists who visit Nome in the summer are amazed at the debris and shake their heads. How could anyone live like that, they wonder. What those visitors do not realize is that for nine months of the year Nome sits under a blanket of snow that covers the garbage. During those months, the little Iditarod town is a quaint winter wonderland of pure white landscapes. The reality of grace is that the garbage of our lives has been covered by a blanket of forgiveness. The prophet Isaiah declares that the blight of our sin, once red as crimson, is now white as freshly fallen snow. And unlike the situation in Nome, our sin is covered forever!
--Greg Asimakoupoulos
Not long before she died in 1988, in a moment of surprising candor in television, Marghanita Laski, one of our best-known secular humanists and novelists, said, "What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me."
John Stott in The Contemporary Christian
Unknown
The art of forgiving is a spiritual grace every Christian should develop. Because this is so difficult to put into practice, he offers the following suggestions:
1) Begin by assuring yourself that compared to Christ's suffering you haven't been seriously wronged at all. 2) Recall the many kind deeds that have been shown to you, perhaps even by the person who has harmed you. 3) List the benefits you have received from the Lord. 4) Thank Him for blessing you with His love and forgiveness each day. 5) Make an honest effort to pray for the one who has injured you. 6) Go even further by looking for an opportunity to help him. 7) If the offense is especially hard to forget, try to erase the memory by thinking gracious and generous thoughts. 8) Finally, before you fall asleep at night, repeat slowly and thoughtfully that phrase from the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us
our debts, as we forgive our debtors."
Roy L. Smith
Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I have won Others to sin? and made my sin their door? Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun A year or two, but wallowed in a score? When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done, For I have more.
I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun My last thread, I shall perish on the shore; Swear by Thy self, that at my death Thy Son Shall shine as he shines now and heretofore; And, having done that, Thou hast done, I fear no more.
John Donne, 1623
A letter written to a man on death row by the Father of the man whom the man on death row had killed:
You are probably surprised that I, of all people, am writing a letter to you, but I ask you to read it in its entirety and consider its request seriously. As the Father of the man whom you took part in murdering, I have something very important to say to you.
I forgive you. With all my heart, I forgive you. I realize it may be hard for you to believe, but I really do. At your trial, when you confessed to your part in the events that cost my Son his life and asked for my forgiveness, I immediately granted you that forgiving love from my heart. I can only hope you believe me and will accept my forgiveness.
But this is not all I have to say to you. I want to make you an offer -- I want you to become my adopted child. You see, my Son who died was my only child, and I now want to share my life with you and leave my riches to you. This may not make sense to you or anyone else, but I believe you are worth the offer. I have arranged matters so that if you will receive my offer of forgiveness, not only will you be pardoned for your crime, but you also will be set free from your imprisonment, and your sentence of death will be dismissed. At that point, you will become my adopted child and heir to all my riches.
I realize this is a risky offer for me to make to you -- you might be tempted to reject my offer completely -- but I make it to you without reservation.
Also, I realize it may seem foolish to make such an offer to one who cost my Son his life, but I now have a great love and an unchangeable forgiveness in my heart for you.
Finally, you may be concerned that once you accept my offer you may do something to cause you to be denied your rights as an heir to my wealth. Nothing could be further from the truth. If I can forgive you for your part in my Son's death, I can forgive you for anything. I know you never will be perfect, but you do not have to be perfect to receive my offer. Besides, I believe that once you have accepted my offer and begin to experience the riches that will come to you from me, that your primary (though not always) response will be gratitude and loyalty.
Some would call me foolish for my offer to you, but I wish for you to call me your Father.
The Father of Jesus
Christians Online
We trample the blood of the Son of God if we think we are forgiven because we are sorry for our sins. The only explanation for the forgiveness of God and for the unfathomable depth of His forgetting is the death of Jesus Christ. Our repentance is merely the outcome of our personal realization of the atonement which He has worked out for us.
It does not matter who or what we are; there is absolute reinstatement into God by the death of Jesus Christ and by no other way, not because Jesus Christ pleads, but because He died. It is not earned, but accpeted. All the pleading which deliberately refuses to recognize the Cross is of no avail; it is battering at a door other than the one that Jesus has opened. Our Lord does not pretend we are all right when we are all wrong. The atonement is a propitiation whereby God, through the death of Jesus, makes an unholy man holy.
Oswald Chambers
Recently, a frail black woman rose slowly to her feet in a South African courtroom. She was 70-something, the years deeply etched on her face. Facing her from across the room were several white security police officers. One, a Mr. van der Broek, had just been found guilty of murdering the woman’s son and her husband.
The man had come to the woman’s home a number of years earlier. He had taken her son, shot him at pointblank range, and then burned his body while he and some other officers reveled in the act.
Several years later, van der Broek had returned to take away her husband as well. For two years, she could learn nothing of what happened to him. Then, van der Broek came back for the woman herself. She was led to a place beside a river. There, she saw her husband bound and beaten, lying on a pile of wood. The last words she heard from his lips as the officers poured gasoline over his body and set him aflame were, “Father, forgive them.”
But not long ago, justice caught up with Mr. van der Broek. He had been found guilty, and it was time to determine his sentence. And as the woman stood, the presiding official of the court asked, “So, what do you want? How should justice be done to this man who has so brutally destroyed your family?”
In reply, the woman said, “I want three things. I want first to be taken to the place where my husband’s body was burned so that I can gather up the dust and give his remains a decent burial.”
She pauses, then continues. “My husband and son were my only family. I want, secondly, therefore, for Mr. van der Broek to become my son. I would like for him to come twice a month to the ghetto and spend a day with me so that I can pour out on him whatever love I still have remaining within me.”
“And, finally,” she says, “I want a third thing. I would like Mr. Van der Broek to know that I offer him my forgiveness because Jesus Christ died to forgive. This was also the wish of my husband. And so, I would kindly ask someone to come to my side and lead me across the courtroom so that I can take Mr. van der Broek in my arms, embrace him and let him know that he is truly forgiven.”
As the court assistants led the elderly woman across the courtroom, Mr. van der Broek, overwhelmed by what he heard, fainted. Then quietly, from those in the courtroom, friends, family, and neighbors – all victims of similar oppression and injustice – began to sing “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found. ‘Twas blind, but now I see.
============
Another version adapted from the internet:
One of the great acts of forgiveness in our lifetime has been the powerful stories coming out of South Africa. After the black Africans under Mandela gained power they set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Commission sought to bring about justice for all the crimes that had been committed under apartheid. But instead of punishing the evildoers, it sought to reconcile both sides. And these were two sides that had been at each other’s throats for centuries.
In an emotionally charged courtroom, a South African woman stood with her silent tears, listening to white police officers acknowledge their atrocities. Officer van de Broek admitted that he had shot her 18-year-old son at point-blank range. Then, he and others partied while they burned her son’s body, turning it over and over until it was reduced to ashes.
