VIDEO Forgiveness

When Jesus saw [the friends’] faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” Mark 2:5

 

The hardest part of forgiving another person is acting like the offense never occurred. But that is what forgiving someone means—restoring relationships to the status they enjoyed before the offense took place. It’s one thing to say, “I forgive you,” but it’s another to act like all the effects of an offense are completely erased. After all, according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, love is known by its actions more than its words.

Jesus faced this dilemma when He healed a paralytic man. When He told the man that his sins were forgiven (and by extension, he was healed), He was criticized. He was accused of blaspheming by saying He had the authority to forgive sins—something only God can do. So Jesus proved He had the authority to say, “I forgive you,” by doing something harder. He healed the man’s paralysis. After all, as Jesus explained, actions speak louder than words (Mark 2:8-11).

We cannot go through life without being hurt by others, so we should learn to forgive. Even more, we should practice demonstrating our forgiveness by our acts of lovingkindness. Look for opportunities to do both.

Forgiveness is to be set loose from sins. G. Campbell Morgan

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    Healing the Paralytic (Mark 2:1–12) — A Sermon by R.C. Sproul

Trying to Save Ourselves

It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8

Many years ago, New York City launched a “Stay Safe. Stay Put” ad campaign to educate people on how to stay calm and be safe when trapped in an elevator. Experts reported that some trapped passengers had died when they tried to pry open the elevator doors or attempted exiting by some other means. The best plan of action is to simply use the alarm button to call for help and wait for emergency responders to arrive.

The apostle Paul spelled out a very different type of rescue plan—one to help those trapped in the downward pull of sin. He reminded the Ephesians of their utter spiritual helplessness—being truly “dead in [their] . . . sins” (Ephesians 2:1). They were trapped, obeying the devil (v. 2), and refusing to submit to God. This resulted in them being the subject of God’s wrath. But He didn’t leave them trapped in spiritual darkness. And those who believe in Jesus, the apostle wrote, “by grace . . . have been saved” (vv. 5, 8). A response to God’s rescue initiative results in faith. And faith means we’ll give up on trying to save ourselves and call on Jesus to rescue us. 

By God’s grace, being rescued from sin’s trap doesn’t originate with us. It’s “the gift of God” through Jesus alone (v. 8).

By:  Marvin Williams

Reflect & Pray

Why can’t you save yourself from sin’s trap? How has God provided what you need to be saved?

Dear God, I’m so grateful that when I was trapped in sin and tried to save myself, You initiated my rescue and sent a Savior to free me. 

Learn more about having a personal relationship with God.

Hope for the Stranger

God calls us to welcome and include those who are new or unknown in our communities Ruth 1:6-14

When Naomi returned to Bethlehem after the death of her husband and sons, she brought along her widowed Moabite daughter-in-law. Ruth—the third woman mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy—was a stranger, but she chose to follow the customs of Naomi’s land. Because they were poor, Ruth gleaned barley from the edges of the fields, God’s provision in Israel “for the needy and for the stranger” (Leviticus 19:10; Leviticus 23:22). Her faithfulness impressed the community and especially Boaz, the owner of the field.

Ruth lived on the margins, literally and figuratively. But settling in Bethlehem eventually led to a home and family of her own. Boaz, by marrying her, helped to restore the inheritance and prospects of a family devastated by loss. Ruth was welcomed and cared for by her adopted community, and she ultimately bore a child whom the neighborhood named Obed (Ruth 4:13-17).

People like Ruth live in our communities today. You can find them in the grocery store and dentist’s office as well as the dog park, senior center, and library. God calls us to welcome and provide for all the “strangers” among us, just as He welcomed us when we were outsiders. He made us members of His household and grafted us into the kingdom (Ephesians 2:19). How can we extend that same love and generosity to those around us?

Two Imperatives

“Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” (John 3:7)

The term “born again” has come into such common use in recent years, even in political campaigns, that its tremendous meaning has been all but lost. But Jesus—who ought to know, being none other than God incarnate—said, “Ye must be born again”! Furthermore, He said it to Nicodemus, one of the most religiously knowledgeable people of that day.

He did not say to Nicodemus that “they must be born again,” meaning the unbelieving multitudes who were not as instructed in the things of God as they should be. Nor did He say that “we must be born again,” meaning all of us mortals including Himself. Rather, Jesus said, “Ye must be born again”!

