Two weeks ago, I shared with you about Living in the Freedom of Christ. Last week we focused on Living in the Grace of Christ. This week, I want to share with you about Living in the Forgiveness of Christ. These three truths are closely intertwined, but, in my experience, forgiveness is the key to experiencing what it really means to live in the freedom and the grace of Christ. If you recall, I promised [...]
Oh, what a glorious thing to be forgiven! To no longer carry the guilt of your sins! God’s willingness to forgive all who come to Him in true humility and repentance is an amazing thing. But I have found that the forgiveness of God is often misunderstood. On the one hand, there is nothing you or I can do to earn forgiveness from God. We receive God’s forgiveness based on what Jesus did on our [...]
Unless you have studied European Renaissance Literature, you may not know the name of John Donne. John Donne was born into a Catholic family in England in 1572. That may not seem significant to you, but due to laws previously passed by Queen Elizabeth I, anyone not faithfully attending the Church of England in those days was subject to fines, confiscation of property or imprisonment. In 1601, John Donne secretly married Anne More, grand-niece of [...]
Worship leader Tommy Walker wrote a song titled, Only a God Like You* In it, he writes, My allegiance and devotion, My heart's desire and all emotion, Go to serve the Man Who died upon that tree It’s a great worship song. Do you know it? As I was singing this song on a Sunday morning, I found myself wondering, is it true of me? Is my heart’s desire and my emotion really wrapped up [...]
Do you long for spiritual breakthrough? Do you long to see God work in miraculous ways in your life? Do you hear others talk about the power of God at work in their lives, but you are embarrassed to admit that you have not experienced it? Do you wonder why some Christians seem to experience something more in their faith? I have come to understand that it is in the nature of God to work [...]
Continued from part one... As we continue to wrestle with the question of forgiveness, I want to take a look today at Psalm 51, written by King David. This is a man about whom God said, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all my will.” (Acts 13:22c) But David was far from faultless. Most of you will be familiar with the story of David and Bathsheba, [...]
Child survivors of Auschwitz At the end of World War II, the Allies entered the concentration camps of Germany to find unbelievable carnage. Among the masses of emaciated bodies, the following note was found in the clothing of a dead child. It reads: O Lord, remember not only the men and woman of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all of the suffering they have inflicted upon [...]
What is forgiveness? What does it mean to be forgiven of our sins? According to the Scripture, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin (Heb. 9:22) because the wages of sin is death (Rom. 5:12, 6:23). As believers, we know that God provided a way for us to receive His forgiveness by the shedding of Jesus’ blood on the cross in our place (Eph. 1:7-8a, Acts 10:43, Col. 2:13-14). But what [...]
