"Forgiveness"

You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well. 

[Lewis B. Smedes]

Matthew 5:43-48 ... Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.  For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?  And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

✫❤•°*”˜˜”*°•❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫

Healthy Bounderies

Forgiveness does not always mean reconciliation. You can forgive someone and still recognize that they no longer have a place in your life. Forgiveness is about releasing bitterness and choosing peace, not granting unlimited access to your heart or your future. We forgive and we pray for those who have hurt us, but the decision about whether someone remains in our lives belongs to us not to them, and not to the pressure of appearing humble or accommodating.

Christian faith calls us to forgive, but it does not call us to live in a victim mentality or continually place ourselves in harm’s way. Christ teaches mercy, but He also teaches wisdom, discernment, and transformation. Choosing healthy boundaries is not unchristian it is often an act of spiritual maturity.

Healthy boundaries are not a lack of grace; they are wisdom. You can walk in compassion while also protecting your well-being and the life you are building. Forgiveness releases the past, but faith calls us to grow stronger, wiser, and more faithful moving forward.

So, forgive freely, pray sincerely, refuse to live as a victim, and trust that God can bring strength, healing, and purpose out of every chapter of your life. Walk forward with courage your peace, your faith, and your future are worth protecting.

[Christopher Gregory]

 ✞  ✞   ✞ 

Luke 17:3 ... Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.

2 Corinthians 6:14 .... Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

Ephesians 5:11 ...  And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. ❤

Oh, The Sense of Pardoned Sin!

The attribute of God which David selects for special praise: "All my inmost being, praise His holy name." You might have expected to read "gracious name," or "merciful name." But you find it written, "holy name."  Indeed, this is the emphatic point of the text: that an impeccably holy God would forgive our sin. He is a holy God righteous, just, and pure; who cannot look upon iniquity; whose fury burns against evil. Therefore, it is astonishing that He should forgive our iniquities. To accomplish this wonder, the miracle of the sin-atoning cross was wrought by His unspeakable love. 

You must have a true idea of that holiness, which is like a consuming fire that holiness which even angels cannot gaze upon, but of which they sing, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory!"  You have but to gain a glimpse of that unutterable perfection, and you will abhor yourself in dust and ashes. And then you will marvel to think that the thrice holy God should have spared your guilty soul. How abhorrent is your depravity in His sight; and yet He does not smite you!  

What are you but a mass of corruption; and yet the infinitely pure One has considered you in love! What are you but a sink of impurity; and yet the all-holy God has looked upon you in compassion. While you were rotting away with the leprosy of sin, the Lord visited you in pity, to show that there was nothing good in you to earn His redeeming love. While you still had your thinking perverted, your affections polluted, and your desires depraved; even while you were full of the sinful plague of your own heart, God says to you, "I have forgiven you." 

In your confessed guiltiness, the Holy God will forgive your sin by an act of both justice and mercy. Plead your guiltiness and say, "Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great!" You must cast all your splendid righteousness onto the rubbish heap, right along with all your heinous iniquities and the ever-flowing stream of Christ's sin-atoning blood will wash it all away. You must cast all your prayers, your charities, and your good works on the same rubbish heap as your sins! You might have tried to sort them a little, but one is so much like the other, that you must fling all your good works and all your bad works overboard, and swim to glory on the sin-atoning cross! 

Though God is glorious in holiness, He is also glorious in mercy and grace. Do you sincerely trust in the sin-atoning sacrifice of Jesus to save you? Then every grain of your sin is as far removed from you, as the east is from the west. He has hurled the whole of your sin into the unfathomable depths of His ocean of mercy. Oh, the sense of pardoned sin! If indeed the royal pardon has been sent to you from the court of Heaven, then you may heartily sing, "Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget any of His benefits who forgives all your sins!" 

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

Psalm 103:1-3 ... Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

✫❤•°*”˜˜”*°•❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫

10 Things God Does With Our Sin

1. He forgives our transgression. (Psalm 32:1,5) 

David sought and received God’s forgiveness. The Hebrew word for forgiven literally means “lifted off.” The image was portrayed in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Bunyan’s protagonist, Christian, was weighed down by the burden of his sin. When he came to the cross, the sin burden fell from his shoulders, rolled down a hill, and disappeared into an empty tomb. Unconfessed sin is a burden that weighs us down. When we confess our sin to God, He lifts it off our shoulders, rolls it away, and it disappears. 

