THE JOYFUL LIFE - THE BLESSINGS OF FORGIVENESS, PART 1

At a recent series of Revival Services, where I led worship music on the opening night (October 9, 2019) two major things happened which affected the lives and even the eternity, of members of two distinctive churches. Both entities were personally revived and both experienced the Joy and Freedom of Forgiveness.

The final service was on the regular Sunday morning service with the title "Embracing Forgiveness". In it, my good friend, the Texas pastor/author Dr. David King, who has a background in both Christian radio and church leadership, used the story of Joseph in the Book of Genesis. Joseph as the example of HOW to live a life of forgiveness which reflects both God and the willingness to complete our mission here on earth, with the richness and inner peace which only comes from the Father. We know this story very well. The favorite son of the patriarch Jacob was sold into slavery by this brothers, who schemed and told their father that Jacob was dead....simply because they hated him. Fast forward two decades later and Joseph is the prime minister of Egypt, whom the Lord used to save the entire world from famine. He rescued those same brothers and their families, forgiving them in an act of Mercy which only came from God. He never told a soul about it. (READ MORE ABOUT THAT HERE).

There is HUGE BURDEN lifted when we forgive others. HOWEVER, we can never really know what that means until we are forgiven ourselves! To that end, we begin a new series in Psalm 32, in part, to personally know this powerful pardon from the Lord. In Psalm 32, King David has repented fully before the Lord, for his murderous adultery with Bathsheba. We read his prayers of repentance and sorrow in Psalm 51, which is the example for us to go to God with, when we have blown it so bad, that we think the Lord cannot forgive us.

Now in Psalm 32, the Holy Spirit-inspired author of the Psalms (most of them) - King David, has his eyes opened as what God has really done for him, by forgiving him of his crimes against both God and man. It was too late for David to apologize to Uriah the Hititte, whom he had killed so he (David) could cover up the affair with Uriah's wife, but David did the right thing by responding to God exposing his sin. Now, he shares for all the ages, how this really feels.

Psalm 32, verses 1 and 2 (NKJV):

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

There are three varying degrees of sin listed here, which we have ALL committed and some, maybe still do. Each one is worse than the other one:

Transgression: (pesha, or the rebellion of humans against God which will send the majority of the world away from Him. This can be forgiven if the sinner is truly repent and is the highest degree of sin).

Iniquity: (awon or willfully and blatantly knowing God's standard but breaking it anyway)

Sin: (chattah or missing the mark or the threshold of the Lord).

Here, David is committed all three when he disrespected God, broke all His Commandments and basically not just crossed the line, but willingly blew across it.

The key is Repentance.

The original bible word for "BLESSED" is "Esher" which basically means perfect happiness which cannot be bought by things or conditions, but only comes from the love, grace and peace of Almighty God! Basically, it means - joy.

The other key word to note here is "impute", where God does not consider or hold this against us anymore. We will still have to face the CONSEQUENCES of those sins in our time here on earth, unless we attempt to make it right and others forgive us. To achieve that and to fully receive the blessings of this imputation from the Lord, we must fully embrace forgiveness - and truly forgive others, while not holding anything against them.

This is a hard calling. Are we up to it? Yes, we are.

MOVING BEYOND "THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS".....

"With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints." (Ephesians 6:18)

We have all heard it and some of us have even said it "so and so are in our thoughts and prayers". Even people whom we know could not say a prayer to save their lives, or say they are atheists or not Christians will repeat this cliche.

But even worse than this, Christians are using the same phrase when wrapped up in the moment. Beyond all of the bluster about "being in our thoughts and prayers", do any of these folks actually pray for those to whom they say these things. From personal experience, before I realized I used to do the same thing, I can tell you that it is very easy to tell someone you will pray for them, then walk away and completely fail to do. Such a move is not right, even if we remember to pray three of four days later. After realizing my shortcoming, in this area of Faith, corrective action needed to be taken so this aspect of ministry could function with an unction.

Basically, when a person says to another that "you are in my thoughts and prayers" and then does not do so, it is deception. There are ways to avoid that and do the right thing...and that is, to really pray for there person right then and there. Sometimes, circumstances and potential discomfort of the recipient of those prayers, WILL prevent us from praying then and there with the person. In this case it is really beneficial to such a person, and then pertinent to our spiritual growth, if we take a note of the situation and immediately begin to pray in silence. Then, after getting to a place we can pray intensely, for real, we must bear down and contend for the recipient of our intercession.

There is a really memorable passage in Scripture of a woman who was the beneficiary of more than just "thoughts and prayers". 1 Kings 17:21-22 tells us of the great prophet Elijah, who had been staying with a widow woman and her son. He had already blessed the widow and proven himself as a man of God by miraculously causing her food not to run out, so that the widow, her son, and Elijah could all eat during a time of famine and drought. But during his stay, the widow’s son became ill and died. When Elijah prayed for the child’s life to return to him, God answered right away. This is a dramatic, immediate instance of God answering prayer....and instant prayer!

The Bible said of Elijah in these two verses: "Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, ‘O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.’ And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived". We may not be able to pray someone back from the dead, but we sure can lift high such a one to the One Who heals, reveals and blesses all things and all people - Yahweh Rophe - the God Who heals! He is Yahweh Shammah - the God Who is there for us if we cry out earnestly and pray for those ....truly pray for them, with all the Faith we can muster in our spirit, so that the Lord will hear from Heaven and answer our prayers. Why did God listen to Elijah? He listened because of the close relationship He had with this imperfect man who was serving a perfect God. God listen to Elijah's thoughts, prayers and then ACTIONS to put His prayer and Faith into action mightily!

Then God responded by restoring the child to his mother....all because Faith in the Lord changes everything and FAITH IN ACTION, brings results. Amen.

(Image Credit Here)

WHERE IS THE ROAD TO PEACE WITHIN?

The late seminary professor Howard Hendricks once told of a neighbor of his whose pride

and joy was his speedboat. This man was really proud of this boat and spent all of his spare moments washing and waxing it. One day, he boasted to Hendricks that "I now have 38 coats of wax" on the boat. That must have been one exquisite looking boat.

Every time he boasted about the mint condition of his vessel, Howard Hendricks was kind to him, encouraging him. He never said an unkind word to this rich lost man, as he said to himself "this man has to stay busy and always doing something so as to hide the completely useless emptiness of his life". If you ever watch some of these hyper or active men or women who pursue self-gratification and pleasure with a passion, you will find that same type of emptiness. I see them on most Sunday mornings (except in the middle of winter) when I drive by the lake on the way to church, and see these guys fishing....sometimes in the rain.

Do ALL of them have empty lives? Do any of them have peace? Sure they have great families, the best homes, cars, jobs and even boats like this guy Hendricks lived next to. But do they have the peace that passeth all understanding? Are their souls at rest in the Lord? Do they even know what that means? Sadly, the majority does not and this problem cuts across all classes, races and stations in life. 

Scripture gives us the roadmap to the way of Inner Peace, the Peace within. Ephesians 2 tells us that "14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father." There is NO peace unless we have God in our lives and that can only happen if Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.

In this older Plumbline program. I look at one of the fruits of the Spirit - PEACE, and give part of my personal testimony as to how I found that peace....and it was only through coming to the end of myself. It was only hitting the ground so hard that all I could do was look up and choose Him....then give my life to Him and see His forgiveness for all my sins - Repentance. You too can have that fruit of the Spirit - Peace...we all can, so we don't have to make busy plans or occupy our minds with mindless books, hobbies, sports, activities etc just to run from ourselves, and the convicting conscience we have been ignoring. Please watch: