Patience, Mercy, Forgiveness.5

"Make peace, even with you enemies. Constant striving will lead only to greater trouble: lawsuits, courtrooms, even prison, with no way of undoing the penalty except by completing your sentence."

--Jesus

"...a man had better make up his mind to be righteous, to be fair, to do what he can to pay what he owes, in any and all the relations of life—all the matters, in a word, wherein one man may demand of another, or complain that he has not received fair play. Arrange your matters with those who have anything against you, while you are yet together and things have not gone too far to be arranged; you will have to do it, and that under less easy circumstances than now. Putting off is of no use. You must. The thing has to be done; there are means of compelling you."

In all the conflicts of life they come to this: they are about relations with another human being.

Whether its teaching your own children to get along with their siblings or negotiating conflicts on the bus, classroom, workplace, playing field, or courtroom, life is a perpetual challenge to not only keep peace but to grow in unity, devotion and love for one another. I remember a young man on my bus, for example, attention starved that he appeared to be, couldn't grasp that his bullying was destructive to himself and other students. The message we sent to him got incrementally stronger: assigned seat, assigned seat directly behind the driver, suspension from riding, total loss of riding privileges.

Most of us avoid conflict, nay, dread conflict. Mark Twain observed: "The average man's a coward." We say we forgive, but no more, to the hostilities of even our closest friends in their worst moments. Our forgiveness usually extends no further than walking a large circular path around their space until the dust settles at a later time, rather than seizing the opportunity to inch our way closer to another's heart.

To the honest man,

To the man who would gladly be honest,

      Jesus' word is right, gracious, necessarily vital.

To the untrue,

      it is a terrible threat;

To him who is of the truth,

     it is sweet as most loving promise.

He who is of God's mind in things, rejoices to hear the word of the changeless Truth; the voice of the Right fills the heavens and the earth, and makes his soul glad; it is his salvation.

If God were not unyielding in His justice, there would be no anchor for the soul of the feeblest lover of right: 'thou art true, O Lord: one day I also shall be true!'

'Thou shalt render the right, cost you what it may,'
to those whose life is a falsehood it is a dread sound in their ears; but to those who love righteousness more than life, what but the last farthing would they not pay?

It is a joy profound as peace to know that God is determined upon such payment, is determined to have his children clean, clear, pure as very snow; is determined that not only shall they with his help make up for whatever wrong they have done, but at length be incapable, by eternal choice of good, under any temptation, of doing the thing that is not divine, the thing God would not do."

(quotes from George MacDonald, The Last Farthing, Unspoken Sermons II)

Patience, Mercy, Forgiveness.4

"Do not limit your attitude of forgiveness.
Are you willing to forgive seven times?
Seventy times seven times is more appropriate." 

 --Jesus

What if:

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• their indifference costs you sorrow 
• their slander costs you friends 
• their thievery costs you setbacks 
• their cruelty costs you fear 
• their selfishness costs you want 
• their abuse costs you wounded-ness 
• their hypocrisy costs you confusion 
• their deception costs you enlightenment 
• their sloppiness costs you injury 
• their broken promise costs you trust 
• their arrogance costs you humiliation 
• their distraction costs you a life 
• their disloyalty costs you defeat 
• their ignorance costs you understanding 
• their lying costs you justice 
• their coveting costs you property 
• their beatings costs you scars 
• their impurity costs you innocence 
• their malice costs you peace 
• their adultery costs you intimacy 
• their thoughtlessness costs you grief 
• their nonforgiving-ness costs you friendship 

...will you forgive?

Forgiveness is the intersection between Man's Will and God's Power to help, heal and save!

Is this not the Divine Idea of Forgiveness:

“He has wronged me grievously.It is a dreadful thing to me, and more dreadful still to him, that he should have done it.

He has hurt me, but he has nearly killed himself. He shall have no more injury from it that I can save him.

I cannot feel the same towards him yet; but I will try to make him acknowledge the wrong he has done me, and so put it away from him. Then, perhaps, I shall be able to feel towards him as I used to feel.

For this end I will show him all the kindness I can, not forcing it upon him, but seizing every fit opportunity; not, I hope, from a wish to make myself great through bounty to him, but because I love him so much that I want to love him more in reconciling him to his true self.

I would destroy this evil deed that has come between us. I send it away. And I would have him destroy it from between us too, by abjuring it utterly.”

Think of forgiveness, then, like this:The perfecting of a work ever going on, namely the contact of God's heart and ours, ours and our offenders. In spite of the offense and toward its destruction, God's love is ever in front of his forgiveness. His love is perfect and being perfected in us, working out the forgiveness, because God loves where He cannot yet forgive, where no contact of hearts is possible because the intervening wrong has not yet begun to yield to His holy destructive fire!