Eight years later van de Broek and his associates returned to seize her husband. She was forced to watch while they poured gasoline over him and set him on fire. As the flames consumed him, her husband’s last words were simply, “Forgive them.”
Now, van de Broek awaited judgment. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission asked the woman what she wanted. Calmly weeping, she said, “I want three things. I want Mr. van de Broek to take me to the place where they buried my husband’s body so I can gather up the dust and give him a proper burial.”
“Second, Mr. van de Broek took all my family from me, and I still have a lot of love to give. So twice a month, I would like for him to come to the ghetto and spend a day with me so I can be a mother to him.”
“Third, I would like Mr. Van de Broek to know that he is forgiven by God, and that I forgive him. I would like to embrace him so he will know my forgiveness is real.”
As the elderly woman walked slowly across the courtroom, Officer van de Broek stood to receive her embrace and fainted. He was overwhelmed by the spiritual power of this African woman. In the back of the courtroom, someone began to sing Amazing Grace.
And so it was. It was the grace of a woman infected with Easter, who could not let hatred and death have the final word in her life.
submitted by
Matthew Cole
One rainy afternoon I was driving along one of the main streets of town, taking those extra precautions necessary when the roads are wet and slick.
Suddenly, my son Matthew spoke up from his relaxed position in the front seat. "Mom, I'm thinking of something."
This announcement usually meant he had been pondering some fact for a while and was now ready to expound all that his seven-year-old mind had discovered.
I was eager to hear. "What are you thinking?" I asked. "The rain," he began, "is like sin. And the windshield wipers are like God, wiping our sins away.
After the chill bumps-raced up my arms, I was able to respond, "That's really good, Matthew." Then my curiosity broke in. How far would this little boy take this revelation? So I asked, "Do you notice how the rain keeps on coming? What does that tell you?"
Matthew didn't hesitate one moment with his answer. "We keep on sinning and God just keeps on forgiving us."
"Be still and know that I am God" Psalm 46:10
Series on Psalms. Psalm 32:1-7
SILENT WASTING
==============
I. Are you a happy person?
A. "Blessed" recalls the Beatitudes of Jesus.
B. Many people are miserable.
II. Releasing the burden. 32:3-5
A. Before David was forgiven, he was stubborn.
B. God doesn't have to forgive.
C. Unforgiveness bears a steep price.
III. Coming clean before God. 32:1,2,5
A. Three words for sin and God's remedy.
B. God wants people who are deceit-free.
IV. Don't wait till it's too late. 32:6-10
A. Many wait until the situation is overwhelming.
B. God is our hiding place. 32:7
C. Don't be as stubborn as a mule.
V. The joy of forgiveness. 32:11
A. Joy pervades this psalm.
B. Letter from a recovering alcoholic.
Cosmus, [Cosmo de’Medici (1389-1464) a banker and statesmen of Florence who was a famous patron of the arts] Duke of Florence, had a desperate saying against perfidious and neglecting friends, as if these wrongs were unpardonable:
“You shall read (saith he) that we are commanded to forgive our
enemies, [Matthew 6:12] but you never read that we are commanded
to forgive our friends.” [!!!] … This is certain, that a man that
studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would
heal and do well.
*
1. When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Chorus
It is well with my soul,
it is well, it is well with my soul.
2. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
3. My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
4. And, Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
[See illustrations #4241, #12345, #18642]
*
Louis Zamperini was still in his teens when he competed in the 1936 Olympics. He planned to compete again in 1940, but World War II altered those plans. Instead, Zamperini enlisted and was sent to Hawaii. On a rescue mission, he crash-landed in the ocean off the Marshall Islands and was taken prisoner by Japanese troops. The commander of his POW camp was a notoriously brutal man named Mutsuhiro Watanabe. Zamperini suffered through months of torture before his camp was liberated.
After the war, Zamperini had constant nightmares and fantasized about killing Watanabe. But at a Billy Graham crusade, he gave his life to Christ and found peace. In 1998, Louis Zamperini was invited to speak at the Olympics held in Nagano, Japan. He invited Mutsuhiro Watanabe, now a retired salesman, to appear with him on the podium. Zamperini had long ago forgiven Watanabe. Watanabe refused the offer. Zamperini still dreams of the day when he can offer his forgiveness face to face to his former tormentor.
_____________________
H. Dale Burke. A Love That Never Fails (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 109-111.
[for a more complete illustration see HolwickID #63070]
"Forgiveness is a beautiful word until you are the one who has to forgive," said Debbie Morris, who was brutally raped as a 16-year-old by Robert Lee Willie, the prisoner whose life was chronicled in the 1995 movie, "Dead Man Walking," starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn.
Sharing her testimony, Morris said, "Forgiveness is a difficult thing to do sometimes. It takes courage. It takes faith."
Morris, now living in Mandeville, Louisiana, with her family, was kidnapped along with her teenage boyfriend, Mark, taken to a remote area in south Alabama and viciously attacked.
Morris recounted her thoughts when she was raped for the first time, while her boyfriend was confined in the trunk of their car.
"I would survive, no matter what I have to endure," she remembered thinking, acknowledging her resolve had to have come from the God she had accepted two years before.
She also remembered wanting to remember every single detail, the look of her captors' faces, so that she could later help convict her attackers. "I was so filled with hate and with the need for revenge," she said.
While she was repeatedly raped over a 24-hour period, her boyfriend was taken into the woods, hung on a tree, shot in the head and stabbed in the side, his neck slashed, and left for dead. Miraculously, he survived and is married to another woman.
Morris recalled thinking in the midst of the attacks, "Where is God right now -- the God that I love? Does he even exist?"
That answer would come much later for Morris when Willie was seated in the courtroom answering for his actions.
"Why did you let her go?" Willie had been asked. "I know it was a stupid thing to do," he responded. "But there was something different about her. When I looked into her eyes, I saw love."
Morris could not believe her ears. Love? Disgust, contempt, hatred, but surely not love, she said.
"When I thought that I had been abandoned by God, he really was there," she said. What Willie saw was not her love, she said, but the love of Jesus Christ in her, who was looking back at him.
After long, grueling trials, Vaccaro and Willie were sentenced for numerous crimes. Willie was given the death penalty, which at that time in Louisiana meant the electric chair.
"Even with the revenge that I felt," Morris said, "[the punishment] was a heavy burden for a 16-year-old to carry into life."
Though justice had been served, and it was time to go on with life as it was before, Morris felt bitter and scared and her whole world was turned upside down. "It didn't matter to me anymore whether I was a cheerleader or homecoming queen," she said. "It didn't matter if I even passed."
Fearing the state psychiatric hospital in a nearby city, Morris kept her depressed feelings to herself, which eventually led her to drop out of high school, where she was once an honor student.
She turned to alcohol, like her parents, even after promising earlier in her life that she never would.
When the time came for justice to be carried out through Willie's execution, Morris realized that all she wanted was peace. "I had held on to this hope that once justice was served, I would be healed" and experience peace and resolution.
"There's no justice in this world," she recounted. "There is no justice in our justice system. We answer to a much higher justice system."
