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The Facts on Forgiveness

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Psalm 32:1

Last week we watched King David make some very poor choices. The man after God’s own heart distanced himself from God’s presence by neglecting his kingdom purpose. Then he took another man’s wife for himself and committed murder to cover it up.

David.

Beloved. Anointed. Warrior. King.

Thief. Adulterer. Murderer.

So many titles, such differing fruit. How can a man so favored by God fall so far?

When our focus shifts from our kingdom purpose to our own self-interest, we set ourselves up to fall. For a moment, David lost sight of whose he was and why he was here. God anointed him king to bring glory to His name. The moment David forgot that, sin took over.

Thank God for forgiveness. David himself penned the words of our opening scripture. If anyone understood the value of forgiveness, David did. But what does forgiveness really offer you and me?

We have a tendency to believe that the forgiveness Jesus poured out through the cross exempts us from experiencing any negative results.

Beloved, forgiveness doesn’t mean you won’t suffer consequences for poor choices. God’s forgiveness enables life to emerge in spite of them.

Forgiveness doesn’t mean you won’t suffer consequences for poor choices. It enables life to emerge in spite of them. Click To Tweet

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Galatians 6:7-8

Every choice driven by our flesh plants a corrupted seed.

The truth is, dear one, even when we’ve been forgiven, our choice to sin will leave its mark. Once sin has been sown, it always reaps a harvest. And it always devours and destroys.

But here’s the good news, beloved. Through forgiveness, God provides the power to overcome what sin has sown.

Take a look at God’s response when David finally acknowledged and confessed his sin.

David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.” 2 Samuel 12:13

I wonder how David felt when he heard those words. The Lord has put away your sin.

Our God of grace took the sin that had separated David from Him and put it away, out of His sight and His thoughts. It no longer stood between them. Forgiveness removed it, allowing David to draw near to God again, restoring their relationship.

That restoration brought David another blessing: You shall not die.

You see, beloved. When we receive God’s forgiveness and unite with Him again, the choices we’ve made may still hurt us, but they can’t kill us. In Him, we overcome.

The price of sin hasn’t changed, dear one.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

God covers the payment sin owes through forgiveness. Instead of death, forgiveness offers life. It restores our relationship with God and provides the strength we need to overcome the pain we’ve sown.

No wonder David cried out to the Lord,

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! Psalm 51:1-2

God did exactly as David requested. He forgave his sin and restored his relationship with Him. But David still suffered terrible consequences. What’s more, so did his children.

Take a look at what happened to David as a result of his sin.

  • “Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house”. 2 Samuel 12:10
  • “I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’” 2 Samuel 12:11-12
  • “The child who is born to you shall die.” 2 Samuel 12:14

Do you see the principles of God’s Word at work, dear one? David brought the very things he did to hurt others into his own life. He reaped his actions upon himself. War and rivalry rose up in David’s household, his own son seeking to kill him and take his throne.

Yet through forgiveness, God remained with David and provided the strength for him to overcome it all. David’s path wasn’t easy, but God was with him, so he overcame.

But that wasn’t all God did for David. After the death of the son conceived in sin, God brought new life from David’s ashes.

Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the Lord loved him and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord. 2 Samuel 12:24-25

Jedediah means beloved of the LORD.

Oh how I love God’s heart! God didn’t need to send Nathan to David again, but He did. And this time he brought a single message. “I love this child.”

God offered David the assurance of His love. The past lay behind, a future of blessings ahead.

Blessings lay ahead of you too, dear one. But you will only realize them when you stay close to Jesus.

Without Him, every time we make choices driven by our flesh, we will reap pain. But with Him we find the power to escape the death sin brings.

It doesn’t matter what you’ve sown, beloved. God loves you and longs to restore you, just like He did for David. Simply repent, receive the forgiveness poured out through the cross, and draw near to the God of grace through His Son.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jude 1:24-25

Don’t miss it, dear one. Jesus is able to keep you from stumbling.

Choose life, beloved. Your Savior died so you could really live.

Salty Streams

Don’t you know that the Lord, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt? 2 Chronicles 13:5 NIV

I recently enjoyed a sweet time with Jesus in this very spot. Beautiful, isn’t it? I always somehow feel especially close to Him by the sea.

And this particular morning, a gentle but steady breeze blew the hair from my face while the sun cast its warmth upon it. I couldn’t help but close my eyes and lift my face toward heaven.