2. He covers our sin (Psalm 32:1, Romans 4:7)

This imagery is taken from the Day of Atonement. On this day the high priest took blood from a sacrificial animal, carried it into the Most Holy Place, and sprinkled it on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant (a chest that contained the Ten Commandments). The sprinkled blood symbolically covered the broken law and shielded the sinner from judgment. It’s significant that when David stopped trying to cover up his sin, God “covered” it. When something is covered, it’s hidden from view. God puts our sin out of His sight. 

3. He does not charge us with iniquity. (Psalm 32:2, Romans 4:8)

This is what God does not do with our sin; He no longer counts our sin against us. “Charge” is a bookkeeping term. This is the imagery Paul used in Romans 4:8-25. God charges our sin to Jesus’ ledger (who bore our penalty) and writes Jesus’ righteousness into our ledger and credits us with His righteousness. 

4. He removes our sins from us. (Psalm 103:12, John 1:29) 

How far does God remove our sin from us? “As far as the east is from the west” an immeasurable distance. East and west will never meet. 

5. He washes away our guilt and cleanses us from our sin. (Psalm 51:2, Isaiah 1:18, 1 John 1:9) 

Sin leaves a mark or a stain only God can wipe away. He washes it away “completely.” 

6. He throws all our sins behind His back. (Isaiah 38:17) 

In a metaphorical sense, God puts all our sins behind His back so that He does not see them anymore. 

7. He sweeps away our transgressions. (Isaiah 43:25)

Our unconfessed sins hang over us like a dark cloud, but God promises to sweep them away like the rising sin burns away the morning mist (Isaiah 44:22) 

8. He remembers our sins no more. (Isaiah 43:25, Jeremiah 31:34, Hebrews 8:12, 10:16-17)

When God forgives our sins; He forgets them. That means He no longer holds our sins against us. 

9. He casts all our sins into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:18-19) 

God casts (hurls) our sins into the sea, where they sink like a stone. Such an act of grace caused Micah to ask, “Who is a God like you?” 

10. He nailed our sin debt to the cross. (Colossians 2:14) 

God not only erases our sin debt, but He also destroys the document on which our debt was recorded by nailing it to the cross. We are forgiven because of the cross of Jesus. 

[ Mike Livingstone ~ 10 Things God Does with Our Sin (Session 11 – Psalm 32:1-11) - Explore the Bible]

✫❤•°*”˜˜”*°•❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫

In The Solitudes of That Voiceless Ocean

The picture here is of an ocean, not near the shore, but far beyond sight of land, in the midst of a wide wilderness of waters, the illimitable horizon stretching on every side; and when the sounding line is let down, it cannot fathom the depth or reach the bottom! 

There, in the solitudes of that voiceless ocean, a plunge is heard! The surface is ruffled only for a moment; then the waves resume their usual calmness. The load, whatever it is, is never more seen. It is buried somewhere in these dark caverns! No spirit of the deep can ever come up from the silent caves to tell its story! 

Ships cross and recross where it fell, but no distinguishing marker is left on the unstable highway, to mark the spot. The sea can be tempted by no bribe; to give up the secret of its keeping, all trace is lost from sight and memory forever! 

That is a picture of what God does for all His redeemed people! 

[John MacDuff] 

Micah 7:19 ... He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

✫❤•°*”˜˜”*°•❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫

At Calvary ...

The cross is God's way to punish sin and forgive sinners at the same time.

[Adrian Rogers] 

 ✞  ✞  ✞ 

Ephesians 1:7 ...  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Colossians 1:14 ... In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

Hebrews 10:10 ...  By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ❤

Black as Night, and As Hideous as Hell!

Oh, that blessed word all. It includes willful sins and unintentional sins, sins against gospel light, sins against the love of God, sins wantonly perpetrated, sins against man and against God, sins of body and of soul, sins of thought and word and deed, sins of every rank and character, sins as immense as the sea all, all are removed, no matter how many, or how vile they are! 

What comfort there is here for every believer! However heinous your sins may be, there is a sin-offering which cleanses away every sin. However, you may have defiled yourselves, though you are as black as night, and as hideous as Hell yet there is power in the sin-atoning blood of the incarnate God to make you as white as newly fallen snow! 

