tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65241211346191063282024-03-16T16:14:40.754+08:00EpitomeEver watched someone, or read about someone; been inspired, and thought, 'I want to be just like them!'? ...
Well, that is epitome...
It is about modelling and perfecting our character, to improve our capacity and fulfilment in life.
It's an exciting journey, life. It's great to learn and help others learn.Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.comBlogger4260125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-43682039848673077332024-03-16T16:04:00.007+08:002024-03-16T16:14:09.422+08:00Chaplaincy in the First Responder Wellness Context<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidSqzSeuwWKMLtBqCFS9TDW4_hoD2ceoHItTpascElkZpcBbT2R2HonYFoeGmu4JTdyR7d1-YNOCTy42E2a2jpY4A4auYSKkT0-5JKlzqHlJMeUhsYbGSQmrq59bswTT04S-dUoPafJoenRh2BzWandm_9HsMpJ0kFb9Zz3NTSkwNLYrwI3k0pVxllj4o/s1280/CSBP.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="814" data-original-width="1280" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidSqzSeuwWKMLtBqCFS9TDW4_hoD2ceoHItTpascElkZpcBbT2R2HonYFoeGmu4JTdyR7d1-YNOCTy42E2a2jpY4A4auYSKkT0-5JKlzqHlJMeUhsYbGSQmrq59bswTT04S-dUoPafJoenRh2BzWandm_9HsMpJ0kFb9Zz3NTSkwNLYrwI3k0pVxllj4o/s320/CSBP.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #000053; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">One of the tenets of faith is peace expressed as peace with self and peace with others. The olive branch is a symbol of peace, and so is the cross.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #000053; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">Chaplaincy is a faith-based expression of care still not that well known.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #000053; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">Peace is central in chaplaincy, but there are other imperatives also, like truth in terms of safety, and presence, which is particularly felt through the empathy, unity (integrity and inclusivity), and humility in the chaplain’s presence.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #000053; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">Search and you’ll find that in peace and in presence—in empathy, unity, and humility—is safety. Chaplaincy is safety and wellbeing. Where there is truth, there within it is safety.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #000053; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">Chaplains speak truth to power succinctly but they are not the change agent. They are the informant, they bring truth to those who should know, including to those they care for. Chaplains are messengers. Chaplains accept they don’t know all the truth, but they are committed to sharing the truth they know—they are healers, watchers, encouragers.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #000053; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">Chaplains are safe, trustworthy, reliable. They carry and bring peace. They are important workers not only in trauma and grief, but in healing division.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #000053; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">Chaplains are workers, not unlike worker bees who serve a queen. Human chaplains serve and honour their chain of command.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #000053; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">Chaplaincy is acute care in crisis, and as a modality of care, it fits perfectly in the first responder space. The chaplain is a minister of religion but they’re not “religious”—they are not the archetypal God-botherer. Chaplains are pastors, shepherds at heart.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #000053; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">Modern Wellness is a blend of healing modalities for body, mind, and spirit. Chaplaincy provides pastoral care, safe presence in crisis, ceremonial functions, mediation in conflict, and journey encouragement.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #000053; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">Chaplains offer wisdom and are to strive to be beyond reproach. As peacemakers, chaplains model reconciliation, particularly leading by example through humility in apology.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #000053; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">Finally, chaplains offer something of an answer where there are no answers. They validate that there are many of life’s questions without answers. Chaplains model acceptance and they put courage into those they help.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #000053; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><b>Image: </b>myself as a first responder (chlorine release drill) in 1997.</p><div><br /></div>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-20203336863253943892024-03-08T21:56:00.004+08:002024-03-08T22:00:27.990+08:00The Flow-Burnout Continuum<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTg7Xah670Z35qEt5OUv_ky-MbiF7XtdLNnVOMsXPKNVLjMGd-_LfT3U52dogWUZmyxvdQrTq21ncwrpGa3n5SFr5Cjb-br5E3tOQ8VJI7byep-Orp8kg1_H9rBSHpo8SUP68uqDsH5RSWKzqET-tMGKkx5qNFR_PZYV8enILRVbq5OiA-xnmxfiPuHuk/s1920/Flow-Burnout.001.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTg7Xah670Z35qEt5OUv_ky-MbiF7XtdLNnVOMsXPKNVLjMGd-_LfT3U52dogWUZmyxvdQrTq21ncwrpGa3n5SFr5Cjb-br5E3tOQ8VJI7byep-Orp8kg1_H9rBSHpo8SUP68uqDsH5RSWKzqET-tMGKkx5qNFR_PZYV8enILRVbq5OiA-xnmxfiPuHuk/s320/Flow-Burnout.001.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="color: #00006d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">I’ve experienced burnout a few different ways, but thankfully nothing like some whose lives have become completely derailed for a year or more. My bouts into the darkest storm of exhaustion were often fleeting little seasons of several weeks. Not that it’s a competition.</p><p style="color: #00006d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">But I’ve also experienced burnout’s opposite: FLOW.</p><p style="color: #00006d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">Flow is a state of poetry in motion, that place of being where thought has been somehow replaced with a symbiosis with action. Like touch-typing these words; hardly a thought. It is intent trained into the moment, a symphony of action where consciousness melds into the present where action is joy and peace.</p><p style="color: #00006d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">Burnout is probably the worst depression. For me it was accompanied with a loss of mind; I lost my ability to cogitate. Mental exhaustion that completely swept over my body and left me wrecked. With all defences down, one is vulnerable to all manner of attack.</p><p style="color: #00006d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">Everyone should experience burnout’s opposite, flow. It is the best of humanity. It is pure confidence but nothing brash. Utter humility and connection with gratitude for the gift flow is.</p><p style="color: #00006d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">For me flow is about being in the absolute right place and right time in your life, functional in every possible way, succeeding without a single doubt. As a Christian, it’s doing things absolutely in God’s strength—no external effort.</p><p style="color: #00006d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">The benefit of flow is there’s so much that can actually be done without any sense of exhaustion—there may be tiredness but not exhaustion. It’s a way of living where every day counts with cognisance that our days will be over one day. That fact ought to humble every single one of us… but it also motivates us to do what can only be done now.</p><p style="color: #00006d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">For the one suffering burnout. Recover from today, one day at a time. One thing being in burnout teaches us; our craving for burnout’s opposite, flow.</p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-66892780738953684132024-02-14T10:01:00.004+08:002024-02-14T18:25:59.531+08:00Understanding Four Responses to Every Problem<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhykmmepjc0L6nSSK_ZnYanRuMuNc6M5IGfo9PpLkmN7jROVLkASnqPr6hX5xymwDCR2fhRk7upMbvFj1hZFQrHU7gMhqhohDz5Eqa4usvGntafLLHrmkBnn-n_B0hQ1vkCmjTqx3LsttZMUKhidNqlr5X3G1Q8v2WyhTkHA35cMhMxPBb6ZgvmyvLhH1g/s4032/IMG_0960.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhykmmepjc0L6nSSK_ZnYanRuMuNc6M5IGfo9PpLkmN7jROVLkASnqPr6hX5xymwDCR2fhRk7upMbvFj1hZFQrHU7gMhqhohDz5Eqa4usvGntafLLHrmkBnn-n_B0hQ1vkCmjTqx3LsttZMUKhidNqlr5X3G1Q8v2WyhTkHA35cMhMxPBb6ZgvmyvLhH1g/s320/IMG_0960.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Biblically, there are four responses to every problem. This
thesis occurs in all our lives each time we encounter a problem. Test this: the
paradigm doesn’t only apply to spiritual decisions. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Before we delve into the four A’s of human response to problems,
let us consider how hard it is to respond the right way to problems. Sometimes we
are too tired to respond the right way. Sometimes we are too proud. Other times
we are too confident. Still at other times we are too lazy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><i><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">A warning for you as you decide at this point whether you will
read any further. Try to see your responses of personal control hindering you
reading on. If you read this through it will take five minutes — could be worth
it.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Looking back over a lifetime, we understand our humanity – human
to human – we ALL have regrets (if we are honest) for decisions we made that meant
we sowed negative consequences for ourselves and others. This is in context of:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">The purpose of life is doing the right thing. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">When we understand this imperative, <br />
we commence a journey of discipleship, <br />
understanding we need guidance.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">The beauty in acknowledging our proclivity <br />
for doing wrong is we are humbled enough — <br />
when we are honest —<br />
to follow a better example: Jesus, <br />
the Author and Finisher of our faith.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Doing the right thing in a sustained way<br />
cannot come from within one’s person — <br />
the truth of life is we ALL need a Helper.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Christian discipleship is not just about honouring God. It is
about honouring others, too. Achieving these two aims, God honours us. The
evidence of this is the “inside job” of joy we are granted when we do the right
thing. And, most persuasively, it has a positive, kind impact in another
person’s life. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Some examples of effects of <b>doing the right thing</b>: <o:p></o:p></span></p><blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.8pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">People feel neither judged nor
condemned but accepted and loved.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.8pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">There is a heartfelt acceptance for
one’s own limits.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.8pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">People are considered and feel
considered even if their needs are not met.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.8pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">There is insight, power, and
capacity to right wrongs. Yes, a wrong can be righted.<o:p></o:p></span></p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Now, let us explore these four A’s of human response to problems.
<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">I reference the Jesus teaching of the Sower Parable explained, cf.,
<b>Mark 4:13-20</b> — where this article is inspired from:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span class="text"><b><span style="background: repeat white; color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";">Then Jesus said
to them, </span></b></span><span class="woj"><b><span style="background: repeat white; color: red; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";">“Don’t you understand this parable? How then will
you understand any parable?</span></b></span><b><span style="background: repeat white; color: red; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";"> <span class="woj">The farmer sows the word.</span> <span class="woj">Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As
soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in
them.<sup> </sup>Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at
once receive it with joy.</span> <span class="woj">But since they have no root,
they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the
word, they quickly fall away.</span> <span class="woj">Still others, like seed
sown among thorns, hear the word;</span> <span class="woj">but the worries of
this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things
come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.</span> <span class="woj">Others,
like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some
thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”</span></span></b><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">FOUR RESPONSES TO EVERY PROBLEM<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">From the Parable of the Sower, we can find four responses that we
all make, and these — like each encounter of the seed — describe our every
response and help us understand WHY we have responded these ways.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">These below are the continuum of responses before we investigate
them:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">ARROGANCE – AVOIDANCE – AMBIVALENCE –
ACCEPTANCE<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Note in the Parable of the Sower that there are three negative
or poor responses and only one positive or right response. Knowing this helps
us understand that navigating problems and doing the right thing is harder than
it seems.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Let us tackle these in the order that Jesus does — first comes the
“taking away of the word (or ‘good thing’)” and I would call what this response
looks like as <b>ARROGANCE</b>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Arrogance has no time to even consider the problem. Its first
reptilian response is the right one, supposedly. The response is one of aberrant
folly, of not considering the problem with any thought whatsoever, a way of
living without conscience, without insight, without recourse; a way of living
as if one is the fount of all knowledge and wisdom. Sounds ridiculous but think
of prideful responses that simply reveal a feeling of being threatened, so the
threat is met with a threat. Not wise.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Arrogance ought to be self-evident of its own error, but the
arrogant are beyond insight. What ought to be seen as a strength — the capacity
of reflection — is seen as a weakness to the misguided. So much more could be
said, but that is not the thrust of this article.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">The next response is <b>AVOIDANCE</b>, a place where theorising is
no match for the pragmatic. Concepts and ideals do not translate into action
and change. An irretrievable disconnect enters the mind and the life of the
person trapped in this paradox. They would love to do the right thing
consistently, but consistency (ironically) is the bridge too far, the great
divide, the frustration of a person who would love to have the resolve to be
different. The avoidant person exemplifies what psychologists call cognitive
dissonance. They want to do the right thing but can’t.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">The next response is <b>AMBIVALENCE</b> which is where worries,
greed, and desires for other things choke our commitment to doing the right
thing. This is where it might seem that we are being positive and responding
the right way, but the motivation is extrinsic and essentially our heart’s not
in it. We may do the right thing, but we can’t sustain it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">It is important now to differentiate that the key difference
between ambivalence and the next stage response (acceptance) is the <b>heart</b>.
Ambivalence is all outward appearance with a lot of ‘fake it till you make it’
about it. Heart is all about motivation. Intrinsic motivation cannot be faked. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Heart is all about motivation. <br />
Ambivalence lacks sincerity motive. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Acceptance is a state of peace <br />
that propagates peace — a godly peace.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Who can change a heart but God?<br />
This gets back to US needing help.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Where we are all called to arrive in life is a place of <b>ACCEPTANCE</b>.
That is, for every reason, for every season, for every life. That is right. Acceptance
is that place of peace for doing the right thing, moment to moment, in series,
for a lifetime — bearing for our imperfections. Indeed, acceptance is crucial
for overcoming our perfectionism, a common problem many people wrestle with. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Examples of acceptance are:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24.0pt; margin-left: 39.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt 39.75pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -25.55pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Realising that the world is not
against me, even though it can appear that way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24.0pt; margin-left: 39.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt 39.75pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -25.55pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Understanding that if we are to
gain anything from something hard, we need to make a hard choice.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24.0pt; margin-left: 39.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt 39.75pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -25.55pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Recognising that perfection is the
enemy of the good — accepting this and expressing a compassionate acceptance with
ourselves and others.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24.0pt; margin-left: 39.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt 39.75pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -25.55pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">A resilient hope abiding in the
commitment of ‘doing the right thing.’<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24.0pt; margin-left: 39.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt 39.75pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -25.55pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">A commitment to others that reconciliation
is the abiding hope for those who partake.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24.0pt; margin-left: 39.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt 39.75pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -25.55pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">A grace we give to ourselves and others
that sustains hope beyond all despair – the summation of faith. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24.0pt; margin-left: 39.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt 39.75pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -25.55pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Understanding and living in the
power of letting go of that which we cannot control. This is the fullest grasp
of peace.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24.0pt; margin-left: 39.75pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt 39.75pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -25.55pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">The core of acceptance is a sole focus
on what I think, say, and do, and being accountable for it, and not being drawn
into accounting for others’ behaviours and choices.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">SUPREME GOAL OF LIFE – DOING THE RIGHT THING<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Anytime we are not motivated to do the right thing in our lives,
we are missing the best life for ourselves and others. Not only that but we are
doing harm. Doing harm is against life’s design.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">The Parable of the Sower shows us there is only one way of right
living. Only one way where the privilege and honour of life is taken seriously
enough to strive to do the right thing. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">The motive of doing the right thing will drive us out of bed
into the day of going out to do what CAN be done. There is a life to be lived,
for the privilege and honour of life given to a mortal person. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Yes, it is hard at times, but the goal of life is the betterment
of times, living peaceably in acceptance.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">Acceptance as a way of life returns a handsome yield, a crop
that is a lasting legacy for generations.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-37782022529798845442023-11-25T15:22:00.007+08:002023-11-25T15:36:40.558+08:00A biblical answer to the conundrum of grief<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcnZgAjCPd-F2DhOuaiA6oxNiZvt8_IFZ9t3-sIA8Pgd0eFhG-STiW86FSEPwy3BgNPp8u5P1Z_yMFqeRky0R6fhUcZ69QlrYZBAWdz3O2ax2moIRyywD1fGTauwuF26GzbRpHC5za4P2dej5LBlwbvZiA83-hcjSvfnuU3w6mnwJHuWocCGQ9U9JngXw/s1810/Screenshot%202023-11-25%20at%203.21.19%E2%80%AFpm.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="1810" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcnZgAjCPd-F2DhOuaiA6oxNiZvt8_IFZ9t3-sIA8Pgd0eFhG-STiW86FSEPwy3BgNPp8u5P1Z_yMFqeRky0R6fhUcZ69QlrYZBAWdz3O2ax2moIRyywD1fGTauwuF26GzbRpHC5za4P2dej5LBlwbvZiA83-hcjSvfnuU3w6mnwJHuWocCGQ9U9JngXw/s320/Screenshot%202023-11-25%20at%203.21.19%E2%80%AFpm.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">As fact would have it, there is a biblical answer to the world’s search to reconcile the conundrum of grief. It is heavily aligned to common psychological therapy concepts, but people only go there if there is no other way. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: center;"><b>To loss, there is no answer. </b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: center;"><b>Loss, by definition, is beyond reconciliation.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">Humankind has tried many answers, including the concepts of closure and acceptance. But, of course, these concepts are limited in their power; some people can’t access them, and for those who can, it still isn’t a perfect answer.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">The best validation, for every person who cannot reconcile their loss, who continues to grieve, is to read the simple words with a metaphorical nod:</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: center;"><b>“Your experience of grief is real, it is true, <br />
and it is beyond words and defies platitudes. <br />
The cause and depth of your grief in loss <br />
is commensurate with your love.”</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: center;"><b>WE GRIEVE BECAUSE WE LOVE</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">The biblical answer to grief is <b>lament</b>: that common sense method of facing the pain, honouring the truth of it. Pain begs to be noticed. It hates being relegated. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: center;"><b>The more we relegate our pain, the more <br />
it rises up insisting it be acknowledged.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">If we accept that our pain must be seen, we open space for our pain to be valued, even cherished. It isn’t too much of a stretch to say that we can “consider it pure joy” (James 1:2-4) because pain as it is faced has an eternal purpose.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: center;"><b>But the world cannot and will not <br />
reconcile such an understanding. <br />
And it thereby refuses the only thing <br />
within its control to reconcile it.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">When we lament, we allow the pain its place, and giving pain its place means we must do something with it. When we cannot deny our pain, we’re forced to make meaning from it.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">So, what can we do with our pain to extract meaning from it?</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">As we face our pain, we also face the inevitability that once it’s noticed, pain invites us on a journey of meaning-making.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><b>PAIN AND REMEMBRANCE</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">One such meaning-making exercise is the cherished tradition of remembering or remembrance. The Christian sacrament of holy communion is characterised in remembrance.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">There is no clearer way of honouring pain than through remembrance because remembrance is facing. Remembrance is intentionality of purpose. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">Remembrance says, <b>“It happened and it matters, and indeed, by remembering, I draw strength from solemnity as I honour the truth, those who have gone before, and what has been lost.”</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px;">Remembrance in and of itself draws hope and purpose from not being able to reconcile. It accepts what it cannot change, and indeed it celebrates what is lost. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: center;"><b>By remembering, what is lost is retained. <br />
By remembering, what is gone is accessible. <br />
By remembrance, what is no more is honoured.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: center;"><b>There is a biblical answer to the conundrum of grief, <br />
and that answer is closer than we think. </b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #01154d; font-family: Garamond; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: center;"><b>Pain ought not be painful, but it can <br />
be a direct invitation doorway to life.</b></p><div><b><br /></b></div>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-87843507515007074902023-10-12T21:00:00.003+08:002023-10-12T21:00:52.296+08:00It’s good to know, the world owes me nothing<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWKq1eXTBIGwtxMeW-pc4rH5gf5vlAC9eOZkyNRledyoEO9YaOw9WdnOQBsTJZ2WDY714kEjyC97e8o9aFiN7Mx-Zav06KLAAbzzhEESm6NF3IREMnVMuVj0aYHmT7d2APsu0uKLC3VkaDkxicY4FzTOQyMpSiY5s40NzMKXr5BXMDofAwctOlBEFP4cA/s1920/nothing.001.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWKq1eXTBIGwtxMeW-pc4rH5gf5vlAC9eOZkyNRledyoEO9YaOw9WdnOQBsTJZ2WDY714kEjyC97e8o9aFiN7Mx-Zav06KLAAbzzhEESm6NF3IREMnVMuVj0aYHmT7d2APsu0uKLC3VkaDkxicY4FzTOQyMpSiY5s40NzMKXr5BXMDofAwctOlBEFP4cA/s320/nothing.001.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Just reading the title ‘the world owes me nothing’ can be triggering for some people, and many people will have a problem with it.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">If we want a mindset that works in life, we could do far worse than adopt the mindset that the world owes us nothing. Nobody owes us anything. From such a mindset, we accept what comes our way and we work to establish what we can, and we do not resent anything that supposedly comes against us. It is a powerful self-concept to nurture.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>The fact is, life is unfair. </b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">You only have to ask the person who has worked diligently and has led an honest life who is dying of cancer. There are many who have been bankrupted through no fault of their own, yet they are blessed to accept that the world owes them nothing, because it causes them to rebound the best they can. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We always need to ask, if we are living responsibly, if we have made a contribution to our misfortune. If we haven’t, we must remind ourselves the world owes us nothing. It is the common potential plight of all to suffer poor luck.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>When we have expectations, <br />