Morris realized that the people, alcohol and other things she had tried did not give her that peace. Instead, she asked God to reveal himself to her again, to help her forgive the man who had done these terrible things to her.
The morning after Willie was executed, Morris admitted that she was not healed immediately, but she did feel a burden lifted from her. Knowing that forgiveness was a process, Morris set about to learn about complete forgiveness.
"I learned that I had turned my back on the Lord, and I needed his forgiveness," she shared." Forgiveness is something I did for me," she said. "Robert Lee Willie did not benefit that night because of my forgiveness. He died in the electric chair that night. But I got new life when I forgave."
Morris recounted how later, one night when she was nursing her newborn son, she began to think of Willie's mother, who had aided and abetted her son in escaping from prison on a prior conviction, and who had lied about her on the witness stand.
"I began to realize that there was a time when Robert's mother held her newborn son in her arms, dreaming of the life ahead for him," Morris said. "For a moment, I felt a bond with her. For the first time, I understood a love so strong that we might do something wrong to protect that love.
"God softened my heart toward this mother," Morris told the WMU audience.
Later, when Morris saw the movie "Dead Man Walking," she saw the scene when Willie's mother visited her son for the last time before his execution. She had to say goodbye without wrapping her arms around her child one more time.
"Our hearts must go out to these women," Morris said tearfully.
She related how she later had a burning desire to go to her rapist's mother, to ask her for forgiveness for holding a grudge against her, but found that she had died from cancer.
"I realized, again, that I was the one who needed forgiveness," she said, noting that forgiveness has different outcomes. "God's may not always include restoration, but forgiveness is for everyone. "Though she had understood that intellectually, it wasn't until she went on TV to share her story that she realized there was still a part of her that felt Willie did not deserve to be in heaven.
She has since understood that God's love is boundless and his mercies are unfailing for all people. Though there was no evidence that Willie ever repented or accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior, Morris said that if he did accept Jesus in the final minutes or seconds of his life, she will welcome him in heaven, where she knows she will be.
"As a Christian, I realized that I was required to forgive," she said, before challenging her audience to examine their own lives.
"Look at the co-worker who received the promotion you deserved or your husband deserved. Look at the committee member who always thinks their ideas are the best. Even in our churches, look at the catty gossiping that takes place. Think about the people who have children on the same sports teams as your children. Think about your husband's ex-girlfriends or new wife.
"God is very clear about how we should treat these difficult people," she said, drawing from Matthew 5. "We are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.
"It takes courage to love those who seem unlovable. It takes faith to forgive in our humanness those we declare as unforgivable.
"Will you accept the forgiveness of someone else or forgive someone today?"
Sermon in Colossians series. Colossians 3:12-14
THE LATEST FASHION
==================
I. Slaves of fashion.
II. We have to dress right for God's sake.
A. Three things God has done for us.
B. What we should do for God.
III. The five garments of fashionable Christians.
A. Compassion.
B. Kindness.
C. Humility.
D. Gentleness.
E. Patience.
IV. Our final accessory should be love.
A. Agape love.
B. Love binds it all together in perfect unity.
C. Start adding to your wardrobe.
*
In the house where I grew up, we drank a lot of milk. In the house where my wife grew up, they tried to get her to drink a lot of milk. But there was one glass of milk Karen had when she was a little girl that sort of ruined milk for her from then on. It had this really bitter taste - and her parents, not knowing how it tasted, forced her to finish drinking it. Well, as Farm Girl explained it to City Boy here, their cows had apparently been eating something called bitterweed - which turns what they produce into something bitter. Just ask my wife.
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Feeding On Bitterweed."
When cows feed on something bitter, they start producing something that's bitter. So do we. That's why God warns us in Hebrews 12:15, our word for today from the Word of God: "See to it that no one misses the grace of God." Now, that's a horrible thought. God's grace is something we cannot afford to miss. How does that happen? It goes on to say "...and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many." Don't let any bitterweed - or bitter root - grow up in your heart. If you do, it will ruin the taste of many things in your life.
And bitterness grows when it's fed. When you allow yourself to feed on things that are bitter. And there is always plenty of bitterweed to feed on if you let yourself. You can focus on your frustrations (there are always plenty of those) ... on your failures or the failures of others. You can focus on how you've been hurt or how you've been mistreated. You can hang out with positive people or negative people. You can listen to and participate in conversations that tear people down or that build people up. You can store up resentment in this emotional savings account, constantly rehearsing the bad things that have happened - or you can count your blessings and concentrate on the positive things around you.
A bitter spot in your heart never stays the same size. It just keeps growing if you don't deal with it. And one problem with bitterness is that it really doesn't much hurt the person you're bitter against, but it eats you alive on the inside. You don't hold a grudge - a grudge holds you. Those spiritual toxins you've allowed to grow in your system can ruin some of the beautiful things in your life. Remember, bitterness "causes trouble and defiles many" - including people you live with, people you work with, and people you go to church with.
And it apparently limits what God can do in your life. Either the grace of God pushes out your bitterness or your bitterness pushes out the grace of God. Think about it. Do you find yourself turning harder, more critical, more caustic, more negative? Then consider what you've been feeding on. It could be you've allowed yourself to spend way too much time grazing on bitterweed.
If you need to forgive someone, forgive them. If there's something you need to let go, please let it go. Apologize if you need to apologize. Go talk to that person if you need to. Drop out of the gossip chain. Avoid those negative people. Do whatever it takes to attack the bitterweed in your heart, or it's just going to keep growing and you've got to stop before it grows any more before it makes everything taste bitter.
________________
Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"
*
In the Bible the story of King David reads much like a modern day epic. He inspires us with his bravery and we root for him when he is struggling. But perhaps the most profound lesson we can learn from David is how to truly deal with the guilt in our lives. I am referring to the story of David when Nathan confronted him about his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba.
After Nathan presented the parable of the man with many sheep who had stolen the only lamb of another, David could not resist declaring, "That man should surely die." Without him realizing, he had passed the right judgement upon himself. Nathan’s stare must have been devastating to David when he said, "You are the man."
Think of the number of ways that David could have dealt with his guilt. He could have had Nathan arrested and killed. He could have blamed Bathsheba. He could have claimed the divine right of kings. Arrogance could have found ways of self-exoneration. Murder and adultery were incredibly seriously offenses. Instead, he fell on his face before God and cried out with these heart-wrenching words found in Psalm 51:
"Have mercy upon me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
And cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
And my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only have I sinned
And done what is evil in your sight...
Surely you desire truth in the inner parts;...
Cleanse me...wash me...Create in me a clean heart, O God
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it...
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."
There is not a more familiar psalm of contrition. Here the worst of wrongdoing and guilt found forgiveness and peace. This is not a cheap prayer seeking escape. David did pay a price for his sin. But David’s heart was mended by understanding the destructiveness of sin and by the restoring touch of God.
