FORGIVENESS

TRULY forgiving people that have wronged us is one of the hardest things we are called to do. Why is this?  Why is it so important as a Christian to be sure we are not harboring the fruits of UN-FORGIVENESS; anger, hatred, bitterness etc… God never gives us a justification for “unforgiveness” so even when we are faced with extreme betrayal, loss and pain, Jesus tells us that He can give us the ability to forgive, not by our own nature, but by His forgiving nature through His Holy Spirit. 

Pastor Bob spoke on “Forgiveness” last weekend and he explained forgiveness as being both vertical and horizontal.

What is Vertical Forgiveness vs. Horizontal Forgiveness?

Vertical Forgiveness is when we give our hurt and anger "up" to the Lord and ask the Lord to forgive our transgressor.

Horizontal Forgiveness is reaching out "across" to our transgressor and showing that we have forgiven their sin against us.

Most of us are familiar with The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6: 6-9).

Matthew 6:9-13- The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

10 Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts,

As we forgive our debtors.

13 And do not lead us into temptation,

But deliver us from the evil one.

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

After we ask God to forgive

“us of our debts”

We pray

“as we forgive our debtors.”

God makes His point clear about how He feels about forgiveness in the verse immediately following His Prayer for our lives. WOW, so powerful! 

Matthew 6: 14-15 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Forgiveness is so huge that God gives us a startling warning about forgiveness. If we refuse to forgive others, God will also refuse to forgive us. Jesus encourages us to persistently pray but he condemns a shallow repetition of words that are not offered with a sincere heart. Last Sunday, I sat convicted of anything that I might not have completely, both Vertically and Horizontally, forgiven in my life. Matthew 6:14 warns us that  “having an unforgiving heart denies our common ground as sinners in need of God’s forgiveness. It is easy for us to ask God for forgiveness more difficult to grant to others” (NKJV notes)

This is what Pastor Bob calls “Horizontal” forgiveness.

9 keys points to know about forgiveness:

         

1              It isn’t Easy

2              It isn’t Forgetting

3              It isn’t Overlooking Evil

4              It isn’t Destructive

5              It isn’t Approval

6              It is Believing

7              It is Grace

8              It is Surrender

9              It is God’s best

Pastor Bob left us with 4 principles of Forgiveness…

1              Give God the chance to forgive YOU

2              Forgive YOURSELF

3              Ask God to forgive THEM

And the hardest one of all…

4              YOU forgive THEM

“Vertically He forgives us but, horizontally He waits until we forgive others.”

 “God knows our heart, He continues to convict our hearts, through His Word, to understand His ways.”

Blessings,

Sian

Marriage, Parenting, Life Challenges and Faith...

When I’m in LA I love, love to listen to Focus On The Family Christian radio show but, as I discovered through answering my friend's question, the website is an AWESOME resource for so many questions too. Just wanted to pass this resource along for topics on Marriage, Parenting, Life Challenges and Faith.

http://www.focusonthefamily.com

A friend of mine asked me this question so I thought I would share because you may have the same question…

           

“I am curious about the roll the Bible plays in other religions. How many times has the Bible been rewritten?”  

I wasn’t sure what the answer to the question was so I forwarded the question to our Pastor and this was his answer…

        

“Although there are many translations, we believe the bible is infallible and inerrant in the original text.”

“When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, (which we saw at Qumran) they were very ancient original documents of quite a bit of the Old Testament. We know therefore that the OT is the same as originally written, it hasn't been altered, edited or revised as to content.  Where variations in ancient manuscripts appear, they are type-o's in a sense as guys were hand copying... But, the vast majority of manuscripts (Textus Receptus) are in complete agreement.

The New Testament, we know again as being accurate because there are many original copies of some of the Books still in existence. That is, actual documents from the 1st thru the 5th centuries...”

Check out this article on Focus on the Family website...

http://www.focusonthefamily.com/faith/the_study_of_god/how_do_we_know_the_bible_is_true/how_did_we_get_the_bible.aspx  

Pastor Steve didn’t answer “the roll the Bible plays in other religions but, if you go onto the website there is a topic for “Christian Worldview” and that provides a really good overview of Christianity and the world today. Christianity is based solely on what the Bible tells us. Any religion that has deletions or additions to the Holy Scriptures of the Old or New Testaments would not be considered "Christian."

Blessings,

Sian

Everything You Have Ever Experienced Is Now Your Past

What is a Christian’s Ultimate Goal for this Life?

SALVATION is instantaneous when we accept Christ as our Savior BUT, 

CONVERSION and TRANSFORMATION is our Ultimate Goal for this life.

Conversion is the process of getting rid of the junk in our lives, dying to our old selves, repenting old sins and letting go of guilt of our past.

Transformation is the renewing of your mind and the daily laying aside of our own desires to follow Jesus by the knowledge of what is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God. 

(Romans 12:2)

“Bring every thought into captivity”  (2 Cor 10:5)

“Your past is strong but the cross is stronger"

God is concerned with where you are going, rather than where you came from.

LET GO OF THE PAST and allow Christ to complete the work He has begun in you. (Col 2:10)

Money never sets you free

Religion never sets you free

Race never sets you free

Big homes, nice cars, beauty, fame etc… never sets you free

When we think we have it all, do not forget Jesus, BUT cling to Him, praise Him, and give our Holy, and Sovereign GOD all the glory and in return He promises to abundantly bless you. (Matt 16:19)

You were created for a purpose

What keeps you in that prison of the past? Not being fully and wholly…

1.              Surrendered

2.              Thankful

3.              Forgiving

TO ALL CHRISTIANS...

God warns all of his disciples over and over again in the bible not to be fooled by false teachers of spirituality that disguise themselves as angels of light.  Satan and his servants can deceive us by appearing to be attractive, good and moral. Do not be fooled by outward appearances, fame or popularity, our impressions of people and their practices are not an accurate indicator of who is and who isn’t a true follower of Christ. It helps to ask these questions when deciding if a teacher or leader is of Christ.

1               Do the teachings confirm Scripture? (Acts 17:11)

2               Does the teacher affirm and proclaim that Jesus Christ is God who came into the world to save people from their sins? (1 John 4:1-3)

3               Is the teacher’s lifestyle consistent with biblical morality?

(Matthew 12: 33-37)

Seeking those things, which are above means striving to put heaven’s priorities into daily practices. What Christians should do…

Colossians 3: 1-11

 ¹If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

²Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

 ³For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

 ⁴When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

 ⁵Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

 ⁶For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:

 ⁷In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

 ⁸But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

 ⁹Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;

 ¹⁰And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

 ¹¹Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.

The reason why I am writing about this today is because to truly set our old selves free we must focus our lives on the Lord and His ways for us. If we don't do this on a daily basis it is too easy to make the same mistakes over again.

Warning For Our Innocent Eyes, Ears & Hearts…

My husband forwarded me this attachment yesterday. Lady Gaga is more popular than God.  As parents we have to be aware of so many things that attempt to steal our children away from God and His goodness. My kids like Lady Gaga’s songs (they have never seen her videos) and it’s hard to tell them they are not allowed to listen to her. Even though the images are very disturbing Greg and I have decided that we need to sit down with our kids to talk about these images and appropriately explain the meaning of her lyrics. Annie and Emma (8 & 9 years) love the Lord and I am praying that when they can see who the “REAL” Lady Gaga is they will choose not to sing or listen to her songs anymore.
(See above referenced; Colossians 3: 4-5 )

Blessings,

Sian