But yield it will. Of that we may be sure!"

Until we should feel that the highest prize worth receiving is the heart of a repentant brother or sister, we have more to learn about His great heart! Let us press on to know Him!

(adapted from MacDonald, It Shall Not Be Forgiven, Unspoken Sermons I, emphasis added)

Patience, Mercy, Forgiveness.3

"Likewise, the time came for a certain king to appraise his financial records. During this process, one of his servants was brought before him, who owed a staggering amount, ten thousand gold pieces!

Since it was impossible that the servant ever repay such a debt, the king resorted to the law, which decreed that the debtor and his family be sold into slavery, and their house and possessions be disposed of in a public auction.

Sorrowfully, the servant fell to his knees before the king, and cried: 

"My Lord and King, I beg you to have patience with me, and I will repay you all that I owe."

So moved was the king with compassion, that he forgave the debt, and let his servant go free.

On his way home, this same servant encountered a friend who owed him a few pennies. Instead of showing mercy, however, he seized the man by the throat, shouting: 

"Thief! Pay me back the coins that you borrowed from me."

His friend fell at his feet, and pleaded:

1936 Parker Brothers

"Please be patient! I swear that I will repay you every last cent."

But the servant wouldn't listen, even to his friend’s begging and tears, and had the poor man dragged off to prison until he could repay the debt according to the law.

By chance, some of the king's servants witnessed this outrageous behavior, and reported it back to the king.
Immediately, the king sent for his servant, and said: 

"Wicked servant. I forgave you an immense debt simply out of mercy. Couldn't you have shown similar compassion to your own friend who owed you such an insignificant sum?"

Having said this, the king handed the servant over to his prison guards, and commanded them to lock him away until all his debts had been paid. 

So will my heavenly Father judge you, if you refuse to forgive your own brothers and sisters from the depths of your hearts." 

-- Jesus

Her (former) best friend's ugly,vengeful rumor pales in comparison to the painful bitterness she feels toward the woman who ripped a hole in her heart the day she ended the life of the neighbor boy in a senseless accident.

"On the very anniversary of losing my sister in a freak accident", she reminded me.

 "Can indifference ever be forgiveness?" I ask, because I care very much for her; she is, after all, one of my favorites and I detect that already the hardness and harshness of life is taking its toll on her.

"I don't know what that means," is her honest reply, to which she adds, "but I can never forgive that woman...never. Why should I?"

"Maybe because you don't want to live the rest of your life in anger and bitterness," I suggest as I open the school bus door to drop her off. She shrugs her shoulders, but promises to think about it...

We don't have to walk this world very long till we are confronted with the difficult decision to forgive. I would venture to say it is the single most important issue we struggle with as human beings because it is the tie that binds:

•  binding us to a life of bitterness or emotional indifference  
• or binding us to the hearts of the forgiven and Forgiver in ways we cannot comprehend or experience until we walk through that door.

"...there are two sins, not of individual deed, but of spiritual condition, which cannot be forgiven; that is, as it seems to me, which cannot be excused, passed by, made little of by the tenderness even of God, inasmuch as they will allow no forgiveness to come into the soul, they will permit no good influence to go on working alongside of them; they shut God out altogether. Therefore the man guilty of these can never receive into himself the holy renewing saving influences of God's forgiveness. God is outside of him in every sense, save that which springs from his creating relation to him, by which, thanks be to God, he yet keeps a hold of him, although against the will of the man who will not be forgiven.

The one of these sins is against man; the other against God.

The first is unforgivingness to our neighbor; the shutting of him out from our mercies, from our love—so from the universe, as far as we are a portion of it—the murdering therefore of our neighbor. It may be an infinitely less evil to murder a man than to refuse to forgive him. The former may be the act of a moment of passion: the latter is the heart's choice.

It is spiritual murder, the worst, to hate, to brood over the feeling that excludes, that, in our little world, kills the image, the idea of the hated. We listen to the voice of our own hurt pride or hurt affection to the injury of the evil-doer. In as far as we can, we quench the relations of life between us; we close up the passages of possible return.

This is to shut out God, the Life, the One. For how are we to receive the Forgiving Presence while we shut out our brother from our portion of the universal forgiveness, the final restoration, thus refusing to let God be All in all? If God appeared to us, how could he say, “I forgive you,” while we remained unforgiving to our neighbor? Suppose it possible that he should say so, his forgiveness would be no good to us while we were uncured of our unforgivingness. It would not touch us. It would not come near us. Nay, it would hurt us, for we should think ourselves safe and well, while the horror of disease was eating the heart out of us.