Blessings of praise soared from my lips to God’s ears, followed by fervent intercession. You may not have realized it at the time, but you were there with me. Unseen faces filled my thoughts with urgent need.

God means to awaken His church, dear one. And you and I are the church.

Something occurred to me as I sat there with Jesus inviting Him to merge my heart with His. You see, while I cried out to Him for you and His kingdom purpose, tears fell. Many tears.

Eventually I tasted them. And a new thought emerged about what’s found in them.

Salt.

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.” Matthew 5:13

Jesus declared that you and I are salt, dear one. And He cared a great deal about whether we reveal and display our saltiness. In fact without saltiness, He said we have no use except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

Are you feeling trampled, beloved? Perhaps it’s symptomatic of an absence of salt.

I wonder. Have you and I become the salt Jesus described? What if one way we’ve lost our saltiness is that our hearts don’t feel what God feels?

It occurred to me that day by the sea that our tears—or lack of them—might indicate our level of saltiness.

I’m not talking about the tears we cry for ourselves. Most of us can easily shed a tear over our own losses and disappointments. But what about shedding tears for our brothers and sisters in Christ? What about feeling another’s pain so intensely that our own heart hurts? Or what about anguish over a stranger’s poor choices that makes salty tears fall?

It sounds crazy, I know. But it’s Jesus. He offered a prime example of it as He looked out over the city sheltering the mob that would crucify Him.

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.” Luke 19:41-42 NIV

The words strike me every time I read them. Jesus knew exactly what the people of Jerusalem were about to do to Him. Yet He wept for them, because He knew their rejection of Him would cost them dearly. And He loved them.

You see, that’s what God’s heart does, dear one. It loves. Deeply. Sacrificially.

And that’s the salt He means to put in you and me, beloved. Love. That’s what makes us different from everyone else, what keeps us from tasting just like the world.

Love is the salt Jesus wants in you and me. Love keeps us from tasting like the world. Matt 5:13 Click To Tweet

Jesus feels. He weeps when people suffer and celebrates their blessings. He calls us to do the same.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Romans 12:15

You and I are supposed to cry when others experience pain. We’re supposed to long to see blessings released in the lives of people around us so we can rejoice with them.

But often rejoicing isn’t what we do when we see blessing poured out on someone else, is it? Bitterness more readily rears its head. After all, how can we rejoice for them if we lack what they received? And we can’t be expected to weep over someone else’s sorrow when we have so much of our own.

I’m going to tell you the truth, beloved. Those responses reflect a calloused heart. A heart centered on self instead of others. One that doesn’t resemble God’s.

But here’s the good news. Hard hearts happen to be God’s specialty. We just need to offer it to Jesus—no strings attached—and invite Him to make it like His. That is, after all, why He went to the cross.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26

Perhaps that’s how you and I become the salt of the earth, dear one. We repent of our self-centeredness and allow Jesus to give us that new heart. We invite Him to make us feel what He feels and start letting His tears flow through us.

There’s nothing to fear, dear one. I’d rather taste a few salty tears than find myself useless to Jesus and trampled underfoot. Wouldn’t you?

 

Living the Difference

But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:17-18 ESV

My world looks and feels a little different these days.

My family and I just returned from a week in Jeremie, Haiti where we served alongside Haiti Bible Mission over our boys’ Thanksgiving break.

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I have never witnessed such a glaring contrast in my surroundings. Nestled amid God’s glorious display of some of the best He has given us— amazing turquoise seas, lush jungle landscapes and rolling green mountains—bare feet walked dusty roads littered with trash, and half dressed children played in the streets, hungry for both food and attention.

My heart broke for them.

But then again, I had prayed before I ever boarded that plane to cross the sea that God would pierce my heart and open my eyes to see the people of Haiti like He sees them.

I had asked for it, and still it caught me by surprise.

The first time we stepped out of the truck and began walking down the street along the poverty stricken waterfront, a wave of emotion swept over me with such force, I had to ask God to strengthen me to keep on walking without tears.

Oh, how He loves them! My heart swelled with compassion. His compassion.

Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? James 2:5

God sees those people the same way He sees you and me. He loves them. He died for them. He longs to save them. And He’s looking for people who are willing to show them.

Yep. That’s what I said. Not tell them. Show them. People are supposed to see who God is when they look at you and me.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. 2 Corinthians 5:20a

When people look at you, dear one, do they see Jesus?