Immediately after he prayed that prayer, he wrote in Psalm 32, "Happy is the person whose sin is forgiven." You see, when guilt is surrendered to the grace of God, it makes the sin forgivable. Rather than hearing you are "that" man or woman, we can now hear, "you are forgiven." How thrilling it is to hear those words and find a fresh start in life. Jesus offers that to you and to me.
_________________________
Copyright © 2002 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.
*
On the road to dealing with guilt a subtle but enormous chasm must be crossed. Strange as it sounds, the focus has to shift away from guilt. Let me explain. In Ingmar Bergman’s film WILD STRAWBERRIES he tells the story of a professor who had come before a judge to be sentenced. The judge looked at the accused and declared, "I find you guilty." "Guilty of what?" demanded the professor. "You are guilty of guilt," said the judge. "Is that serious?" asked the professor. "Very serious," answered the judge.
Think for a moment. If guilt is all we have to deal with, where do we go? How does one remove guilt? If only one can take the next step and say, "I am guilty of sin," then the answer comes triumphantly-"Ah! I have a savior for you." Jesus went to the cross to carry that penalty and pay our price. It was not cheap; it was God’s priceless gift of His Son to bear the guilt brought by the sin of the world.
A man once told me how he painfully learned the cost of forgiveness. He had betrayed his wife and family and lived through the anguish of asking for forgiveness and rebuilding their trust. Over a period of time he assumed that even for them, the hurt was mended and the past no longer remembered. One day he returned home from work early and heard his wife, who was on her knees crying and unaware that he was home, asking God to help her forget all that had brought her this pain. It was a rude awakening to him of the cost. Multiply that wrong by a limitless number and you get a glimpse of what Christ bore on the cross for you and for me.
Guilt is a real experience of life, isn’t it? But when it remains as just guilt it is only compounded by self-serving efforts to erase it. Only in our admission of sin is there a genuine restoration. Why? Because we have committed an offense, not only against another human being, but against God. That is what sin is, as unpopular as the word may be. And that is why only God has the ultimate prerogative to forgive. Only then is our guilt erased completely. Only then can the one forgiven genuinely forgive others.
We are all weary of living in a world of unforgiveness and revenge. How great is the forgiveness of God offered to us in Jesus.
_________________________
Copyright © 2002 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.
Every Sunday morning on the way home from church, my wife and I would ask our three year old son to tell us about what he learned in Sunday School. We always knew already, but we liked to see if he was paying attention and learning. One Sunday, the lesson was on Stephen, and how he asked God to forgive the people who were stoning him. I asked my son what we should do if somebody does something mean to us and he replied, "You forgive them and then you die!"
*
1. Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole;
I want You forever to live in my soul;
Break down ev’ry idol, cast out ev’ry foe –
Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
Chorus:
Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow –
Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
2. Lord Jesus, for this I most humbly entreat;
I wait, blessed Lord, at Your crucified feet;
By faith, for my cleansing I see Your blood flow –
Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
3. Lord Jesus, before You I patiently wait;
Come now and within me a new heart create;
To those who have sought You, You never said “No” –
Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
Forgiveness is an uncomfortable, though necessary, issue to confront, Elizabeth Luter said.
"This is not going to be a feel-good class," Luter, women's ministry director at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, said in a class at a leadership conference.
"God is going to get into your issues. Most of you are here because you have a personal problem with forgiveness or you know somebody who does. Either way, it's a personal issue that isn't fun to deal with."
Forgiveness is "a beautiful word until you have something to forgive," Luter said, quoting the author C.S. Lewis.
"I used to hold grudges and was a very unforgiving person," Luter acknowledged. "I've gotten better, and now I can forgive over time." But Luter said God has told her, "You don't have that much time. You need to forgive immediately."
Luter referenced the book "Free to Forgive" by Robert Jeffress and Susan A. Lanford in which myths about forgiveness are examined and questions of how, why and when to forgive are explored.
"Ninety percent of Christians are unforgiving over trivial things," Luter said. "When I have a hard time forgiving someone for making fun of me, God places a story of true forgiveness in my path. He shows me what it means to forgive someone for murder or rape, and I realize that what I'm harboring isn't that significant.
"God knows what causes us to hurt. He made us and he understands us."
Christians must look at life with some perspective, Luter said, asking, "If you can't forgive something that is trivial, what is going to happen when a real issue occurs in your life?"
Many personality traits prevent people from forgiving, Luter noted. Those who are easily insulted or offended often struggle with forgiveness, as do those who have a strong attitude against injustice, she said.
Many people struggle with forgiveness because they feel it denies the seriousness of sin or lets people off the hook too easily, Luter added.
"Just because you forgive someone does not mean that they will not still suffer the consequences," she said. "You can forgive your husband for not sending you child support, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't pay the consequences for breaking the law."
Another myth about forgiveness, she said, is that Christians must also forget as well as forgive.
"Forgiveness is a thing of the heart, and forgetting is a thing of the brain, and that's not how our brain works," Luter said. "God does not forget what we do. He does not hold them against us as sins if we've repented, but the Bible says we will have to give an account of what we've done. We have been released from the obligation of our sin, but not from the consequences."
Forgiveness is freeing, Luter reflected.
"The best reason to forgive is for your benefit. If we hold grudges against others, you are not being punished by God, but you are in fact punishing yourself."
A $5 Trillion Debt
Read: Matthew 18:21-35
I forgave you . . . . Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant. --Matthew 18:32-33
Every year, some US citizens make donations to help reduce the nearly $5 trillion national debt. Since the government began accepting gifts for that purpose in 1961, more than $52 million has been given. That's a lot of money, but it hardly scratches the surface of the debt.
How much is $5 trillion? Think of it like this: If you had $1 trillion and spent $1 million a day -- $365 million a year -- it would take almost 3,000 years to spend all that money. Now multiply that by five.
The servant in the parable of Matthew 18 had an enormous debt. It was so great that the king wanted the servant, his wife, his children, and all he owned to be sold as payment (v.25). He asked for more time and promised to repay all he owed (v.26). But the amount was so huge that there was absolutely no way he could. So the king had compassion on him and forgave the debt. The servant, however, was heartless and showed no mercy to someone who owed him but a fraction of what he had owed the king (vv.28-30).
What was Jesus saying in this parable? He was teaching us what it cost God to forgive us of our sin. And He wants us never to forget the importance of forgiving those who are indebted to us. --DJD
Rejoice, O soul, the debt is paid,
For all our sins on Christ were laid;
We've been redeemed, we're justified--
And all because the Savior died. --DJD
When God says, "I forgive," that should change the way we live.
Pøed mnoha lety žili manželé, kteøí se navzájem odcizili až se nakonec rozešli, opustili své mìsto a každý z nich odešel na jiný konec zemì. Mìli jediného syna, který zemøel.
