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Tag: forgiveness

  • Slightly Obsessed #114: The Color of Forgiveness

    Slightly Obsessed #114: The Color of Forgiveness

     

    This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

    – Matthew 26:28 (NIV)

     

    The plan was simple and evil.

    When a racist opened fire on members of a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, he hoped to ignite a race war. Playing off the heightened race tensions since recent shootings in places like Ferguson, Missouri, he had a simple, evil plan.

    Find some black people and kill them.

    His first target was the College of Charleston. But the security was too tight, so he chose a place that would be easy because everyone was welcome there.

    He walked into a church.

    He didn’t foresee one crucial thing. This was not a town ready to buy into his war. This church took their Savior seriously, shedding their own blood in His name, forgiving the one who had brutalized them. At the killer’s arraignment, family members still reeling from the loss looked into the face of hate and forgave him, turning a senseless act into a holy sacrifice.

    The area has largely followed suit, determined to reject the race war and use the tragedy to close ranks and reaffirm their love for each other. This love, which seeks the highest good of others, is embodied in our every act toward those around us.

    Forgiveness is the purest expression of Christ’s love.

    The depth of Christ’s love to the unworthy, the power of His blood to cleanse the most horrific sins, the beauty rising from the ashes of shattered lives –none of this has been more evident than in the determination of one church to follow Christ, wherever the road leads.

    What color is forgiveness?

    Beautiful.

     

    Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

    – Ephesians 4:32

  • Slightly Obsessed #107: The Mark of a Believer

    Slightly Obsessed #107: The Mark of a Believer

     

    If someone says ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one whom does not love his brother who he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

    – 1 John 4:20

     

    He sat perched on the examination table, his gangly legs hanging over the side.

    The crisp white paper crackled under him as he shifted his weight. He just wanted out of there.

    The doctor checked his eyes, his ears, and had him say “Ahhhh.” Then he glanced down at his arm. A nasty red semi-circle emblazoned his forearm.

    “How did that happen?” the doctor asked nonchalantly. But I noticed that he asked my son and not me. An irrational fear of being accused of child abuse shot through me, even though I had nothing to do with the mark.

    “My brother bit me,” came the honest reply.

    The doctor was satisfied. I was embarrassed my kids could be so brutal to each other. But my battling boys were hardly the first to pass through the doctor’s door. Brotherly violence has a long history. Ever since Cain took down his brother Abel, families have been at each other’s throats.

    It’s hard to put up with each other because we know us too well.

    It’s easy to be kind to a stranger. We don’t have to live with him. We don’t care that he doesn’t pick up his clothes off the floor or doesn’t like to share his candy.

    Jesus commanded us to love everyone. He knew, though, the true test of our commitment to Him. He understood our devotion to other members of His Body would be the litmus test of our love. It alone gives integrity to our claim of discipleship.

    He did not say, “All men will know you are My disciples, if you have love for the poor and needy.”

    He did not say, “All men will know you are My disciples, if you have love for the unsaved.”

    He did not say, “All men will know you are My disciples, if you have love for the Bible.”

    All these things do mark the man and woman of God. It is, however, our true devotion to other believers that speaks to the world. When we quit the catcalls and the accusations and the infighting, then all men will see we have a Father worth knowing.

    How kind are you to your brothers and sisters in the faith?

     

    By this all men will know you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

    – John 13:35

  • Slightly Obsessed #049: You Are not Forsaken

    Slightly Obsessed #049: You Are not Forsaken

     

    I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.

    – Hebrews 13:5

    Failure is a human condition.

    One month ago she climbed a silo at an abandoned concrete plant and jumped to her death. Before that day, twelve-year-old Rebecca Sedwick endured nearly a year of bullying by as many as fifteen girls in attacks that began at school and continued online after Sedwick’s parents removed her.   