What a joy it is to think, not only has Christ put away my sin; but now for me, He is a sweet savor to God, and I am for His sake accepted; for His sake beloved; for His sake delighted in; for His sake precious unto God. The immaculate Christ has died, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. Washed once in the fountain opened for sin and for impurity there shall remain upon you no trace of guilt! 

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

 ✞  ✞  ✞ 

1 John 1:7 ... But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Colossians 1:13-14 ... Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

Romans 4:7-8 ... Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.❤

Pardoned!!

 When people bring up your past, tell them that Jesus dropped the charges!

 ✞  ✞  ✞ 

Micah 7:19 ...  He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

Numbers 14:19-21 ... Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now. And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word: But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.

Psalm 103:12 ... As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Romans 4:7 ... Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. ❤

Corporate Religion

Pastor Tony Evans is stepping down due to a “sin” years ago. 

This is why corporate religion masked as Christianity is so destructive, we punish people for things that they did years ago, why? To appease our traditions. 

This is not grace. This is religion. I don’t know this man, but he did something years ago, so? Who hasn’t? 

But, religion needs its pound of flesh. Grace forgives and forgets. Men, on the other hand… 

He should have rejected calls to step down and just embrace the grace he was given by God.

[Christopher Gregory]

 ✞  ✞ ✞

Isaiah 43:25 ... I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.

Psalm 103:12 ... As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Hebrews 8:12 ... For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. ❤

Be Changed!!

 You have never gone too fat that God can't redeem you. Retore you. Forgive you.

The Lord is a God of second chances.

1 John 1:9 ... If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Ezekiel 36:26 ...  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

Colossians 1:14 ...  In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: ❤

Broke Her Heart All in Pieces

The more a man apprehends of the love of God, and of the love of Christ the more that person will grieve and mourn that he has offended, provoked, and grieved such a Father, and such a Son. The more clear and certain evidence a man has of the love and favor of God to his soul, the more that man will grieve and mourn for sinning against such a God. 

 There is nothing which thaws and melts the heart, which softens and breaks the heart like the warm beams of divine love as you may see in the case of Mary Magdalene. She loved much, and she wept much for much was forgiven her. A sight of the free grace and love of Christ towards her, in an act of forgiveness, broke her heart all in pieces. 

A man cannot stand under the shining of divine love with a frozen heart, nor with dry eyes. The more a man sees of the love of Christ, and the more a man tastes and enjoys of the love of Christ the more that man will grieve and mourn for all the dishonors that he has done to Christ. 

[Thomas Brooks] 

Luke 7:38 ...  And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

✫❤•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫

Beggars

Christians have nothing to be smug about. We are not righteous people trying to correct the unrighteous. As one preacher said, Evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. 

The chief difference between the Believer and the Unbeliever is forgiveness. 

[R. C. Sproul]

✞ ✞ ✞ 

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ... Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Ephesians 2:8-9 ... For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Colossians 1:14 ... In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: ❤

Trust in Him...

Trust in the death and resurrection of Christ for forgiveness of your sins.

Colossians 1:13-14 ... Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:  In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

2 Corinthians 1:9-10 ... But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:  Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;

1 Corinthians 15:2-4 ... By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:  ❤

Sin Forgotten.

Stop asking God to forgive what he’s already forgotten.

Micah 7:19 ... He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

Isaiah 43:25 ...  I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.

Romans 8:1 ... There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Psalm 103:12 ... As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

 ƸӜƷ•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ 

G░O░D░ ░L░O░V░E░S░ ░Y░O░U

ƸӜƷ•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.ƸӜƷ

The Precious Blood

Only one thing can wash away sin. Only one thing can make someone whole again. Only one thing can cover you, restore you, heal you, and cause you to stand in righteousness, victory, and freedom. Nothing else. Nothing but the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1:7 ...  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Colossians 1:14 ... In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

Romans 3:25 ... Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

1 John 1:7 ... But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. ❤

Bouyancy in The Cross

Cling to the cross though your sins rise up before you like mountains for their size; like the sands on the seashore for their number and glowing like scarlet and crimson, in color!

For no sins, however great, or however numerous should tempt us to despond, or to let go of our hold on the cross seeing the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from ALL sin.  There is a 'buoyancy' in the cross which will never let anyone sink, who clings to it!