Jednou musel manžel kvùli nìjakému obchodu pøijet zpìt do svého bývalého mìsta, a tak se šel podívat na høbitov, kde byl pochovám jeho jediný syn. Jak tam stál u hrobu svého syna pohroužený do vzpomínek,uslyšel za sebou kroky, otoèil se a spatøil pøicházet svou manželku. První co oba napadlo, bylo se otoèit a jít pryè. Ale spojoval je stejný zájem u spoleèného hrobu, kde se setkali. A místo toho, aby se jeden od druhého odvrátili, podali si ruce a nad hrobem svého syna se usmíøili. Nebylo to nic míò, než smrt jejich syna, která je usmíøila.
Milý pøátelé nestálo to nic míò než smrt a drahou krev Ježíše Krista, aby nás usmíøil s Bohem.Vyhlašování této zvìsti je zvìst evangelia
"God's gift of forgiveness must be appropriated: that is, it must be
accepted on an individual basis. Although it is a universal offer, it has no
effect on the sin debt of a man Or a woman who has not personally put trust in Christ. It is like a paycheck that is never picked up; it is like a gift
certificate that is not redeemed; it is like a lifeline that is ignored by a
drowning person." (Charles Stanley, Men's Devotional Bible, June 13)
Love/Forgiveness
On Christmas Eve our bookkeeper always brings cookies her mother has baked to the office. I would probably give my staff Christmas Eve off, but then I wouldn't get the cookies, so we always work that morning. Thy are my favorite cookies of the year. The cookies came this year, and for whatever reason, she had made a bundt cake too. It was a fine looking bundt cake - as light as a feather. I carried it home on one finger. And I couldn't help it. I cut it with a butter knife, but it didn't fall apart. And I ate one piece, and then another, and then part of a third. After dinner I had a little more, and I told my wife to have a little piece.
We enjoyed Christmas Eve with our children, and very late the children went to bed. My wife and I put the presents around the Christmas tree. I took the cookies and put them in Tupperware, and put the bundt cake on top of the cookies. Then I carefully slid them all to the back of the counter and we went to bed.
Christmas morning my wife woke up early and went downstairs. Later she came into the bedroom and said "Paul, I have some bad news. Our dog, Lilly, ate the bundt cake. The entire thing. Crumbs and all. I banished her to the backyard." I went downstairs and saw the dog all huddled against the kitchen door, shivering. I thought "Sure you're shivering. You're entire circulation is focused on your belly, trying to digest an entire bundt cake. Tough!" I went back upstairs.
My children heard all the commotion and came downstairs. They wanted to open their presents, but first, there was a dog to be warmed. They brought the dog inside and took her up to Jana's room. They wrapped her all up in a blanket and loved and hugged on her. I looked in the room and all you could see was this Golden Retriever's head sticking out of the blanket, with a doggie grin. And I thought "She ate the Christmas bundt cake, and they're giving her all the love they have to give."
Every last one of us has eaten the Christmas bundt cake, over and over again. And we'll keep on eating it throughout our lives. But the good news is that our heavenly father loves us anyway, and he brings us inside, and he warms us with all the love he has to give. And on that kind of love, you can build an entire life. Submitted by Paul Williams, (see Preaching Tip for the Month at end of document)
Perspective/Forgiveness
Several years ago, Coach Joe Paterno and his Penn State football team were
playing Alabama, in the Sugar Bowl, for the national championship. They
probably would have won, but they had a touchdown called back because there was
a twelfth man on the field. After the game, Paterno was asked to identify the
player. Coach Paterno said, "It's only a game. I have no intention of ever
identifying the boy. He just made a mistake."
Selected by Rick Rockwell to be his bride at the culmination of the controversial television program, Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire, Darva Conger married him at the end of the show. She agreed to be one of the 50 women participants just to enjoy a free trip to Las Vegas and to get to be part of the taping of the show. Darva never dreamed that she would end up being selected. She is in the process of seeking an annulment from this man who she says, is not the one for her. “I committed an error in judgment,” Conger says, “I have worked my whole life to be a credible person, a person of integrity, and unfortunately in two hours I destroyed much of that credibility...and I’d like it back.” She said on the honeymoon they had a chaperone with them at all times; she never even considered having sexual relations with him. Conger added, “When I was up there saying these vows to that man, I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t know how to escape.”
She said from there on out she tried to think of it as a role she was playing. “I wish I would have had the moral fortitude at that point in time to just walk away, but it was an incredible amount of pressure.” When asked what have you learned from this experience, she replied, “Definitely to look before I leap and to try to be aware of the ramifications of my actions and most importantly to maintain my faith and my religious beliefs.” [1]
TS -- While her judgment and wisdom was missing, she seems to genuinely regret what she did. She blew it and she knows it and so does the world. Have you ever wished you could erase two hours of your life? Jesus promises for those who repent and trust in him that he will forgive our blunders. (1 John 5:11-13 )
TS-”I wish I would have the moral fortitude to just walk away.” Can anyone relate to that statement? (1 Corinthians 10:13)
________
1. compiled from 2/23/2000 ABCNews.com, Chat Transcript,
In a cemetery not far from New York city is a headstone engraved with a single word: FORGIVEN. The message is simple, unembellished. There is no date of birth, no date of death, no epitaph. There is only a name and the solitary word forgiven. But that is the gratest word that can be applied to any man or woman, or written on any gravestone.
If the wounds of millions are to be healed, what other way is there except through forgiveness? Jesus, at least, leaves us no alternative. The command is stern. The terms are set: "But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
... Catherine Marshall
To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian charity; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life -- to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son -- how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it means to refuse God's mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.
... C. S. Lewis, "On Forgiveness"
A successful Irish boxer was converted and became a preacher. He happened to be in a new town setting up his evangelistic tent when a couple of tough thugs noticed what he was doing. Knowing nothing of his background, they made a few insulting remarks. The Irishman merely turned and looked at them. Pressing his luck, one of the bullies took a swing and struck a glancing blow on one side of the ex-boxer's face. He shook it off and said nothing as he turned the other cheek. The fellow took another glancing blow on the other side. At that point the preacher swiftly took off his coat, rolled up his sleeves, and announced, “The Lord gave me not further instructions.” Whop!
The Tale Of The Tardy Oxcart
Charles R. Swindoll, Word, p. 214.
FORGIVENESS (GOD'S)
A cartoon in the New Yorker magazine showed an exasperated father saying to his prodigal son, "This is the fourth time we've killed the fatted calf." God does that over and over in our lifetime.
The Tale Of The Tardy Oxcart
Charles R. Swindoll, Word, p. 214.
FORGIVENESS (GOD'S)
We are most like beasts when we kill. We are most like men when we judge. We are most like God when we forgive.
The Tale Of The Tardy Oxcart
Charles R. Swindoll, Word, p. 216.
FORGIVENESS
(OF OUR SINS)
In Reader's Digest, a contributor told of an Aunt Ruby and Uncle Arnie who had adopted a baby boy after five years of trying unsuccessfully to conceive. To their surprise, a short time after the adoption, Aunt Ruby discovered she was pregnant, and she later gave birth to a boy.
One day when the two boys were eight and nine years old, the teller of the story was visiting Aunt Ruby, and a woman in the neighborhood came to visit.
