Time
Magazine ran a poll not long ago with the title: Should all be Forgiven?
What they did was conduct
a survey and this is what survey asked:
1. Would you forgive
someone who murdered someone in your community?
33%
said yes they would and 59% said they would not.
2. Would you forgive someone who raped someone in your family?
19% said they would and 77% said they would not.
3. They asked the
women directly would you forgive someone who raped you?
22% said
they would and 73% said they would not.
4. In response to
the question would you forgive someone who murdered your children
15% said they would and 81% said they would not.
Given those situations in
every answer the overwhelming majority of responses said that if we had to choose we would
choose bitterness rather than forgiveness. How many of you all who
are reading this today is a slave in bondage to the master of bitterness. There are three
rules to forgiveness:
The Golden rule:
You should forgive others the way you would want others to forgive you.
God’s rule is this:
You will be forgiven the way you forgive others.
Then there’s the
Grace Rule:
The way you should forgive others is the way God has forgiven you.
Forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you
Now, from the other
direction
I should forgive you the
way I would want you to forgive me.
I will be forgiven the way I forgive you.
The way I forgive you is the way God has forgiven me.
The reason why forgiveness
doesn’t come very easily is because it doesn't come very naturally. Do
you know what the word forgiveness literally means? It means to let go.
When you forgive someone you release both the offender and the offence
to the Lord and say God I’m turning it all this over to you and I’m
going to let you handle the matter. There is only one cure for the
cancer of bitterness and that is the cure of Forgiveness. Forgiveness is
giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me. Most people say I’ll
forgive you but I want my pound of flesh first. True forgiveness means
no strings attached and no conditions. Forgiveness must be free, full,
and final. How many sins has God forgiven you? If you are his child God
has forgiven all sins. When God forgives God forgets. Bitterness is like
a cancer you must remove all of it to heal. You know some people might
think that when you become a Christian and take a stand for Jesus Christ
and be the witness that God wants you to be that everybody will like
you. If you stay in God’s will long enough people will mistreat you,
people will miss judge you, people will miss use you. If you want to be
a witness for Jesus, you had better do it for Jesus, Because if you
don’t you’ll wind up a bitter person, Bitterness not only can get into
your life. It can hook onto you and follow you all the way to the grave.
DL Moody said that the one sin that
is keeping revival from coming to the church, more lost people from
being saved, and more of the blessings of God from coming upon his
people is the sin of a unforgiving spirit.
The Apostle Paul talks
about the disease of bitterness in Ephesians 4 31-32 Let all bitterness, and wreath, and anger, and clamor, and evil
speaking be put away from you, with all malice and be kind to one another, even as God for
Christ’s sake has forgiven you.
Acts 8 23 speaks of being
poisoned by bitterness. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in
the bond of sin.
Speaking for myself I fear
bitterness more than any other emotion because bitterness is an emotional cancer that will
eat you up from the inside out. Friend when someone does you wrong forgive them quickly
before bitterness has a chance to grow. As a follower of Jesus Christ forgiveness is not
an option, forgiveness is a command by Jesus Christ Himself. Why would God give us this
command? Because God knows best and He knows the destruction that unforgiveness can cause
to both us and the offender. I believe that when God closes the curtain of time that we
are going to look back and see that bitterness destroyed more than anything else. The
bible has a dire warning for those of us who might be struggling with bitterness in our
lives.
Hebrews 12 15-16 Looking
carefully lest any one fall short of the grace of God lest root of bitterness springing up
cause trouble and by this many become defiled. It’s very easy to plant
the seed of bitterness and very difficult to weed out the root of bitterness. A bitter
root will bring forth-bitter fruit and it takes up more and more of the soil of your
heart.
Who
among us is worthy of taking another persons life otherthan
self defense
and to protect our family or an act or war? Are the Abortion
Doctors? How
about the Executioners? Who has God ordained to do such a thing? Capital Punishment the same as Abortion is Big Money...
