It seems to me like a lot of people struggle with forgiveness, even followers of Jesus.  We tend to hold grudges and resentment quite easily.  Peter wanted to see what Jesus had to say about this, and asked Jesus if people should hold to the Jewish tradition of forgiving people up to seven times.  But Jesus radically changed Peter’s perspective.

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”  Matthew 18:21-22

In other words, forgive your brother countless times.  Unfortunately though, a lot of the things we don’t forgive are trivial, stupid things.  Especially as Americans, we get very caught up in ourselves.  I think that the lesson from a young man in Uganda that I read on the AFLC’s world missions blog should really teach us so much about forgiveness.  Someone beat him so badly that he ended up losing the use of one of his eyes, and here is part of what he says about the situation:

I decided to HATE Paulo for what he had done to my life. Little did I know that holding a grudge against a fellow man is like soaking one’s faith in Satan’s open teeth. The more I hated Paulo, the looser I became in Christ. Instead of emulating Jesus Christ in my life I decided to engage in unconstructive nonsense as far as holiness is concerned. Hatred contaminated all my ways of sober thinking and for sure it affected my relationship with God. Remember, your heart is the engine to your whole body and a damage to your heart is also felt by your soul.

Accept the reality and lessen the burden on your heart, for I gained nothing in hating Paulo….I had poisoned my life for so long and now it was time to let Jesus flourish in my life. Jesus died for man to have peace, but I had no peace in my mind. Hatred is like cancer in our hearts which need to be removed before it attacks the blood vessel. We ought to garment our lives with the love of Jesus Christ, but not with crimes. Holding a grudge is compared to harassing one’s life. Sin halts your heart and saps your life…At last I chose to forgive Paulo and forget whatsoever he did to me. I am now living a free Christian life. My soul is no longer troubled.

The coolest thing about this story is that he doesn’t stop there.  He followed a pastor’s advice and went to Paulo to ask forgiveness for having a grudge against him, even though Paulo had severely hurt him.  Check out what happened:

I went to Paulo’s home to ask him to forgive me for hating him intensely for the past ten years. When I apologized, Paulo could hardly believe his ears, knowing the great pain he had caused me. “No, I’m the one who should apologize to you,” he said. We talked for the next two hours and at last we parted as friends in Christ.

If this willing heart in Uganda can forgive someone for beating him to the point of losing his eyesight, I think we as followers of Jesus can forgive the simple things we hold grudges against.  Perry Noble also gave great teaching on the subject, which I highly recommend you watch.

It’s Valentine’s Day and we all know what that means.  A lot of people will be sappily celebrating superficial love, a lot of peope will be miserably lamenting their lack of love, and, a lot of people will be honoring each other with the love that the Bible talks about.

Don’t get me wrong, I actually really enjoy Valentine’s Day, but I think it encourages society to view love as something temporary or something that can be bought, and that if you don’t have someone “loving” you on this day, your life is pitiful.  I was glad to see an article on MSN that encouraged people to celebrate their singleness and just plain enjoy the day and realize that it’s really overrated, but I was also sad to see that when I searched for blogs on Valentine’s day, so many people were miserable that they wouldn’t be getting the gifts that everybody else was getting.

So, MSN says that Valentine’s Day love is overrated.  Could it be perhaps that the world’s view of love in general is overrated?  I think so.  Fairy tales end “happily ever after,” but that is not the case in many of real-life’s stories.  People blog that if they had a date or someone to buy them something on this day, they’d feel loved and happy, yet when the flowers wilt and the day goes away, that happiness could very well turn into a nightmare.

So what is real love?  Jesus says in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this: that he lay down his life for his friends.”  This same man went on to do just that; lay down His life for all of us so that we could be free.  Jesus also calls us to daily “deny yourself, take up your cross and follow” Him.  And Paul tells us as husbands to “love our wives as Christ loved the church, and gave up Himself for her.”

So how do we apply those things to offer ourselves to God and to others with true, Biblical love?

• Die to ourselves.  Our desires are not to come first.  We die to our pride and deny our desires so that we can follow Jesus first of all.  Then we put aside our pride and desires, sacrificing what we want in order to show true love to our spouses, family and friends.
• Be willing to lay down our lives.  Are we willing to give every area of our life to Jesus?  Every area? Are we willing to die for someone we say we love?  If you aren’t willing to die for your wife, husbands, you do not have Biblical love as Paul teaches.  If you aren’t willing to lay down everything in your life for Jesus, do you really love Him, or do you just believe in Him?
• Be a living sacrifice.  Every day, realize what is holding you back from loving Jesus and your spouse more, and take it to the Cross and leave it there.

What are some great ways you’ve shown biblical love to your spouse on Valentine’s Day (or any other day, for that matter)?

(photo by Karen Long)

Christmas is the absolute best time to talk about humility.

God, the Creator of the entire universe; the one who hung the stars; the one who created man and woman, came up with a plan to redeem that man and woman who He had created, along with the rest of us.

His plan could have just been to snap His fingers and make everything right again.  His plan could have been to say, “I gave you all a first chance, but since you failed, too bad.”

Amazingly, God’s plan was so radically different than anything we could have ever come up with.  God, Creator of the universe, decided to leave His majesty and come to us, to save us!

Not only did He come to us, He came as a humble baby, and that humility continued throughout His whole life! Why then, do we sit in our pretty churches, in all our majesty, and hope that people will come to us?  Why then, do we think we’re better than everyone else?  Check it out…

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!” Philippians 2:5-8

Jesus, God Himself, left His home to come to us as a humble servant.  We are called, just as He did, to leave our comfort and go to the people who truly need Jesus.

Let’s worship Him by bringing Him to the world, not waiting for them to come!

How are you getting into your community to serve people and show them the love of Jesus?