Observing the children at play, the woman asked, "Which boy is yours, Ruby?"
"Both of them," Aunt Ruby replied.
The caller persisted. "But I mean, which one is adopted?"
Aunt Ruby did not hesitate. In her finest hour, she looked straight at her guest and replied, "I've forgotten."
When we are adopted as God's children, we quickly come to cherish our heavenly Father's forgetfulness. For he chooses to forget our sins, to forget our wayward past, and to give us the full rights of sons or daughters. He treats us as if we had never sinned.
Forgetting sin, Forgiveness, God the Father, Salvation
Rom. 8:1-17; Eph. 1:5; Heb. 8:12
Contemporary Illustrations For Preachers, Teachers, & Writers
Editor Craig Brian Larson, Baker Books, p. 13.
FORGIVING
(OTHERS)
On Monday, December 8, 1997, tragedy struck Heath High School in Paducah, Kentucky. According to Roy Maynard in World magazine, a small group of students, who conducted a daily prayer meeting in a hallway near the administrative offices, finished their morning prayers and were about to head off to classes. Shortly after the final amen, it is alleged that a freshman named Michael, whom the prayer group leader had befriended earlier in the year, opened fire on the students with a .22-caliber automatic.
The group's leader, Ben Strong, called out, "Mike, what are you doing?" and walked toward him. After firing ten rounds, Michael finally dropped his gun. Ben Strong walked up and put his arms around the gunman, urging him to calm down.
Three students were killed in the shooting spree, and five were wounded, including one paralyzed.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, pastors and youth ministers were called in to counsel the students. According to one counselor, "The thing the kids are asking most is 'Why?' And all I can tell them is that what Satan means for evil, God can bring good out of. And it's already happening."
"The morning prayer meetings," writes Maynard, "usually attract 25 to 30 kids; on Tuesday morning, nearly half the school--more than 250 students-attended. A number of the youth ministers who have compared notes all say that they've led kids to Christ in the aftermath of the shooting."
Said Ben Strong, "God's the only one we can turn to in something like this, and a lot of people are turning to him. I believe God can bring revival out of this."
Whatever happens, one thing is sure: good can overcome evil. Fifteen-year-old Melissa Jenkins, paralyzed in the shootings, was one of the first victims to send a message to the assailant: "Tell Michael I forgive him."
Forgiveness, Goodness, Murder, Tragedy Gen. 50:20; Rom. 8:28; 12:21
Choice Contemporary Stories & Illustrations For Preachers, Teachers, & Writers
Craig Brian Larson, Baker Books, p. 78.
From East To West
Read: Psalm 103
As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. --Psalm 103:12
How far is the east from the west? Where does the east end and the west begin? A certain state once had this slogan: "Where the west begins and the tall corn grows." The last part of the slogan is true; the first is not. No one knows where the west begins or where it ends. It's all a matter of where we ourselves are.
If I were in New York and wanted to travel as far west as possible, how far would I have to go? When I reach Los Angeles, the Philippines are still west, and after that China is still west, and from there Europe is west, and from Europe I go back to New York.
How far west must I go to reach the east? It cannot be measured.
Someone asked an elderly Christian, "Does the devil ever trouble you about your past sins?" She answered, "Yes." When asked what she does then, she replied, "Oh, I just tell him to go east." "What do you do if he comes back?" "I tell him to go west." "And when he comes back from the west, what do you do then?" She said, "I just keep him going from the east to the west."
Rejoice today, believer, that your sins are beyond the reach of man or demons. Because Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave, God removed your transgressions "as far as the east is from the west" (Ps. 103:12). --MRD
Forever gone the sins Christ bore,
His work is so complete,
They'll be remembered nevermore;
I worship at His feet. --Anon.
When God saves us, our sins are forgiven and forgotten forever.
There's a lot more to the story of Pearl Harbor than Hollywood's latest movie epic -- with its sentimental, fictional love story -- would have you believe. In fact, the Disney version pales in comparison to the true stories that came out of that terrible time.
Take for example the story of Jacob DeShazer, who was on KP duty in California when he first heard of the attack. Furious at what the Japanese had done, he resolved to retaliate personally. And in April, 1942, he got his chance -- as a B-25 bombardier when Doolittle's Raiders attacked Tokyo.
During that fateful run, DeShazer's plane ran out of fuel and the crew bailed out over enemy territory. DeShazer was captured and spent the next forty months as a POW -- including thirty-four months in solitary confinement. Three of his buddies were executed and another died of slow starvation.
With lots of time to think, Jake wondered: What makes people hate each other? And he also wondered: Doesn't the Bible say something about loving our enemies?
He asked his jailers for a Bible and eventually got one. He read it with fascination, re-reading some parts six or more times. Then, ten days into his study, he asked Christ to forgive his sins. He remembers, "suddenly ... when I looked at the enemy officers and guards, ... I realized that ... if Christ is not in a heart, it is natural to be cruel. ... [My]bitter hatred ... changed to loving pity." Remembering Christ's words from the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," [Luke 23:34] he asked God to forgive his torturers too.
Fourteen months later, in August 1945, paratroopers liberated DeShazer from his prison cell. After the war, a chaplain on General MacArthur's staff wanted something to help heal the animosity between the U.S. and Japan. He approached Don Falkenberg of Bible Literature International, who had read DeShazer's testimony shortly after his release. And soon the story was being circulating as a booklet called, "I Was a Prisoner of Japan."
And here's where the story out-dramatizes Hollywood. Japanese Navy pilot Mitsuo Fuchida was Chief Commander of the historic December 7th raid on Pearl Harbor. He had advised against raiding the American base, but when given orders to proceed, Fuchida led the assault.
Eventually he logged more than ten thousand combat hours. But Fuchida's closest brush with death was on the ground in Japan. He was in Hiroshima the day before the atom bomb was dropped. His life was spared when Headquarters summoned him to Tokyo.
When the war ended, Captain Fuchida then returned to his family farm near Osaka. Later, stepping off a train in Tokyo, he was given a copy of DeShazer's pamphlet that stimulated him to start reading the Bible. And despite his Shinto heritage, he accepted Christ as his Savior.
How marvelous are God's ways? An American airman is taken prisoner, is converted, and his testimony leads his captors' ace pilot to Christ.
[see also HolwickID #1507]
==================================================
BreakPoint for July 9, 2001:
"From Pearl Harbor to Calvary: Forgiving Our Enemies"
What a humiliation! Captain Mitsuo Fuchida had been a national hero and after leading hundreds of Japanese pilots in the historic raid on Pearl Harbor, he might have expected more.
But suddenly he was a has-been -- a defeated ex-flying officer in a military that had been defeated and disbanded. And this in a culture where "losing face" was the ultimate disgrace. Deeply dispirited after Japan's defeat, Fuchida returned to farming near Osaka.
When American occupation forces allowed Japan to rebuild a new air force, you would think he would jump at the invitation to head the organization. What could be more appealing than to rebuild his status and prestige?