The question was brought
up to me on the job one day. What do you think about the death penalty, and of course my
answer was I think that if a person murders somebody else then yes, they should be put to
death. I sure would hate to think that I was the one pulling the switch on the man sitting
in the electric chair, but I guess it’s just one of those jobs like being an
undertaker, someone has to do it as long as it’s not me. As I said this I new in my
spirit that what I said was wrong. First off, an undertaker only works on people who are
already dead. God’s conviction came upon me so I said no more about it. Well I woke
up about 4 am with this question still eating away in the back of my mind. Which one is
it? "An Eye for and Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth" or "If you do the crime
you do the time"… What a terrible country this would be if we really believed in
the death penalty with liberty and justice for all. Because right now in our
country we have about 4,000 of our citizens each day that are hiring Hit
Men to murder the most innocent in our communities. And what’s most horrible to
me is that they hire them to pull off their own children’s heads and cast them into a
trash can and without a proper burial. I ask you is our country still standing on the
principle of liberty and justice for all? Where is the justice?
If we truly believe what we say there should be 4,000 mothers and 4,000 abortion doctors
being executed each day with no mercy for the size of their bank account. Liberty and
Justice for all means equal rights for all citizens. Why are the rich in our society
allowed to buy their way out of trouble? When a poor man is punished to the full extent of
the law? The bible says "That there is a way that seems right unto man but the end
there of is death". Our generation has taken this bible verse to both extremes
but God’s word remains the same and yes the ending is still the same. In our country.
Abortion and Execution is justified only by sin and the end there of is still death. We
just pad the results to cover the sin in our lives instead of hiding behind the cross of
Jesus Christ and using His blood to cover our sins. Are we a country of liberty and
justice for all? Everyone will have to answer this question on their own one day
and yes I still believe that if you do the crime you should do the time, but when I look
at the choice between justice for all or mercy. I’ll choose mercy because we
all need mercy in our lives. As Christians we all have to ask what would Jesus do. I have
come to the conclusion that the same as abortion the death penalty is wrong. Yes, what a
terrible country this would be if we really believed in the death penalty with liberty
and justice for all.
It's easy to say in a
generic response that you support the death penalty and the judicial system behind it. But
when it becomes personal with you then it's a different story. Would you still support the
death penalty if it was your mother or father, or maybe your son or daughter. How about
just a close friend. Sadly the Death Penalty only generates more
victims of the offenders loved ones and of course generates lots of
money for the lawyers, judges and judicial system.
It saddens my spirit when I hear a fellow Christian say that "It’s an eye
for an Eye and a tooth for a tooth" when Jesus Himself said
in Matthew -
You have heard that it has
been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say to you,
That you resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite you on your right
cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue you by the
law, and take away your coat, let him have your cloke also. And
whosoever shall compel you to go a mile, go with him two. Give to him
that ask of you, and from him that would borrow from you turn not away.
You have heard that it has been said, You shall love you neighbor, and
hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies, bless them that
curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which
despitefully use you, and persecute you; That you may be the children of
your Father which is in heaven: for he makes his sun to rise on the evil
and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if
you love them which love you, what reward do you have? Don't the
publicans do the same? And if you salute your brethren only, do you
anymore than others? Don't the publicans do the same? Be perfect,
even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"
and to the response of "What
would Jesus do". They say "That if Jesus were a witness at the
execution He would be the first one to throw the switch". Friends, I certainly
don’t have a problem with you having your own opinion and you can be wrong if you
want to, but believing this is denying the forgiveness and mercy of Christ’s
teachings. It amazes me how people have labeled a person who has made the decision to
stand for life as a fanatic or an extremist that is way out in right field somewhere. But
I really shouldn’t be amazed because Jesus (Speaking about Himself) said in John 7-7.
The world cannot hate you; but Me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the
works thereof are evil. Sadly I have found something that most Christians
and non-Christians alike agree on and that is "That to take another persons life as a
premeditated act of vengeance is Ok and justified". I will protect life with every
fiber of my being, but once I am dead my spirit rests in the hands of God. The people that
remain here on earth will in most cases want revenge and their most popular reason is
"So the victim can rest in peace". When what the people of our country really
needs is the spirit of forgiveness. Friend I won’t need revenge in order for me to be
at peace because I have accepted Christ’s payment for my sins. Our constitution says "Of
the people, by the people and for the people". Just as our countries
laws prohibit us from taking the law into our own hands and killing a offender years later
in God’s eyes our government has no right to premeditatedly take a life. My bible
say’s that "Vengeance is mine saith the Lord".
"God" is the only one who gives life and God should be the only one to
premeditatedly take live and unless our government has become our God they have no right
to premeditatedly take anyone’s life. "Born or Unborn".
