forgiveness

Tracey

Carol Purves Carol's Blog

I have the privilege of visiting a neighbour who is house-bound and often bed-bound. When I visited her yesterday she was in bed with little to distract her from her feelings of weakness. Because she she did not have enough to distract her mind, her thoughts were going back to the past. There was a time when she had been treated very badly by someone and she was having a job to forgive.

Fortunately I didn’t know the person concerned, so I didn’t have a bias. She had been told that if she didn’t forgive that person, she wouldn’t go to heaven. I could have wept when she said this. Because i have been in a position of having had to forgive, I could understand her feelings of despair. I explained that although i had forgiven, I still had to go back on occasions and increase my forgiveness.

I explained that where possible she needed to forgive for her own sake. Unforgiveness would impact on her. In this respect. God is loving but for her own sake she needed to try to increase her forgiveness. God knows how fallible and weak we are, He knows our failings. It is for our own good that He encourages us to forgive. But it is not for another person to put their own rules on who should go to heaven.

‘Father, Forgive Them.’

Carol Purves Carol's Blog ,

The crucifixion and later the resurrection of Jesus are at the very centre of the Christian faith and during this period of Lent are subjects which are very much on our hearts. Such a horrific form of death could have led to Jesus crying out for vengeance on His enemies. Instead He prayed for forgiveness for them. We read in Matthew 26:53 that He had at His command ‘more than twelve legions of angels.’ That’s a large number and He had in His power the whole universe yet His prayer was for forgiveness.

Jesus didn’t just preach ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,’ He lived it and died it. As Peter later said ‘When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but He trusted in Him who judges justly.’ 1 Peter 2:23. Forgiveness makes no sense unless it is preached against the dark background of human sin. We all need to be forgiven and there is forgiveness for all who put their faith in the crucified Saviour.

I’m Sorry

Carol Purves Carol's Blog ,

It seems that it is increasingly difficult for people in high places to say that they’re sorry. They manage to blame everyone except themselves, they seldom think they are in the wrong. An admission of sorrow seems to be an admission of guilt. It seems they can never appear to be guilty.

How different it is for Christians. The Bible says, ‘All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.’ Romans 3:23. We know that in the sight of God we are sinners, our sins and shortcomings are only too evident to us. The good news is that we don’t need to be bowed down with the guilt. The blood of Jesus gives us forgiveness and redemption.