Tag Archives: forgiveness

Know Your Enemy

24 Saturday Sep 2016

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Black-maned male African lion roaring, headshot, Africa

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him.” 1 Peter 5:8, 9

The enemy is very busy with today’s Christians.

Busy getting friends to turn on each other because their opposing views become offensive and that offense becomes more valuable than the love they used to have for each other.

Busy getting us to one-up each other in sarcasm and rhetoric rather than outdo each other in love, mercy, grace, and kindness.

Busy getting Christians more concerned about issues than souls, more condemning of others than forgiving, more critical of others than prayerful, more determined to make a worldly point than testify of the goodness, faithfulness, and sovereignty of the Living God.

The enemy is very busy with today’s Christians.

Busy inciting fear, hatred, violence, injustice, retaliation, bitterness, separatism, vengeance, murder, and deception in the world, and busy getting Christians to join the ranks in picking worldly sides and buy into it from a worldly perspective, while we completely ignore his handiwork from the shadows.

He’s very busy there–in the shadows, recruiting the same souls for destruction that we should be turning to the Messiah. Recruiting us to rally for a candidate or a cause rather than look with compassion on the lost. Recruiting us to redefine “the lost” and to use our own judgment for determining who’s worthy of compassion and forgiveness. Recruiting us to look at skin or uniform color rather than the soul inside. Distracting our attention away from who and what we really wrestle against.

The enemy has convinced many of us to ignore that in our anger we should not sin, that the very sins we condemn others for we ourselves commit or have committed, that those sinning against us are in need of the same grace and repentance we have been given, that we are to love our neighbors and enemies, bless those who curse us, pray for those who persecute and spitefully use us, and not resist an evil person.

The enemy is busy getting us to live like desperate citizens of a lost world rather than confident children of the Almighty God. Children who have the wisdom that is from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

He’s busy getting us so angry that we become unforgiving, and in becoming unforgiving we forget how our own sins ripped through Christ’s flesh.

He is busy convincing us that God is silent. And that if God is silent we should be shouting. At the world. Not crying out to our Father. Together. United.

The enemy is very busy with today’s Christians. He is busy keeping us subjected to the influence of media and away from the instruction of God’s throne. He is busy trying to make us look and feel hostile, sarcastic, furious, forgotten, forsaken, indifferent, uncaring, hard-hearted, and hopeless. He is busy trying to make us look and act like him.

Resist him.

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12

 

Who Are You?

01 Wednesday Jul 2015

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Mirror in desert

“Search me, O God and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Psalm 139:23-24

I’ve had recent cause to suffer a great amount of indignation over a situation involving a loved one.

Though I’ll spare the details, I’ll share what I learned from the experience.

I think I know myself pretty well. When conflict arises I tend to avoid confrontation, pray about most things and ignore others. If particularly agitated I may vent, but otherwise I try to take the high road.

Not so in this case–in heart anyway. By the grace of God I kept my mouth shut, because there were a million things I wanted to say, a billion ways I wanted to react, few of them godly. I was furious–an emotion foreign enough to me that I smiled when I felt it.

I know. Crazy-lady scary.

The loved one is dear to me, but not someone I absolutely have to keep in my life. So great was the affront and pain it caused, I considered walking away completely.

Then I noticed my husband. He bore the offense with grace. Though it crushed his left cheek, he gave his right to be struck. He took it with dignity, and loved all the more.

When I married him I believed him a peacemaker. He lived up to that belief. The same situation showed me, however, things in my heart I didn’t know were there, and other things lacking that I thought were full.

And though I don’t like this trial–loathe it actually–I see its purpose, or at least the good that can come from it.

Some of us go through life thinking we’re Davids, men and women after God’s own heart. Then tragedy strikes and we learn our name is really Solomon. We started strong but don’t finish well.

Others think we have the faith of Sarah, who believed God’s word that she would conceive despite her old age. Yet offense appears and we find we have her vindictiveness instead.

And then there are the Sampsons who walk in God’s strength with boldness, but temptation comes and cuts them down where they stand.

I was vindictive Sarah that day, and many days afterwards. I wanted this person to suffer. I knew how to strike back, and I craved to do it. But in the end I relented.

Because, like Joseph, I fear the Lord.

God, in His goodness, is constantly shaping us, revealing the character of our hearts, giving us free will to do something about it.

Despite our temporary failures, we can still be Davids, Joshuas, Josephs, Hannahs, Ruths, Abigails.

We just have to choose to be.

Your turn: Who are you?

Mercy Despised

15 Friday Aug 2014

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chains

Not too long ago I had a wrestling match with my youngest daughter, something we do quite often. This particular day I had to cut our bout short.

I trapped her legs between mine, clamped her arms to her sides and her back to my chest in a one-armed hug, and applied enough pressure so that she could accomplish little more than a wiggle.

She laughed.

“You want me to let go?” I stuck my nose in her neck to tickle-torture an affirmative out of her. After squirming just to double-check my grip, she agreed. “Okay, okay. Let me go.”

“Say ‘mercy.'”

She stiffened. Struggled a little more. Shook her head.

“You want me to let go don’t you?” Nod. “Then say ‘mercy.'” Vigorous head shaking. Then the real battle began. She flexed and pushed and strained and twisted. Breath held. Shoulders stiff. Feet jerking in short kicks.