Tenfold the forgiveness lies in the words, “If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses.” Those words are kindness indeed. God holds the unforgiving man with his hand, but turns his face away from him. If, in his desire to see the face of his Father, he turns his own towards his brother, then the face of God turns round and seeks his, for then the man may look upon God and not die.

With our forgiveness to our neighbor, in flows the Consciousness of God's forgiveness to us; or even with the

1936 Parker Brothers

effort, we become capable of believing that God can forgive us. No man who will not forgive his neighbor, can believe that God is willing, yea, wanting to forgive him, can believe that the dove of God's peace is hovering over a chaotic heart, fain to alight, but finding no rest for the sole of its foot.

For God to say to such a man, “I cannot forgive you,” is love as well as necessity. If God said, “I forgive you,” to a man who hated his brother, and if (as is impossible) that voice of forgiveness should reach the man, what would it mean to him? How would the man interpret it? Would it not mean to him, “You may go on hating. I do not mind it. You have had great provocation, and are justified in your hate”? No doubt God takes what wrong there is, and what provocation there is, into the account; but the more provocation, the more excuse that can be urged for the hate, the more reason, if possible, that the hater should be delivered from the hell of his hate, that God's child should be made the loving child that he meant him to be.

The man would think, not that God loved the sinner, but that he forgave the sin, which God never does. Every sin meets with its due fate—inexorable expulsion from the paradise of God's Humanity. He loves the sinner so much that he cannot forgive him in any other way than by banishing from his bosom the demon that possesses him, by lifting him out of that mire of his iniquity.

God is forgiving us every day—sending from between him and us our sins and their fogs and darkness. Witness the shining of his sun and the falling of his rain, the filling of their hearts with food and gladness, that he loves them that love him not. When some sin that we have committed has clouded all our horizon, and hidden him from our eyes, he, forgiving us, ere we are, and that we may be, forgiven, sweeps away a path for this his forgiveness to reach our hearts, that it may by causing our repentance destroy the wrong, and make us able even to forgive ourselves. For some are too proud to forgive themselves, till the forgiveness of God has had its way with them, has drowned their pride in the tears of repentance, and made their heart come again like the heart of a little child.

But, looking upon forgiveness, then, 

as the perfecting of a work ever going on, 

as the contact of God's heart and ours, 

in spite and in destruction of the intervening wrong, 

we may say that God's love 

is ever in front of his forgiveness. 

God's love is the prime mover, ever seeking to perfect his forgiveness, which latter needs the human condition for its consummation. The love is perfect, working out the forgiveness. God loves where he cannot yet forgive—where forgiveness in the full sense is as yet simply impossible, because no contact of hearts is possible, because that which lies between has not even begun to yield to the besom (broom) of his holy destruction.

Some things, then, between the Father and his children, as between a father and his child, may comparatively, and in a sense, be made light of—I do not mean made light of in themselves: away they must go— inasmuch as, evils or sins though they be, they yet leave room for the dwelling of God's Spirit in the heart, forgiving and cleansing away the evil.

When a man's evil is thus fading out of him, and he is growing better and better, that is the forgiveness coming into him more and more. Perfect in God's will, it is having its perfect work in the mind of the man. When the man hath, with his whole nature, cast away his sin, there is no room for forgiveness any more, for God dwells in him, and he in God.

With the voice of Nathan, “Thou art the man,” the forgiveness of God laid hold of David, the heart of the king was humbled to the dust; and when he thus awoke from the moral lethargy that had fallen upon him, he found that he was still with God. 'When I awake,” he said, “I am still with thee.'"

(adapted from George MacDonald's Unspoken Sermon, It will Not Be Forgiven)

Patience, Mercy, Forgiveness.2

"A certain man was reviewing the accounts of two men who had borrowed money. One owed him five hundred gold pieces, while the other owed him fifty. Knowing that neither had any means of repaying him, he compassionately forgave both of their debts. Which of these two men do you suppose was the most grateful?"

--Jesus

Gold is the most stable asset the world has ever seen. In 1970 you could buy a nice men’s suit for 1 ounce of gold for $35.

Today, you can still buy a nice men’s suit for 1 ounce of gold, but $35 will only buy you a nice t-shirt.

The national median home price is currently $166,100 or 90.51 ounces of gold! A 1 oz. old bullion coin is about the size of a U.S. half dollar.

