Saturday, September 26, 2009

Mal Hasty

Ken Blumberg wrote:
Just found this article on facebook while looking for his son Tedd.  Proudly I officiated football with Mal for 25 years and worked with him at Pier for 20.  There is not a more  Christian person that I have ever know.   Hope you enjoy.
 
 

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

God Issues: The Revenge Industry


InformedFaith.com
God Issues: Today's news in spiritual perspective
 

By Dr. James C. Denison
President, The Center for Informed Faith, Dallas, Texas

September 22, 2009

Topic: how to forgive

 

The Revenge Industry


The Wall Street Journal once carried a front-page article describing the so-called "Revenge Industry."  This is a new kind of business which caters to those who have been wronged and are unwilling to forgive.

"Revenge Unlimited" is one example-through its website it sells dead flowers, black roses, boxes of fish heads, melted chocolates, and stones with curses on them.  Drop Dead Florist offers "revenge with a touch of class."  The Voodoo Boutique will sell you a variety of magic-spell kits and voodoo dolls for the person you hate.

Only in America, you say?  No, the Revenge Industry is as old as Cain, the brother of Abel, and as appealing to us as it was to him.

Yesterday we learned that biblical forgiveness is pardon, choosing not to punish.  Now let's consider what forgiveness is not.  Biblical forgiveness is not forgetting the pain.  You do not have the human ability to do this.  God can "remember our sins no more" (Jeremiah 31:34), but we cannot.

Biblical forgiveness is not excusing the person, pretending the pain did not happen.  Ignoring the conflict will not make it go away.  You can leave a splinter in your thumb, learning not to use the appendage; you can wear gloves to hide the wound; you can take pain-killers when it throbs.  But the splinter is still there, and the injury and infection it causes will only get worse as time goes on.

Biblical forgiveness is not toleration.  It is not merely accepting that this is the way your enemy is.  Then nothing is solved or resolved.

Biblical forgiveness is pardon, choosing not to punish even though you could.  When the governor pardons a criminal, he or she does not forget the crime, or excuse the criminal, or ignore the situation, or tolerate the problem.  The governor chooses not to punish the criminal, even though such an action would be warranted by the law.  The criminal deserves what the governor chooses not to do.

You may be thinking that you cannot do this-the pain is too great, the hurt too deep, their spirit too unrepentant.  Such pardon may be beyond you, but it's not beyond the God in you.

Think of all Jacob did to his brother Esau, stealing his birthright and family position.  But there came a time, years later, when "Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him.  And they wept" (Genesis 33.4).

Think of all Joseph's brothers did to him-selling him into slavery, stealing years from his life, separating him from his father and family for multiplied years of imprisonment and suffering.  But at the end of it all, Genesis 45:15 says "And [Joseph] kissed all his brothers and wept over them."

Stephen was the first Christian martyr.  As the religious authorities were stoning him to death, "Stephen prayed, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.'  Then he fell on his knees and cried out, 'Lord do not hold this sin against them.'  When he had said this, he fell asleep" (Acts 7:59-60).

If they could pardon, so can we, with God's help.  Let's learn how, tomorrow.


Copyright © 2009, Center for Informed Faith. All rights reserved.

Read previous essays

Monday, September 21, 2009