Forgiveness “Who Me”!

    

     What if the person who needs to be forgiven is myself? What if I am the transgressor?

     Forgiving ourselves is often more of a dilemma than forgiving others. After all, we have to live with ourselves twenty-four hours a day.

     Perhaps some misdeed that I participated in years ago, even as a child, still haunts me today, causing a tremendous sense of inferiority and insecurity. “Can God forgive me for what I did? I caused so much pain to others that I’m just not sure He can pardon my iniquity. “My anxiety is dispelled only as I realize that I forgive myself on the same basis as I forgive others – through Christ’s forgiveness of my sins on the cross.

     We forgive others because God no longer holds their sins against them. We forgive ourselves because God no longer holds our sins against us.

     God had forgiven Paul through the sacrifice of His Son. Paul, therefore, had no right to not forgive himself, neither do you.

     If you are a believer, you are a forgiven person. Worship God for His grace. If you turned to God for the forgiveness of your sins, come to Him for salvation by acknowledging His death for you and receive a full pardon for eternity.

     Read: Philippians 3:4-16 – Let me address verses 9-14 “And be found in Him (meaning to be united with Christ by living Faith, which has as its object the Cross of Christ), not having my own Righteousness (in other words; not having any Righteousness which can be called my own), which is of the Law, but that which is through the Faith of Christ, the Righteousness which is of God by Faith: 10) That I may know Him (again referring to what Christ did at the Cross), and the power of His Resurrection (refers to being raised with Him in “newness of life” [Rom. 6:3-5]), and the fellowship of His sufferings (regarding our Trust and Faith placed in Him), being made conformable unto His death (to conform to what He did for us at the Cross, understanding that this is the only means of Salvation and Sanctification) 11) If by any means I might attain unto the Resurrection of the dead. (This does not refer to the coming Resurrection, but rather the Believing sinner being baptized into the death of Christ [refers to the Crucifixion], and raised in “newness of life,” which gives victory over all sin) 12) Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect (we can’t claim sinless perfection); but I follower after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. (Paul was saved by Christ for the purpose of becoming Christlike, and so are we!) 13) Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do. Forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14) I press toward the mark (this represents a moral and spiritual target) for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (means the manner and means in which all of this is done, which is the Cross).

AMERICA’S DOWNWARD JOURNEY

         A few years before our original thirteen states adopted the new constitution in 1787, Alexander Fraser Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier: “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over lousy fiscal policy, followed by some type dictatorship”.

     The average of the world’s great civilizations before they decline has been 200 years. These nations have progressed in this sequence:

1. from bondage to spiritual faith;
2. from spiritual faith to great courage;
3. from courage to liberty;
4. from liberty to abundance;
5. from abundance to complacency;
6. from complacency to apathy;
7. from apathy to dependence
8. from dependence back into bondage."

     Based upon this sequence where do you see America today? Don’t you think it time get back to Spiritual Faith and Great Courage trusting the True God?

     Why not share your thoughts and pass it on!

What’s Your Secret? Try Paul’s

Philippians 4:11-13 “Not that I speak in respect of want (Note: declares his independence from creature comforts): for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content (Note: to be independent of external circumstances). 12) I know both how to be abased (Note: to keep rejoicing when there is no money), and I know how to abound (Note: to keep rejoicing when there is money): everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. (Note: Listen all will come sooner or later and the negative are not for a lack of Faith, but rather for our instruction in Righteousness.) 13) I can do all things (Note: be abased or abound) through Christ which strengthens me (Note: In other words from whom I draws strength)

     Secrets – whether a grandmother’s special recipe or a company’s unique product formula – are rarely revealed. In his letter to the Philippians church, the Apostle Paul provided all who would read the Scriptures with the secret of contented living.

     Paul announced to them and us that he was content in life – whether he had scraps for dinner or a feast, whether his purse was bulging or flat. His secret is shared in verse 13 above “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.”

     The Greek word for contentment is translated “self-sufficiency or “self-satisfaction.” That may surprise you. At first glance, Paul appears, to say that the secret to contentment lies in his own resilient self.

     But what he was expressing was this: “My self-sufficiency, my lever of contentment, lies in the sufficiency of Christ to meet my every need. I can endure rain or shine, darkness or light, sorrow or joy because through Him I am equipped and sustained.”

     Paul’s secret is yours. Despite the circumstances, you can enjoy true contentment when you accept the truth that Christ is adequate for your every need – in good times and bad.