So at today's prices the one man's debt was $917,500.00; the other $91,750. 

 That's a lot of houses, suits and shirts...

Forgiveness is costly!

Patience, Mercy, Forgiveness.1

"When little is forgiven, little love is returned."

--Jesus

The stormy relationship between the mother and son had

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been brewing for longer than either could remember. The man who'd been both the cause of and buffer from violent, vengeful emotions between the two was lying underground. The dust had hardly settled on the gravesite when the breaking point came. "I wish you'd been the one who'd died," she sneered. Gathering every bit of restraint he could muster, the son pulled over, parked the car, opened the door and said, "I did," and walked away.

The man told me the story when sitting next to his fiance as we discussed their upcoming marriage. Can he be persuaded that his past will effect their future unless dealt with effectively? Can the fact that he already has one failed marriage help in the effort?

God requires it. Love and forgiveness make it possible.

Let's say he, for the sake of his new life, agrees to "forgive" his mother, he could take one of three approaches:

He could say: 

“I forgive, but I cannot forget. 

Let her never come in my sight again.”

To what does such a forgiveness reach? To the remission or sending away of the penalties which the wronged believes he can claim from the wrong-doer.

But there is no sending away of the wrong itself from between them.

Or, he could say: 

“She has done a very mean action, but she has the worst of it herself in that she is capable of doing something so evil. I despise her too much to even desire revenge. I will take no notice of it. I forgive her. I don't care.”

Here, again, there is no sending away of the wrong from between them— no remission of the sin.

A third option would be: 

“I suppose I must forgive her; 

for if I do not forgive her, 

God will not forgive me.”

Now he is a little nearer the truth, finding some ground of sympathy, but only that of common sin is recognized as between his offender and himself.

But here is a better way: 

“She has wronged me deeply. It is still a mighty painful thing to me, and more appalling still to her, that she should have done it. 

She has hurt me, but she has nearly killed herself. She shall have no more injury from it that I can save her. I cannot feel the same towards her yet; but I will try to make her acknowledge the wrong she has done me, and so put it away from her. 

Then, perhaps, I shall be able to feel towards her as I should feel. For this end I will show her all the kindness I can, not forcing it upon her, but seizing every fit opportunity; not, I hope, from a wish to make myself great through generosity to her, but because I love her enough and want to love her more in reconciling her to her true self. 

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I would destroy this evil deed that has come between us. I send it away. And I would have her destroy it from between us too, by completely renouncing it.”

Which comes nearest to God's idea of forgiveness?

Forgiveness can never be indifference. Forgiveness is love towards the unlovely in the hope of restoring loveliness!

(Much of the content of this note adapted from George MacDonald's "It Shall Not Be Forgiven", Unspoken Sermon I. The story of the man and his mom is true.)

Faith That Moves Mountains.7

"whatever you allocate on earth will be that which is in accordance to heaven's plan."--Jesus

The current USA president, Barack Hussein Obama, won election by promising a plan for the "fundamental transformation of America."  Although half the population was skeptical of what that could mean, he won.  He has "allocated" the resources of several generations of Americans in accordance with his plan.  In fairness to Mr. Obama, it is nothis plan per se, but the culmination of decades of a "progressive" worldview that has brought the USA to the precipice of ignominy [def:  disgrace;  dishonor;  public contempt;  shameful or dishonorable quality or conduct].  If we need proof of that, consider that the USA's credit rating has been downgraded for the first time in our history!  Tens of millions of Americans, dubious at best of "the plan" are now incensed as the relentless effort of unprincipled men begins to bear the fruit of destruction as the greatest governing good grinds to a halt.

There is a tremendous lesson in faith here, and we must not miss it.

Daily we put our faith in something for good and positive outcomes.  You can put your faith in theories, principles, circumstances, doctrines, organizations, parties, people, policies, power, intellect, deception, darkness, light, truth, love, technology, traditions, science, industry, unions or, as MacDonald puts it, "the things only between your teeth."  Faith is only as good as the weight of action you are willing to put behind it.  So even bad ideas, theories, or systems, can have a measure of "success" if enough people believe in it, put the weight of their convictions behind it and allocate the resources necessary to reach their goals.

The Founders of our Constitional (i.e., rule of law) form of Government, for example, understood this by "pledging to each other their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor" to the task of building a country dedicated to liberty!  That is one reason why socialism is in reality a bothersome gnat in the history of good & true men.  Once people understand how cowardly it is to pledge & allocate other people's lives, fortunes and sacred honor the shine wears off the luster of political populism--a populism based on extravagant promises from the hand of shrewd politicians to undisciplined people.