    There had been warning signs. Last December, she was hospitalized after slitting her wrists. People knew she was sad. Her death and others like it have led to a rush of community soul-searching. Her mother wrote a birthday message on what would have been Sedwick’s thirteenth birthday, saying, “I feel like I failed….” *

    Don’t we all? Every day and in many ways? We’re just flesh and blood; clay houses for the soul. We regularly fail ourselves; our God; each other. 

    Because we live with failure every day, it’s hard to comprehend a Father who never fails. Because we are guilty of desertion under fire, we can’t fathom a God who has promised to fight for us. Because we don’t understand His ways, we struggle to trust Him in the desperate hours when He seems to have abandoned us.

    Have you prayed to God fervently, only to be met with silence?

    Do you live with unremitting pain? Does it feel like nothing ever changes for the better?

    Do you feel utterly alone in your crisis?

    Jesus knew what it felt like to be forsaken.

    At His execution there was no place for Him in either heaven or earth. On the cross He hung utterly alone, the object of the full wrath of God. It was not because His Father wanted to hurt Him, but because Father and Son and Spirit knew it was the only way to spare you.

    Bloodied, bruised, and dying, covered with the filth of a billion sins, Jesus cried out:

    My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?

    That is why you can never be forsaken by God. That possibility was taken away when Christ accepted God’s wrath upon His own head, borne out of His great love for you. 

    Because we live in a fallen world awaiting the final redemption, we still have sorrow. Life will be filled with trials as we complete our pilgrimage to the holy city awaiting us in heaven. God has promised that for those who accept the sacrifice of Christ, hardship works for our good, teaching us perseverance and compassion for others.

    This should inspire us to reach out to those we see suffering in silence around us. No person should live without knowing the comfort of the Holy Spirit. It is up to us, His hands and feet and heart, to reach out with His love to those like Rebecca who are hurting today.

    You are not forsaken. God has written this in His blood. Accept this, trust in His faithfulness, and share His comfort with others as you await the day you fully understand why.

    *http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/20/justice/rebecca-sedwick-bullying-death/index.html

     

  • Slightly Obsessed #018: Kaleidoscope

    Slightly Obsessed #018: Kaleidoscope

     

    So, as those who have been chosen of God,

    holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility,

    gentleness and patience;

    bearing with one another, and forgiving each other,

    whoever has a complaint against anyone;

    just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.

    – Colossians 4:13

    Racheal is a fair-skinned beauty with strawberry blonde hair.

    Her husband Leo is strong, gentle, and Native American. Together they have been blessed with a many-hued quiver of children.

    This week they were shopping at a local store in a larger town and passed by a couple of Caucasian teen-aged boys. The boys smiled sweetly at Racheal, but when her husband passed them, one of the boys raised his hand to his mouth in a mocking war whoop imitation of a cartoon Indian.

    Racheal didn’t see what happened. Leo was shocked by the taunt but didn’t acknowledge it. As a policeman, he deals with people making bad choices every day. As a Christian, he understands that racism is a heart condition. On the way out to their car, he told Racheal what happened.

    Although they were shaken at the humiliation, Leo and Racheal knew that rather than react in anger, they needed to use this moment to teach their children the importance of breaking the cycle of hate. Out in the car, they explained to the children that all white people aren’t like that. They told the children that it’s important not to judge an entire race by the actions of a few. They talked to them about celebrating the differences in people, in respecting the kaleidoscope of colors and cultures God has used in fashioning us.

    What wisdom! As much as what the children heard from Leo and Racheal, they will be shaped by watching their parents respond with grace to an ugly situation. They will not soon forget the living lesson of forgiveness.

    In this life, we will invariably find ourselves in situations in which we are humiliated by the unthinking actions of others.

    Sometimes the offense is merely an aggravation. Other times, it cuts to the core of who we are and shatters us into little shards of pain.

    Forgiveness is the beautiful that happens when Christ gathers us up and shines His light through the bits of brokenness we have become, moving and turning us as we are shaped by His hand:

    A living kaleidoscope.