those expectations stand to be dashed. </b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>Not all expectations are realistic.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>It’s the person who continues to walk <br />
like a clock in a thunderstorm, <br />
steadily and faithfully, <br />
who leads a resilient life.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><b></b><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>THE SCOURGE OF ENTITLEMENT </b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">From a position of expecting nothing from the world we negate all tyranny of entitlement. Entitlement is a spiritual, mental, and emotional cancer, and besides real cancer that kills the body, entitlement kills relationships and lives. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>Let us live free of entitlement, so we <br />
are not a curse to ourselves and others.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But we live in a day where entitlement reigns in individual lives and in corporate systems. Nobody can be content living a life of entitlement, just as it brings anxiety to others’ lives.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I am involved in conversations every single day trying to help those who have fallen into the trap of entitlement. What do I say when I’m helping people stuck in this cursed thinking? </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I would prefer not to have to say anything. And then I am reminded of how quickly I fall into the trap. It is a trap common to all. And if you don’t think you are ever entitled, I would invite you to read the book <i>The Entitlement Cure</i> by Dr John Townsend (2015). This book describes the concept of a pocket entitlement, because we all have pockets of entitlement in our life, even if we are not characterised as entitled.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><b></b><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b>THE BEST THING WE CAN DO</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>The best way to live for ourselves and others <br />
is to live as if the world owes us absolutely nothing. </b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>If we want power, the only power available,</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>it’s right there, in the acceptance of what is!</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Remembering that this is a theory, and accepting that we will still battle when we don’t get what we want, we can keep coming back to this concept of living that helps us in every way.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When we acknowledge that the world owes us nothing, and we can live accepting this harsh truth, we take responsibility for what is ours, and we take less responsibility for what is somebody else’s to deal with.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>The most direct path to joy is the gratitude <br />
that comes from being thankful for what we have <br />
because we are not focused on what we don’t have.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Focusing on what is good in our lives negates focus for what isn’t so good. It’s paradoxically ironic that some of our worst times deliver space for reflections in gratitude. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Grief, for instance, opens our eyes to the suffering in the world, and God builds within us powerful capacities of empathy because of what we’ve suffered.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>We are broadened and deepened emotionally and <br />
spiritually through the life experiences of hardship.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px; text-align: center;"><b></b><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>Hardship is (or can be) an antidote to entitlement.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Trials remind us that we cannot control anything more than our own thoughts and actions in this world. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Why would we resent such a fact when everybody else exists in the same reality?</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>Resenting what we cannot change is a form of insanity.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Shaking our fist at anyone or at God for that matter over these issues is folly.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But there is great wisdom and accepting what we cannot change.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>The epitome of humanity is accepting the status quo <br />
with joy, whatever the status quo is.</b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f006e; font-family: "Avenir Next"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>It’s a goal worth striving for.</b></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-73353367595444305052023-09-30T20:34:00.004+08:002023-09-30T20:35:34.221+08:0020 years later, I thank God for Mum<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZDl6SGdiw4NO6dPd1CGpyF0E-41RLGZJyQrtvt5_04wFEpFAQ9-7rCZmdqXEHUzV8t02Via33Z6TbOofnwp56jJGK7LRg3DzcBzpwqn1ZNmzJyfsKsGVaKBRtba8F8nB1ZwtBkGA7QN5DbJb46MGiboShLkQTyjSE4adNQ_WdEKWKtHtCpGr4kozS8U4/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZDl6SGdiw4NO6dPd1CGpyF0E-41RLGZJyQrtvt5_04wFEpFAQ9-7rCZmdqXEHUzV8t02Via33Z6TbOofnwp56jJGK7LRg3DzcBzpwqn1ZNmzJyfsKsGVaKBRtba8F8nB1ZwtBkGA7QN5DbJb46MGiboShLkQTyjSE4adNQ_WdEKWKtHtCpGr4kozS8U4/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Tonight 20 years ago was again one of my loneliest nights. It is actually difficult to comprehend from 20 years later just how much pain I was enduring and how much courage I showed in that season emerging from a life shattered by marriage betrayal, rejection, and failure.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Somehow, even though it did happen, the evidence of one’s healing is there are only good memories of a time when I actively did everything I could to recover from grief, despair, betrayal, depression, panic attacks, and alcoholism. Somehow I’ve lost touch with the pain of it all, though I don’t forget how painful it was, if that even makes sense.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Back then, my mother was a rock of support. As was Dad. But since we lost Mum last year, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the incredible woman she was. Mum didn’t take sides or play favourites, and this is why she was the best mother. She was fair, knew what was right, and her and Dad were strands made of the same cord of integrity.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The pain I went through in that period of my life, and the burden that my parents (and particularly Mum) bore, cannot be put into words. Day after day, for months, and in reality, the flux lasted years. Nobody ever tells you when you become a parent what it will cost you. I saw the labour of love my Mum invested in those tremulous days, each of them fraught with the nagging worry that one day I might lose all hope—let’s face it, the pain of divorce is too much for many people.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">As I consider the many words in cards and other memorabilia that my Mum left me, I read her poignant words with a piqued insight, astonished at what she went through because of what I went through.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">20 years to the day when I went to the Royal Show with my family and left alone, Mum remarks how the happiness she saw in me to be with my family earlier in the day had morphed into a life-questioning depression by evening when I returned. No doubt at the time I was so heavily in my own fearful grief that I may not have discerned Mum’s, but I can only imagine the vicarious pain she was enduring—her and Dad—each and every day through that hellish season.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The trouble as I look back is my first initial recovery took nine months, and then I entered another transition that, from my parents’ viewpoint, provided concerns of a different kind. I was over the initial grief, but I was still so off balance. I got so heavily involved in the church that I began to lose sight of my daughters’ needs, but yet again, my parents filled that gap, until another whole year (or more) had passed, and I realised the mistake I was making. But I acknowledge now, reflecting on what my Mum wrote me at the time, just how much Mum did to be a mother to my daughters, and all she and Dad did to hold us all together.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">20 years to the particular night, with Mum now deceased nearly 14 months, I pay respect to what she did for me, one of her three children.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">If you are a parent of an adult child grieving and you relate to holding that insurmountable burden, please know that no matter how painful it is, it is worth it, for you would give anything to support your kin.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">If you are the one amid the pain of the deepest imaginable grief, hold on, for it will be worth it in the end. Endure one day, one hour, one minute, at a time, and try as much as you can to connect with what you can still be grateful for. I don’t say that to make you feel bad, but when you are enduring grief you NEED gratitude to cling to, for in gratitude is at least the mirage of hope.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">20 years on I am so thankful for the life I have now.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">IMAGE:</span></b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"> Happier times. Mum with my eldest daughter, her eldest grandchild in 1993.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-86005575910727582802023-09-21T07:20:00.001+08:002023-09-21T07:20:31.577+08:0020 years today, brokenness and redemption overlap<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6u_aYZjeZSN5N8QMuOadu--B_CgEU8MzswPlzCBCglRJycX8NfZRq1VUChfxXZyZvTiC4picRGnuym1qgMXmzFd0Jr7c-Umq0aKDv01W5E8eCzI368WuKP5HcoNNqK37ojNV7Oj1L607WrtqBcO1QVirrj4S-Ihb0O2vM0lFNMFaUOpgVH0hR0cLSPFQ/s970/Screenshot%202023-09-21%20at%207.18.19%20am.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="734" data-original-width="970" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6u_aYZjeZSN5N8QMuOadu--B_CgEU8MzswPlzCBCglRJycX8NfZRq1VUChfxXZyZvTiC4picRGnuym1qgMXmzFd0Jr7c-Umq0aKDv01W5E8eCzI368WuKP5HcoNNqK37ojNV7Oj1L607WrtqBcO1QVirrj4S-Ihb0O2vM0lFNMFaUOpgVH0hR0cLSPFQ/s320/Screenshot%202023-09-21%20at%207.18.19%20am.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">20 years ago, today, September 21, 2003, was a resurrection day, not that I knew it at the time. I literally had no idea. It would take me months to even see it. It would take me years to believe it. 20 years later I am living the life I didn’t dare dream (but always hoped) was possible.</span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 26.666664px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The paradox of the beginning of a fresh new life <br />at the dawn of loss that cataclysmically broke me.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">17 years ago, today, September 21, 2006, was also a resurrection day; a day I had long hoped for. It had finally arrived. Three years of hoping, and a miracle of new life hoped for. Three years of long days and many agonising hours, three years exactly, two entirely different days and seasons, yet a consistent hope joining them both.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Both resurrection days were entirely different.</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Precisely 3 years apart, I think, is no coincidence.</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Let me explain more about the details:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The first one was the day before my first marriage ended, which happened to be the very first day of 20 years of sobriety thus far. If you had have asked me on that day if I knew what the next 20 years would entail, you would have discovered that I simply had no idea. If I went back to that day, and only knew what was about to occur, there is no way I could ever see it as a resurrection day. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Within 24 hours my life would unravel; I would lose my wife, free access to my children, and my home that I had invested so much of myself in. Everything of that life disappeared in a matter of seconds at 8pm the following day, 22 September 2003. It all changed in the blink of an eye. And yet, as I look back to this date 20 years ago, the very essence of the new life was germinating. And yet, so much loss...<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; letter-spacing: 3pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Not that I knew it,<br /></span></b><b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">but I was about to be reformed.</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Even as I endured a kind of revenant experience,<br />(a death-of-self experience)<br />a door was being prepared for me<br />to be opened as an eventual resurrection experience.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Even as I watched my eldest daughter <br />commence the bravest of journeys.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Even as my relationship with my three daughters <br />was being re-engineered through loss.</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Read in my mother’s Facebook comment five years ago how mortally afraid my parents were for my life. Oh how faithful my mother and father have been in my life, and in the lives of my family!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Wind the clock forward three years to the second resurrection day, Sarah and I held each other for the very first time. We count September 22, the day I asked Sarah’s father permission, as the commencement of our courtship. Three years I had spent as a single father, having grieved nearly half that time. I had ventured into the loneliness of a life that couldn’t pick and choose when I could see my children. And yet I was embraced by a community called the local church, and they showed me that God had a bigger vision for my life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The first resurrection day was coincidently the day before a death, where one life died, where the door to that life slammed shut, and threatened my very existence. The second resurrection day was the completion of a barebones construction work; a man rebuilt for marriage, even if I still had so much to learn.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Doors slam shut in life, and it<br />always happens without warning.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">50 years ago TODAY my parents <br />suffered the loss of my sister to stillbirth.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">TODAY I spend with my Dad and <br />we remember not only Debbie but Mum, too.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We never see doors slamming shut as a favour done for us. We always resent the fact that we have lost control. But a door slammed shut isn’t the end of the story. And this is something <i>we must hold onto</i> amid the resonance of an impending and enduring hell.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is no better example of a living hell than loss, but just picture Jesus descending to hell before He was resurrected. God becomes real in our lived experience when we continue to hope beyond the experience of a form of death.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">A form of death, a door slammed shut, isn’t the end of the story... the story continues to unfold.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Even as a door slams shut in our face,<br />with the hope of resurrection, we ultimately rise.</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">As much as we can, we must diligently trust for a better day to eventually arrive. If we can do that, and trust in the eventual resurrection day arriving, it will eventually arrive. Hope is pivotal. And such hope is a mirage without faith.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">See how faith in God, faith in redemption, is important <br />when you find your life smashed against the rocks?</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">You may choose to trust in something other than God, and I would say good luck with that, because it is only in diligently following God that we are able to trust in a force that is entirely good and trustworthy; it may take years, but redemption is the destiny of those who have faith enough to step out each step of life’s journey the best they can.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">I could not have planned the coherence of these two resurrection dates. Only as I looked back could I see that God was communicating His faithfulness through such a ‘coincidence’.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">20 years ago today, brokenness was mine for an extended time. But brokenness was the catalyst for the redemption that was coming. “If you’re going through hell,” as Sir Winston Churchill said, “keep going!”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“Do not grow weary in doing good, <br />for at the proper time you will reap a harvest <br />of goodness if you don’t give up.”<br />—Galatians 6:9<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><i><span style="background: white; color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Image: my daughters and I in December 2004.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-40093876656633390432023-09-12T06:10:00.004+08:002023-09-12T06:27:21.836+08:00It’s not about you!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNDJIu2QYCg1sRJlnTky9aDFsS4spnmd9D7NkcYfgkOtVKna2kB6rSbD9x98I9JS5iz_2tWID7BGMu470WLLwKRUcH4s4upJXNew8qGEvzERJ-37njNQvj4hyqrRYvE6kpJwCRu6qs1e3TyD1bJ3pSHULXxxqv7alvKh-PpXlBV3K44hWkCHqB_ft2zk0/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNDJIu2QYCg1sRJlnTky9aDFsS4spnmd9D7NkcYfgkOtVKna2kB6rSbD9x98I9JS5iz_2tWID7BGMu470WLLwKRUcH4s4upJXNew8qGEvzERJ-37njNQvj4hyqrRYvE6kpJwCRu6qs1e3TyD1bJ3pSHULXxxqv7alvKh-PpXlBV3K44hWkCHqB_ft2zk0/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The Purpose Driven Life (2002) is a book by American pastor, Rick Warren. There are over 50 million copies in print and audio. One of the most fascinating facts about this book is its first line. Warren’s first sentence is, <b>“It’s not about you!”<o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It’s an astounding way to start a book that is essentially a 40-day journey in learning the purpose of life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">That four-worded sentence that starts page one, we could say, is the beginning of wisdom. If only we lived this truth out, we would live lives full of purpose and meaning. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Let me explain in the only way I can, through some illustrations from the real days of my own life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">On the flight that I took yesterday and the one I’ll fly home on today, I selected an aisle seat and not a window seat. I would very much love the view out of the window seat, but I pick the aisle seat every time I can for a simple reason. I would rather be the person inconvenienced than inconvenience another, and it’s not because I’m a so-called “people-pleaser.” There is deeper motive. I exist to serve others, and in the serving of others, and making others feel special, God does something inside ME to remind me of the power there is in being a blessing. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Doing things for others is good for me!<br />In actual fact, there’s no better investment <br />in my own happiness than existing for others. <br />Do this and you’ll discover it’s true for you, too.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It's the same with a cuddle I received from my 10-year-old son yesterday morning when he “mistakenly” woke me up at four in the morning before I left for the airport. I needed to be wake at 5:10AM. He woke me up for that brief cuddle because he NEEDED a quick cuddle. I’m not sure he mistook the time at all, and if I had have been more focused on my sleep than on his love, I could have chastised him, sent him back to bed, complained of having been woken up, and I would have missed the opportunity to love him with the hug that he needed. <b>It’s not about me.</b> As parents, we are living sacrifices for our children. How do we love other than being a living sacrifice? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Being a little more tired in the morning <br />is WORTH the sacrifice of affirming my son’s love.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">I compensated by making the choice <br />to get a nap on the plane.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The last example is a common one. It is all too easy to say that my job (or anyone’s for that matter) and my workload (or anyone’s for that matter) has an insane and unsustainable pace about it. A lot of the time I feel I’m doing three, four or six things at once. Many people have warned me not to burn out (because people have), and their motivation is often correct and therefore, with empathy, beautiful. <b>But think of this.</b> A high and “unsustainable” workload is only one way to look at it. There are degrees of perception. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">One day I will be gone. What am I sowing? What legacy am I leaving? What am I even doing all this for? <b>To be remembered? No!!</b> I’m doing this to build into OTHERS’ lives. Period. The legacy I’m leaving is I’m showing others how THEY can build into OTHERS’ lives. It’s not about me. When others realise it, it’s not about them either.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Going the extra mile, and turning the other cheek, both biblical phrases, invite us into the service of sacrifice. Sacrifice requires faith, and faith engages hope, which we need anyway. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Can you see that sacrifice actually engages <br />what we all desperately need in this life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Faith is vindicated in our seeing hope rise in others, <br />THEN our hope is bolstered.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">I want to finish on what we were born for. We were born for resilience. We were born to overcome. Jesus, as the lamb who saves the world, is the archetypal saviour. His three years of ministry before he was nailed to a Roman cross symbolised the life we are called to follow and live. The resurrection is a symbol of overcoming against the odds.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We actually NEED to access this life <br />to not only survive but to thrive.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">What I want to impress upon everyone reading this article is BELIEF is supremely important in this life because it requires and invigorates HOPE. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We are nothing on any quest without hope.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We were born for resilience, <br />we were born to overcome, <br />not to be defeated, <br />and I can qualify this <br />by the very fact that life is hard, <br />life it is full of hardships.<br />FOR EVERYONE.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Overcoming is a quest for everyone.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">But there is a way to succeed in life, <br />and it is common to every life.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Thoughts and words and beliefs of defeat kill hope, and whilst we need to be realistic, we can also be grateful that we had what it took to keep going! <b>We got through.</b> Even when it seemed impossibly hard. Just think of all the thousands and millions of heroes that got through their impossible challenges—we stand on the shoulders of those giants and we too, with the right supports, will get through, too. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">But we must believe. We must access hope. <br />For it is hopeless without hope. <br />We are defeated before we begin without hope.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It’s not about you. It’s not about me. When we understand this, we are on the cusp of the right motivation that positions us for victory, because we will always win when humility is our way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">When we get it wrong, it isn’t the end, but merely the beginning, because trust builds when we have the humility to own our error, and to set it right. Relationships don’t crumble because of conflict, they crumble when people don’t have the humility to own their wrongs. When it’s not about me, when it’s not about you, we begin to live with a heart of empathy, and that gives us the power to right the wrongs that we do. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Such empathy delivered through humility is leadership.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It’s not about you.</span></b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"> When we discover this, we discover the purpose of our lives, and life has meaning all of a sudden, and we become leaders overnight, because our heart has been set right.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Let me finish in this vein. Recently, I heard Justin Langer the former Australian cricketer and coach speak. He finished his presentation with an astounding statement. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">He said, <br /><b>“leadership is about making people feel special.”<o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">My mother, whose soul rests now from this life, epitomised this. She made every person who came into her orbit feel special. She was such a wonderful example. Think of an example in your own life, watch and adopt.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">When we live such a life that we are compelled to make everyone around us feel special, we begin to live the life we were called into from the beginning. We are not simply expressing leadership, we are expressing the very heart of life. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We are here to TOUCH lives.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">In a world that is often narcissistic, <br />we become the antithesis <br />through making people feel special. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We show narcissism the opposite spirit, <br />and we prove the power of humility. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Wise persons will observe and adopt it.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Life’s not about you. <br />Live this and watch your life expand in service.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">A final word on motivation, because life can crush our spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Allow good things to come and learn to let go.<br />Good things will come of their own accord as we sow good. <br />Have faith to let it be so.<br />And be wise, diligent and prudent about your self-care.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This above is the heart of wisdom.