Last week I had the privilege of seeing some of those ambassadors at work. I watched the HBM staff loving people, not just with words but through their actions. And when love is demonstrated instead of talked about, it moves people. Just like Jesus moved people.

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That day along the waterfront, the HBM team spent time and built relationships. They asked people to show them where there was need, and then they joyfully did what they could to meet it.

Carrying ladders and supplies, they moved from house to house, fastening tarps on the roofs of needy homeowners so they could keep out the rain.

Tying a tarp onto a roof seems a pretty small thing. It didn’t take much time. It didn’t even take much money. But you should have seen the smiles on the faces of those who received them!

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Then we bowed our heads together in the street, praising God and blessing the families in the name of Jesus.

The next day a man approached us in the street, hugging Pastor Mark and thanking him for the tarp. Grinning from ear to ear, he said, “It rained and I did not get wet.”

That man showed up as a first time visitor in church on Sunday.

In fact, three new people entered God’s house in worship for the first time as a result of a few men taking an hour to hang some tarps.

You see, love that gives draws people to seek the Giver.

God doesn’t just feel love in His heart toward mankind, dear one. He demonstrates it (Romans 5:8). And if you and I are going to be ambassadors through whom God makes His appeal, we need to demonstrate love too.

But here’s the good news. We don’t have to visit a foreign country to show God’s love. We can do it wherever we are.

Yes, God has commissioned us to carry His gospel to the ends of the earth. But He also mentions quite a bit about our neighbors.

For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:14 NIV

What if you and I stopped worrying about what we’re supposed to tell people about Jesus and just started loving people? What if we asked God to change our hearts and open our eyes to ways we can bless people around us and make a difference in their lives?

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It doesn’t have to be big things. It may only require a little time. But when we bless others, the life and love of Jesus gets poured out, and that changes things.

We may even find ourselves caught in the tide.

Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered. Proverbs 11:25

The Beauty of Intercession

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25 (ESV)

What a beautiful promise found in our opening scripture! Does it comfort you to know that Jesus is able to save you to the uttermost? He’s not a halfway God. He offers complete salvation.

But notice that there’s a condition to becoming a beneficiary of that salvation. He is able to save those who draw near to God through Him.

Within this phrase we find why so many believers miss experiencing the bounty of Christ’s salvation in the day to day. We don’t draw near. Instead, we often keep ourselves at a great distance from God, allowing jobs, relationships, even hobbies to separate us from the God who wants us near. Then we wonder where He is when we have an emergency.

“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.” Proverbs 1:22-23

What an amazing promise from an amazing God! He longs to pour Himself out and make His desires known so that we can live His very best for us.

But what happens when we refuse to draw near to hear?

“Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity…” Proverbs 1:24-26

Chilling words from a God of grace. Do they surprise you? There’s more.

“Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices. Proverbs 1:28-31

God gives each of us a choice, dear one. We can draw near to Him through Jesus, allowing Him to pour out His Spirit to us and make His words known. Or, we can live our lives ignoring His counsel. God, honoring our right to choose, will stay away and let our own devices run their course.

You see, dear one, our God of love is also always faithful to His Word. That’s what makes Him so trustworthy. And here’s what His Word says.

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. Galatians 6:7

We bring much of our sorrow upon ourselves by living our daily lives apart from God. When we choose to keep our distance and refuse to hear what God desires to say, we reap the natural consequences of that choice. God leaves us to our own devices.

But here’s the good news, tucked within our opening scripture. Jesus lives to intercede for us when we choose to draw near.

Do you know what that means, dear one? All we need is sincere desire to get close. Jesus will make sure we find our way to God because He lives to intercede—to unite fallen man with the power and presence of the Father.

And when Jesus connects us, God always hears and answers.

Listen carefully, dear one. There’s a difference between desiring God’s help and desiring God. To the one who doesn’t care to walk with God but simply seeks His help because they don’t like how things are going, God says,

“Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me” (Proverbs 1:28).

But to the one who sincerely desires to draw near to God and walk in His ways, God says,

“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. Jeremiah 29:12-14 (emphasis mine)

Oh how I love that promise! When we seek Him with all our heart, God promises to make Himself found. We don’t have to worry about our potential to miss Him. We can rest in His promise to reveal Himself. And when we find Him, He hears our cries and will bring us back from our desolate places.

