"as we forgive"

If I'm learning anything right now, I'm learning grace and forgiveness. The past few weeks have been some of the hardest of my life. But God has shown me just how much I have been trying to control the whole sitation and other people involved. He has convicted me of many other things as well. But I think most importantly, He has reminded me of the cross and the power of it. And how it is true that everything in life comes back to what God did that day. It really IS finished... and life is reminding ourselves everyday to GIVE UP and GIVE IN to His forgiveness... before it's too late.

A recent trip to my church in Seattle (Bethany Community) introduced me to this film called as we forgive, a film about the recent genocide victims and perpatraitors in Rwanda being reconcilled through forgiveness. It blew me away. I think God is showing me that though it is AMAZING to see and hear about people being healed of various illnesses and that does show the power of God... that maybe fogiveness shows it even more. Its really not a humans gut reation to forgive someone. First reaction is revenge or justice. And justice is a good thing, a thing we should all seek. Yet, "all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way..." though a person might have wronged us, maybe in ways unthinkable like murdering our families, we know that we have also wronged others. And in the end and ultimately have wronged God, in ways we ALL cannot repay. Because of this, "the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:6. We all have been wronged. We all have wronged others. The Creator of the heavens and the earth, of you and me laid ALL of that on His shoulders. Below is a quote from Savari, a man who killed 7 people in the genocide followed by a quote from Rosaria, a survivor of the genocide whos sister and family were killed by Savari.

Personally, I never believed that I deserved mercy. I'd put myself in a place where I thought God's mercy could not reach. I condemned myself because I felt that death itself was not enough payment for all the wrong I'd done. - Savari

How can I refuse to forgive when I'm a forgiven sinner too? According to God's Word, I am called to forgive him for I did not create this man. Even my family that he killed- I did not create them either. His crime was against God who created the people he killed. So I placed everything in the hands of God.- Rosaria

Equivalent to a Journal Entry

"Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe, sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow"



He paid. it. ALL.

He paid it all!! He PAID IT ALL!!

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him —2 Corinthians 5:21

Oh how these words soothe my soul... because there really is no one righeous... not even ONE. And I am the worst of these... but He paid it!!! He didnt just feel sorry for me!!! He WAS NOT just an example for me to follow!! He has began to put His own perfect life in me... even as we speak there is life, pure, real, beautiful life being given to my dead rotting soul and body...... oh but not by anything I've done... not by ANYTHING I've done... Oh MAN this is so hard for us to grasp... many people end up dying unsaved because we think its too good to be true or its just plain impossible. If we truly with uncovered eyes look upon ourselves we know the monstrosity that is our own hearts. If we truly look we see and know that it doesnt matter how many good things we've done in a row or how good our attitiude is or how good we think our motives are we know they're really not. We know that even if some of the things we have done are good we're going to mess it all up tomorow, there will be a time when we lash out or think a horrifically vengeful and murderous thought or we will refrain from doing something worthy and noble because we want to look good in front of the wrong people. I'm sorry to say this but there will be a day when we have to stand before a perfect righeous judge that demands perfect justice. And if we dont have the One who paid it all living inside of us we will not measure up. And there wont be anymore second chances. But right now Oh there is a marvelous second chance!! To explain this the best way I can I have to borrow from a wonderful theologian Oswald Chambers,

"Sin is a fundamental relationship— it is not wrong doing, but wrong being— it is deliberate and determined independence from God. The Christian faith bases everything on the extreme, self-confident nature of sin. Other faiths deal with sins— the Bible alone deals with sin...and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation of the gospel that the message of the gospel has lost its sting and its explosive power...The revealed truth of the Bible is not that Jesus Christ took on Himself our fleshly sins, but that He took on Himself the heredity of sin that no man can even touch. God made His own Son "to be sin" that He might make the sinner into a saint. It is revealed throughout the Bible that our Lord took on Himself the sin of the world through identification with us, not through sympathy for us. He deliberately took on His own shoulders, and endured in His own body, the complete, cumulative sin of the human race.

Oh... myself and anyone who is reading this... REPENT AND BELIEVE!! Be saved!

He can do it!