Forgiveness

God sees to the Horizon

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Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.” Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good,… Genesis 50:18-20a

Way back at the beginning of the story of Joseph’s life and dreams he hoped his brothers would listen to him. But here many years later we see that God had worked in Joseph’s heart to the point where it was Joseph who had learned to listen to them. He who had interpreted the dreams of a king had a more difficult task at hand, to listen to the fears of his brothers. Joseph had never been accepted. He was born to a different mother, he had been given a different robe, a different position and later an entirely different set of life’s experiences. But at the end of the day the deepest lesson Joseph had learned was to forgive his brothers and to see it all as good in the hands of God.

Have there been life altering circumstances brought into your life as the result of the sins of others? Have you been talked about, unjustly accused and suffered legal consequences all because of a lie? All of that and more happened to Joseph and yet God had chosen those exact situations to work together for good. And the most amazing thing of all about God’s goodness is not just that he turned his brothers’ sin into good in Joseph’s life, but that He also turned everything around for the good of even those brothers!

“God is good all the time” we often shout in church. But while we often think first of God being good to us we need to remember that he also wants to be good to our enemies. Jesus told us to forgive our enemies and Joseph shows us that we can also learn to listen to them. Take this moment to sincerely pray and ask Godimg_3260 if He has put someone in your life who has caused you pain, who you should be listening to and forgiving just as Joseph did. Choose now to forgive because God means it all for good: everyone’s good. We may see only the barriers of the bad things that they have done but God sees beyond to the horizon!!

God’s mightiest weapon

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

One of the most successful evangelists in Bible times was a man who needed to learn more about the most powerful weapon he could have used on the enemies of God. The man’s name was Jonah and the weapon was mercy. Our brother Jonah was indeed one conflicted guy! Forget for a moment the entire episode of Jonah, the storm, the fish and the being vomited up on the beach (Yuck!), let’s examine Jonah’s evangelism.

Jonah came to the first day of his evangelistic crusade kicking and screaming. He disept-oct-2013-068dn’t want to go to Nineveh. He didn’t want to go not because he was afraid of being attacked or because he thought he would be a failure. No, on the contrary, Jonah’s greatest fear was that the city would repent and that God would forgive them! Try with me to imagine the thoughts going through Jonah’s mind as he preached. Maybe they sounded a bit like this:

“Okay God so I know I have to obey and preach your message. Here goes: ‘Repent! God is sending destruction on this city!’ ” Then Jonah closed his eyes and prayed that no one would come to the altar! Wow, that might sound like the strangest thing but it was exactly what the Bible tells us. In fact when God chose to forgive the city because everyone was touched by Jonah’s message, he became angry. Let’s listen in on his conversation with the almighty as he is hastily exiting the city. You find this in Jonah 4:2

p1020130 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

Before we laugh too hard at this surly prophet, maybe we need to look in the mirror to see  if we are really a lot like him.Like Jonah, we may be missing the entire point of God’s mercy. Today in New York and New Jersey the news is filled with the stories of the most recent acts of terror on American soil. Some of us are so angry and frustrated that any act of destruction by us on parts of the Middle East would suit us just fine. But instead of  bitterness, we who are Christians have the greatest opportunity to pull from God’s arsenal his most powerful weapon of all – the mercy and forgiveness of Christ. That weapon of mercy is the most powerful because it was also the most costly. Mercy cost God His only Son! As Jesus hung on the cross and became the object of shame and ridicule he could have  asked the Father for justice. But Jesus knew that there was nothing more potent that he had available to use on his enemies than grace.

Our brother Jonah’s dream was not to see Nineveh saved. Oh no! Jonah was hoping for God to do to Nineveh something like what had happened with Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus instead looked past the jeering crowds. Jesus saw beyond his few frightened disciples huddling behind locked doors. Jesus looked all the way to heaven and saw a joy that no earthly power could take away and then He released on the world God’s mightiest weapon:

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments Luke 23:34