But Captain Fuchida had found something much more important to do! He says: "As I got off the train one day in Tokyo's Shibuya Station, I saw an American distributing literature... He handed me a pamphlet entitled, 'I Was a Prisoner in Japan.' ... Involved right then with the trials on atrocities committed against war prisoners, I put it in my pocket ... What I read [later] was the fascinating episode that changed my life."
The idea that American bombardier Jacob DeShazer could love his Japanese captors piqued Fuchida's interest. He says, "[H]is story ... was something I could not explain.... The peaceful motivation I had read about was exactly what I was seeking. Since the American had found it in the Bible, I decided to purchase one myself...."
"I read ... the prayer of Jesus Christ at His death: 'Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do' [Luke 23:34]. I was impressed that I was certainly one of those for whom He had prayed. The many men I had killed had been slaughtered in the name of patriotism, for I did not understand the love that Christ wishes to implant within every heart.
"Right at that moment," he says, "I seemed to meet Jesus for the first time.... I requested Him to forgive my sins and change me from a bitter, disillusioned ex-pilot into a well-balanced Christian with purpose in living."
So that's why, when his country asked him to rebuild its air force, Fuchida declined. Instead, Captain Fuchida and Sergeant DeShazer traveled together throughout Japan, telling others how Christ had transformed their lives. Together and separately -- over a thirty-year span -- they saw tens of thousands of Japanese converted.
The current Disney film PEARL HARBOR is a fictional love story set at the time of the raid on Pearl Harbor. Most people find it kind of soapy. But, as so often happens, truth is far more riveting than fiction. If your neighbors and friends are seeing the film tell them they really ought to know the true story.
Learning to love our enemies is important. It's something we're deeply committed to here at Prison Fellowship and it's exciting whenever it happens. But in wartime it's a miracle -- a miracle of restoration and healing that can only come through faith in Christ.
For further information:
A version of the brochure is available at BLI
Jacob DeShazer, "I Was a Prisoner of Japan," http://www.bli.org/pearlharbor/printjacob.htm
Mitsuo Fuchida, "From Pearl Harbor to Calvary," http://www.bli.org/pearlharbor/printmitsuo.htm
_________________________
Copyright (c) 2001 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.
====================================
Adapted from Wikipedia.org:
After the Second World War, Mitsuo Fuchida, who had been the lead pilot for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, was called on to testify at the trials of some of the Japanese military for Japanese war crimes. This infuriated him as he believed this was little more than “victor’s justice.” In the spring of 1947, convinced that the Americans had treated the Japanese the same way and determined to bring that evidence to the next trial, Fuchida went to Uraga Harbor near Yokosuka to meet a group of returning Japanese prisoners of war. He was surprised to find his former flight engineer, Kazuo Kanegasaki, who all had believed had died in the Battle of Midway. When questioned, Kanegasaki told Fuchida that they were not tortured or abused, much to Fuchida’s disappointment, then went on to tell him of a young lady, Peggy Covell, who served them with the deepest love and respect, but whose parents, missionaries, had been killed by Japanese soldiers on the island of Panay in the Philippines [Covell ministered to Japanese Americans in internment camps, but probably did not minister to Japanese POWs; see #18866].
For Fuchida, this was inexplicable, as in the Bushido code revenge was not only permitted, it was “a responsibility” for an offended party to carry out revenge to restore honor. The murderer of one’s parents would be a sworn enemy for life. He became almost obsessed trying to understand why anyone would treat their enemies with love and forgiveness.
In the fall of 1948, Fuchida was passing by the bronze statue of Hachiko at the Shibuya Station when he was handed a pamphlet about the life of Jacob DeShazer, a member of the Doolittle Raid who was captured by the Japanese after his B-25 bomber ran out of fuel over occupied China. In the pamphlet, “I Was a Prisoner of Japan,” DeShazer, himself a former U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sergeant and bombardier, told his story of imprisonment, torture and his account of an “awakening to God.” This experience increased Fuchida’s curiosity of the Christian faith. In September 1949, after reading the Bible for himself, he became a Christian. In May 1950, Fuchida and DeShazer met for the first time. The Japanese airman became an evangelist for the rest of his life.
[see also HolwickID #3992]
In the Amazon area of eastern Peru, missionaries made a poignant discovery.
When Wycliffe Bible translator Bob Russell sought a word for "forgiveness" in the language of the Amahuacas of eastern Peru, he discovered their unique way of asking one another for pardon. In that culture, if an offender wants to be reconciled with someone he has offended, he says to him, "Speak to me."
Russell learned that Amahuacas who are unreconciled typically refuse to speak to each other. So when the offender asks the offended to speak, it's the equivalent of saying, "Show me we're friends again by being on speaking terms once more."
Many Biblical terms illustrate the concept of forgiveness - cancel debts, cast away sins, free the sinner.
The Amahuaca expression strikingly translates what is the most important biblical meaning of God's forgiveness - above all, it is a reconciliation, the restoration of a friendship with him that has been marred by sin.
If I had my life to live over and wanted to be a big success when I grew up, I'd do something really stupid when I was young. I'd get in trouble with the law, run away from home, do badly in school and get myself suspended for missing classes.
I'd get a lot of bad stuff on my record because then, when I got older and wanted to run for office or become a high-priced athlete, everyone would think I was great because I used to be such a bad person.
They'd admire me more for having straightened myself out than they would if I'd never been crooked in the first place. [...]
Latrell Sprewell, the New York Knicks basketball player, is a crowd favorite. He no longer grabs his coach by the throat and tries to choke him - as he did in 1997 when he was playing for the Golden State Warriors and choked his coach, P.J. Carlesimo. He is much admired now for having overcome his natural propensity for choking coaches.
During the darkest months of his eight years in office, the ratings Bill Clinton got for the job he was doing remained high. The attitude of many Americans was, "A man's personal life is his own business." They forgave.
One of the tings we like most about ourselves is our ability to "forgive and forget." We drag out popular sayings, some from the Bible:
"To err is human, to forgive, divine."
"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
"Let bygones be bygones."
"We'd all like to have 20/20 hindsight."
"Forgive them for they know not what they do."
"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."'
"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass
against us."
"Judge not that ye be not judged."
The most popular cliche recently has been, "Let's put this behind us and move on with our lives." It's another way of saying "Forgive and forget."
"This should provide closure for the victims' relatives," they said of the execution of Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh was given the "last rites" of the Catholic Church.
If a person confesses his sins everything's going to be OK for him in heaven. Maybe. While I am aware of the virtues of forgiveness, I can't always be forgiving. The trouble is, if you forgive someone for something, they're more apt to do it again.
Terry Anderson thought he had conquered his anger at the terrorists who locked him away for 2,545 days.
The Associated Press veteran had traveled back to Lebanon to make a documentary. He met with officials of Hezbollah. It was hard, but he did it.
Then an image on his giant-screen television brought it all back. Anderson was watching a routine news interview with a politician in Beirut, when he recognized his voice. This was the man the hostages called “the boss,” in their shadowy world of blindfolds and secret prisons.