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-49453323118985092212023-07-28T16:59:00.001+08:002023-07-28T17:12:47.248+08:00Blessing, the Power of God in Empathy<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh65YGLrEjwmFHU3w2RNl1iNr5CNn7VLRteMOG0kf-kUznN1UdeKrxHj9o72O8noqbxpkHZ9mAWIka0RiA73SvRLzL1tNGoOPun3gWzJP5w6rpzZc6v__u9x9x17aOVrtt9iV63AYEDMKqHsM1JzLk1mHbptDesJkulq2iZhYldNRXlYTLCNvpFXqWLskQ/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh65YGLrEjwmFHU3w2RNl1iNr5CNn7VLRteMOG0kf-kUznN1UdeKrxHj9o72O8noqbxpkHZ9mAWIka0RiA73SvRLzL1tNGoOPun3gWzJP5w6rpzZc6v__u9x9x17aOVrtt9iV63AYEDMKqHsM1JzLk1mHbptDesJkulq2iZhYldNRXlYTLCNvpFXqWLskQ/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Everything that is good in life <br />emanates from the purpose of life <br />that is Blessing: the power of empathy.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We are nothing, and we have nothing, if we are not connected to our fellow human beings. Through feeling, seeing, hearing, touching, and tasting life through another person’s life. Without any creepy sense where they would feel transgressed. On the contrary, to every sense that they feel blessed from our presence in their lives. Life is connection to others in safety and care.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Empathy is our capacity to experience <br />life through another’s experience.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Empathy is the power to connect to another <br />as if we were them: a Blessing.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">If we don’t achieve this through our presence in others’ lives, our Christian faith means nothing. It achieves nothing, and it is in fact a forgery, given that others seeing us as ‘Christian’ don’t associate us with Christ, and potentially worse, associate Christ as something other than love and betterment for them.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">CALLING IT LOVE WHEN IT ISN’T LOVE<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Let’s not fool ourselves, to the point of abusing another or of corrupting the gift given to us, that our blessing is a blessing when it isn’t a blessing.</span><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The default way of blessing is that we corrupt what is meant for another as blessing, thinking it is a blessing when it isn’t a blessing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">If we call our blessing a blessing <br />and it isn’t felt as a blessing to another <br />it isn’t a blessing.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Blessing as it pertains to our deeds <br />is in the hands of the other.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">EMPATHY AS A WAY OF FELT BLESSING<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Empathy is the only way to the execution <br />of a blessing that cannot miss.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Such is empathy that it gets INSIDE the other person and completely understands where they are at. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Empathy feels as they feel.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Empathy is that power of being able to completely understand another person, and the only assessment that matters is the assessment of the other person. We cannot say that our empathy is in fact empathy if the other person doesn’t feel empathised with. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">See how empathy and blessing <br />are all about what the OTHER person feels, <br />and NOT what we feel.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The test of empathy is the <br />other feeling empathised with.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Empathy, the power of blessing, is the power given to true Christian people, who, inhabited by God’s Holy Spirit, do not miss meeting symbiotically with the other person. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The connection that is felt between human beings when one is compelled to be an instrument of blessing through the power of empathy is a supernaturally felt experience where the person being blessed is touched by the very presence of God. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This is how Christian people are to evangelise, not through the use of common words, but in the use of uncommon actions of empathy, where a person being blessed by the power of empathy absolutely feels touched by the living God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">So many Christian evangelists get the whole point of evangelism the wrong way around when they expect that their words will have some mysterious and magical power to ‘convert’ other people to the love of God when the love of God isn’t in them. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This form of evangelism which is quite common in the latter days of Christendom, is rife in the western world, and without deeds of love to back these words up, the words themselves are abhorrent to the Spirit of God and wreak havoc for the mission of God. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The fact is every single person is wired, hardwired, to be met by other human beings through a cogent empathy, that speaks the powers of the living God in and through them, in much the same way as a person will know that there is a God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This empathy is a deep-seated mode of care that takes all focus off the self and puts all that focus on another human being, that they be served, that the giver of empathy would not in any way seek to be served. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">As soon as we try this, inspired by the Spirit within us, to give the gift without any seeking or desire or craving for return on the blessing, this service itself bears the touch of God. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God therein dwells amid the empathy, <br />and as we give our empathy, <br />we receive from God what cannot <br />be given to us in any other way.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Can we see how this empathy, this way of being very deeply met, is the very power of God that few ever experience? The fact is, and I know this is sure, the reason I am a pastor and a counsellor these days, is because I EXPERIENCED the empathy that I speak of in this article, and having experienced it first hand from others, was convicted and converted to it, that I would be an instrument of such empathy in others’ lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This empathy is the common salvation that is <br />very uncommonly experienced in this world.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We are much more apt to experience a salvation that comes through words that isn’t felt in the deeper being. The more common experience of salvation is a shallow and superficial version of the truth of salvation, and no doubt can become the catalyst to the deeper empathy of God that we need to feel in coming to the true salvation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We, as human beings that can know God, and can experience the power of God, have been predestined to experience this empathy from others, this touch of God, in order that we may FEEL it and experience it and see it with our own eyes and touch it with our own hands, in order that we would be compelled to issue it to others, simply because it is blessed to pass that blessing forward.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">I hope that you in reading this will not miss the point: <br /><span style="text-transform: uppercase;">IT IS AS WE GIVE AWAY THAT WE RECEIVE...<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is as we give away the deeper connection of our empathy <br />that we give others access to the power of God.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Simply seeing this blessing run as it extrapolates from us in many tentacles of blessing unto miracles of transformation is the compound effect of the blessing, unto many experiences of baptism in the Holy Spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">What needs to be seen by each of us in our living days <br />is that we are here for a solitary purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The vast majority of us will miss this purpose. We will grab at a life that insists that others empathise with us without us contemplating the truer understanding that life is an upside-down reality. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Life’s purpose is in empathising with others, and experiencing what happens as a direct result, which is the blessing of God that is input into our lives through another person or people being blessed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The more we give our lives away, the more God gives back to us, if only we can resist the resentment the creeps up when our blessings are unrequited. We do not bless others to receive their blessings in return. We bless others because it is our purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We bless others because it is <br />the power of empathy that blesses us. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">That is, God’s blessing of us. <br />It is an “inside” job.</span></b><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-90086038847160576252023-07-12T14:28:00.004+08:002023-07-12T14:40:19.260+08:00Forgiveness, Wisdom of the Heart<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwgG_sHwR9HmJPrTdHoA86XFb-dpMBvDIQZUHAVmnuEkBHh9DCwOcpGIx3LVb-F_Qg20SY8zOci7AIAccW040etqQvO-wbahsxi616a77NMZdWKIoioxFPr7IyHk51olvVbvbpsxoKYBWW6RaqdZ8BNikAkN9r0s9LfD9aLQ9QHGNJOeG92F08GwIEe7E/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwgG_sHwR9HmJPrTdHoA86XFb-dpMBvDIQZUHAVmnuEkBHh9DCwOcpGIx3LVb-F_Qg20SY8zOci7AIAccW040etqQvO-wbahsxi616a77NMZdWKIoioxFPr7IyHk51olvVbvbpsxoKYBWW6RaqdZ8BNikAkN9r0s9LfD9aLQ9QHGNJOeG92F08GwIEe7E/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is no purpose in life greater than attaining wisdom of the heart. Legends who have trod this earth through time immemorial tell us how important it is to attain poise. It is life, it is blessing, it is insight, it is hope, and it is prosperity and abundance. Even if we possess nothing physical, material, or tangible at all.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">When we lose our composure, <br />we lose the dignity that propagates <br />the assured life where we are <br />blessed as we are a blessing.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The reason attaining wisdom of the heart is so important is life is full of moments where we are infracted and are therefore tempted to REACT in ways that do not serve both us and others. Wisdom of the heart is the central service of all humankind.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">YET... a most important acronym.<br />The AA’s have it:<br />You’re. Eligible. Too.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We all get certain moments wrong.<br />We are all afforded such opportunities to learn.<br />And, there is no shame in learning.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">LIFE AND WISDOM ARE *IN* THE RESPONSE<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">A basic knowledge of humanity <br />is we CAN respond in humility.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Think for a moment of the responses of Viktor Frankl, Anne Frank, Wade Watts, Martin Luther-King, who all managed to quell their emotions enough in the belly of the pit of tyranny. Or Saint John of the Cross, Joni Eareckson Tada, Helen Keller, Olaudah Equiano, or even biblical Job, who all suffered profoundly yet seemingly responded well, at least in the final analysis.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Consider these people.<br />Consider these human beings.<br />Capable of responding differently.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Whether it is always realistic or not to respond the right way, it is always a good objective to reflect and to revise our strategy. It is never too late to repent. That is, to change our tack. If we have committed to an unsustainable path, all it takes is humility to admit we got it wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We have power to turn away <br />from that which does not work, <br />that does not serve us, <br />that does not serve others. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We ALL hold this power.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Of course it is better by far to respond in humility all the way. There are some situations in life where this is easy. Other situations it seems impossible. Most important, we need the capacity of forgiving ourselves, or receiving God’s forgiveness afresh. Whether we respond well initially or not, we can be thankful for the humility that honours the truth eventually. We can turn the wrong response into the right one in the blink of an eye.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">WHAT IS THE WISDOM OF THE HEART?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">In ancient times, the heart was seen <br />as the seat of the emotions. <br />All our reactions and responses <br />emanate from the heart.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The opposite to the phrase ‘wisdom of the heart’ is the phrase ‘folly of the heart’. Wisdom and folly are eternal and immortal concepts and were written about thousands of years ago, as the biblical Proverbs testify.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We have all engaged in folly. We have all made decisions based in pride, anger, envy, etc. But such is life, we all have many opportunities of ‘do over’. We all get multiple chances to revise our strategies, to turn from our ineffective and inappropriate ways of dealing with things.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The wisdom of the heart is in essence the humility <br />to see the truth and be honest with ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Wisdom of the heart redeems, refreshes, restores.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Wisdom of the heart helps us turn from folly.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">I like to call it “pouring contempt on my pride,” per the words of the ancient hymn, “As I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” The wisdom of the heart convicts our hearts when we are wrong, when we are embarking or travelling in the wrong way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The wisdom of the heart in essence is repentance; <br />that capacity to change one’s mind <br />from wrong to right, from evil to good, <br />from division to peace.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">LIFE AND WISDOM – BLESSING UNTO BLESSED<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The function of a human’s presence <br />is blessing unto being blessed.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Life is instructive. All of what we can perceive and thereby know is to be drawn within, even as breath of inspiration, for learning and response. If something we see or know or feel or otherwise perceive seems good, we learn why, and then how to do it. We replicate it. Because it is wisdom. If something we see or know or feel or otherwise perceive annoys us, we learn why, and then we avoid that way. Because it is folly.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Our veritable function in this world, <br />while our hearts beat, <br />is that our hearts would beat for Him <br />who is our Lord, Saviour, and King.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Our bodies, our minds, our souls, <br />are to be a blessing unto our own blessedness. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Blessing is our purpose. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">If we are anything else, we are a <br />blight upon Him who gave us our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">FORGIVENESS: BLESSING UNTO BLESSED – A BENEDICTION<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">May it be for the human being reading this: <br />blessing that they be and blessed as a result.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Blessing comes in no better, nor more pungent form, <br />than through forgiveness, which I describe here <br />as the wisdom of the heart.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The wisdom of the heart understands and accepts that for growth to occur there must be forgiveness, and that forgiveness itself is the important signpost of growth. And how are we to forgive other than to work with accepting individuals and situations we cannot change—which is a basic element of maturity. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is, in and of itself, <br />a key indicator of resilience <br />forged through the crucible of adversity. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness shows how the heart <br />has overcome overtures to the hurts of life. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is the equilibrium of life, <br />taking post-traumatic stress and <br />making it post-traumatic growth. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is the necessary foundation stone <br />for a life of blessing: blessing unto being blessed.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">BENEDICTION<br />May it be you, in your deepest, wildest hour, <br />who, having traversed untold myriad adversity, <br />stands tall in the face of what has been, <br />sits gently with what has been done, <br />considering it all, and smiles,<br />for you have forgiven.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-86714032588390888452023-06-29T20:03:00.006+08:002023-06-29T20:28:08.500+08:00Forgiveness, against the tide, amid injustice<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8c44K-DIuEHvj5XrwYqBuFaY_fGNupSyk5uXzWOMdFDIIEZnJg1t2wJEtlxZXFFGu00h--E0LCVwek-G9AZSC0w7i6i0yReRbQBU3-N6h9RK-jwH5pHhkqqKe5mMXcmfCkglvNwftgMesXr8ImS3spPWHdLcAKkmydl6s1t-veuGWUV-02X9UcR2RYXM/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8c44K-DIuEHvj5XrwYqBuFaY_fGNupSyk5uXzWOMdFDIIEZnJg1t2wJEtlxZXFFGu00h--E0LCVwek-G9AZSC0w7i6i0yReRbQBU3-N6h9RK-jwH5pHhkqqKe5mMXcmfCkglvNwftgMesXr8ImS3spPWHdLcAKkmydl6s1t-veuGWUV-02X9UcR2RYXM/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is easy to forgive when it costs nothing. It is not so easy when someone is coming at you, or when life turns against you for an extended period of time. When we are tempted to react.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Grace can be a gift in some situations but <br />in other circumstances every hurt comes hard.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness against the tide inevitably is a learned practice. It doesn’t come easy. A forgiving heart that is found after overcoming the initial bitterness that hardens the heart is hard-won wisdom. Perhaps having found forgiveness easy, we are tested later in life by circumstances we cannot reconcile—at least for a very long time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">If we see life as a learning ground, <br />we endure the tough seasons better.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The tougher circumstances of life, once they have been endured, prove instructive for hearts committed to learning. Curiosity is a character trait to nurture.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">DON’T FORGET THE MEANING OF LIFE<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The meaning of life is wisdom, it is character solidity, it is purity of heart, and it is safety for others. It is service to others. The whole purpose of this life is stepping on the earth in such a way as to bless it and not curse it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We have impact while we are here. <br />We bless. Or we curse. <br />There is no middle ground.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is no good if we are Christian and we do not bless our world. What is the point ‘winning souls to Christ’ if our character is rubbish? If we are charismatic by nature and winsome, we might seduce some for a time, but the duplicity is a curse. All it does is reveal that our fruit is from a poisonous tree. Our ‘love’ is not from God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The meaning of life is transcending <br />everything that would produce harm.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">COUNTERINTUITIVE VICTORY<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is only one way to fight back against an injustice done to us. That way is to overcome it through forgiveness. It is counterintuitive. Counterintuitive victory.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">A lot of the time we are infracted it is done by people who prod and poke and goad. Those who violate us rely on their frustrating us to evoke a reaction where we are seen as graceless, and they tend to get away with it every time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">To overcome temptation to react, <br />we must attain humility of heart.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The only way to overcome situations like this is to rise above the temptation to react, because those who would abuse us rely on us reacting. But it serves us little to just agree to do this. What is needed is a heart to SERVE. Why? Because it is the right thing to do. And because it serves such practical needs.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The power to NOT react is given to the person <br />who has forgiveness deep in their heart.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px; text-transform: uppercase;">ALWAYS BE PREPARED TO DO MORE – FOR YOUR OWN GOOD<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is always to our benefit as we benefit others, even if in our benefitting others it doesn’t appear we are benefitting ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The fact is, blessing others through our deeds of kindness and grace, and in this case forgiveness, must become a habit. It must become our routine. It must become second nature—if not the behaviour, the commitment to do it again and again. To keep coming back to it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">And this is the reason why it is so important:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Going above and beyond for others <br />is personally empowering.<br />Going above and beyond <br />for others is good for them too.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Blessing and serving others works.<br />It has a good chance of being appreciated.<br />But the habit alone nurtures <br />forgiveness and a strong heart.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">A commitment to service <br />inspires others and it motivates us.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Sustained commitments of service create resilience.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">In our continual serving of others, we learn that we can do it. We learn powers of resilience. We learn to overcome our disappointment in receiving a lack of reciprocation, time and again. In our committing to serve others as our response to whatever happens, including the injustices that inevitably occur, we insist that we will be forgiving persons.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is the power of God <br />operationalised in a humble heart.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Nothing can defeat the person who forgives; <br />no injustice, no misfortune, nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-41467445892452576622023-06-24T20:20:00.006+08:002023-06-24T20:38:50.614+08:00Forgiveness, the Blessing of God<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh4okVkpbzzYv9a3Yxfiurl_Hb1Wfg0bsIX19SnpqchvnSt3c1-lvWHgEIsMAwifomeugIoYEw7RqPdeBuKGzmsBteMCIHqdBYx_RCdgmvgATh5B36V-iV50LfXpGL8HGU0siXZdEAcus-PEdVdYwqui0vJpCxBPGQsUmiA3QWeVmWCpE3RAdFqrxfKn0/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh4okVkpbzzYv9a3Yxfiurl_Hb1Wfg0bsIX19SnpqchvnSt3c1-lvWHgEIsMAwifomeugIoYEw7RqPdeBuKGzmsBteMCIHqdBYx_RCdgmvgATh5B36V-iV50LfXpGL8HGU0siXZdEAcus-PEdVdYwqui0vJpCxBPGQsUmiA3QWeVmWCpE3RAdFqrxfKn0/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The wisdom that is in forgiveness is irrefutable. Simply, it works. Always, ultimately. It IS the evidence of God in this world, and it is something that never fails, provided we play the long game of obedience to the incontrovertible rules of this life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is fine if you disagree. Go for it! The fact is, in the long run, the person who cultivates the garden of their heart will succeed where the bitter will fall. It’s just the way it is.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt 36pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The ancient book of Proverbs (1:20-22) puts it well:<br /><i>Out in the open wisdom calls aloud,<br /> she raises her voice in the public square;<br />on top of the wall she cries out,<br /> at the city gate she makes her speech.<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt 36pt;"><b><i><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“How long will you who are simple love your simple ways?<br /> How long will mockers delight in mockery<br /> and fools hate knowledge?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Woman Wisdom sets it out plainly, and a resounding thread in her message is this: don’t deny, dismiss, diss, or besmirch the truth. Life will only bite back at you. The simple, the mockers, the fools in life, are all doomed because of the WAY they go; how they think, behave, and act. How they refuse responsibility. How they think life serves them.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The opposite way, however, <b>is the way to blessing</b>. It is the taking of responsibility. It is learning, and living, and healing, and growing. It is the life of service. And it is forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">PLAYING THE LONG GAME<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The long game is the practice of a fundamentally hope-fuelled faith, characterised by a peaceable patience, figuring that it is always better to cop a short-term loss—even if that loss is devastating—in the hope that overall goal can ultimately be gained.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Playing the long game in life can appear that we are losing from a short-term viewpoint. But over the longer haul, patience and trust underpin the character of our faith. Not being bothered by the shorter-term wins and losses, we hold the faith and assess over the decades rather than the weeks.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is the longer haul that <br />will ultimately define us.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">A focus on short-term outcomes<br />produces short-term motivation <br />and a harmful constricted vision.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The only way of successfully playing <br />the long game is through forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is faith in the long game.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">FORGIVENESS IS BLESSING<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">What we have received we are destined to give. The gospel reality of having been forgiven by God—because of what Jesus did in dying on the cross and His being resurrected on the third day—is actually the model way of living. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; letter-spacing: 4pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God gives us life </span></b><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><br />when we exemplify sacrificial living <br />with a heart compelled to serve as Jesus did.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The cliché is, “blessed to be a blessing.” <br />But it is true. We ARE blessed to be a blessing.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The testimony of this is on our hearts. When we <i>RECEIVE</i> God’s blessing, all we want to do is give it away. That is the testimony of the life changing will of God as it interrupts our selfishness and converts us to give away what we cannot otherwise keep.