Which political notion best reflects "heaven's plan"?  

• Leaders who will use others to promote their agenda (and self-interests) regardless of the misery and heartache it produces in body and spirit; 
• or those who will lay down their own lives to promote the blessings of their neighbors?

Which political notion can we count on for heaven's power and resources to succeed?

The answer to that question, of course, is which one best reflects the life of Jesus himself!

Faith That Moves Mountains.6

"As you live your life invigorated by the breath of God, the conflicts of this earth will be overcome by heaven's power."--Jesus

The next time you are sitting among a crowd of people try this: discreetly listen in on conversations around you.  Not to feed your need for gossip, mind you, but to get a sense of how many others, just like you and me, struggle with "DIS": dis-comfort, dis-ease, dis-ability, dis-illusionment, dis-approval, dis-harmony, dis-content, dis-order, dis-like.

Then listen to the solutions suggested for dealing with the things antagonistic to what would or should be a relatively satisfying existence:

  Moving away, getting a lawyer, finding a better doctor, working a second job, getting counseling, getting even, prayer, losing a few pounds, climbing the social/career ladder, getting a degree, having an operation, go shopping, buying gold, bankruptcy, divorce...

Much of our human energy and effort is output just to try to be rid of "DIS", don't you agree?  But whether we move away, get a divorce, change the shape of our nose, get a raise, lose ten pounds, find new friends, join twitter, or "court endless change" we still discover that we bring the trouble with us, still have poverty in our souls, still find happiness elusive and continue to mask the real cause of the trouble we struggle with.

As absurd as it may seem to those who have not yet figured out this fundamental fact, the true cause of every man's "DIS" is evil.  Moral evil, first of all, the inability to consistently do the right thing at the right time.  Evil in himself, his own sin, his own wrongness, his own un-rightness.  If that weren't enough, he must also deal with the evil in the ones he loves, or those at least he must put up with at work, play or neighborhood.

Watching a grandkid's show the other day I took note of a familiar chord that resonates in our culture, especially among the young.  When asked "what's been happening?" the teenaged actor explained: "Oh, you know, just out saving the world, ..."  We've subtley bought into the notion that if we can change the world our own problems will disappear!  President Obama, a self-proclaimed community organizer, has stated on several occasions his belief in "collective salvation"-the notion that groups not individuals must be "saved"- contributing to the illusion that our problems exist outside ourselves.  However well intentioned philantropists, government programs, or community organizations are the problem of evil in the world begins (and for the most part, ends) with me.  No problems can be cured in a family, community, race or nation except by being cured in the individual.

"The one cure for any organism is to be set right.  To have all its parts brought into harmony with each other...Rightness alone is cure. The return of the organism to its true self, is its only possible ease. To free a man from suffering, he must be set right, put in health; and the health at the root of man's being, his rightness, is to be free from wrongness, that is, from sin.A man is right when there is no wrong in him. The wrong, the evil is in him; he must be set free from it. I do not mean set free from the sins he has done: that will follow; I mean the sins he is doing, or is capable of doing; the sins in his being which spoil his nature-the wrongness in him-the evil he consents to; the sin he is, which makes him do the sin he does."

What did Jesus come into the world to do? The will of God: saving people from their sins-not from the punishment of their sins, the essential aid to repentance, but from their sins themselves, the paltry as well as the heinous, the venial as well as the loathsome. His whole work was and is to send away sin-to banish it from the earth, to cast it into the abyss of non-existence behind the back of God. His is the holy war; he came carrying it into our world; striving against sin; He is the captain of salvation to all who follow after Him, and they, freed themselves, fight and suffer for others. This is His enduring labor.

We cannot rid ourselves of our own sins, but we can set about sending them away; we can quarrel with them: all discontent, all fear, all coveting, all untruth, all resentment, all bitterness in word or thought, using a different measure on myself than another; sneering, boasting, conceit, indifference to any man whose service in any form I use; any desire to excel another, enjoyment at gaining by another's loss; recieving the smallest service without gratitude; using a tone of voice to jar the heart of another, a word to make it ache.

Begin at once to turn these and all such evil out of the house: the Lord is on his way to do his part in their final banishment. If we repent towards sending away our sins, the evil in us, we will recieve heaven's power to send them away indeed. The operant will to get rid of them will be baptized with a fire that shall burn them up. When a man breaks with his sins, then the wind of the Lord's fan will blow them away, the fire of the Lord's heart will consume them!

The cure in one person is the beginning of the cure for the family, community, nation and race!

(Adapted from George MacDonald, The Hope of the Gospel)