Even a man like Nicodemus must be born spiritually—born again (literally, “born from above”)—if he were ever to see the kingdom of God (John 3:3). In answer to his question as to how this could be, Jesus said he must be born of the Spirit, supernaturally. But Nicodemus—as well as each of us—was born a sinner and was still a sinner, even failing to recognize Christ as Son of man and Son of God. How could he be born again? The answer is in a second imperative: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). If “ye must be born again,” then “even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” Christ must die for our sins before it can ever be possible that a lost sinner be born again. Since Jesus Christ was lifted up on the cross to die for us, our burden of sin has also been lifted up and placed on Him. If we would enter God’s kingdom, we must be born again through faith in Him! There is no other way! HMM

Complacency – Stagnation – Death

This morning I had breakfast with a businessman who is coasting spiritually. Basically, he’s bored with his Christian experience… and under-challenged with life in general.

At mid-life he has mastered his profession, enjoys the easy life-style of private clubs, trips abroad, and the respect of his peers. His time with God is bland. His involvement in ministry is dutiful, uneventful, and… predictable.

There is no overt sin in his life, you understand. Basically, he’s a nice guy, who faithfully shows up each week at church and Bible study.

But he’s dying from within. Bloated from too much intake and too little outflow.

What is missing is the very life of Christ pulsating through his veins:

• Jesus wept over Jerusalem.
• Jesus washed people‘s feet.
• Jesus climbed into an electric chair and died.
• Jesus cautioned us:

“Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.“(Luke 9:24)

So I asked him, “If you are stagnated now, what will you be five years from now?”

I then challenged him to find the highest piece of real estate in his city: “Go to the top, look over the city and pray, asking God to allow you to see your city through the eyes of Jesus who wept over Jerusalem as He viewed their tragically lost condition.“(Matthew 23:37-39)

I urged him to ask God to give him a vision for his world that was larger than his safe and diminished life… A vision that would demand faith and sacrifice.

Is it not true that unless we are involved in a life of sacrifice in fulfilling a God-given vision, we too are in the process of dying?

QUESTION: What is your vision? What is your passion? For what are you expending your life? Is it the life of the cross or simply “business as usual?“If it is “business as usual,“

You may be a spiritual cadaver in the making.

“Lord, evermore give us this bread.”

Those who followed Jesus with a wrong motive soon found that he did not care for their company, and was gone from them, they knew not how. If we attend places of worship with worldly motives, we shall one day find out as these people did, that “Jesus was not there.”

John 6:22-34

John 6:22, 23

John is particular in noticing our Lord’s thanksgiving; spiritual minds remark and remember most the spiritual parts of any action. The Jews noticed the bread and the fish, but the beloved disciple was most pleased with the giving of thanks. Oh for a spiritual eye!

John 6:25

Here was much zeal and outward respect, but it was blind and selfish, and therefore the Lord set no store by it.

John 6:26

With an unerring glance he read their hearts. They fancied that they were fond of him and his kingdom; he knew that far grosser affections ruled them; this he told them plainly to their faces, and bade them seek more noble objects.

John 6:29

The most godlike work, the greatest, and most acceptable, is that we believe in Jesus. Faith is, after all, the noblest of works, and none have it but those in whom God himself has placed it.

John 6:31

They wanted feeding again, and thought that by such talk they would induce the Lord to make them another banquet. They spoke of bread from heaven, little caring where it came from, so long as they might but be filled with it. It is wonderful that Jesus had patience to listen to their greedy and crafty insinuations.

John 6:34

Some thus prayed in honest ignorance, expecting to have food for nothing from his hand every day; but others merely said this in taunt, deridingly setting it before the Lord as the test of his Messiahship that he should give them bread all their lives. Yet they have, unwittingly, furnished us with a petition which we may hourly use; it is full of meaning, and exactly expresses our need and our desire. Let us carry it with us all this day as our heart’s wish and prayer—”Lord, evermore give us this bread.”

Oh! labour ye not for perishing meat;

For Jesus hath brought his body to eat;

Himself the true leaven, the life-giving bread,

He came down from heaven to quicken the dead.

To hearts unrenew’d ’tis hard to believe

His body for food how Jesus can give;

But he who partaketh doth inwardly feed,

And knows that it maketh a banquet indeed!

Beyond Empty Profession

Examine yourself, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. (2 Corinthians 13:5)

Preaching from the pulpit about the Christian “deeper life” does not automatically produce a deeper life church and congregation. The profession of men and women that they believe in “the deeper Christian life” is no assurance that their fellowship is actually a deeper life church.

The deeper spiritual life many people say they want is not a message; it is not a sermon; it is not a profession.

I am a pastor and I think I major in telling the truth. It is true that it is about time we stop coddling and apologizing for congregations that have reputations for being deeper life churches.

The deeper spiritual life is not something just to be talked about—it is a quiet enjoyment of daily blessing and peace and victory that is lived day by day; beyond empty profession and without any two-faced circumstances!