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We are blessed in giving away <br />by receiving what we cannot lose.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The blessing in forgiveness <br />is an inner joy, a flourishing of hope, <br />and the steady inner residence of peace, <br />even as we extend this joy, hope, and peace.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is the blessing of God because it is the beauty of God that vouchsafes victory warding off the risk of defeat, even if forgiveness looks like risking defeat. Out of the clutches of spiritual death we have been ripped, and we are gracefully saved into the arms of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This is a gift of God that wins our hearts away <br />from the darker forces of spiritual death <br />that desperately seek to annihilate our hope.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This is the restorative medium of life where myriad form of division threatens to disrupt peace and destroy hope. Peace enables peace, hope propagates hope. Peace and hope must start from somewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">INVITATION TO BLESSING THROUGH FORGIVENESS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is easy to miss this but think of the irony: there is double the opportunity when we have been terribly hurt, inconsolably transgressed, or tragically betrayed. It is to REDEEM what was taken, and the only way back to a peace that only God can give is to forgive.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It seems counterintuitive <br />to redeem what was taken:<br />the way back to peace is to forgive <br />while remembering and honouring<br />how and why we extended such grace.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiving does not mean forgetting; indeed, we cannot forget. We forgive at the same time as remembering! We never forget what was done but we thank and praise God for His power; a power He gives us to overcome anything that would poison the peace He came to give and that which He gives eternally.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We extend grace despite the harms done to us. <br />We hold the power of God in our hands <br />when we forgive despite those harms done.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">If we see that God is genuinely in control of life and of our lives, we can then wonder why He has allowed these things to occur. We know that, despite Christ’s victory, according to Ephesians 5:15-17, “the days are evil.” None of us will endure this life unscathed, no matter how committed we are to kindness and blessing others. Besides, we are given opportunities of redemption from all manner of setbacks, just as the resurrection was redemption from death on a cross.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">When we forgive despite what was done to us, we extend a grace which is an invitation to blessing—for everyone we touch, not just the one we forgive.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">When we forgive, we exude life.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">When we comprehend that our world expands in proportion to our extension of grace, our heart is opened even more in trusting God for more and more blessing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness truly is an act of faith in the promise of God <br />to heal what cannot be healed without it.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-35235140073205114132023-06-18T08:42:00.007+08:002023-06-18T12:58:10.087+08:00Forgiveness, the Purpose of Life<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGxRjJ25grE3q3tZiHXestrtjc0oyB5-BD37AOZcx32j2zzAGfpUwvyq0zy6X_kVpbZgZKdSO8ghHoM0MXVqkvXfxlMH3owf4lE5xjiCH_YQObyt27EHWsLqV5H2zv_DtG_qK1S2tpKiipYNLwkDlt3UJmw3SXJdZT6RbeGt2LfURitj4YGatbNpLY/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGxRjJ25grE3q3tZiHXestrtjc0oyB5-BD37AOZcx32j2zzAGfpUwvyq0zy6X_kVpbZgZKdSO8ghHoM0MXVqkvXfxlMH3owf4lE5xjiCH_YQObyt27EHWsLqV5H2zv_DtG_qK1S2tpKiipYNLwkDlt3UJmw3SXJdZT6RbeGt2LfURitj4YGatbNpLY/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“Look at what they make you give.”</span></b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"> It is a famous refrain implicitly woven through the Bourne-trilogy, classically quoted by Clive Owen in <b><i>The Bourne Identity</i></b> (2002). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><i><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The Bourne Identity</span></i></b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">, <b><i>The Bourne Supremacy</i></b> (2004), and <b><i>The Bourne Ultimatum</i></b> (2007) symbolise what occurs in any of our lives when we reach the point of pinnacle performance. There is a tragic irony in this thread that connects them all. All the “assets” in the Bourne films give their lives for the cause, and yet the cause seems futile in the end. The Firm wins.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">True to life, the Firm ALWAYS wins.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The Firm MUST win.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">That the Firm wins is important<br />in the proving of our commitment.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">You may think, “WHAT?!”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This is WHY such precipices exist...<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Do we resent a commitment to the futile, <br />or do we move on beyond it to overcome?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">So many get stuck in the futility of giving ALL, <br />seeing all they have committed to this life as a waste, <br />never sensing that they are so close to the answer. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is a wicked irony that the answer<br />—even in the belly of futility—<br />is literally around the corner.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">ALL CHRIST, OR NOTHING!<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">From a theological viewpoint, as Christians following Christ, so many of us have prayed the prayer, <b>“Lord, I will do anything for You, and give You everything, from now on,”</b> usually in some form of plea bargain, <b>“Lord, get me out of this and I will follow You all the days of my life.”</b> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We also may have genuinely prayed this sort of sold-out-to-God prayer in the adulation of pure conviction! All Christ, or nothing! And we find God sustains us in this spiritual fervour.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We find that God takes us up on our offer. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God convinces our heart that we are His in this.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">And God, as He always does, proves faithful.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">At some later stage, however, when our fervour has worn off a little, life smashes our hope, we face an irretrievable injustice, we burn out, or some other incomprehensible challenge thwarts us. We come to doubt the faithfulness of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We may come to rue that we ever <br />made the offer in the first place.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We arrive at that place that Job did.<br />We come to feel utterly defeated.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This, nevertheless, is an important step in the process—to comprehensively regret ever having committed so much. The reason this is so important is that we learn a lot, as Job did, from God revealing our heart—it was a bargaining prayer we prayed. It is often the penultimate step, however, because inevitably in the learning, humility gets us to a cherished place of absolute sustained surrender, which is ease, because we have learned humility is the only way that works.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Humility is the only undefeatable attitude.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Humility is the only sustainable attitude for life.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Humility is the bedrock of resilience, growth, and healing.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">But humility does not come without a massive battle.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Ultimately it is in our quest to live at peace <br />with life and with everyone that sets us apart to God. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This is the true life of a Christ follower—<br />i.e., it is ALL for Him, or nothing!<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">And yet, it is a journey to arrive <br />at this humility of peace; <br />it can take a decade or two<br />of earnest getting-there.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">LIFE’S ULTIMATE LESSON IS BEYOND FUTILITY<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We must experience futility, and be driven hard into that form of oblivion, before we can transcend ourselves and truly become a truly-sold-out-to-God Jesus-follower. As life would have it, faith is eventually tested, and we fail a lot before our faith is proven in the fire. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Futility is a fiery crucible.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The only way to receive an indefatigable purpose <br />is to enter it through having endured futility. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This is what ancient Ecclesiastes validates: <br />the life wisdom of Solomon.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Life is at least partial naiveness <br />if we have not yet experienced futility. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Humility is an essential and <br />fundamental part of the answer. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Without entering and thereby learning to accept futility, <br />our hopes in these shades of adversity are dashed.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is centrally the behaviour of acceptance <br />and is the only viable response in situations of futility.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is purpose BEYOND the futility in and of this life. We must experience and thereby endure the futility before we are able to judiciously choose a higher purpose. That higher purpose, the only higher purpose that makes any sense in the context of futility, can only be an eternal purpose, and we only reach for it BECAUSE of the futility we struggle with. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Futility, as we come to see it, <br />is both the gateway and thoroughfare <br />to genuine, faith-proved resilience.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Until we have been to futility—<br />and THROUGH it—<br />we will not choose wisely, <br />because the ultimate wisdom <br />is choosing a godly purpose, <br />despite the futility.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">A God-follower is a volunteer; <br />they are not voluntold.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Futility otherwise drives us to despair, the only true purpose is beyond despair, and yet we must enter the starkness of the most haranguing despair to overcome it. What sustains us is love, for love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8). Many things fail but love never does.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“THE THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There’s so much godly wisdom in a lot of rock ‘n’ roll songs. All wisdom is OF God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">I think of “The Things We Do for Love” by 10cc, for instance. I think it speaks about the intrinsic wisdom that there is in compromise, to allow a relationship or an arrangement to succeed, because both parties are willing to negotiate. And yet there are always times where parties don’t have an equal relationship, for instance, when a business decides to reorganise its structure, and we must accept what is within the rights of the business to do.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt 36pt;"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“A compromise would surely help the situation</span></i></b><b><i><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><br aria-hidden="true" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2;" /><span style="background: white;"><span jsname="YS01Ge" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2;">Agree to disagree but disagree to part</span></span><br aria-hidden="true" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2;" /><span style="background: white;"><span jsname="YS01Ge" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2;">When after all it’s just a compromise of</span></span><br aria-hidden="true" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2;" /><span style="background: white;"><span jsname="YS01Ge" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2;">The things we do for love, the things we do for lov</span>e.”<br />(Part of 10cc’s lyrics – The Things We Do for Love)<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The fact is love is nothing without preparing to lose. We must be prepared to lose in order, that we might stay in the game, and because all of us have skin in the game, so to speak, it represents the vast portion of wisdom to simply hang in there. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Love has a broader vision <br />than simply getting its own way.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Love thereby accepts and accommodates loss, and is therefore unfaltering, because love never ultimately gives up. Love does not so much count the cost, and it is indeed the opposite. Love gives up what cannot be kept, to gain what cannot be lost—yes, love, that is borne on a healed heart.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Love endures even in loss.<br />Love endures in faith and in hope.<br />Love is therefore a choice of courage.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This is understanding that love requires us to give all even as we risk all. True love subsists in risking everything for righteousness, simply because it is the right thing to do, which is to give and to keep on giving—in faith, for love, in the exemplification of hope.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We find in this that love and forgiveness <br />are intrinsically linked.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Judge for yourself and see:<br />love and forgiveness are inherent <br />in the way life works. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">FORGIVENESS AS AN ANTHEM OF LIFE’S PURPOSE<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Until we can see these truths emerge in our own lives, we cannot fathom that what seems like comprehensive defeat is actually the cusp of victory.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness looks like defeat to the perishing. It is always 10 or 15 steps (or even one) too far. They never sense that forgiveness is a journey of faith that takes them BEYOND defeat. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Indeed, as the purpose of life, forgiveness is the ONLY way to victory—victory over self and for others, and centrally, victory for God, in the name of God, for we have placed Him above ourselves. Forgiveness IS love.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is a gift we give to ourselves, <br />and to others, and not least God, <br />for our future, for our hope, <br />for the life abundant between now and eternity.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness gives us back the future.<br />But bitterness ransoms the future.<br />Forgiveness is what we ‘give’ to our future.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">I hope I have demonstrated in this article, the importance of reaching a place of utter futility, because it is a place we must reach, in coming to the end of ourselves, in order that we must start at the beginning, again, with God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Much of the time, bitterness and resentment about the injustices that have gone against us must be reconciled as futility before we can move on, accepting what we cannot change, and in that we find the Holy Grail of the Meaning of Life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We, ourselves, though we would like it to be, <br />are NOT the Centre of the Universe. God is.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Indeed, the quest for maturity stands upon the precipice: can we let go of every desire of self? Is there something more fundamentally and eternally important? Can we not prefer to give up our claims to ourselves in preference for taking up claims for God?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Only when we have done this do we genuinely understand how and why James chapter one says, <b>“Consider it pure joy, brothers and sisters, when you face trials of many kinds.”</b> Such turns of phrase are otherwise perplexing and seem not to apply to us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is the anthem of life’s purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">What seems utterly ridiculous to the perishing is absolutely life in all its abundance to those who understand the wisdom woven into and through every vestige of life itself through forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is the purpose of God in life,<br />to arrive at acceptance <br />for that which we cannot change.<br />That, there, is God’s wisdom and peace.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God’s ultimate goal for each of us is <br />our experiencing His peace in forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The more God’s grace flows into and through <br />our lives, the more we live His purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">How do we maintain our mental, <br />emotional, and spiritual health?<br />A lot of the time, the answer is forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">POSTSCRIPT:</span></b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"> many conspiracy theories abound in this life. To nurture such thought when our perception is so impressionable is self-defeating. It leads only to suspicion and an attitude of intrinsic bitterness. This article has set out the better way. Forgiveness is the purpose of life and of God in each our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-16162189413740839402023-06-13T17:58:00.005+08:002023-06-13T18:33:51.907+08:00Forgiveness, the Healing of God<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiTGvU5vJDV6gSJDMzHWw6E_5qyzamXNDY2yQpHEMhwdxiepTMUP8hH0SBThr14UjfVW4dZzRmBTq_aB4b97k64uMskAjxxChSZnJCZkE647BnQ83YeG8FDEdUSBcuOyYzWZjjku1LBbCsF4PD8VquO9D7QzvLTImJ6xh4sbDuJ95pyOYq40-KACG7/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiTGvU5vJDV6gSJDMzHWw6E_5qyzamXNDY2yQpHEMhwdxiepTMUP8hH0SBThr14UjfVW4dZzRmBTq_aB4b97k64uMskAjxxChSZnJCZkE647BnQ83YeG8FDEdUSBcuOyYzWZjjku1LBbCsF4PD8VquO9D7QzvLTImJ6xh4sbDuJ95pyOYq40-KACG7/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is the vehicle to enable the design of life, which is healing unto wholeness. If it were not the case, it would not be written on the hearts of our lives. Bitterness and resentment take us into many manifestations of hell, but forgiveness leads to healing, wholeness, peace.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness beyond screaming for justice amid <br />injustice because Faith says, “God sees ALL.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The trouble is, often for such healing to take place, we must borrow a hope we do not have, and this is hard when we are spiritually weak. When life has been unfair, it’s hard to take the road less travelled, but it is essential if we are to take that right path—that path that leads to life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Sometimes it is only one person’s shabby treatment of us that takes us down the slippery slope to a despair that jettisons hope and sabotages any vestige of faith we had. This is a reality; a temptation we all face, and an experience we have all probably dabbled in.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Why is it that one person or one situation <br />has so much power over us? We are not alone.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The simplistic answer is we “gave” the person or the situation too much power, but it is not as simple as that a lot of the time. There are situations that should be trustworthy that prove not to be, or people who should be trustworthy and yet who default on that trust.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Whichever way it is, it is not good when we find ourselves in a situation where we need healing. But that is life. Add to this, it is not good if we find ourselves locked into bitterness, grief, resentment, and the like. But that too is life. Yet healing is an opportunity.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is a time for bitterness and resentment, <br />but it is not good to stay there.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Healing is the opportunity for growth.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We don’t live in a perfect world, yet by default so many of us sorely desire it, and so many of us truly need it, yet alas, that is what the world isn’t. The world and the situations of our lives can plunge us into an abyss beyond reckoning.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">How are we to reconcile that which breaks us?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">How are we to be put back together?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">These are questions for all people who find themselves at a loss for what life does to them. For how the situations of life prove heartrending. For how some of the people in our lives leave us undone and without recourse to recovery. For how loss rips hope from our clutches and leaves us in the pit of grief’s sullen despair.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">How do we heal these massive impasses <br />to achieve the cherished peace we desire?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">I think from my own personal experience it is all about <b>motivation</b>. If peace as its own reward is sought it will be found. It will be searched for. It will be worth the sacrifices we need to make to obtain it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is at the heart of peace because <br />forgiveness itself is at the heart of healing.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is a wisdom of God because it agrees with the reality that says, “Not all things are within my own personal control, and I need to be okay with that.” Looked at from the opposite direction, to not forgive, to not accept what cannot be changed, is to face-off with the madness of attempting to deny and defy the inevitable. It leads only to maladaptive responses and exhaustion. It makes no sense from a common-sense standpoint. It leads only to harm.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">GOD WILL HEAL US IF ONLY WE WILL LET HIM<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is a way of seeing life that leads to life.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Another way of saying this is, <br />entering forgiveness facilitates the abundant life.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The abundant life, as the phrase suggests,<br />is the life we should all want.<br />It is the life we can all have.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">In many ways we are instruments of our own frustration when it comes to our responses to the things that occur to us in our lives. The wisest response is to play what many are calling “the long game,” which is not coined from the sport of golf, though golf has a long game aspect about it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The long game in spiritual terms is taking a whole-of-life view of life and allowing that perspective to guide a person every moment. With such perspective a person does not act the way that the moment often dictates—to react emotionally, for instance, as we are given to do on occasion.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The long game leads us to make sacrifices for the good, as investments of faith, in a future not yet written or realised. When we employ the long game, we practice a wisdom that looks distinctly like faith, and when such sacrifice becomes a habit, we find we and others are abundantly better for it. We find we can give up a lot of things that would otherwise be cheap relics, in preference for the spiritual rewards we will one day receive in great wealth. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Such spiritual blessings are worth the wait.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">What the long game provides us is a way of life where we are finally willing to give up what we could have in the hope of getting something significantly better. Faith is involved because there are no guarantees. And even as we give up what we cannot keep to gain what we cannot lose, blessings of spiritual wellbeing are heaped onto us amid the process.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">When we are onboard with forgiveness it is all upside.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">PERSONAL BLESSEDNESS WITHIN FORGIVENESS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is not just joy that is an inside job. What produces that joy? It is peace. Peace always comes when things are right. Make a study of peace in the Bible and you soon see that peace is linked with righteousness. Do what is right and peace comes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">To forgive is not only wise, but also right.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">As the Gospel enshrined in forgiveness <br />sets right what was out of balance, <br />so we also get back into balance <br />when we adopt the Gospel heart of forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This personal blessedness that is experienced within the process of forgiveness is its own reward. It is, of itself, a captivating wisdom. It is an incontrovertible wisdom, meaning it is destined for blessing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Once we have tasted this and seen it in <br />full flight in our lives, we never turn back. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Once the eyes have been opened, <br />they cannot unsee the light.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Billions have asked, <br />“What is the meaning of life?”<br />This is the answer to that question, <br />and it is a Gospel reality.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">THE HEART SEEKS RECONCILIATION<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We all need peace. It is interwoven in the secret fissures of life. It is written on each of our hearts, but the further we get from it, the more justified it seems to thumb our nose at it. But to run the other way from peace delivers only torment.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Test this. Is it not true that our heart seeks healing, that it seeks peace, that it seeks reconciliation? It is good that our hearts seek shalom. Our hearts seek connection, healing, wholeness.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The way to this connection, <br />healing and wholeness is forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Nothing else will deliver to us <br />what we are looking for and need.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is the healing <br />of God we all need.