Justice grows out of recognition… of ourselves in each other… then my liberty depends on you being free too. History can’t be a sword to justify injustice. Or a shield against progress. It must be a manual for how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. How to break the cycle. A roadway for a better world. He knew that the path of grace involves an open mind, but more importantly an open heart.
Category Archives: Forgiveness
How Does Forgiveness Work?
Forgiveness is a new way of looking at others. It is a radical and countercultural perspective on life. If you believe in forgiveness—that God forgives even though he is not obligated to, and that we’ll have the best kind of life if we hold other people in our lives with a loose grip—then you will see people for what they can be and what they were intended to be, rather than simply as they are.
Forgiveness means looking at people who have wronged you and deciding that you’d like to set things right—but in the end, you’re not going to play God.
Forgiveness is a decision and a process. You can release someone from obligation to you personally, even though the smoldering fires of resentment may keep burning in you for some time to come. {Click to read more.}
He Is My Husband…
Have you thought about those relationships where God joins hearts and souls before minds are aligned and vows are spoken? When a man and woman try to catch up to what God has ordained as their union? When they struggle to grasp the totality of His promise? How difficult that must be for each to know the end result and to continue to sink in the minutia of process, continually getting lost in the labyrinth of selfish independent will (independent of God’s will).
But, doesn’t that describe the bulk of intimate relationships? We all connect to our significant other in some way, on some level, long before our thoughts and our will align and operate in unity. The life of a relationship is intended to flow towards total unity… into oneness.
Combating Spirits in the Church
Mrs. W had a habit of snapping on people so hard grown women would start crying or stand in front of her quaking. I’m talking about women within her age group, 50’s to late 60’s. She did everything but curse you and your descendents – you’re stupid, you’re ignorant, you don’t know nothing, this is my world, you’re just a squirrel…on and on ridculousness. Then she’d end each meeting with a group hug and prayer.
Forgiveness – You have it. Now What?
I had to sit back and think about how so many people have been comfortable treating me so cavalierly and then setting me aside. The answer I came to: I forgave when they asked and forgot their transgressions without requiring anything from them. No expression of repentance, no sincere/specific apology and no attempt to make amends. I was always giving of myself and going home empty.
Now, I’m asking for something in my relationships. I want to be wooed. I want to know you’re not just after a comfortable foot stool or a quiet ear. I need to know you’re interested in contributing to and sustaining a relationship with me. I need to know I’m not in it alone.
Question: To Forgive or Not to Forgive?
EVERYTHING that has come before and since falls under the directive of love. Love is the critical piece that works with forgiveness (for the transgressee & the transgressor). Love allows patience and provides compassion. Love covers every single sin you can imagine. The whole of God’s law is fulfilled when we practice love as instructed.
Harvest Life 