Jesus makes that happen, dear one.

Christ Jesus…the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Romans 8:34

Thank you, Jesus.

The Word, the Rock, and the Gates of Hell

“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Matthew 16:18 ESV

I’d love to see Christ’s church prevail against the gates of hell. Wouldn’t you?

In days when we see evil advancing—where atrocities set before us in the news turn our stomachs and vulgarities have become commonplace—this promise from Jesus to His eager, bungling disciple offers hope.

But do we actually expect to see it? Do we view this promise as a present hope? Or have we relegated Jesus’ words to a future assurance we won’t see realized until His return?

Beloved, what if you and I could see that prevailing church advancing in our day? What if we really did have the power to set the kingdom of evil on its heels and smash its gates?

Jesus spoke those words to Peter on a pivotal day in history, the day he first proclaimed Jesus to be, “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (verse 16).

Well done, Peter. That day, at least, he got it right. Stumbling, precocious Peter boldly proclaimed what he knew in his heart to be true. Jesus was the Promised One heralded in the Old Testament. The Christ had come. The Kingdom had come. And things would change forever.

Indeed, they did, just not exactly in the way they had expected. The army of the Kingdom of God advanced, but not against the reigning Roman government as the people had hoped. Instead, Jesus loosed His army to victoriously trample an unseen spiritual foe, the force behind the present evils they suffered.

Dear one, Jesus offers that same invitation to us today. But like the majority of Jews in Jesus’ day, many of us have set our gaze so firmly on the final earthly kingdom Christ will establish when He returns that we’ve overlooked the current one. We mutter prayers, “Come quickly, Lord,” hiding in our homes and churches, hoping the storms will pass us by.

Beloved, we’re missing the opportunity to participate in the glory of that kingdom now.

What if we chose to believe what Jesus said in Mark 1:15,

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Celebrate with me that the Kingdom of God has come near! It lives within the church (Luke 17:21). And that kingdom, loosed in the body of believers, will do in our day the very thing that Jesus promised Peter, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

Wouldn’t you like to witness a little victory? Wouldn’t you like to get your feet wet in the front lines at the turning of the tide?

Jesus’ words in our opening Scripture have led many to believe that God chose Peter to be the rock on whom He would build His church. Although Peter did become a leader and pillar of the early church, I’m not sure that’s what Jesus had in mind with His statement. After all, the church could only be built upon one Rock—Christ Himself. Jesus certainly knew better than to rest the future of the church in the hands of one man.

So what was Jesus saying to Peter that day? Let’s get a little context.

Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:16-19

One of the most significant parts of this passage often remains overlooked. Let’s read verse 17 again.

For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

Jesus’ teaching on the rock comes in direct correlation with that statement, a continuation of the thought. “And I tell you…”

Consider with me for a moment. What if Jesus’ teaching has less to do with who Peter was and more to do with the example he set in that moment? What if the rock Jesus referred to wasn’t Peter himself but rather his ability to discern what the Father was speaking and his desire to believe and live out of what he heard?

Not convinced? Let’s tune our ears to something else Jesus said.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”  Matthew 7:24-25

Hmm… “… and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Sounds like a similar promise to me. A house built on the rock withstands the storm that rages against it. And what’s the rock? Hearing and living out what Jesus speaks.

Dear one, Peter had heard what the Father was speaking into his heart about His Son, and he believed. He lived out that belief by altering his life to come into agreement with what God had revealed to Him. He stood before Jesus and boldly declared Him the Christ at a time when the majority of his fellow Jews did not.

And Jesus said, “Yes Peter. Keep hearing my truth and adjust your life to it, and you become a stone, strengthened and built upon my Rock. This is how I will build my church. Keep that up, Peter, and the gates of hell will not be able to advance.”

Could it really be that simple? Could we really become empowered to overthrow hell’s gates merely by seeking what God says and adjusting our lives to what we discover?

Well, isn’t it worth a try? Consider the alternative.

And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Matthew 7:26-28

How far the church has fallen since the day our Lord first spoke those words to Peter. Jesus invites us to return, beloved. His Truth still speaks, and He’s looking for men and women like Peter who will allow their lives to resonate with its sound.

Let’s tune to the voice of our Shepherd, align our lives with what He speaks, and remind the world of 1 Corinthians 4:20,

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.