<br />To receive His forgiveness <br />and to engage in His forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-15429710566954775462023-06-02T16:06:00.004+08:002023-06-02T16:17:23.688+08:00Spiritual direction, Christ in the perception<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUCVpazX2CM4hfhIsUafBQDy6dUy64G7bctKBQUtqHxZPcvxBk4_Ypr4jnqeSIoVx9J9XDZnX6-q6lQJXMAkK7hO-Fn9NC_PTiIbWuWASaxq2jymGfEfbSUhvvZlu2g1rKMhhA6iE0wt_KvwtYXie7beXiY-3rsvwS7olMNr6rEJMZlmVo4V-x7nkC/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUCVpazX2CM4hfhIsUafBQDy6dUy64G7bctKBQUtqHxZPcvxBk4_Ypr4jnqeSIoVx9J9XDZnX6-q6lQJXMAkK7hO-Fn9NC_PTiIbWuWASaxq2jymGfEfbSUhvvZlu2g1rKMhhA6iE0wt_KvwtYXie7beXiY-3rsvwS7olMNr6rEJMZlmVo4V-x7nkC/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Truest religion, authentic faith, is a lived possession of the transcendent, to “know” God. Anything else is merely shadow, pretence, hypocrisy, and it takes us worse than nowhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">As Christians, we must continually challenge <br />ourselves to experience Christ in our midst.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">As persons of faith in Christ, we must attain the presence of the Lord that transforms our lives. It is God’s work of transformation in us, as individuals, that is our most powerful testimony of God’s work.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">How this power works most cogently <br />is through how we love our neighbour.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This is not about friendships or love relationships, but these are included. The outworking of loving our neighbour is how we treat those we do not know—THAT is the most powerful witness of the Christ IN us. That, and then proving utterly trustworthy to our service of the other person—kindness, graciousness, love.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Central to this, of course, is losing our covetousness to idolatry, for we all have desires, both conscious and unconscious, that trap us in bondages to sin. The only way we can love absolute strangers is if we have absolutely nothing holding us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">So just to be clear, how we receive the transcendent Christ is through our loving our neighbours in such a way as to compel them to see God at work in us. The only way people see God at work in us is if we genuinely live the death of Jesus so they would see His life in us, and hence would have His life (the 2 Corinthians 4:10 principle).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We must cause people to ask, <br />“Why does this person so selflessly give to me?” <br />all the while receiving the blessing of God <br />as He touches people through us.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The more we do not know people, the better the secret Christ encounters them, because motives are a mystery. The more we can get beyond rationalisation for manipulation, the more authentically altruistic our attitudes, behaviours, and actions can be, the better.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Act in love with no strings attached <br />— simply to bless, nothing else — <br />and see what God does with it!<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">A WASTE OF OUR LIVES<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We waste our faith lives living in the carnality of worldly living, insisting on justice, bargaining over what we get and don’t get, condemning ourselves to trajectories of bondage, when God wants to give us life in all its possible abundance.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God will give us the Kingdom, but we <br />need to put Him first, or it’s a moot point.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">When a person has experienced the fuller faith life in all its abundance, they do not turn back to pettiness that much of humanity is given to. But we cannot go to these places without giving up the shards of the former life that feel safe and comfortable and even necessary to keep.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is a waste of the new life in us to keep <br />going back to the old ways that never worked.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">If they only ever delivered misery and pain, how can they take us to the life that Jesus promises to give us? If they only ever delivered a self-justification that made for no change, can we not see the hopelessness of such desires? If those old default ways only ever delivered the same pretence of madness, why would we deceive ourselves anymore?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">To go past the wasteland that can all too easily become our lives, we must be prepared to leave what leads only to death, to receive the life that God desperately desires to give us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">MASTERING JESUS IN THE PERCEPTION<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It should be our greatest prayer to experience Jesus IN us—to feel God working through us. Why would we otherwise be satisfied with any other form of living when we can transact in what is inherently transformational?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Mastering Jesus in the perception <br />is living gallantly by faith. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is giving up what we cannot keep<br />to gain what we cannot lose.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">And it does mean we will need <br />to give up what promises much <br />but delivers nothing of real worth.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Faith is the matter of Jesus in the perception.<br />It is seeing ‘riches’ in this life <br />and turning the other way.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The spiritual life gives up the matters in the material life for something that the material life cannot give. The spiritual life prefers to give away the hankerings of the material life, and therefore a person on such a quest is spiritually blessed by being free of the holds that the material life entraps people to.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The spiritual life is intrinsically blessed in every offering <br />of graciousness, kindness, patience, and generosity. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Indeed, the spiritual life IS the epitome of generosity.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #000066; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The spiritual life <br />— against the material life — <br />is the way to Christ in the perception.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-55528809908248764752023-05-09T19:39:00.002+08:002023-05-09T19:58:16.832+08:00Forgiving injustices beyond our control to change<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHfYun4mdC330pufbLForHTBwiycHk3rtSHeztEJPr4vOz_gYIGqiug0Wo8JoklA_NUlRwQMZdOlM-LrEbpbyr4XP3huitlk_r5GLq8g2cHApwCDkIpraUHaR7EyS_z6wZTbOJH5Zj8kFKXJzGNLAB62kfhaBNpX0rt3SZUVwrawI58Tkzj-XA-Ij_/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHfYun4mdC330pufbLForHTBwiycHk3rtSHeztEJPr4vOz_gYIGqiug0Wo8JoklA_NUlRwQMZdOlM-LrEbpbyr4XP3huitlk_r5GLq8g2cHApwCDkIpraUHaR7EyS_z6wZTbOJH5Zj8kFKXJzGNLAB62kfhaBNpX0rt3SZUVwrawI58Tkzj-XA-Ij_/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The secret to successfully living a life that will prove unjust at some point is the ability to forgive. Not just people, but situations—many of which are beyond our control to correct. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This is the most fundamental way <br />to SUCCEED in one’s life, <br />otherwise we may have a hard time <br />overcoming situations that cause us to despair.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">True success in life is built on <br />maintaining a healthy spiritual heart.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">As a prelude to what is coming, injustices will occur in this life, and not just specific injustices that might be righted in due course or in good time. At some point there will come an injustice we cannot do anything about. And there will be dozens of those times in our lives over the long haul.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">In these situations that occur both ad hoc and in clumps, and our attitude overall needs to conform to the Gospel way of Jesus, which is:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Injustices are only overcome through forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This GOSPEL way was modelled at the Cross, <br />and it has become our model in declaring victory over sin.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Frankly, when the world offers every other alternative, <br />including “get even,” forgiveness is the ONLY way.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The Gospel Way is redemption in a single human being, in a couple, in a community, over an entire world if hearts be aligned. To what? To the overcoming of injustice now and for all time in our Lord Jesus Christ, who His Father used to forgive, once and for all, the iniquity of us all who believe in and follow this same Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The Gospel Way is proven—decade after decade, century after century, millennium after millennium—<b><i>and this is historically correct</i></b>—as the only way to achieve spiritual victory.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">THE IDOL OF INSISTING JUSTICE BE DONE<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Of course, we struggle with all this. At some point life will test us, but a heart-alignment to the Gospel imperative of forgiveness brings freedom, but obviously not without sacrifice.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Our key enemy is not Satan. Satan is an instrument pushing us toward the real enemy. Satan, the world, our flesh—all three push us into the milieu of the real challenges that face us on a daily and momentary basis.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Idols are the real enemy. <br />Idols underpin the role of <br />the world, Satan and our flesh.<br />Idols are the common denominator.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Idols are those things on our hearts that don’t belong—anything that does not align with truth and love, and therefore which is enmity toward God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">One of our key idols is justice. Not that justice is a bad thing. It isn’t. It is good to desire justice. However, when we demand a good desire be delivered to us—i.e., that justice be done on our terms—our good desire becomes an idol.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">An idol takes the place of God in our heart.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The theology of idols is proven <br />in how good desires become demands <br />that cause us to judge and then punish people <br />when they do not give us what we demand.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">For instance, when we demand a person repents. <br />Beyond calling someone to account, <br />only God can change a heart.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">At such times, we may put justice above God when to honour God would mean us waiting humbly for it. God sees it ALL—all injustice—and He will judge it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">When we insist justice be done in our time and by the ways we can procure it, we may have elevated justice above the goodness of faith that believes all things will be made new at the right time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Justice is important to God, <br />because life is about truth and love.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Whether we get justice in this life or not <br />is less important than trusting God to bring justice.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This is hard to swallow, <br />but forgiving injustices <br />is a discipleship challenge: <br />Who is God in this mess?<br />Can God be “good” even in a travesty?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">None of this is about ignoring proper legal courses of action that in all due diligence must be observed. What must be properly done must be properly done. But many of the injustices that occur to us are beyond legal recourse. They are beyond cogent and coherent human control.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We cannot do improperly what is improperly done, even if it seems right in our and others’ eyes. Some justice must properly be in the waiting.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Of course, this seems odd. But remember we are living a life of SERVITUDE to a King who sees ALL in any event. When we truly understand this, we are at peace leaving that justice to Him, in faith, who is faithful and just, knowing He will deliver on His justice at the right time, in the right way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">TRUE JOY IN TRUST THAT GOD WILL DELIVER<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The truest peace is enjoyed when we fully trust God to deliver upon His promises. There is no point fixating on any other outcome because Psalm 37:8 points out what happens: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“Refrain from anger and renounce wrath, <br />do not fret—it leads [us to do] only evil.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We know this to be true. Injustice corrodes the heart when we have no place to take the pain we experience in the confusion of a situation we cannot make sense of.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Then we have verses like <b>“Consider it pure joy, brothers and sisters, when you face trials of many kinds”</b> from James 1:2, and we cannot help thinking, “<b>What! Joy in the pain of THIS trial?”</b> Especially in the pain of confusion for the grieving bitterness of injustice.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">THE PRACTICALITIES OF JOY IN SUFFERING<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Less important is justice when joy may be had in any event, especially when joy will protect us and those close to us from overreactions to that which we cannot control. Think about any situation that may arise in our lives—even that which we find innately stressful.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The greatest joy in life <br />is experiencing peace in suffering.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Christians have access to such a thing.<br /><span style="letter-spacing: 4pt; text-transform: uppercase;">IT IS BIBLICAL.</span><br />It is written about a great deal in God’s Word.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Each moment that we catch ourselves fretting is a moment to remind ourselves of the choice we have for joy. Of course, if joy is to be found in an abhorrent situation, we will be challenged to find another definition for it; or we may deduce that joy is possible EVEN in the present grief. Suffering reframes what joy is when we can access it there.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">JUSTICE OR SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Any justice we negotiate or manufacture or manipulate for is not a justice that stands up to any test of truth.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is no good to ‘arrange’ a justice unjustly, which is about bringing a person or situation to account in truth, but without full account of love, and this happens more than we will admit when we insist on our justice.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This is not to say that bringing a justice forth <br />isn’t loving because it definitely can be.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It all depends on our heart. We must have:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Good hearts for justice, <br />hearts of love for those being brought to account, <br />hearts that have forgiven the injustice, <br />hearts that are ready to embrace the repentant and <br />genuinely pity the one still resident in their sin.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">All this is about LIVING the gospel that saves us. It is about living the love that has been modelled to us. It is all about us experiencing the LIFE that comes from following in Jesus’ footsteps, even as we experience the freedom available in coveting nothing anymore.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is a joy to be had in our Christian walk, but that joy is only possible when we surrender our demands for a self-righteous justice for the freedom we can only behold.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This world promises a kingdom <br />that allures but only returns bondage. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God’s Kingdom however promises freedom <br />and delivers on same.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is only one way to sample <br />a freedom nothing can touch. <br />That is when we give our all to God.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The cosmic irony in all this is we only give our all to God when God has made Himself known to us and ambushed our hearts with His love.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We don’t truly understand what God has done for us until we have grasped the mercy that has been poured out at Calvary for each of us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Until we understand this mercy that must grasp us for us to grasp it, we do not understand the fullness of what God has given us, and therefore we are not free to forgive those who sin against us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">But there is joy in a heart that can forgive those who sinned against us, and for the most serious of sins this is indeed a process. All we need know, however is, it is possible to extend a scandalous grace toward others when we have been benefactors of an infinitely more scandalous grace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-30089047272964771512023-05-04T21:20:00.006+08:002023-05-04T21:33:46.758+08:00Forgiving the Unjust Situations of Life<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM7OmuNDeZp2hzK1BPSGqwF9koqrOc8GrWeofUjlGxnnbUGU4ssBzwe0wSpBpK3KuFpjUJ9TdijgpNqUFDjVzIOBEvOk6NFGuRyp7yU7e5itftFlKJcP_3o7lcpE-e2WfGeX44z5qaXVaNCFLGigzdkEOsssZzKYBywDUdVWa6GEqlS3NjR--G59ps/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM7OmuNDeZp2hzK1BPSGqwF9koqrOc8GrWeofUjlGxnnbUGU4ssBzwe0wSpBpK3KuFpjUJ9TdijgpNqUFDjVzIOBEvOk6NFGuRyp7yU7e5itftFlKJcP_3o7lcpE-e2WfGeX44z5qaXVaNCFLGigzdkEOsssZzKYBywDUdVWa6GEqlS3NjR--G59ps/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Life is long until it’s short, but in the long and short of it, it is about forgiveness. It is about redemption or redeeming those facets of life that overcome us. Forgiveness helps us overcome that which overcomes us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is the essential maintenance of the spiritual life.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Throughout the seasons and meandering narratives of one’s life, forgiveness is necessary for spiritual survival, let alone to thrive—forgiveness, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">A better marriage partner than another human being is a relationship with God where we can and readily do let go of that which we have no control over, can never possess, and surrender all demand for.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is a fundamental wisdom in the forgiveness <br />that is persistently hinted at eternally in the gospel.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is a gospel reality <br />where the gospel reveals <br />not only the rudiments of salvation, <br />but also the only viable way to live.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The gospel way to life is a <br />secret hidden in plain sight,<br />that is, to live and to love, and to <br />accept what cannot be changed.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">In forgiveness is the wisdom of peace, <br />and the sustainment of joy and hope,<br />and the fuelling and refuelling of love.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">UNDERSTANDING THE WISDOM OF THE HEART<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Life beckons forth a truth that all prosper hearing and applying. If only we will look for it and listen, but the majority chose not to. The nature of life is the best way of living is so rarely experienced. This is because it requires honesty, integrity, humility, and selflessness, and these and other virtues don’t appear rewarding in a buy-now-pay-later world.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Nestled deep in the heart of the gospel <br />is the imperative to live for virtues like honesty, <br />integrity, humility, and selflessness.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The ‘deeper knowledge’ in gospel living<br />is delivered time and again <br />over the longer course of time.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Proverbs 4:23 tells us to “Guard your heart,” for “it is the spring from which all of life comes.” There perhaps has never been a deeper, more resonant truth. It says that spiritual maintenance is at the core of soul and self. The spiritual self IS our personal entirety. It underpins our physical self, our mental self, and our emotional self.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Perhaps it’s not a particular person that has disappointed or hurt or betrayed us. Maybe it’s the situations of life we find ourselves in, even as we struggle not to compare our lives with others’ lives—others who have been ‘more’ successful, possess ‘more’, are ‘more’ attractive in some way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Even as we dig deeper into those disappointments, broken dreams, hurts and betrayals, we perhaps notice that what underlies these anomalies of justice are the situations themselves we found ourselves in.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The wisdom to life seems fundamental. But it is verily a treasure trove of such depths it leads us to fathomless adventures into the heart which IS life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The heart that maintains its commitment to forgive any and all circumstances is a heart fortified against the toils and snares of a life that would tear us asunder.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The deeper knowledge bellows forth a wisdom: <br />injustices are only overcome through forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">A HEART HEALED IS WISDOM<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">A commitment to forgive as well as a commitment to seek to be forgiven is life because it is healing, and because it is healing, it is wisdom. Such healing is the wisdom of God that many may disparage but none can deny its power.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">A heart healed—any heart—is wisdom. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Any heart healed is life for that heart <br />and for all other hearts in its vicinity.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The greatest gift of any life is the life <br />that that life can give to other lives.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">A healed heart gives the gift of life to all those in its sphere of influence. The greatest of these gifts is the presence of safety received by others that they may not only coexist in the space, having refuge beyond threat, but that they would be afforded the love that each person sees themselves worthy of.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is imprinted in us as those bearing God’s image that we are worthy of care, of respect, of recognition, and of value—immense value. The evidence of this is humanity’s need of healing whenever a soul is damaged.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Humanity’s need is of love. <br />Little do we realise how close <br />to our own grip this love is. <br />Love comes close and <br />intimately when we forgive.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgive and we are healed.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">FORGIVENESS, THE WAY TO LIFE<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There are no two ways about the fact that forgiveness is the way to LIFE. Though it feels a tremendous sacrifice to forgive someone or something, forgiveness gives back to the forgiver and the forgiven in such a way as everyone wins. And that is evidence of a healed heart—that it should want ALL to prosper.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">No debts are held.<br />No debts are incurred.<br />No debts remain.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Freedom penetrates the bonds of bitterness, <br />and purges the darkness with eternal light.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is the way to life because it is unhindered life. A heart that clings to the hurts of past is encumbered and bonded to that which does not belong anymore.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Hearts at peace with a life however it is oriented or has occurred are healed to the extent that the forgiveness experienced is its own cogent power source.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is obvious that there is only one way to life, <br />and that way is the way of peace, <br />and, in essence, the gospel.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-43319346827879039252023-04-17T17:11:00.007+08:002023-04-17T20:53:35.985+08:00Forgiveness, the Victory of God<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc3zZ_rTubq3rK63V83J9GXcVnyOJjUk1d3FaOLQZfu8_fOuXc0TDJZx80kPrUaAuajy7hH_ncl_6SXyDTA4sSUvcoKrfrpG6eqw43NEhIwzrGtOOs8wM0D51WSOZDdufdNoNR7S5-E1_QMp972GimVV2Mx8zGzSwEotQCgNV-z_5_BnkTi0KNMBdW/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc3zZ_rTubq3rK63V83J9GXcVnyOJjUk1d3FaOLQZfu8_fOuXc0TDJZx80kPrUaAuajy7hH_ncl_6SXyDTA4sSUvcoKrfrpG6eqw43NEhIwzrGtOOs8wM0D51WSOZDdufdNoNR7S5-E1_QMp972GimVV2Mx8zGzSwEotQCgNV-z_5_BnkTi0KNMBdW/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">I’m sure there are many who think forgiveness is a doormat experience, especially where there is no sign of contrition or repentance—no acknowledgement of wrongdoing, thanks for grace extended, or appreciation—in those who are being forgiven.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness in such situations seems like such a silly and misguided thing to do.<span> </span>That is how it seems to us all from a worldly viewpoint.<span> </span>It is what the human eye devoid of the Spirit’s inspiration sees.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">But the world of God is an upside-down Kingdom.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">What seems to be victory is actually often defeat, <br />and what is defeat is often steeped in victory.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">And the world, and humanity, cannot discern it.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">But God revealed a ‘different gospel’ to an eye-for-an-eye at the Cross of Golgotha.<span> </span>And that revelation is a wisdom that we can observe and lay hold of personally in our own lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The essence of the Gospel is not only the life it bequeaths us in eternity, but the life it affords us in the here-and-now through a healing we receive through forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">But this is NOT the way of the world.<br />This is also NOT our default human priority.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The Gospel Way of forgiveness is neither natural <br />nor wise from a worldly viewpoint.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">These are irrefutable truths that play out in (most) people’s lives who abide by their own construct for justice—a self-conceived perception of what is right and wrong:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -36.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Unforgiveness leads to an ever-increasing hardening of the heart that further traumatises the self, which only further propagates exposure to ongoing triggering.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -36.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is framed as transactional and that does not bear well with a lack of reconciliation, which is by far and away the most common relational incidence requiring forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -36.