Forgiveness

The Face of My Father

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What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Romans 8:31-32 KJV

“Go sit on your bed until your father get’s home!” were the most terrifying ten words of my childhood. Those long minutes or hours as I waited for the return of my stepfather from work only magnified the fears that I had of the inevitable punishment that awaited me. The last person’s face I wanted to see was his. After I became a Christian it took me quite a few years to be able to pray to the Father. Sure I said the words in corporate worship but when I was alone I would pray only to Jesus. I would say things like, “I’m only coming to you Jesus. Will you forgive me and help me?” Sometimes it felt like I was still sitting on my bed, waiting for punishment. The last person I wanted to see was my Heavenly Father. How little did I know of the tender love of a father who sent His own Son to die in my place. How much He must have wanted me to run to Him and how patient He was for me to slowly unwrap the mystery of the great -great love of His heart. He was not looking forward to coming home so He could pull out His celestial belt to punish me. Instead He had sent Jesus to die in my place so that He could wrap me in His arms. God was not listening to the long litany of my sins, becoming angrier by the second. Instead, He was preparing to freely give me anything I needed because of Jesus Christ. What a love is this? Now I look forward to His return! In fact the very first face I l want to see is the face of my true and eternal father in Heaven. All this time He has been by my side sitting next to me and loving me as His child!

This was Dad at Our Wedding (I look nervous!)

The DNA of God

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?     Mark 2:7 ESV

When I was a young boy, I got in trouble a lot during summer vacations. My usual transgression was getting caught for wading in the pond on the other side of the creek from our home. See it wasn’t so much that I enjoyed getting wet, I just loved catching polliwogs so that I could bring them home and watch them turn to frogs. Though I ended up countless times being made to sit on my bed for disobeying, it seemed that it was just in my DNA. No matter how often I was told to stop, it never took more than a couple of days for me to gleefully return to the pond.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Jesus got in trouble a lot too, but the trouble that Jesus got in was because He forgave people of their sins. “Just who does He think He is?” the religious people muttered. But, if they had stopped for just a moment to think about His name, they would have known the answer. You see God told Joseph and Mary to name their miracle child “Jesus”, precisely because “He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21. You see, forgiveness was part of who Jesus is because He is God’s Son and forgiveness begins in the very DNA of God. We need that forgiveness every day, and the good news for us is that no matter how much the punishment Jesus had to endure He came to forgive us so we could become His people!

So Much More

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So Much More!

Much more was the grace
 That cried Father forgive
On that long ago dark afternoon
When with His last strength our Lord Jesus cried out
These people know not what they do

First was Judas who sold His Lord out
And there was Pilate who bowed to the crowd
And Herod who mocked Him and had him bound
And the High Priests who rejected His word

And the throng who were shouting “Crucify Him!”
Then the soldiers who nailed Him hard to the wood
And one thief who still refused to believe
And the one whose spear drew His last blood

These all were His enemies much more forgiven
But there is one more I finally found 
That guy was the man who ran from God’s love
Till His grace so much more tracked me down!

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Romans 5:10 ESV

So Much More by Peter Caligiuri copyright 2021 all rights reserved