True Forgiveness

Over the last little while I’ve been learning a little about forgiveness. A lot of times I’ve thought that forgiveness is just being ok with whatever happened, but I came across a neat description of what forgiveness really is. From a book called, "The Peace Maker", "forgiveness may be described as a decision to make four promises:

"I will not dwell on this incident."
"I will not bring up this incident again and use it against you."
"I will not talk to others about this incident."
"I will not let this incident stand between us or hinder our personal relationship."

A neat little poem from the same source sums it up with:

Good thought,
Hurt you not,
Gossip never,
Friends forever.

This week was spiritual emphasis week here at PRBI. On Friday we had no classes and it was a day of prayer and fasting. In the afternoon we had a time of worship and celebrated communion. Before the communion, we had a time to examine ourselves and step out of the gym with anyone that we needed to resolve something with. It was so cool to see people walk out and then walk back in with smiles on their faces after having reconciled. I was challenged with reconciling with someone this week also. Maybe there is someone in your life who you need to be reconciled with. Or maybe you just need to forgive someone of something that you’ve unintentionally held against them. Whatever your situation is, God calls us to be reconciled to our brother before we offer our sacrifice of worship at the altar and before we celebrate communion. When we forgive others we always find a greater freedom than we had before, and God is pleased because He wants to forgive others, on the basis of His forgiveness of our sin. I just thought that this was interesting and hopefully it speaks to you also. God bless!

Enjoying God’s Gifts

As I was reading for one of my classes, I was really impressed about what the Author was saying. The text I was reading from is called "The Liberated Imagination" by Leland Ryken. Our first assignment was to read about the purpose of the "arts" (music, visual art, poetry, etc..) Going into this I had no clue what it was going to say, but I was pleasantly surprised! The book talks about how the Bible says that pleasure and enjoyment are of God. Solomon writes, "I know there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; also that it is God’s gift to man that every one should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil." (Ecc 3:12-13) He also writes, "Behold, what I have seen to be good and to be fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life which God has given him, for this is his lot. Every man also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and find enjoyment in his toil – this is the gift of God." (Ecc 5:18-19) So the Bible is pretty clear, (there are more verses too), that pleasure and enjoyment are a gift from God.
But not only this, the "arts" are a gift to be enjoyed and take pleasure in! God has created us as creative beings in His image. Just as He delights in His creation, we can delight in our creations. Things like music, poetry, drama, television, and games are all facets of our God-given creativity and are for our enjoyment. In Paul’s first letter to Timothy he says, "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." (1 Tim 6:17) From this verse we can see that our rich creativity is a gift from God for our enjoyment, as long as we don’t put our hope and trust in that rather than God. To elevate the arts, whether music, television, games, movies, or any such thing above God’s rightful place in our lives is idolatry. The freedom to enjoy things as the gifts that they are comes with a responsibility not to worship or elevate those gifts above the One who gave them.
Learning this was very refreshing for me. Most of you probably know that I’d be the first person to tell you that you are wasting your time or that your time could be better used, if you told me that you were listening to music that isn’t spiritual, or watching TV or movies that had nothing to do with God. But just because a form of art that we enjoy using, whether we are the audience or the creator of the art, isn’t spiritual or done as a ministry, doesn’t mean that we are wasting our time! God gave us beautiful and pleasurable things in life to enjoy! In fact, those of us that look at people who take time just to enjoy the beauty of life as wasting their time are very similar to the Pharisees in mindset. This is something I need to learn because until now I have been a little off balance in my perspective.
I’m still figuring a lot of this out, but I thought I’d share it with you, and I hope that it provokes some thought in you as it did for me. God Bless!

Surrendering The Mind

This week while reading from Oswald Chamber’s "My Utmost For His Highest" I was really challenged by the attitude that he had in pursuing God. His attitude is almost a mirror of Paul’s in his letter to the Philippians. Chambers says, "Shut out every other thought and keep yourself before God in this one thing only – my utmost for His highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and Him alone." What an amazing heart!!! That’s hard to do and hard to even want to do! Paul affirms this as his mindset in his second letter to the Corinthians saying, "…we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Co 10:5) Can you image checking yourself on every thought?! Talk about loving God with all your mind! (Matt 22:37) This means rejecting all thoughts of anxiety, worry, and doubt that seek to make a home in our mind. It means casting off every inclination to dwell on people and things outside of a God-focused frame of mind. Maybe this is what Paul was referring to when he said "pray continually." (1 Th 5:17) I can’t think of a greater surrender than this! This must be why Oswald Chambers refers to it as "my utmost". This is a great sacrifice on our part but it’s the only acceptable sacrifice when we consider Christ’s sacrifice for us. We owe Him all of our minds! This, that God may be the Highest and glorified beyond all measure in our lives. Though no one can see our thoughts or know what we’re thinking, God sees every thought, and He wants to dwell in our minds. Only God will know of the glory we bring to Him by the secret and hidden places of our thoughts.