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">So few entrenched conflicts resolve, the relationships usually get toxic and shatter.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -36.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">When the choice is made to forgive, and especially in cases when it can’t be transactional, the person choosing to forgive continues to slip out of forgiveness into unforgiveness.<span> </span>This is because the trauma within has not yet been healed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 24.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -36.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">So often one side of entrenched conflict resists accountability and the narcissist-empath dynamic ensues, or in most toxic arrangements both resist accountability.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There must be a better way on earth as it is in heaven!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Where does our hope come from in redeeming these terrible instances of unforgiveness that imperil our hearts?<span> </span>From Jesus no less.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">THE RESURRECTED BODY OF JESUS REMAINED “BROKEN”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The body of the resurrected Jesus Christ is a symbol for our eternal hope in redeeming these long-held hurts that have led to unforgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The body of Jesus post-resurrection bore the scars of the crucifixion He suffered.<span> </span>Those wounds—the wounds by which we have been healed—are visible to the eye and palpable to the touch of the disciples.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Why would God not ‘fix’ Jesus and <br />make His resurrection body perfect?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Well, the disciple Thomas, for just one, <br />needed to see and feel those wounds to believe.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">But there is also another cogent reason: <br />God was showing humanity that scarring IS perfection.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Jesus’ resurrected body, whilst perfect, is marred and scarred.<span> </span>Resurrected in body and ready for the Ascension, Jesus’ wounds reveal a reality and a lesson for us all.<span> </span>It says something about our wounds, even as they continue to show.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Our woundedness, from an eternal perspective, that is our sinful imperfect nature, is already healed.<span> </span>We can approach the mercy seat of God with confidence knowing there is nothing to do other than agree that God in Jesus has done it all.<span> </span>There is no getting around how incomprehensible the goodness of God’s grace is.<span> </span>It is utterly inexorable.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Christian faith is unique in this one way.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Christian faith is the only faith-construct that equates brokenness with restoration, connecting God with humanity, a “broken” God attaining an enduring, eternal victory through apparent consummate defeat.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God shows humanity in His own example, how life comes after death, how hope replaces despair, simply through being weak to be strong.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">THE LIFE OF JESUS, THROUGH HIS DEATH<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Knowing that defeat redeems victory in a warped yet fundamentally true way, Christian faith sets itself apart as the only way to truly live a free life.<span> </span>Such a life is utterly paradoxical and totally against the ways of the world.<span> </span>But in living it, life oozes from us through death—death to ourselves.<span> </span>That’s faith!<span> </span>It is the way of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Life in God is a life sown IN Him.<br />Such a life, though it gives up everything it cannot keep, <br />is a life abundant—with joy, hope, and peace.<br />Practically, it is classifying everything<br />not of God as unworthy of pursuit.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">THIS is the victory of God in our lives<br />plainly through our worship of God alone.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Only when we give up winning in this life —yes, that is competing; and losing fear-of-missing-out—will we gain a glimpse of the next.<span> </span>Eternity is otherwise impossible to access.<span> </span>We cannot hedge our bets.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This life through death is never more poignantly lived than through the death to self of extending mercy toward someone who does not deserve it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus,<span class="apple-converted-space"> <br /></span>so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”<br /></span></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">— 2 Corinthians 4:10<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">What can the above mean other than what it literally means?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">What can it mean to “carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body”? <span> </span>The death of Jesus left marks on His body, marks which Jesus knew needed to be SEEN and TOUCHED by His disciples. <span> </span>The simple and powerful message in this is that there is power in living as wounded healers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Wounded healers are souls healed enough of their wounds that they “carry” their victory.<span> </span>They carry their victory into spaces where others can see and touch those wounds, and attest to the healing power of God to transform woundedness to wholeness.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">No wounded healer is perfectly healed.<span> </span>On the contrary, those wounds—like Jesus’—are there for all to see and touch.<span> </span>A wounded healer is sufficiently vulnerable.<span> </span>They are safe in their expression of their woundedness, and those imperfections are a witness to the work of Christ in their mortal body.<span> </span>Wounded healers are humble and given to owning their wrongs.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The death of Jesus left marks on His body, <br />marks which Jesus knew needed to be <br />SEEN and TOUCHED by His disciples.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Others experience power when Christians <br />bear weakness of their own wounds, <br />not pretending any perfection, <br />in sincere vulnerability. <br />This takes a sustained commitment of humility.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The trouble with much of the world is it is in love with image, performance, and possessions.<span> </span>And these are our human defaults.<span> </span>We struggle to disentangle ourselves from these worldly desires—to be seen as capable, competent, confident, and in control.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">But these worldly desires only lead to misery.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We forever chase what is often beyond <br />our control, and there is no peace there.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The Christian life is victory because we hold what we ALREADY possess.<span> </span>Indeed, in refusing to chase anything but the knowledge of God—to be hidden deep in our hearts—peace, joy, and hope come close immediately.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">FORGIVENESS, THE EPITOME OF VICTORY<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is THE central way we give up what we cannot keep to gain what we cannot lose.<span> </span>It is also THE central way that we achieve victory for others and ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The main thing the enemy of God wants is DIVISION.<span> </span>But when we overcome the temptation to hold unforgiveness in our hearts, we defeat the enemy through the power of God.<span> </span>Our God is a God of redemption, restoration, reconciliation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is a bigger picture than the hurts and betrayals and disappointments that we bear.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Worse than ‘paying someone back’ for their bad or evil deeds done is what our bitterness does to us.<span> </span>It constricts our thinking and our vision.<span> </span>More and more we become self-righteous.<span> </span>The bitterer we get the blinder we become.<span> </span>It is a real slippery slope.<span> </span>We must remember:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God knows what has been done, <br />and we must trust God <br />that His justice will be done.<br />If not now, it will come in the life to come.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">In the meantime, we carry a heart of forgiveness, accepting what we cannot understand by surrendering it ALL back to Him.<span> </span>In that surrender, a miracle happens.<span> </span>Surrender weakens us sufficiently that in THAT kind of weakness we redeem God’s strength.<span> </span>In conceding we don’t have control, resisting the temptation to resentment, we agree to being beautifully broken for God’s glory.<span> </span>We agree to going the journey of lament.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The power of God is so strong that we only need to genuinely practise this surrender ONCE and we are convinced that surrender is both right and powerful.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The world cannot know it: <br /><span style="text-transform: uppercase;">IN SURRENDER IS VICTORY <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This is the authentic and victorious Christian life: <br /><span style="text-transform: uppercase;">TO BE WEAK IS TO BE STRONG <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px; text-transform: uppercase;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; 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</style>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-51995728517656451642023-04-14T19:26:00.004+08:002023-04-14T19:40:01.501+08:00Forgiveness, the Example of God<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjywkCNcP-wcs2zzupLx4hiW12gC8NgA_JCcZT2O1RePhPdu4cS_V_5t_fN7aSrjC5hle4VFmwPbriT5mJegF0ALjc-A0CJ2J6JowVIWCayZXKxNqGAoRlPsb3xRE82Tj-gHc1sTIcKYv931SU6mtUEObgqJqQsshduAm7CV2d4VgrDgSGsqI3ojQhd/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjywkCNcP-wcs2zzupLx4hiW12gC8NgA_JCcZT2O1RePhPdu4cS_V_5t_fN7aSrjC5hle4VFmwPbriT5mJegF0ALjc-A0CJ2J6JowVIWCayZXKxNqGAoRlPsb3xRE82Tj-gHc1sTIcKYv931SU6mtUEObgqJqQsshduAm7CV2d4VgrDgSGsqI3ojQhd/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The glory of life is set before each one of us: to comprehend our existence, our purpose, our reason for being here, our being in its entirety. Comprehension is the beginning, the middle, and the end.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Our existence, our purpose, our reason, our being:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is all inspired from forgiveness and <br />it impels us to live a life of forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">To live NOT as if we were God, <br />but to LIVE as God lives, <br />powered by God within us.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is the example of God <br />in Jesus Christ, Person and God.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">To live this life...<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness in God is so many things, <br />not least, mercy, justice, holiness, <br />empathy, unity, and wisdom.</span></b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">I am convinced that that which is the core of the Gospel message is also the core to our healing—a healing we all need, a healing we need periodically, a healing we need each and every day. To guard against tiredness and hardness of heart we are so prone to be enveloped by.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is mercy, the mercy of God, a mercy we are to enact by example.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">FORGIVENESS, THE MERCY OF GOD<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The mercy of God is activated the moment <br />we face what otherwise separates us from God.<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The mercy of God is there, awaiting, dormant,<br />for the person contrite of heart <br />recognising their need of God.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~</span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God’s mercy toward a needy humankind is irrefutable when it is experienced by a forgiven believer. What I am saying is there is something tangibly real about the transaction we human beings make with God that makes the mercy of God palpable in human experience.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Humanity needs mercy, just as each of us needs it. As we receive it, we learn how important it is to give. Not only do others need it, but we also need to give it to others to re-experience God’s mercy to us.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">As we extend God’s mercy to others,<br />God’s mercy is felt afresh in us.<br />There is a direct correlation.<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Mercy is a thing that brings and begets life. We must experience it to feel human and to feel alive. We must also partake of it by extending it to others if we are to feel human and to feel alive.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Mercy at least in these terms <br />is the potent expression of love <br />that has practical meaning.<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We may not comprehend love <br />until we have experienced mercy.<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">But as soon as mercy is experienced<br />the life of love unfolds in our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~</span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is justice, the justice of God, a justice we are to enact by example.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">FORGIVENESS, THE JUSTICE OF GOD<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The justice of God is an entirely good thing.</span></b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"> It is both benevolence and righteousness. Completely good, true, right, appropriate, consistent, and predictable. The justice of God leaves no good thing judged and condemned.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God did not send the Son into this world <br />to judge and condemn it (John 3:17).<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Humanity has made the justice of God into a horrid thing, a heinous thing, an horrendous thing. But the justice of God only reveals to us what is plain to see. We need God! This justice of God helps us to separate the truth from the lies. This justice of God saves us, and it helps us live the way of salvation that others might also see, feel, experience, and live that way also—even as the fuller evidence is available on all our hearts as to the cavernous gap between us and God.</span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is holiness, the holiness of God, a holiness we are to enact by example.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">FORGIVENESS, THE HOLINESS OF GOD<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Humanity has a common and collective desire. It is prosperity. But the reality of our lives is far less certain. With threats to our financial, physical, and emotional safety—among several other needs—life is riskier than most of us would like it to be.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is a chasm between <br />our innate desire for peace and <br />the harsher reality common to life.<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is one thing that would assure us of our individual and collective prosperity, and that would be if only we were all “like God” to the extent of God’s holiness.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The two most basic theological facts about God and humanity are fundamentally contrastive:<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Humanity (each person) is made IN God’s image, <br />YET God is completely “other-than” humanity.<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The first fact says we are made of the same stuff, and this is in tension with the second fact, that we are nothing like God in one particular way: <b>we are not holy</b>. But amazingly, Scripture still calls us, as a steady and consistent refrain, to “be holy, as God is holy.”<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The central premise of the gospels is not only <br />to “believe” in Jesus, but to “follow” Him.<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God desires to transform in character <br />all those who are made in God’s image.<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Sanctification is the name we give <br />to the process of becoming holy.<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Discipleship is the name <br />we give to this craft.<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Jesus commands His disciples <br />to MAKE disciples.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~</span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is empathy, the empathy of God, an empathy we are to enact by example.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">FORGIVENESS, THE EMPATHY OF GOD<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Great personal blessing is experienced in authentically empathising for another person.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">When we feel for another person as they feel, it not only lightens our own load, but we are also granted a heart that is after God’s own heart—seeing as God sees, feeling as God feels. This can only be received as a gift, but to receive the gift we must want it, we must make a place for it, we must make room, and we must nurture such a gift, also.</span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We are all capable of getting it wrong and being harsh about someone else’s experience—especially when their experience runs cross grain against ours.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The last person we empathise with is the person who has hurt us, but perhaps we have also hurt them, so forgiving each other can seem a bridge too far for both.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Think about it for a moment. When we can empathise for another person, which is to step inside THEIR reality and feel as if we ourselves were them, we find it far easier to understand and therefore forgive, and peace, hope, and joy are the signs of our redemption.</span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is unity, the unity of God, a unity we are to enact by example.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">FORGIVENESS, THE UNITY OF GOD<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Father, Son, Holy Spirit is a unity—the unity of the Trinity. Triune God is tri-unity. There is no closer or better unity. The Godhead three-in-one is the quintessence of unity upon which there is NO division.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This is the unity with which we humans crave, that oneness of self that forever seems to evade us.</span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Unity is of God and God is unity. Indeed, unity is goodness, especially when people create and maintain unity through sacrificing themselves for each other.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><span class="woj"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">25 percent of one disciple’s account of Jesus’ life </span></b></span><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><br /><span class="woj">is devoted to the message of unity and forgiveness.<u1:p></u1:p></span></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><span class="woj"><b><i><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">One one-thousandth of Jesus’ ministry—the final night,</span></i></b></span><b><i><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><br /><span class="woj">the summation of everything that Jesus stands for.<u1:p></u1:p></span></span></i></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><span class="woj"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<u1:p></u1:p></span></b></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><span class="woj"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Put in the simplest of ways, </span></b></span><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><br /><span class="woj">when Christians forgive one another, </span><br /><span class="woj">they herald a power the world does not know, </span><br /><span class="woj">and the world notices the transcendence of this love.<u1:p></u1:p></span></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><span class="woj"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The world is drawn to this Jesus love.<u1:p></u1:p></span></b></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><span class="woj"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">When Christians love one another,</span></b></span><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><br /><span class="woj"><span style="letter-spacing: 3pt;">the world sees Jesus </span></span><br /><span class="woj">because forgiveness is of God.</span></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Unless we go to God, the God of unity, we cannot find what we need to forgive. This is because we need to replace something deep within us with something deep within God.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is beauty, the beauty of God, a beauty we are to enact by example.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">FORGIVENESS, THE CITY OF GOD<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><span class="text"><b><i><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“I saw the Holy City,</span></i></b></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><i><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"> </span></i></b></span><span class="text"><b><i><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride</span></i></b></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><i><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"> </span></i></b></span><span class="text"><b><i><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">beautifully dressed for her husband.”</span></i></b></span><b><i><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><br /></span></i></b><span class="text"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">—Revelation 21:2<u1:p></u1:p></span></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span class="text"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">What does the bride look like who is prepared for Jesus, the husband. “Dressed” means ready. Ready in this context means she is holy as He is holy. Adorned “beautifully” and, in other words, appropriately, to BE with God, in God’s inimitable presence.<u1:p></u1:p></span></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span class="text"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">As we re-read Revelation 21:2 a few times and meditate on it, thinking in matrimonial imagery, surely, we are encouraged to consider what it would be for the entity of “the bride” being a match for God—she is the “Holy City,” the “New Jerusalem.”<u1:p></u1:p></span></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span class="text"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The whole aspect of “husband” and “wife,” as we appropriate these terms in marriage between human beings, can be a distraction to what is going on in Revelation. The point biblically is that “the bride” is a match, or an appropriate partner, for husband Jesus.<u1:p></u1:p></span></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span class="text"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Of such unity of the City of God, I am immediately taken back to Jesus’ final night before He is tried, scourged, condemned, then crucified. John chapters 13 through 17 capture truly what is Jesus’ most intense teaching about the Father Heart of God.<u1:p></u1:p></span></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span class="text"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Both a command and a deep wish, Jesus repeatedly told His disciples to </span></span><span class="text"><b><span style="color: red; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“love one another...”</span></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"> as He Himself had loved them, who was about to give Himself up for them.<u1:p></u1:p></span></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This love that we are to share </span></b></span><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><br /><span class="text">with one another is the unity in God.<u1:p></u1:p></span></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The City of God (or the bride)</span></b></span><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><br /><span class="text">is to love itself (others) as God loves it.<u1:p></u1:p></span></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">When we behave with such love, </span></b></span><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><br /><span class="text">we ARE the City of God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The City of God are God’s people.</span></b></span><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><br /><span class="text">They are the ever-present witness of God.</span><br /><span class="text">They are gloriously safe, </span><br /><span class="text">welcoming, esteemed, regal, </span><br /><span class="text">holy, friendly.<u1:p></u1:p></span></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The City of God executes </span></b></span><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><br /><span class="text">the mercy of their Maker,</span><br /><span class="text">because, due to their character, </span><br /><span class="text">they see far beyond a selfish justice.</span></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is wisdom, the wisdom of God, a wisdom we are to enact by example.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">FORGIVENESS, THE WISDOM OF GOD<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is the key way we guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23; Philippians 4:7), and the key truth to return to is the mercy of God. Indeed, Paul highlights from the first eleven chapters of Romans, having set out a forensically perfect case for the gospel, that everything that God has already done is more than sufficient to motivate us to live a life of forgiveness, which is love, sincerity, gentleness, gratitude, and grace, etc, and everything else about virtuous intent and demeanour from Romans 12-16.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">In terms of a living modus operandi, forgiveness is the unbeatable wisdom of God.<u1:p></u1:p></span><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness for a Christian is as simple as loving God back. There is no better way of loving God than loving others through the forgiveness that God commands us to do.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<u1:p></u1:p></span></b><span style="color: #493388; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(73, 51, 136); font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">As Jesus was and is the Exemplar of God in forgiving a humankind that so often does not understand what it needs, we too are given to this world to be examples of that living faith that brings life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">As Jesus is the Example of God,<br />we too are blessed when we too become <br />examples of the love of God in mercy <br />that can only come from God.