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.
Tag 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.}
ACAD – Giving Thanks: Colossians 2
And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. {Click to read full chapter.}
ACAD – Giving Thanks: Luke 17
“The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”[h]
And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.[i] But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. {Click to read chapter.}
A Chapter a Day: Jeremiah 3
“Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. {Click to read the chapter.}
Are you asking for forgiveness or expecting to be forgiven?
While out shopping over the holidays, I ran into someone from a former congregation of mine. She spoke about the turmoil gripping her congregation at that time because of a tainted leader. My heart grew heavy with sorrow from hearing the story she told. Essentially, the turmoil was caused because a leader egregiously offended a member ofContinueContinue reading “Are you asking for forgiveness or expecting to be forgiven?”
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.
Song & Verse: Whitney Houston & The Greatest Love of All
Love evolves. Love stretches us. It grows us. It teaches us. Love is more than an emotion and a feeling – it’s a way of life. Where would I be today without love? Without learning that love lives in me? Without learning that I can offer love as a gift? Without learning that I can accept love as a peace offering to heal a relationship? Where would any of us be without love?
The life of Jesus is by far the greatest example of the process of love and its evolutionary results. Jesus was given to the world first as a seed in a young woman’s womb. He was nurtured as a child and educated as a disciple of the One True God, who made Him a leader to the masses. In the process of His physical death, Jesus provided the opportunity for eternal life for every human being. Jesus came for a purpose. He died for a purpose. He rose for a purpose. Jesus was given for a purpose.
For Love.
Podcasts: The Process of Asking for, Receiving and Giving Love and Forgiveness
Take a listen to recordings of LaShawnda Jones discussing her book, The Process of Asking for, Receiving and Giving Love and Forgiveness. The author speaks about the purpose of the book, what she hopes readers get from it. There is also a “When Your Love is Rejected.”
Study: Courage to Build, Maintain and Restore Relationships
Our primary relationship is with God. We have to know and understand His word in order to properly interact with Him. Once we understand the importance of “right relationship” with God, we pursue it continually. More immediately in our physical world, we have a proper working model of a “good” relationship. Our human relationships are to mirror our primary spiritual relationship. I hope this compilation of God’s Word helps you with your relationship with Him and with people.
Harvest Life 