I held on, amazed by her obstinacy. Between laughing and having to reestablish my hold (she’s a strong one), I’d repeat, “Say ‘mercy.'” And she’d respond with a firm, “No.” Her giggling petered out as she got frustrated.

She wanted me to let go. That had already been established. And she was more than willing to take my offer of mercy if it were unconditional. But a formal surrender? Too proud for that. So proud, in fact, she was willing to get deeper into bondage by struggling, rather than simply say the word “mercy” and receive freedom.

Astounding.

Of course I let her go once her “ha, ha, ha” weakened to “he, he, he” and then became “wa, wa, wa.” She’s four. Smack a kiss on that stubborn cheek and set her free.

It didn’t escape me, however, that the response to Christ by many is sadly no different from that of a pre-schooler. We despise the idea of surrender. And in doing so, despise mercy as well.

There’s bondage aplenty: spiritual, physical, financial, sexual, and too many more to name. If it exists, we splash in it, swim in it, or plunge right in to drown in it.

And if mercy is our unconditional right, if we can live like we want and spend our days how we wish, and Christ’s blood is still for the taking without us ever doing the asking, then by all means shower some mercy on us.

But ask? Surrender? Lay down our pride and open our mouths and admit, “I need You. I can’t do this on my own. I confess that You died for me. I confess You as the only way to forgiveness, the only One who can grant me eternal life, the only One who can save me.”

We’d rather stay where we are–no, descend further into the depths–in our struggle to refuse Him.

It’s a grievous irony, this fight to stay in bondage at the expense of victory which comes through surrender. This wanting to live forever but not wanting the Way, the Truth and the Life. This desire to do it all on our own.

When. We. Simply. Cannot.

The mercy of God in Christ is life. He won’t force it on us, but He is ever offering it to us. Let us not despise it.

“For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.” ~Psalm 86:5

 

 

Week 5 Book 5: A Review of Take a Chance on Me by Susan May Warren

01 Saturday Jun 2013

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take a chance

Ivy Madison moved to Deep Haven, Minnesota with a simple wish list: make a difference as the assistant county attorney, find her place in a small town community, and maybe–just maybe–land a man.

But Ivy gets more than she bargained for when, on impulse, she bids during the VFW auction and lands single father Darek Christiansen as her date. Not only is this handsome bachelor baggage-laden, his past and Ivy’s work are more connected than either of them know.

As they seek to build on their fragile beginnings of a relationship, they and their friends have to learn how to face the past, forgive and accept forgiveness, and surrender to God before they can truly experience second chances.

Susan May Warren’s Take a Chance on Me is a beautiful tale of new beginnings. The characters wrestle with themselves, their pasts, and their misconceptions about God’s love. Warren tackles such issues as anger with God over injustice, and feeling unloved or forgotten by God because of past hurts. And she uses everyday emotions combined with humor to bring the story to life.

I enjoyed the conflict in this novel and how the characters’ lives intertwined in complex but not overly predictable ways. I also liked how the tension grew as the story progressed.

But while Warren uses beautiful language to establish setting and paint the picture of Deep Haven in the reader’s mind, it was done so often that sometimes it blurred character voice. For example, while in a male point of view the lake was described thus: “The afternoon sun turned the water to a rich sapphire, a few boaters spraying diamonds into the sky.” Men, at least the men I know, don’t think in such flowery terms. Descriptions were so detailed that most of the characters were shown down to the earrings and shoes accessorizing their outfits.

Another weakness of the story was that it was dominated by narrative in the form of inner reflection and backstory, which made it somewhat of a slow read for me. The morals, lessons learned, and character journeys, however, were solidly founded. I gave it three out of five stars.

This book will be included in the book giveaway at the end of the Seven Books in Seven Weeks series.

Click here for the list of the remaining books: Seven Books in Seven Weeks: The List .

Valentine Epic Fails

15 Friday Feb 2013

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Valentineanger

For many, yesterday was a day of romantic bliss – a pause in the hectic day-to-dayness of life when they were able to wallow in the attention, affection, and generosity of their loved one.

And for others…um, not quite.

I had a long conversation with a friend last night who, though she would love for me to say just who he is and subject him to the wrath of this passionate cyber community, I will leave unnamed.

Her hurt feelings over the gift she received was only slightly surpassed by her anger over it. And though I knew she had a right to be upset, I couldn’t help laughing about the infamous V-day failure her man had succumbed to. Because, believe it or not, many a good man has been “that guy” at one time or another.

And don’t worry, I let her know that I was not laughing at her, but laughing with her, with all the proper indignation the situation called for.

As we swapped stories of past gifting bloopers, even our own, I decided to find out what stories you girls (and guys) might have about a Valentine’s Day gift that was an epic fail.

This is not to incite trouble or re-ignite old anger, but instead we want to get a good laugh out of it, recognize that it happens, forgive and move on (Forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you, Ephesians 4:32).

In keeping with the “It’s the thought that counts” theme, post your gift, then the correlating thought that goes with it. I’ll use my friend’s gift as an example.

Gift: Fitness Magazine

Thought: I thought you should lay off the chocolate and do a couple crunches.

Oh my, I’m in stitches all over again :-).

With that in mind, what’s your Valentine Epic Fail story?