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-77243339828763922912023-04-11T21:14:00.001+08:002023-04-11T21:51:08.064+08:00Forgiveness, the Friendship of God<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLz1JvCd_I5P_tOgtaj0ia8gW7LkIL5GUfi0Ewd-ClTcoKuRFMKfedTaUdyZSU0AoJqmbbrhVycwxPy6pctY6bkO_J5BmWKAllCLY56CMZ3ITzyk_37uOckRCNoepNicwxOCwrjMt2FwyeWgIgiOh7s5z-P3aKt1mSNOoaSSYDaLesFzEYjonAr6qt/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLz1JvCd_I5P_tOgtaj0ia8gW7LkIL5GUfi0Ewd-ClTcoKuRFMKfedTaUdyZSU0AoJqmbbrhVycwxPy6pctY6bkO_J5BmWKAllCLY56CMZ3ITzyk_37uOckRCNoepNicwxOCwrjMt2FwyeWgIgiOh7s5z-P3aKt1mSNOoaSSYDaLesFzEYjonAr6qt/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is hard to think about a better example of intimacy with God than Simon Peter’s interaction with Jesus on the beach after the Lord was raised from death.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Simon Peter had just absolutely lost the plot in failure. In sleeping on the job when asked to sit and keep watch at Gethsemane, Peter could not stay awake. Then, having been warned by Jesus that Peter would disown Him, not once but three times, and having vigorously said he wouldn’t, Peter disowns the Lord thrice.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">As a friend, Peter had failed.<br />Peter had promised Jesus not once, <br />but twice, he would not fall away.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Peter declares,<br /><b>“Even if all fall away, I will not.”<br /></b>(Mark 14:29)<br />Then Peter insisted emphatically,<br /><b>“Even if I have to die with you, <br />I will never disown you.”<br /></b>(Mark 14:31)<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Jesus knew better, still he loved Peter.<br />This love is the mercy of operationalised forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">What is forgiveness if not friendship?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Friendship has faithfulness about it. Friendship is that aspect of life that is thoroughly redemptive. Friendship affirms, encourages, builds up, and it provides opportunities for growth through challenge and commitment. Friendship holds us strong through warning.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Friends speak truth in love.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The trust enjoyed in friendship transcends the fragility featured in relationships that operate on performance alone.</span></b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"> There are too many of those relationships in our world. It is terribly sad when relationships are called “loving,” yet they are inherently conditional. This is the tragic default. Rare is it that true friendship is offered and shared.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">But Jesus transcends these limits, offering us the utmost psychosocial safety. Though performance (how good a friend I am) is one key indicator of relationship health, friendship looks beyond mere performance as the model for relationship.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">But good friends OFFER such performance out of love.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Friends share tangible trust.<br />Friends give the capacity of ‘home’.<br />Friends are a blessing in everyone’s life.<br />Friends exemplify merciful hearts.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Getting back to that beach scene nearly two millennia ago, imagine for a moment the setting. It is clearly reminiscent of Simon Peter’s very first encounter with Jesus (Luke 5:1-11). Peter was clearly very deeply jaded about having fished all night only to come up empty handed. Peter is probably at the end of himself. Indeed, he probably went out to fish feeling that way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Jesus calls out from the beach, </span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“Friends, haven’t you any fish?”</span></b><span style="color: red; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"> </span><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">At that point, those in the boat—Simon Peter with Thomas, Nathanael, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples—did not know who it was calling out to them.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">As in that very first encounter three years beforehand with Simon Peter, Jesus tells them to </span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“Throw your net out for a catch.”</span></b><span style="color: red; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"> </span><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">(John 21:6)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We might imagine Simon Peter rolling his despondent eyes. In the first case, he does not yet realise who Jesus is. In this second encounter, he does not quite register who it is 100 yards away on the beach. In both scenarios, once those nets hit the water, they instantly fill with fish. Peter responds enthusiastically in both situations.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God often works in repeat. <br />The works of the Lord often have <br />a familiarity about them, as much <br />as to say, “Can you see Me in this?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Do you see this in your own life?<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is one fundamental way that God <br />evidences His presence WITH us by our faith.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">FRIENDSHIP FEATURES FORGIVENESS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There are no two ways about it; genuine friendship features forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We imagine that two friends have equal stake in the relationship. One sins, the other forgives, and the one being forgiven is incredibly grateful. When situations are reversed, reciprocity is the order of the day. Each time a friend is forgiven, trust is enhanced.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The interesting thing about the friendship between Jesus and Simon Peter—and between Jesus and all His friends to be honest—is how one-sided the relationships are. The sinning occurs only one way. And yet, the exemplative response from Jesus, the heart of God no less, is a grace to forgive that is as perfect as the One who never sins.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Jesus shows Simon Peter a grace that not only restores him to friendship but that also raises him to leadership—of the world’s church.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God’s friendship with us <br />is unequivocally merciful.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">No matter how much we sin, <br />we are forgiven.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">What makes some form of difference, <br />however, is our contrition.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is important in whatever relationship <br />we have in terms of friendship <br />that we can see where WE are wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">GOD’S FRIENDSHIP AND PERFECT FORGIVENESS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God’s friendship is unconditional love. It is a love that transcends all conditions that we humanity must ultimately buckle to. Even if we, like Simon Peter, may think we never will. God simply understands and accepts our sinful natures perfectly and more than we can.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God’s friendship reflects what was done at the Cross. Our debt is paid, our sentence is served, our battle is won. And it all has nothing to do with us and our performance. It has everything to do with God and His performance.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God’s friendship and perfect forgiveness can only be accepted. Indeed, perfection as far as humanity is concerned is exactly that—acceptance of the free gift of grace offered through our perfect Christ Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Friendship with Jesus is accepting <br />His love, adding nothing to it.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Acceptance of friendship with Jesus <br />is our commitment to follow Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">COMMITMENT TO LOVE... AND TRUTH<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Our capacity to be a friend is our commitment to forgive, especially where others show their capacity to exist with us in friendship.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Where people cannot exist with us in friendship, then we can still offer to be friendly. That is, to forgive them anyway, but of course when we are not friends so-to-speak, trust in not ordinary to, and a co-commitment of, the relationship.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Love is just as effective with boundaries. Another way of saying it is we can love people well with the truth. If it were not for the truth, it would be enablement.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">‘WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS...’<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The old hymn is profound in its theology around hardship and trial yet with intimate fellowship with the Lord through prayer. The concepts of suffering are in fact conjoined to God via prayer that reaches out and up, <b>“Lord, are You there? Do You hear me? Help me!”<o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The author of the hymn, Joseph Scriven (1819–1886), wrote the hymn in 1855.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Scriven himself was no stranger to grief and despair. He had suffered significant ill-health as a younger man. And having lost two brides-to-be to death before each wedding, his first fiancée the night before they were to wed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">What the hymn teaches us is the very true and perfect nature of the friendship we have with Jesus. He is not only our Saviour, Lord, and King. He is our dearest, most faithful Friend, who always has our back.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Jesus is someone who forgives to the degree that He desires to take ALL our cares, to bear ALL our crosses, as He did that first Easter long ago. Jesus forgives our self-sufficiency. His mercy is ever ready at the time we hand our struggles over to Him in prayer.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“Have we trials and temptations?”</span></b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"> the second stanza asks. Life would suggest the answer is obvious. What we need most is a friend who will walk with us through it all. A friend who already forgives every transgression. This friend knows the frustration in our hearts. This friend understands how limited we are.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">In life, we do not have as faithful a friend as we need, <br />but our eternal Lord is everything we need.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God is ever available and ever capable <br />when we find people we trusted untrustworthy.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The friendship of God operates perfectly even if it is an unrequited relationship where we get mercy and God gets little but our occasional scraps of allegiance. And yet, God knows it is us, ourselves, who must wander and ponder this lonely life, often feeling all alone in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God knows it is US who needs a friend.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The friendship of God is our key need.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Providing this friendship to another is important.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We know how much they need it, <br />for we know how much we need it.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Being the friendship of God in other <br />people’s lives is our Christian calling.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">On that beach two millennia ago, <br />Jesus charged Peter with friendship.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: red; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“Simon son of John, do you love me?” </span></b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Jesus said, not once but three times. Inviting Simon Peter to friendship, he repeated Himself to make the point—<b>“Come toward me and accept my calling of friendship and service.”</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Everything is about friendship <br />because everything is about love.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness paves the way <br />for the sustainment of friendship.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is the wisdom of God<br />and friendship is its manifestation.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-25287212848362287642023-04-09T01:39:00.003+08:002023-04-09T01:51:36.266+08:00Forgiveness, the Resurrection of God<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhahW_08NbGPjE-wkyPfh92zCpArUMcMHx51qbO0eLijOZT21q45MZMxqBz0PWzD4EVTquGD75ML7ddTv3m1mBIJ1ockqXhTaiua1dgYcMBbnYvZFOSodVoMF4EyFdpVO7KgqWO0gqf9J39uwBib6EFnd044tezN7DPMcTzIpSBawWjqDcStkw0AH-h/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhahW_08NbGPjE-wkyPfh92zCpArUMcMHx51qbO0eLijOZT21q45MZMxqBz0PWzD4EVTquGD75ML7ddTv3m1mBIJ1ockqXhTaiua1dgYcMBbnYvZFOSodVoMF4EyFdpVO7KgqWO0gqf9J39uwBib6EFnd044tezN7DPMcTzIpSBawWjqDcStkw0AH-h/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“Death could not hold Him down, for He is risen,” we might commonly sing, especially on Resurrection Sunday, when we might also hear, “He is risen! He is risen, indeed!”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Like for the Cross, <br />the Resurrection is once for all time.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Christ defeated death and death remains overcome. Since Christ defeated death, He defeats it for you and I—though we will pass over the cusp at our appointed time, to enter the glory that He, that is Christ Jesus, prepared in advance for us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Jesus’ finest work was the Cross. The Cross summed up His life’s work and His life’s purpose. But it was merely an antecedent for the work of God in defeating everything that Satan could or would ever hold against us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The Cross can never be underplayed <br />for it is the final transaction needed <br />to acquit humankind.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">But the Cross alone, <br />though it is an eternal victory all itself, <br />merely sets up the conditions for the final victory.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The Cross is forgiveness, <br />God’s grace manifest mercifully.<br />The Resurrection is forgiveness, <br />God’s grace manifesting life’s abundance.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">... with no threat to that abundance.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">WHEN RESURRECTION IS DESTINY<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Resurrection was Jesus’ destiny. The Old Testament presents the theme of resurrection, in Job, in Psalms, in Hosea, in Isaiah, in Ezekiel, and finally in Daniel. Victory is foreseen and foretold again and again and again in Scripture.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Resurrection is our destiny, too, when we are IN Jesus. Jesus, in His final night’s teaching, tells His disciples in John 14, that </span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“My Father’s house has many rooms...”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">As it was for the first disciples, <br />we are to be at peace.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Death has been put to death, <br />even if we must die to live eternally.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">And yet, death has been put to death <br />in the life-giving force of forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Bitterness that leads to hardness of heart is death.<br />But there is resurrection life in the mercy that forgives.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness bears the power of resurrection life.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">FORGIVENESS RESURRECTS HOPE, OR LIFE<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Either way it is put is true. Forgiveness resurrects our hope, or our life. It gives us what we otherwise did not have. It gives us hope or life we did not previously have access to.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">When we cannot forgive, we render to that relationship death in terms of its hopes for another chance. But when forgiveness comes into view, all hopes, and all life, are restored. The ledger is balanced. The scales, as in the balance of justice, are restored. This is because it is as if injustice has been righted.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">In forgiveness, we transfer debts to the rightful Judge. <br />We get out of God’s way.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is wisdom in forgiveness, <br />a wisdom we cannot fully know, <br />until we “live again.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">When we consider what has taken place at the Cross and through the Resurrection, we are rightfully astonished as to this grace that saves us. When we consider it is done once for all time without any need of any recompense—knowing our need is of constant saving—we may well fall to the floor.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Our falling is for two reasons. 1) because we know how far from God we are, and 2) because our breath is taken away by the breathtaking nature of a grace we can never truly understand.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Our forgiveness is inspired by God’s forgiveness, <br />just as “we love because He first loved us.”<br />(—1 John 4:19)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">As God’s forgiveness resurrects <br />our hope, and gives us life, <br />our forgiveness resurrects others’ hopes, <br />and it gives them and us life.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We know this is true through experience.<br />Every time we extend mercy we, <br />ourselves, are given life.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The old hymn is instructive. It is as if the ancients have always known what we have only come into five minutes ago. We are late to the party, but so will those be one-hundred years from now. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The eternal sweep of God’s grace in holy and eternal forgiveness—in cosmic understanding of our need and His capacity—breaks forth in the Cross that does the work and the Resurrection that delivers the final victory and power for hope and life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Everything is sorted, as <br />everything was always sorted.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is nothing left to do <br />other than follow the lead <br />of the One who was, <br />who is, and who is to come.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We have a friend in Jesus <br />that we have EVER needed.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">That friendship paves the way for us.<br />As we live in the light of His grace,<br />as we long to seek His face,<br />He will give us our ability to bear our cross,<br />and what will arrive with it is power.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">To forgive is that power:<br />to raise hopes to life; <br />hopes of reconciliation, <br />hopes of justice, <br />hope eternal.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Our forgiveness is honoured in eternity.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God makes everything right <br />and everything new.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Our example is set in Jesus:<br />the Resurrection comes because of the Cross.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">When we submit to be humble, <br />we live the death of Jesus <br />so others will experience His life.<br />(—2 Corinthians 4:10)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">That, my friends, IS resurrection <br />in this life, the resurrection of God <br />that forgiveness affords.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-79973548594982531112023-04-06T20:35:00.008+08:002023-04-06T20:58:35.832+08:00Forgiveness, the Goodness of God<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjoQCio9AN3nplLAfE7xAlC_ljzepEWr86qPU9ixfu1vuny-6rNQRZuhRlRvQWfI6WcwQxKkypYSniDbWKiveL1Rk0YElAx2cZA5lPanT3Ez4Oeyh0JPZS21zWyUrc0VRKZxqPVHYpm84YlttAEoI7LV-qZh6dnJMHIPBdOnMXhpYUv-v8XskUTqJL/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjoQCio9AN3nplLAfE7xAlC_ljzepEWr86qPU9ixfu1vuny-6rNQRZuhRlRvQWfI6WcwQxKkypYSniDbWKiveL1Rk0YElAx2cZA5lPanT3Ez4Oeyh0JPZS21zWyUrc0VRKZxqPVHYpm84YlttAEoI7LV-qZh6dnJMHIPBdOnMXhpYUv-v8XskUTqJL/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Why on earth is Good Friday, good? This is a question that ought to make us pause and reflect, at least once a year. And for gratitude, more often, or as long as we need to reconnect with how blessed we are to live and breathe in this life that God alone has given us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The goodness of God cannot be summed up <br />any better than via the goodness in Good Friday. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is GOOD, and indeed it is VERY good.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Easter is a time of year, each year, to set aside time to stop, and to think, to ponder, and to be grateful for the life we have been given. Sure, to be grateful for the actual life we live, but also and mainly for the LIFE in our heart and soul for the glory set before us in God making a way for us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We have been given something that we can never repay, <br />where ‘repayment’ would be laughable because <br />we have neither stock nor currency.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Can we simply take a moment this day, and over the coming days, to ponder the weight of glory in the Cross, to ponder what was done, to ponder what is being done in our midst, and to ponder the enormous debt of gratitude we can exude for what has been DONE for each of us?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">One moment in time. Can we let it arrive? Can we sit and breathe and ponder, using what we discover afresh, with thanks, what we might do in response, how we might posture ourselves for His purposes and glory?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Can Easter be used to reconnect us <br />to Him, and therefore back to ourselves?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It certainly can...<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Thank You, Jesus, for the Cross.<br />Thank You that You came <br />and did for each of us what <br />we could not do for ourselves.<br />You endured a Roman crucifixion,<br />and You would do it all over again,<br />if it were needed.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">But today, remembering Good Friday,<br />we thank You most that You <br />do not need to do it again.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">And in that is a message,<br />that You saved us once for all time.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Help us live in the sheer acceptance of the totality <br />of this free gift of grace we have been given—<br />a gift we needed most of all in life, <br />a gift we could not procure of our own.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Help us, Lord, to accept WHAT You have done.<br />Give us peace in this acceptance;<br />a peace that wells up to joy and hope,<br />all in full measure for Your glory.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">AMEN.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~ * ~ * ~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-88818853732933920082023-04-04T05:48:00.004+08:002023-04-04T06:11:19.127+08:00Forgiveness, the Mercy of God<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-8JjpgmWUFNUXO0kpEE95h5Ed70WIh4wIIOyQBJT_If48J-N3dRtuWiy1Y_UVe5JwWtxdMtgkVr9ngYoWPIXAqSZNUxZYvskGpAYafQLS8BW-kOZ4iHx5s9Ln3tC9aUwEtLyblQvlklZkJYnAm5vb8zTcXg99gdIvl_y8B4Pg4Iz1Q-MVRyaPPSAO/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-8JjpgmWUFNUXO0kpEE95h5Ed70WIh4wIIOyQBJT_If48J-N3dRtuWiy1Y_UVe5JwWtxdMtgkVr9ngYoWPIXAqSZNUxZYvskGpAYafQLS8BW-kOZ4iHx5s9Ln3tC9aUwEtLyblQvlklZkJYnAm5vb8zTcXg99gdIvl_y8B4Pg4Iz1Q-MVRyaPPSAO/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Everything we ever did wrong that we felt horrid for is forgiven, and that is the mercy of God at the Cross of Calvary that First Easter about 1,994 years ago. That mercy is the grace of God destined before even time began to raise us out of our spiritual poverty by the simple and single virtue of one man, the God-man, Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The grace of God is us <br />getting what we don’t deserve. <br />The mercy of God means <br />we did not get what we deserved.<br />Instead we got what God deserved,<br />while God got what we deserved.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">In the simplest terms,<br />Jesus took our place.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">In the simplest terms,<br />Jesus DID what we could not do.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">In the simplest terms,<br />Jesus did what we NEEDED God to do.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The mercy of God is a transaction achieved at Easter, one act at one time by one man, the only one qualified to acquit us ALL of all our wrong. This mercy of God is the forgiveness of God in God understanding the human condition. The mercy of God makes a way for humanity to be AS-IT-IS.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The mercy of God is activated the moment <br />we face what otherwise separates us from God.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The mercy of God is there, awaiting, dormant,<br />for the person contrite of heart <br />recognising their need of God.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God’s mercy toward a needy humankind is irrefutable when it is experienced by a forgiven believer. What I am saying is there is something tangibly real about the transaction we human beings make with God that makes the mercy of God palpable in human experience.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">HUMANITY’S NEED OF MERCY<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Humanity needs mercy, just as each of us needs it. As we receive it, we learn how important it is to give. Not only do others need it, but we also need to give it to others to re-experience God’s mercy to us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">As we extend God’s mercy to others,<br />God’s mercy is felt afresh in us.<br />There is a direct correlation.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Mercy is a thing that brings and begets life. We must experience it to feel human and to feel alive. We must also partake of it by extending it to others if we are to feel human and to feel alive.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Mercy at least in these terms <br />is the potent expression of love <br />that has practical meaning.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We may not comprehend love <br />until we have experienced mercy.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">But as soon as mercy is experienced<br />the life of love unfolds in our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Not only is mercy vital for life, but the experience of mercy also activates something precious and powerful in our lives. It is precious because it vouchsafes that protective element in our lives that goes before others’ lives. Our mercy protects others as much as another’s mercy protects us. It is powerful because mercy has the capacity to save, and in being saved, we see the value in being saved, and we extend Jesus’ merciful power as He saves others. Our love is thereby done, in Jesus’ name!