If our sins were as ponderous as the globe, or as numerous as all the particles of created matter yet embracing the cross of Jesus they are all forgiven and forgiven forever!

They are all blotted out like the dark clouds, which obscured the sun for a little while on the summer's morning!  They are all blotted out like a stone cast from an angel's hand into the depths of ocean!  They are all forgiven and forgotten forever!

Cling to the cross!

[James Smith]

 ✞  ✞  ✞

Isaiah 1:18 ... Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Colossians 1:14 ...  In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

Galatians 6:14 ... But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.  ❤

Where They Need To Be

 You got hammered at the bar on Saturday, but came to church on Sunday, you can sit with me, you’re right where you need to be.

You’re a drug addict who came to church high this Sunday, you can sit with me, you’re right where you need to be.

You’re divorced and the last church you attended condemned you for it, you can sit me, you’re right where you need to be.

You’ve had an abortion and it’s slowly eating away at your heart, but you came to church on Sunday, you can sit with me, you’re right where you need to be.

You’ve been unfaithful to your spouse but came to church on Sunday, you can sit with me, you’re right where you need to be.

Here’s the thing, people don’t come to church on Sunday for you to sit in the pew and quietly judge them because you feel that you’re somehow better than them.

People come to church because in their deepest, darkest, most painful moments, they heard about a man named Jesus that could save their soul and transform their life and they’d like to know him.

The man that just snorted cocaine off his kitchen table isn’t a bigger sinner than you who told your boss a lie on Monday so you could leave work early.

The drunk man lying on the bar isn’t a bigger sinner than you who occasionally has too much to drink at home in private.

The woman that just got caught cheating on her husband isn’t a bigger sinner than you who had sex with your now husband before you were married.

Stop judging others because their sin is different than yours.

There isn’t a person in this world too bad, too broken, too mean, or too damaged for Jesus to save. Amen.

[message from the Internet]

 ✞  ✞  ✞ 

Romans 3:23 ... For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Romans 10:13 ... For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

1 John 1:9 ... If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ❤

Forgive Them.

Luke 23:34 ... Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.❤

Newton Song

In evil long I took delight,

Unawed by shame or fear;

Until a new object struck my sight,

And stopped my wild career!

I saw One hanging on a tree,

In agonies and blood.

He fixed His languid eyes on me,

As near His cross I stood.

Sure never til my dying breath,

Can I forget that look!

It seemed to charge me with His death,

Though not a word He spoke.

A second look He gave, which said,

I freely all forgive;

This blood is for your ransom paid,

I die, that you may live!

[John Newton]

✞ ✞ ✞ 

Mark 10:45 … For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.❤

The Sin of a Pardoned Soul!

A deep sense and clear sight of sin, its heinousness and the punishment which it deserves should make us lie low before God's throne. As Christians we have sinned! Alas! that it should be so. Favored as we have been, we have yet been ungrateful. Privileged beyond most we have not brought forth fruit in proportion. What Christian is there who will not blush when he looks back upon his past sins?

As for our days before we were regenerated, may they be forgiven and forgotten; but since then, though we have not sinned as before, yet we have sinned against light and against love, spiritual light which has really penetrated our minds, and the love of Jesus which we have experienced. Oh, the atrocity of the sin of a pardoned soul! An unpardoned sinner sins cheaply when compared with the sin of one of God's own elect ones, who has had communion with Christ and leaned his head upon Jesus' bosom.

Look at David! Many will talk of his sin, but I beg you to look at his repentance, and hear his broken bones, as each one of them moans out its dolorous confession! Mark his tears, as they fall upon the ground, and the deep sighs with which he accompanies the softened music of his harp! We have erred, let us therefore seek the spirit of penitence.

Look, again, at Peter! We speak much of Peter's denying his Master. But remember that it is written, "He wept bitterly!" Have we no denials of our Lord to be lamented with tears?

Alas! these sins of ours would consign us to the place of inextinguishable fire if it were not for God's sovereign mercy which has made us to differ, snatching us like brands from the burning! My soul, bow down in humility under a sense of your natural sinfulness, and worship your God. Admire the grace which saves you; the mercy which spares you; the love which pardons you!

[Charles H. Spurgeon]

Daniel 9:8-9 … O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;

✫❤•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