“I knew that voice.... We had to listen to him day after day. He was in charge,” Anderson said, speaking this week at St. Andrews School in Boca Raton, Fla. “And there he was in my living room, larger than life on my television screen in Ohio. I'm watching him and listening to him and I'm thinking, `You b------! I am still angry, because you did that to me.'
“That surprised me. It surprised me that it was still buried in there someplace.”
On Sept. 11, he was stunned and horrified all over again.
Anderson has paid his dues. He knows all about terrorism, nationalism, religious fanaticism and the other “isms” that haunt the Middle East. He knows more than anyone could want to know about the agonizing path that broken people will have to walk after the events in New York City, Washington, D.C, and rural Pennsylvania.
But Anderson isn't sure that he can grasp the pain felt by those who lost loved ones on Sept 11, even after his years as a hostage and as a war correspondent. Anderson said he isn't even sure what to call what happened on that day. “Terrorism” is being radically redefined.
“These terrorists are not asking for anything. There are no demands. They simply want to destroy,” he said. “There is no question of negotiation. ... They are anarchists. It used to be that terror had political aims. They can't really have any expectations that they can damage us in any lasting way. This is terror for the sake of terrorizing people.”
Anderson's testimony on faith and forgiveness was scheduled before the bombings. Above all, he said he considers himself blessed. He is thankful for his life, marriage, family and work as a writer and teacher. He said he is thankful for the faith that helped him stay sane in his chains, locked away with a circle of brothers that included a Catholic priest and a biblical scholar.
But this is a hard time to preach about the power of forgiveness.
“I don't think the people who lost loved ones at the World Trade Center even want to HEAR the word `forgiveness,' right now. ... They are still grieving, as we all are, as a nation,” he said. “When I speak about forgiveness, I am speaking totally about my personal experience, my own feelings and my own search. I cannot speak for anyone else.”
During the decade since his release, the tenets of his faith have brought him pain as well as comfort. It's hard to get past the words that are “right there on the very first page of our contract” with God, he said. “That's the place where it says, `Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.’ “
Anderson said his wife once described the lessons they have learned this way: “If you want the joy, you can't have the anger.”
What does this mean for the nation? Anderson said he is convinced America can seek security, without surrendering its values of freedom. The free world can demand justice for Osama bin Laden, without making decisions rooted in a thirst for revenge.
“The people that kidnapped me, just like the people who committed this terrible atrocity, are not sorry today. They are not asking for forgiveness,” he said. “No, forgiveness is about what is in me. Hatred and anger are terribly debilitating. They are soul destroying even, I think, when they are righteous.
“We have every reason to be terribly anger at those people. They need to be punished. But anger will lead us, I think, into places where we do not want to go.”
[`In your anger do not sin': Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry and do not give the devil a foothold. Ephesians 4:26,27 NIV]
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This comes to us by way of the Church Growth Ideas List. Terry Mattingly (www.tmatt.net) teaches at Palm Beach Atlantic College and is senior fellow for journalism at the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities. He writes a weekly column for the Scripps Howard News Service.
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”Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” — Colossians 3:13, NIV
I’m fortunate to live only one suburb away from the place where I work, but I to have to go through a seemingly endless series of stop signs to get there. Personally, I feel that stop signs ask too much of people who have only recently crawled out of bed, are dealing with a screaming youngster in the back seat, or just sat through a grueling series of meetings. Unlike traffic lights, stop signs require drivers to make on-the-spot judgments about which car got to the intersection first, and sometimes it’s a close call.
Recently, as I was sitting at a stop sign, the person in the car behind me honked his disagreement with my decision to let another car go across the intersection ahead of me. Boy, was I ticked off. I nursed a grudge against him until I got to work — and for some time after that. Later that day, I was quick to recount the story of The Great Injustice to my wife.
Sadly, many believers have held grudges for much longer than I did. Some have good reasons for being angry, while others have less justification. The solution, though, is the same: forgiveness. While we may not be able to forget, God does want us to forgive and move on. He knows that forgiveness liberates while anger enslaves.
Jesus had a lot of reasons to hold grudges. But what did he do when he was on the cross? He forgave his enemies (Luke 23:34)! That’s pretty amazing to a grudge-holder like me. It’s also pretty convicting.
Have you been struggling to forgive someone? Are you holding on to past hurts? Why not turn to Jesus and ask him for the strength to forgive your “enemies” just as he forgave his.
You have seen a cloud drifting across the pure blue of the sky, and as you watch it, it breaks up and disappears forever. You will never see that cloud again.
So God deals with your sins. You believe in His Son as your Lord and Savior. Then He blots out your transgressions just as He sweeps the cloud from your sight forever.
The Bible abounds in these assurances of utter removal of the penalty of sin from the child of God.
A sign in a convenience store read, "Check Cashing Policy: To err is human. To forgive, $10." It's a funny way to recognize the fact that we make mistakes, but it's also evidence of the way many people think about forgiveness.
To forgive is to accept within yourself the consequences of the sins of others. It means to accept the pain, the problems and the burden that comes when someone sins against you. Forgiveness is neither an easy nor a frequent gift.
This is what God has done for us: "...knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:18-19 NKJV. What did God give for your forgiveness? It wasn't money or anything of wealth or value in worldly terms. He gave His Son. Jesus took upon Himself the burden of our sins.
A man was viciously attacked by another who sought to kill him. The face of the injured man was badly scarred for the rest of his life. He cherished no enmity, however, against the person who made the attack and later sought to have him pardoned. The announcement was made to the prisoner. As he read the pardon he said, "I want something more than pardon, sir; I want friendship." "What kind of friendship do you want?" asked the warden. "I can do without anyone else's friendship except that of the man I injured." The man with the scarred face came to see the prisoner, the tears in his eyes assuring the assailant of both his pardon and friendship.
"I'll never forgive him. I told him I would never forgive him." The attractive elderly lady spoke softly, but with resolve, to the night nurse. Her expression was troubled as she turned away, focusing her eyes on the drape closing in her nursing home bed. The conversation had traveled from the temporal to the eternal and now a deep hurt had surfaced.
She told of how her brother had approached her hospital bed, accusing her of taking more than her share of family heirlooms following their mother's death. He spoke of various items, ending with "the berry spoon." He said, "I want the berry spoon." For the 40 years since the parent's death he had hidden his feelings, and now they erupted. She was both hurt and angered by his accusation and vowed never to forgive him. "It's my spoon. It was given to me," she defended herself. "He's wrong and I won't forgive him."
A berry spoon. In the bed lay a woman given two months to live-60 days-and she would face eternity and never see her brother again in this life. Her mind and spirit were in anguish, and her only remaining family tie was broken over a spoon.
How many berry spoons are there in our lives? How many things, as insignificant as a spoon, in light of eternity, separate us from full communion with God? How much lack of forgiveness keeps us from fellowship with others? "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" (Matthew 6:14-15).
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