Fogiveness

After reading this devotional by Adrian Rogers from yesterday I got to where he spoke of “Gospel dynamite”. I said, “that I want to read and understand”. But for me to fully understand I had to go back a few verses. Also when I read verse 20 below my mind thought back to Genesis 6:6 And Jehovah repented that He had made man on the earth, and He was angry to His heart. Just think, God’s greatest creation, and He was angry that He made man. What was He angry about, “sin.” Man turned from God whom he was created to have a relationship with, and became an evil doer. But thank you Noah for as you read in Genesis 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah.

I encourage you just as Adrian Rogers does in this devotional “forgive before it is too late!” I will always remember that my father and his brother passed on never forgiving each other for something that was said 40 years prior. My neighbor up the street told me the other day that she and her brother never got along and she has done everything she could. Has she?

JANUARY 25

The Ultimate Act of Forgiveness

"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." 1 Peter 3:18 (MKJV)

Suppose someone were to punch you in the nose? And suppose in an act of compassion you were to say to that person who punched you, "I forgive you." And suppose they responded, "There's no need for you to forgive me. I've already forgiven myself." You'd feel a little cheated. Only the one who was punched can forgive the hitter.

Sin is a clenched fist in the face of God, and only God can forgive sin. There's enough Gospel dynamite in 1 Peter 3:18 to blow the sin, the hatred, the sorrow, and the sickness out of anybody's life, but that dynamite must be ignited by the spark of faith.

Is there someone in your life you need to forgive? Maybe someone from whom you need to ask forgiveness? Go do it now. Tomorrow may never come.

1Peter 3:8 And finally, all be of one mind, having compassion on one another, loving the brothers, tenderhearted, friendly.
1 Peter 3:9 Never give back evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, giving blessing, knowing that you are called to this so that you might inherit blessing.
1 Peter 3:10 For he that wants to love life and to see good days, let him restrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking guile.
1 Peter 3:11 Let him turn aside from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it.
1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears open to their prayers. But the Lord's face is against those who do evil.
1 Peter 3:13 And who is the one who will harm you if you become imitators of the good?
1 Peter 3:14 But if you also suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. And do not fear their fear, nor be troubled,
1 Peter 3:15 but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason of the hope in you, with meekness and fear;
1 Peter 3:16 having a good conscience, that while they speak against you as evildoers they may be shamed, those falsely accusing your good behavior in Christ.
1 Peter 3:17 For it is better, if the will of God wills it, to suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing. 1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, indeed being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit;
1 Peter 3:19 in which also He went and preached to the spirits in prison,
1 Peter 3:20 to disobeying ones, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared (in which a few, that is, eight souls were saved through water);
1 Peter 3:21 which figure now also saves us, baptism; not a putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ;
1 Peter 3:22 who is at the right hand of God, having gone into Heaven, where the angels and authorities and powers are being subjected to Him.

“Forgive Me”

For every word that is said

Off every tongue when they depart

Regardless how well they are spoken

Given time they will impact the heart

It could be in a very good way

Very bad is likely too

Especially when spoken

No one is really thinking of you

Every time we go to speak

Stopping to think is very smart

Sensitive knowing it will somehow, affect that person’s heart!

E. P. Shagott

From God’s heart, to mine, to yours,
Ed Shagott