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Mercy is lovingly protective.<br />Mercy is lovingly powerful.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Mercy is fundamental in goodness,<br />a goodness rooted essentially in love.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Mercy is salvific and that nature of being saved,<br />leaves the saved transformed by its love.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">FORGIVENESS IS THE MERCY OF GOD<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is no more potent expression of mercy than of a perfect God having forgiven an imperfect humanity that condemns itself as ‘guilty’. It is such a familiar feeling.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The foremost sign that we are built in the image of God is that we have the conscience that God gives us—the knowledge of right from wrong. There are many people who may feel entitled to do as they please, to <b>“do what is right in their own eyes,”</b> (Proverbs 21:2, etc) but there are equally many who see with the heart of God—they live with the desire to be forgiven, because blessed are they as <b>“their sin is ever before them”</b> (Psalm 51:3).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The sign of the godly <br />is the contrition that seeks mercy.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The sign that salvation has come <br />is the expression of contrition.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is the mercy of God.<br />Forgiveness is needed and desired.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">FORGIVING IS IMITATING THE MERCY OF GOD<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Just as we are made in the image of God, <br />we are also called by God to imitate God.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">That is, discipleship’s quest is to <br />FOLLOW Jesus, not just ‘believe’ in Him.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We are to follow His teaching <br />and to become like Him in character.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We are to emulate Jesus, <br />to carry out the mercy of Him who had no sin.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">A personal account from myself to close.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">A little over two years ago—just in time as God always does—the Lord of glory taught me a beautiful but terrible lesson about mercy. <b><span style="text-transform: uppercase;">HIS MERCY.</span></b> Not that I went to prison, but I got away with something that could in my mind’s eye have been a serious crime—I almost killed someone on the road with my driving. A cyclist. It all happened in the blink of an eye. I was tired, confused, and distracted. But there would have been no excuses.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Suddenly for the first time in my life as a Christian—<br />for the first time in nearly 18 years of devoted service to God—<br />I SAW the mercy of the Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The consequences of my sin shone before me.<br />Yet I stood there acquitted!<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Though I still had some work to do in reflection, the hardness in my heart was shattered in an instant. The callouses were massaged soft. All through truth that I had not for a very long time contemplated. I had not seen it. That truth was a fresh revelation to me.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">In begging for mercy, God impressed on my heart that, <b>“If you deserve mercy, ALL deserve mercy. I did for ALL what I did for you.”</b> This spoke to me. It spoke also to the persons I still held in contempt. And all that judgement and condemnation had to go!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God understood my heart, <br />but all the same I was in contempt of court.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">I stood there before Him, naked with nothing, holding onto the last vestiges of the self that does not need God. I stood there exposed before His court—in utter contempt with the last remaining skerrick of defiance glaring for the entire court to witness.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It only takes one fraction of defiance, <br />and we are in opposition to God.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">If we are to truly receive His mercy that forgives all we have done and will ever do, then we must be prepared to let it go and enter the new life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The new life is emergent with freedom because we walk away from anything opposed to God. It is the life ALL of us need. We do not see it, however, until we see it, and then it is glorious.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness is living the mercy of God in our own lives, as we bear our own crosses, just as Jesus bore ours from Gethsemane to Golgotha, once for ALL for all of time. Living this mercy of God is the greatest realisation of truth imaginable. It is the opportunity of a lifetime, but we only see it once we see it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">When we see that ALL deserve mercy, <br />we see how deserved we are of God’s mercy, <br />but until such time we cannot see that we deserve it. <br />This is because we hold others in contempt, <br />and therefore we hold ourselves in contempt.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">What God is saying in essence is, <br />“you cannot have it both ways; <br />you have my mercy as you EXTEND my mercy.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“Do you understand your need of my mercy? <br />If you do, you will let unforgiveness go; <br />you will give it to me so I can set you free.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The truth of the matter is we need <br />God’s mercy to live the new life.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There are no two ways about it.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-55869058685594086692023-03-31T13:13:00.007+08:002023-03-31T13:29:13.684+08:00Forgiveness, the Holiness of God<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK9GbrkrykM4qAoSMA0kWEfzuI9jQEMFakWIPv90pnIEq5ftl5BahftAvS_zdTfCjTzWkp_AIyCpsLhz9s5--v2HNwlOg4uGKJcjNK0uqQxNeHR9SLsIIyihyBnfKRlbBYBl4aoTfKenPLfbEd6JUJlsbACauS26Gry2AAKYXf-YvVnfNx8azzfu6o/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK9GbrkrykM4qAoSMA0kWEfzuI9jQEMFakWIPv90pnIEq5ftl5BahftAvS_zdTfCjTzWkp_AIyCpsLhz9s5--v2HNwlOg4uGKJcjNK0uqQxNeHR9SLsIIyihyBnfKRlbBYBl4aoTfKenPLfbEd6JUJlsbACauS26Gry2AAKYXf-YvVnfNx8azzfu6o/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Humanity has a common and collective desire. It is prosperity. But the reality of our lives is far less certain. With threats to our financial, physical, and emotional safety—among several other needs—life is riskier than most of us would like it to be.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is a chasm between <br />our innate desire for peace and <br />the harsher reality common to life.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is one thing that would assure us of our individual and collective prosperity, and that would be if only we were all “like God” to the extent of God’s holiness.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The two most basic theological facts about God and humanity are fundamentally contrastive:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Humanity (each person) is made IN God’s image, <br />YET God is completely “other-than” humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The first fact says we are made of the same stuff, and this is in tension with the second fact, that we are nothing like God in one particular way: <b>we are not holy</b>. But amazingly, Scripture still calls us, as a steady and consistent refrain, to “be holy, as God is holy.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The central premise of the gospels is not only <br />to “believe” in Jesus, but to “follow” Him.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God desires to transform in character <br />all those who are made in God’s image.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Sanctification is the name we give <br />to the process of becoming holy.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Discipleship is the name <br />we give to this craft.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Jesus commands His disciples <br />to MAKE disciples.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">GOD’S HOLINESS IN FORGIVENESS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">One of the key differentiators between us humans and God is the forgiveness in God’s grace. The truth of God’s grace at the Cross boggles the human mind.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">No human heart can truly comprehend it.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God forgave humanity completely in the most sacrificial acts—the giving up of His own Son. In such a plan, God loves humanity so much He does not spare a thought. Indeed, the Son was intimately involved in the plan from before the very beginning of creation. God thought nothing of sacrificing Himself for His precious and beloved creation. It was the only thing that love could do.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Well before creation came into being, <br />God knew humanity would need to be rescued.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God was willing to sacrifice all of Himself<br />to save His precious creation <br />and this demonstrates the purity <br />in the love of His forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Yet, it’s completely different for us human beings. Humanity often cannot forgive petty grievances. If we are honest, we can think of times when we struggled to forgive someone for something very minor. The behaviour of a fellow road user who has had a lapse, for instance. Someone who has cut in front of us in a queue. Often whether by mistake or deliberate.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">When humanity shares God’s character in ease with forgiveness, that humanity bears God’s holiness; “they are holy as He is holy.” But something must happen for humanity to bear this grace.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God must transform us <br />in the likeness of His holiness.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Only God can do the transforming.<br />It is a miracle of His grace.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">BEARING THE HOLINESS OF GOD IN OUR FORGIVING OTHERS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The honour we have living this life is the opportunity of holiness, to “be holy as God is holy.” No human being should deprive themselves of this opportunity, for it is the halcyon peak of human experience. It is true transcendence.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">But we can only achieve this level of otherness-with-God when we give up what we cannot keep to gain what we cannot lose. And what does that mean?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Only when God is the most important thing in our lives does He command our focus and attention to the degree of our allegiance. We must ask ourselves, “Will I always be prepared to do what is true and right and just and appropriate to honour God?” This is what it is like to be holy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">To honour God at every point <br />is a commitment toward holiness.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Often the hardest thing of all in life is forgiving.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This is because we have been transgressed, and rarely in these circumstances have the transgressors owned what they did. More commonly they dismissed it, or said “get over it,” or worse, said “it never happened.” It is hard to forgive as God forgave and forgives.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We have the opportunity <br />not only to bear God’s image, <br />but to exemplify God’s character.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Exemplifying God’s character <br />is not about being “like God”.<br />It is about BEING the humility, <br />the mercy, and the compassion of God, <br />exemplified in Christ who died for us, <br />though we were, still are, <br />and always will be sinners.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We will only know what it was like for Jesus on the Cross when we bear His holiness in forgiving others their trespasses against us. Read that again.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is no way we can empathise with God—that is FEEL as God feels—without giving ourselves and our justice away. It runs counter to how the world would have it, and how the world insists we live, and it also runs counter to our own intuition and ‘logic’.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">But it is what it is. There is no getting around this. Judgement is God’s!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">What is it about this way <br />of being the BEING of God? <br />It overcomes the seven deadly sins.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It overcomes our pride, for in our humility we accept the transgression and forgive it, just the way God has forgiven us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It overcomes our anger, because self-control is a form of heaven, so we accept the transgression and forgive it, just the way God has forgiven us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It overcomes our greed, for we know greed gets us nowhere other than far from God, so we accept the transgression and forgive it, just the way God has forgiven us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It overcomes our envy, for understand the transgressor has won nothing, so we can accept the transgression and forgive it, just the way God has forgiven us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It overcomes our sloth, for we understand that demonstrating diligence is godliness.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It overcomes our gluttony, because we know that stuffing ourselves with our own wanton desires is just another form of hell. And it overcomes our lust in the same way—out of control desires are the epitome of hell.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Back in the day, when I was going to five AA meetings a week, so often I would hear people say, “Just give your all to this program for three months, just promise yourself that, and you will never look back.” It is so true.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Living the holiness of God to the extent of forgiving as God has forgiven us need only be done under the same conditions. If we give our heart and soul over to God in these ways of living the love of God, we will not turn back, for the Spirit of God will convince us that there is no life on earth like heaven on earth.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Heaven on earth is possible, <br />as in the Lord’s Prayer—<br />on earth as it is in heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The only way is to LIVE it.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">CRAVING A DIFFERENT WORLD<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The cravings of the holy person are of realities of another world brought to life in this world. Truly this is <b>“on earth as it is in heaven.”</b> The truly holy person believes so much in this way of living it becomes the purpose of their being.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The more we believe for this kind of reality, the more God opens the eyes of our hearts to the possibilities. Can there be a better purpose for being?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We crave a different world when we are sick of the violence, the pain, the dysfunction, the corruption, the selfishness, and the evil. Yet, while we are here God’s holiness invites us into realities that transcend the disparaging nature of this world.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The purpose of our being <br />is to bring heaven to earth.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This starts in our own lives.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This is the call of holiness.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6524121134619106328.post-40565096400479320482023-03-27T15:37:00.002+08:002023-03-27T15:51:36.764+08:00Forgiveness, the Promise of God<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid3nEn0vH4PdweaNjnxhavF1_nUenakGw_7rW7XGtPn9k5BARmN-65l_JABj0x45OjmdobmLNtILKtvF3oe-TlOPwTdg-4ZGWJRPaN4WPPP1NHZfHyVymmb9dgmTSN-DhNrc6ywznzaOrA2Xaisjk6xTtvWat9P-JCQJknMWYQYfXkycBjaNHhKER_/s1687/Slide1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1687" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid3nEn0vH4PdweaNjnxhavF1_nUenakGw_7rW7XGtPn9k5BARmN-65l_JABj0x45OjmdobmLNtILKtvF3oe-TlOPwTdg-4ZGWJRPaN4WPPP1NHZfHyVymmb9dgmTSN-DhNrc6ywznzaOrA2Xaisjk6xTtvWat9P-JCQJknMWYQYfXkycBjaNHhKER_/s320/Slide1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God keeps His promises. This is one four-worded statement that the Bible proves true.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“When dreams come true,” is another four-worded statement that sums up the fulfillment of God keeping His promise—the provision of humankind’s salvation. The statement reflects each of our hearts from the very moment we are conscious of desires we cannot avoid—good desires for safety, for prosperity, and for wellbeing. These desires are human needs.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God knows these are human needs.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Salvation is the meeting of these needs.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">He who created us, He who formed us, <br />knows us, and He made us this way, <br />and God has also made a way for us.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">As is God’s nature, we have been given <br />what is central to our need and our condition.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Our need is salvation,<br />for our condition is sin.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Our need resolves our condition.<br />There is salvation for our sinful nature.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The promise of God in salvation is one of those dreams come true—a deep desire and wish in us that our lack of goodness might be somehow understood, forgiven, absolved; we, who desperately WANT to be good.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The promise of God in salvation fills a gap that we ourselves cannot fill. The promise of God in salvation achieves something that we both need but cannot achieve on our own.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">THE FIRST GOSPEL – GENESIS 3:15<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Interestingly, the first gospel comes way before the biblical gospels, and well before even the biblical prophets.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Protoevangelium (noun) is “a messianic interpretation of a text,” according to Merriam-Webster, “presaging [humanity’s] ultimate triumph over sin through the coming of a savior—used as the first anticipation of the gospel.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Genesis 3:15 is the protoevangelium— <br />the earliest foretelling of the gospel of God <br />rescuing a humanity that cannot live up to its image.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Importantly, the elements of the first gospel feature God’s enamoured demeanour toward the first humans. God does not curse them, but he curses the serpent and the ground.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The first humans were deceived, <br />just as we today can be deceived. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is better to be deceived than be deceptive.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God prophesies in Genesis 3:15 that, “He (Jesus) will crush your (Satan’s) head, and you (Satan) will strike His heel.” Ultimately, Satan “bruised” Christ’s heel at the cross, but Christ’s death and resurrection “crushed” Satan, a decisive victory for all eternity.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">TWO TYPES OF SEED<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is so much theology in Genesis 3:15 about the fall and God’s plan to redeem His beloved humanity. One of the clearest signs that this theology is true is how it translates in life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There are two types of seed in this spiritual life: <br />God’s sheep and wolves in sheep’s clothing.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The former are those who try to do the right thing <br />and repent when they don’t.<br />The latter are not interested in doing <br />the right thing and they do not repent. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is God’s seed represented by Adam and Eve who have God’s seal of love, who are further represented by those who receive the gospel (receiving God’s forgiveness) which powers them to live in the light because they seek relationship with God, accepting and living in His grace.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is also Satan’s seed represented by the serpent, and there are those who are counterfeit Christians who seem to “believe” in Jesus but do not follow His ways. Theirs is a way of breaking relationship even if they feign affection—these are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They resist the gospel’s work in their lives even if they say they work in its power.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God’s seed is committed to contrition.<br />Satan’s seed manifests contempt.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Jesus Himself makes the case for those who have Satan’s seed in this extended passage from the Sermon on the Mount in <b>Matthew 7:15-23</b>:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“Watch out for false prophets.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="woj">By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="woj">Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="woj">A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="woj">Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>will enter the kingdom of heaven,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. <span class="woj">Many will say to me on that day,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="woj">‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="woj">Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” </span></span><span class="woj"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">(NIV)</span></span><span class="woj"><span style="color: red; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">It is hard as a pastor to preach about the things that Jesus spoke of, but it is plain in what we read. By their fruit we will know them, not always by what they say or promise, for their words are cheap in comparison to the evidence in their actions. And not everyone who does things in God’s name is one of God’s people.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">God knows the heart and <br />deceivers do not deceive God.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Indeed, it is folly for a deceptive one <br />to cry foul in the cold light of day.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">GRATITUDE FOR PROMISES KEPT<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We can be grateful to the extent that we appreciate that God is true to His character.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">What more can be given for the grace-gift that has been given to us? It has ALL been given. There is nothing left to give. It was all done at the cross when Jesus said, </span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“It is finished,” </span></b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">because once Jesus died, the resurrection was only a matter of time away, because death could not hold the Son of God down.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The promise spoken forth back at the <br />beginning of creation has been kept.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Nothing is required of us other than <br />our allegiance to follow the way of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">This is simply about God <br />leading us in the way everlasting.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The truth is, gratitude is its own gift. Especially when we consider that gratitude is built on the truth of a promise kept that we depended on being kept.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">The foundation of this promise kept is the forgiveness we needed but could not grasp for ourselves. In the delivery of the promise—the forgiveness of God—just so happens to be the promise we can make back to God:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">“I will never be perfect, Lord, <br />and thank You that I do not need to be.<br />But what I can do is forgive <br />those who sin against me, <br />just as in fact, <br />You have done for me...<br />and, by doing so I trust You, God.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Agreeing to live by the model God has given to us through His Son, we do not live an absurd example, even if the world might say we are mad to forgive someone who will neither appreciate the gift of our forgiveness nor repent.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">We may forgive and thereby live according to the model we have been given, but our forgiveness will never cost us like it cost God. Our forgiveness is a token in comparison.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Besides, our forgiveness is a promise made back to God, that we promise never to judge as we accept in this that God alone is judge.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">In such forgiveness, as benefactors of the eternal promise of redemption, we are freed from the bonds of requiring a certain variety of justice—that we cannot procure.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">In forgiveness is wisdom, <br />for in forgiveness is freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">THE WISDOM IN FORGIVENESS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Death teaches us to live this life lightly.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Not only is death inevitable, but we also leave this life with nothing. What is written as our life record matters. How we live our life has consequences.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt;"><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Forgiveness in this life matters. It is significant beyond this life, just as it is significant in this life. There is wisdom in forgiveness. Indeed, there is only wisdom in forgiveness, and no folly. But there is folly in unforgiveness.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">Wisdom proves itself right by faith.<br />That is, when we apply wisdom, it works out right.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">But we must apply wisdom by faith,<br />because rarely is wisdom vindicated beforehand.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">There is life in trusting the path of goodness,<br />that all things will end well when ventured by faith.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 32px; margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #002060; font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 37.333332px;">~ ~ ~<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>Steve Wickhamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00921698153004851275noreply@blogger.com0